Hear the first ever recorded computer music

Tim Cant, Fri 20 Jun 2008, 3:37 pm UTC

You might think that computer music begins and ends with hi-tech DAWs, but it's not so: this vintage recording from the BBC's news website gives us a terrifying insight into what computer music used to sound like before silicon chips arrived and made our lives bearable.

The computer in question ("Baby") was created by the University of Manchester in 1948, and as you can hear from the 1951 recording computer music has come a long way. Quite frankly we're astonished that the boffins responsible allowed anyone to hear the dirge-like renditions of "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "In the Mood" they created, and thank out lucky stars that these days computer music sounds a lot better...