4 ms·

Ode to Internet – V.90 56k dialup modem handshake for orchestra (1996) [video]

87 points by CharlesW 3y ago

genman 3y ago
Now the Internet is ever-present, silently.
- doublerabbit 3y ago
  Dependable. Twitter, Reddit and HN can sometimes be pretty loud.
- mmcgaha 3y ago
  It is everything I ever wanted yet I wish it had never happened.
  - noduerme 3y ago
    we want a lot of things when we're young that we only realize later were trivial and probably harmful.
thot_experiment 3y ago
Fun! But I think using the western 12 tone scale really hurts this. I would love to hear a more precise interpretation using violins, trombones, slide whistles etc, DTMF emulated in 12-TET loses a lot of it's charm. A choir arrangement could also sound really epic.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  > DTMF Your critique falls flat (pun intended) because there is no DTMF here. Also, this video is a chopped-up edit from a session of real music performance, rather than someone's original composition. Many commenters seem oblivious to this distinction.
  - mk_stjames 3y ago
    The very first notes are supposed to be a dial tone followed by the note run on flute+clarinet representing the dialing of a phone number. That is supposed to be DTMF, with the flue being the high tone and the clarinet being the lower tone. It's hard to recognize as not only would do the frequencies of the DTMF standard likely not line up with the fundamentals of the 12-note western scale, but these wind instruments don't produce anything close to a pure sine wave- they have lots of harmonics, and with two of them overlapping it's hard to discern what the phone number was supposed to be.
IWeldMelons 3y ago
Nah. Does not sound like that at all. 56k has that peculiar "ding" in the handshake, which makes very different from v34 handhake.
- dspillett 3y ago
  > 56k has that peculiar "ding" in the handshake Depends which 56K “standard” you are using. There were two before v90 standardised things, they had different handshake modifications for negotiating the faster link, and v90 was different again. Some ISPs supported only one of the earlier “standards” for some time after v90 (most v90 modems were firmware switchable between it and one of the older methods or were soft-modems where that switch was in the driver).
  - bux93 3y ago
    K56flex was the one I had. USR modems were pretty expensive. But I think the next one for me was V.92 - not that it mattered greatly, because cable internet was around the corner. https://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/computers/hardware/modems/v90.shtml https://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/computers/hardware/mode...
- BuildTheRobots 3y ago
  I've been trying to find a recording of "proper 56k" as I remember it for years but none of them seem to have the "ding" (or "bong" as I describe it) sound. My understanding is that it required digital equipment at the exchange end which would make it impossible to do with two standard modems wired back to back. Unless someone has some telco kit laying around, it might be a lost sound.
  - hackmiester 3y ago
    It's not quite that bad. The thing you need on one end is a digital modem. You can buy a card containing a bank of these for the Cisco ISR G2 platform. The ebay cost is about $60. Then in the same router, you can put a T1 card, which the digital modems will use to accept calls (costs about $15). Finally you can buy an analog modem card (costs about $20) to accept calls from another modem. All of this would be contained in 1 or 2 rack units. There are other methods but that's the one I would use. To see one of the other methods, try here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ_hWS6ked8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ_hWS6ked8
planede 3y ago
It sounds closer when it's sped up.
nolist_policy 3y ago
The youtube comments are hilarious.
dwheeler 3y ago
To hear an example of what V.90 56k really sounds like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaWpi9o_hHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaWpi9o_hHI
- retrac 3y ago
  Yes, at higher speeds (like towards the end of that recording once the link is fully established) dial-up modems sound like white noise. There's an interesting reason for that. A digital modulation that is going fast enough, if it is well-designed to make use of a channel, will approximate white noise. A primary frequency or harmonic can be thought of like a "hot spot" and the more relatively powerful it is, the more it will distort the other frequencies. So, an ideal encoding will have constant average power across the entire bandwidth. Essentially, white noise. Modems got there by the late 1980s with the jump to 9600 bps, when a single bit started being spread out over many symbols using convolutional modulation.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
rpy 3y ago
Reminds me of this bit from Monkey Dust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTos3CsvnLQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTos3CsvnLQ
dylan604 3y ago
How have I not seen this before? I love the versions where it's slowed down, but that's something anyone can do. This. This took effort. And a hell of a lot of creativity.
rbanffy 3y ago
Music truly connects us.
raptorraver 3y ago
And here’s a 14.4k handshake for piano: https://youtu.be/niENQH--vXQ?si=meJkSVmL9i0sw3Qy https://youtu.be/niENQH--vXQ?si=meJkSVmL9i0sw3Qy

87 points by CharlesW 3y ago

genman 3y ago

Now the Internet is ever-present, silently.

doublerabbit 3y ago
Dependable. Twitter, Reddit and HN can sometimes be pretty loud.
mmcgaha 3y ago
It is everything I ever wanted yet I wish it had never happened.
- noduerme 3y ago
  we want a lot of things when we're young that we only realize later were trivial and probably harmful.

thot_experiment 3y ago

Fun! But I think using the western 12 tone scale really hurts this. I would love to hear a more precise interpretation using violins, trombones, slide whistles etc, DTMF emulated in 12-TET loses a lot of it's charm. A choir arrangement could also sound really epic.

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
> DTMF Your critique falls flat (pun intended) because there is no DTMF here. Also, this video is a chopped-up edit from a session of real music performance, rather than someone's original composition. Many commenters seem oblivious to this distinction.
- mk_stjames 3y ago
  The very first notes are supposed to be a dial tone followed by the note run on flute+clarinet representing the dialing of a phone number. That is supposed to be DTMF, with the flue being the high tone and the clarinet being the lower tone. It's hard to recognize as not only would do the frequencies of the DTMF standard likely not line up with the fundamentals of the 12-note western scale, but these wind instruments don't produce anything close to a pure sine wave- they have lots of harmonics, and with two of them overlapping it's hard to discern what the phone number was supposed to be.

IWeldMelons 3y ago

Nah. Does not sound like that at all. 56k has that peculiar "ding" in the handshake, which makes very different from v34 handhake.

dspillett 3y ago
> 56k has that peculiar "ding" in the handshake Depends which 56K “standard” you are using. There were two before v90 standardised things, they had different handshake modifications for negotiating the faster link, and v90 was different again. Some ISPs supported only one of the earlier “standards” for some time after v90 (most v90 modems were firmware switchable between it and one of the older methods or were soft-modems where that switch was in the driver).
- bux93 3y ago
  K56flex was the one I had. USR modems were pretty expensive. But I think the next one for me was V.92 - not that it mattered greatly, because cable internet was around the corner. https://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/computers/hardware/modems/v90.shtml https://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/computers/hardware/mode...
BuildTheRobots 3y ago
I've been trying to find a recording of "proper 56k" as I remember it for years but none of them seem to have the "ding" (or "bong" as I describe it) sound. My understanding is that it required digital equipment at the exchange end which would make it impossible to do with two standard modems wired back to back. Unless someone has some telco kit laying around, it might be a lost sound.
- hackmiester 3y ago
  It's not quite that bad. The thing you need on one end is a digital modem. You can buy a card containing a bank of these for the Cisco ISR G2 platform. The ebay cost is about $60. Then in the same router, you can put a T1 card, which the digital modems will use to accept calls (costs about $15). Finally you can buy an analog modem card (costs about $20) to accept calls from another modem. All of this would be contained in 1 or 2 rack units. There are other methods but that's the one I would use. To see one of the other methods, try here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ_hWS6ked8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ_hWS6ked8

planede 3y ago

It sounds closer when it's sped up.

nolist_policy 3y ago

The youtube comments are hilarious.

dwheeler 3y ago

To hear an example of what V.90 56k really sounds like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaWpi9o_hHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaWpi9o_hHI

retrac 3y ago
Yes, at higher speeds (like towards the end of that recording once the link is fully established) dial-up modems sound like white noise. There's an interesting reason for that. A digital modulation that is going fast enough, if it is well-designed to make use of a channel, will approximate white noise. A primary frequency or harmonic can be thought of like a "hot spot" and the more relatively powerful it is, the more it will distort the other frequencies. So, an ideal encoding will have constant average power across the entire bandwidth. Essentially, white noise. Modems got there by the late 1980s with the jump to 9600 bps, when a single bit started being spread out over many symbols using convolutional modulation.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

rpy 3y ago

Reminds me of this bit from Monkey Dust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTos3CsvnLQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTos3CsvnLQ

dylan604 3y ago

How have I not seen this before? I love the versions where it's slowed down, but that's something anyone can do. This. This took effort. And a hell of a lot of creativity.

rbanffy 3y ago

Music truly connects us.

raptorraver 3y ago

And here’s a 14.4k handshake for piano: https://youtu.be/niENQH--vXQ?si=meJkSVmL9i0sw3Qy https://youtu.be/niENQH--vXQ?si=meJkSVmL9i0sw3Qy