[sdiy] the sound of ancient E.M.

[Czech Martin]

I listened to Stockhausens Sudie I from 1955 or so.
It is said that this composition was created by sine
waves. If .mp3 has not destroyed the waveshapes
then I can say that the sines are heavily distorted.
I guess this comes from tape machines that were used
in those days.

The waves look like shark fins, I can not describe it better.


What could be the reason for this: magnetic recording head saturation,
tape saturation, problems with biasing?


I think that it is possible that Stockhausen used some nonlinear artefact
to make these sounds more interesting. Even compositions from 1960 or so
have this specific sound, at a time were tape technology was readily developed.
So no technical reason?

m.c.