2 min listen
Episode 3: The Converter
ratings:
Length:
47 minutes
Released:
May 12, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Imagine using a computer to synthesize music, but not being able to hear it as you built it. That's how it was in the 1960s - musicians only heard what they were composing in their mind's ear, until the project, usually riddled with mistakes, was finished and processed at a far-off lab.
This presented a challenge to the Princeton interdisciplinary team of engineer Ken Steiglitz and composer Godfrey Winham. They worked to build a device that would translate the ones and zeros generated by the IBM into analog sound, the only form of sound human beings can hear. The work they did together represented a watershed in the use of computers as a tool to create music.
Winham saw the potential of the computer as a musical device, and spent his best years building tools to make the giant machine more user-friendly to musicians. And Steiglitz was uniquely positioned to help Winham realize his vision.
This episode is the poignant story of their teamwork, as well as of the community of composers that created a wild batch of music on the IBM, music that has largely been long forgotten. But we’ve found it, and there are lots of clips of that music in this episode. We’ll take a detailed look at how humans are able to hear digital music. And we’ll explore the amazing story of Godfrey Winham, Princeton’s first recipient of a doctorate in music composition. Beyond his advances in music generation software, digital speech synthesis, and the development of reverb for art’s sake, he was a fascinating character.
This presented a challenge to the Princeton interdisciplinary team of engineer Ken Steiglitz and composer Godfrey Winham. They worked to build a device that would translate the ones and zeros generated by the IBM into analog sound, the only form of sound human beings can hear. The work they did together represented a watershed in the use of computers as a tool to create music.
Winham saw the potential of the computer as a musical device, and spent his best years building tools to make the giant machine more user-friendly to musicians. And Steiglitz was uniquely positioned to help Winham realize his vision.
This episode is the poignant story of their teamwork, as well as of the community of composers that created a wild batch of music on the IBM, music that has largely been long forgotten. But we’ve found it, and there are lots of clips of that music in this episode. We’ll take a detailed look at how humans are able to hear digital music. And we’ll explore the amazing story of Godfrey Winham, Princeton’s first recipient of a doctorate in music composition. Beyond his advances in music generation software, digital speech synthesis, and the development of reverb for art’s sake, he was a fascinating character.
Released:
May 12, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (10)
Welcome to "Composers & Computers!": A revolution in music happened in the Princeton Engineering Quadrangle, but chances are, you don’t know the story. Sixty years ago, some music-loving computer engineers happened upon some musicians who were enamored with a new computer installed on the third floor. The work they did together helped turn computers – at the time, a hulking, silent machine – into a tool to produce music. Their innovations made it easier to hear that music. That was no mean feat back then. Then they made it possible for a computer to make that music better, more nuanced. And they helped make it possible for computers to synthesize speech. What computers are able to do today to help musicians realize their vision owes a lot to the work done at Princeton. Much of this history has been effectively lost, gathering dust in far-off libraries. And the music they made has been largely forgotten as well. Over the five episodes of this series, we will tell that story. You’ll get by Composers & Computers