#1

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

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"Classic" laptop computer music patches and software
#2

On the general note: I’ve found out about some really interesting abandonware on the Obsolete Music Software facebook group, and it seems like a good place to ask about specific lost softwares too.

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#4

Ah yeah those were nice! I wonder why they were taken down from the User Library. Anyway, here’s Infrastructure, Accelerator and Redux fresh from my backup harddrive. These probably aren’t the latest versions before they went missing. _mosaic also made a vocoder called “Dioxide” which I never downloaded.

On the topic of abandonware, another fun place is the KoSMiX FREE VST Preservation Universe Facebook group.

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#5

does anyone happen to have a copy of HyperUPIC laying around? I know it doesn’t run anymore but I’m going to set up an old OS X VM just for it.

#6

The NeXT version from circa 1992 is here, including source: http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/NEXTSTEP/Apps/Audio/hyperupic.1.5.README

#7

Haven’t tried it, but google gave me this: https://macdownload.informer.com/hyperupic/

Curious to hear what it can output.

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#8

yeah I’ve run into the same dead ends. Hopefully I have the app sitting on an old drive that’s still mountable.

@eigen here’s a piece of music I composed with field recordings of local frogs and HyperUPIC, circa 2005: https://anthonysaunders.bandcamp.com/track/sketching-the-stars-from-the-sky

The key thing making HyperUPIC something I want to return to is being able to use wave files as the oscillator “shape”

#9

Damn, that’s interesting. Thanks for sharing.

#10

Edit: @asaunders – these links work: https://web.archive.org/web/20060808045207/http://silvertone.princeton.edu/~penrose/soft/

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#11

There’s some early versions of Density and Pulsaret (granular) for Mac and windows for free here

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#13

I did a bit of searching myself for Dioxide and found someone posted it (along with the others I previously posted) on the Reaktor forum.

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#14

Is anyone aware of sources for these software works by Netochka Nezvanova?

  • 0f0003 propaganda (1998) - this program algorithmically generates animated graphics and synthetic sounds.
  • b1257+12 (1998) - a software for sound deconstruction and composition. The intricate operator interface allows for radical manipulation of soundloops in realtime, offering a large amount of control parameters which, every now and then, take a life of their own. The name of the software refers to a rapidly rotating neutron star.
  • @¶31®�≠ Ÿ (1998) - this software extracts random samples from a CD and creates a stochastical remix, accompanied by futuristic-looking graphics (according to the reference documents, it is intended for use with the krop3rom||a9ff release).
  • m9ndfukc.0+99 and k!berzveta.0+2 (1999) - two programs written in Java interpreting network data, very likely preliminary versions of nebula.m81.
  • kinematek.0+2 (1999) - another Java application that performs “animated image generation from internet www data”, incorporating parts of nebula.m81.
  • nebula.m81 (1999) - an experimental web browser written in Java, rendering HTML code into abstract sounds and graphics. Awarded at the International Music Software Competition in Bourges 1999 and at Transmediale 2001 (first prize in the category “Artistic Software”). Described by jury member Florian Cramer as “an experimental web browser that turned browsing into something resembling measurement data evaluation”.[2]
  • !=z2c!ja.0+38 (1999) - an application that generates a dense visual texture based on the user’s keyboard input. It (ab)uses Mac OS’ QuickDraw capability and can therefore be seen as a preliminary step towards nato.0+55.
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#15

Wow, what a rabbit hole.

Found this thread that did most of the investigation work but without much success:

https://twitter.com/gnostiquette/status/942835472753192960?lang=en

Also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16753758

Will edit if I find something.

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#18

If anybody has leads on the OS 8/9 VX Kit drivers for the Digigram PocketVX v2 I’d be much obliged. The Digigram site maintains downloads for WinXP and beyond for this chipset, but there’s no joy in Macland.

#19

Probably obvious, but have you tried mailing Digigram and asking if they could provide a link?

Some companies basically ignore the existence of their older products and tell you you’re on your own even if they do have the requested data. Others even go as far as to provide schematics and service manuals to their 50 year old devices on request (thank you Dynacord). It might be worth finding out which camp this particular company belongs to, if you haven’t already.

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#20

This article gives some more background: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339509230_Rebekah_Wilson_-_Cyberspace_As_A_Musical_Instrument (also available here ). It’s part of a publication that accompanied a program called “Hidden Alliances” at the Ars Electronica Festival in 2018. Rebekah Wilson also gave a talk there that seems to be included in the recording here: http://kunstradio.at/2018B/09_09_18.html (from around 25:00).

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#21

I did! And in a demonstration of ask for help and you won’t need it, they got back to me a few hours after posting this with a dropbox link.

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#22

Great! Sounds like it’s one of the companies to add to the “very good customer support” list, then :slight_smile:

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