The Floppotron: Toto - Africa

[Major Nikon]

Someone had entirely too much time on their hands...

[cyclonefence]

1. There are those who would say Mozart had too much time on his hands, too

I loved it.

[democratisphere]

2. Interesting.

I think?

[marble falls]

3. Too much time and a lot of obsolete hardware. Too bad it wasn't making any real music....

just reacting to music. Meh. At least Mozart really made music in his wasted time.

[robbob]

4. If Im not mistaken...

That music is produced by thousands of lines of code which causes the old hardware to produce various tones and rhythmic beats. It’s not reacting to music, it IS the music.

[marble falls]

5. I think it was reacting to music the same way a light show does.

[robbob]

6. No, the sounds you hear are actually being produced by that ancient hardware.

Being driven by thousands of coded instructions:

https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1330298

[marble falls]

7. Nah. Wishful thinking. Wish it were true. Watch it again, particularly the floppy drives which....

act exactly like the display on a graphic equalizer(more obsolete tech), are you suggesting someone 'tuned' these? And if they did wouldn't the individual note light off not the entire bank up to the "note"? Or the stripped scanner bed which moves kind of like a trombone slide but missing the "trill": notes - how does that get tuned by mechanical motion and yet miss any motion for the trills?

Its impressive as a display but its no instrument.

[FSogol]

8. From a Mental Floss article last June:

Zadrożniak harnessed the power of the stepper motors in the floppy drives and scanners. By driving those motors at specific speeds, he can force them to generate pitches that sound a lot like string instruments. The hard drives can be gently overloaded to force the read/write heads to whack against metal guard rails—voila, percussion!

Floppotron 2.0 uses the floppy drives in banks of eight, allowing for volume control—one floppy is quiet, eight playing together is loud, just like an orchestra. Given the eight banks of drives, as many as eight notes can be played simultaneously, each at its own volume. The scanners act more like solo instruments, with their larger motors allowing them to take the lead.

Zadrożniak wrote the Floppotron software during his university classes. It translates MIDI music files—which specify instruments and notation—into a series of discrete commands telling the hardware when to buzz, click, and remain silent. The net effect is of a robot orchestra.

The Floppotron is a little light on bass; in this last song, Zadrożniak manually simulates a kick drum via a clothes washer, a snare drum by whacking a microwave oven, and...well, there's more. Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=25&v=FH9yt8qTACw

and of course:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/501938/behold-floppotron-computer-hardware-orchestra

Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNU8fSoY0vesEhVv1ErMBrhGMr9r464To
Article:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/501938/behold-floppotron-computer-hardware-orchestra

Turn up the volume if you don't believe it is generating the sound.

[marble falls]

9. Mental floss. Not exactly Scientific American. The floppy banks just do not act right. The pilot....

lights should all be on or on individually.

[FSogol]

10. But he generates the tone by turning on 1 to 64. Usually 4 or 8 at a time.

They don't all turn on at the same time.

Oh, well, believe what you want.