Source
rietveldh•

This is going to be tuff to beat

Good job

3
mattinxOP•

In 1983, Pete Shelley released XL1, the UK pressing of which contained a ZX Spectrum program as the last track on side 2. This program displays visualisations for each track, along with real-time lyrics.

I also recorded a series of short video clips you might enjoy: https://youtu.be/4LfXuiY5H24

This shows the process of recording the ZX Spectrum data track onto a cassette tape using my 1983 vintage Hi-fi, then loading the program from tape onto my Spectrum. There were a couple of false starts, but I get there in the end, even if it does mean using Spotify to get round a couple of scratches in the first track on the LP (Millions of People).

Sorry I couldn't get the lyrics totally lined up - it really requires two hands :)

Edit: Whoops - apparently I was thinking February when I wrote my post-it note - just mentally edit that to say 2019-01-23 instead of 2019-02-23

2
dronecatcher•

Brilliant! I've done this is an emulator - I bought XL1 on cassette a few months ago - Pete Shelley was certainly ahead of the game :)

2
WhutWhatWat•

I think you just won cassette week!

Nice writeup & photos.

:-( aww man, I just looked him up on wikipedia and see that he passed away last December. I'm not a huge buzzcocks fan, but Ever Fallen in Love is a classic, I dig the Fine Young Cannibals cover of it too.

2
lutello•

Can't you just load it directly from the record?

2
mattinxOP•

Possibly, but you actually have a harder time loading programs from a high fidelity audio source because of the frequency response. That's partly why I swap the tape into the little Panasonic player.

I'm also following the instructions on the album cover :)

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lutello•

Ah, another thing to add to my questions about data on audio tape.

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mattinxOP•

The audio input circuitry in the Spectrum is very simple - there's a diode to clamp the negative going signal at 0V and a couple of capacitors to decouple any DC bias on the input, then it goes right into a TTL input on the ULA. It works best without much bass response, so cheap tape recorders are great :)

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1
FozzTexxMOD•

You're a sticker winner for Cassette Week! Send me a PM with your address and which two stickers you want. Two of the same is ok.

1
CodgerPunk•

Of course, Pete Shelly's "Homosapien" had the CBM 2001 (could have been the 4032) in both the title video and on the album cover.

1