Groove—A Program to Compose, Store, and Edit Functions of Time

Abstract

A program which makes possible creating, storing, reproducing, and editing functions of time is described. The functions are typical of those generated by human beings. Multiple functions (up to 14) are produced for long periods of time (up to severol hours) at sufficiently high sampling rates to describe fast human reactions (up to 200 samples per second). The functions can be used for a variety of purposes such as the control of machine tools or sound synthesizers or anything a person normally controls. The program operates on a small computer (DDP-224). Functions are stored on a disk file. Functions may be created by real-time human inputs to the computer which can interact with already stored functions and computed functions. Realtime feedback from the process being controlled is an important link in the system. The environment for effective manmachine interaction has been carefully nurtured. © 1970, ACM. All rights reserved.