"This audio is embedded from SoundCloud and requires cookies to function. To view this content, please enable analytics and marketing cookies using the cookies opt-in at the bottom of your screen." - lame!
> It was a challenge to write routines that would keep the computer tolerably in tune, since the Mark II could only approximate the true pitch of many notes: for instance the true pitch of G3 is 196 Hertz but the closest frequency that the Mark II could generate was well off the note at 198.41 Hertz.
There are several notes that sounds significantly out of tune, a bit similar to a beginner violinist. Which is kind of poetic in a way. The first computer to play music (in 1951!) had not mastered it yet.
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"the machine's obviously not in the mood"
Really fascinating to hear these little snippets from someone (the computer operator probably?) on the recording!
While I'm commenting: I think the (original) title undersells the significance - the recording is from Turing's computing lab at Manchester, 1951.
> It was a challenge to write routines that would keep the computer tolerably in tune, since the Mark II could only approximate the true pitch of many notes: for instance the true pitch of G3 is 196 Hertz but the closest frequency that the Mark II could generate was well off the note at 198.41 Hertz.
There are several notes that sounds significantly out of tune, a bit similar to a beginner violinist. Which is kind of poetic in a way. The first computer to play music (in 1951!) had not mastered it yet.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/alan-turing-how-his-universal-mach...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no0CkQk7id0