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Author Name: BoingBoing
This story was originally published on Boingboing.net. [1]
License: CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0.[2]


How to turn your floppy disk drive into an awesome 8-bit instrument

2022-06-20 00:00:00

Floppy drives and stepper motors have been used to make music before, but for live playing I think the technology is underexplored.

This video features three separate Commodore 64 computers, colour coded for your convenience. I'm playing the melody on a dark grey C64C (custom case from Individual Computers) and chords on a brown "breadbin". These machines run Qwertuoso, my accordion-inspired C64 program for playing live chip music. An external potentiometer is hooked up as a volume control.

The chord progression was shaped by both musical and technical constraints: I wanted to pick chords that would fit the melody while playfully extending its harmonical structure—but I also had to avoid note combinations that would result in keyboard ghosting.

The third computer, a light grey C64C, doesn't use the SID chip to generate sound. Instead it controls the motors of a programmable floppy disk drive, providing bass and rhythmical noises. The lid of the drive has been removed in the video so you can see the moving parts.

A 1530 Datasette unit is also put to good use.
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[1] URL: https://boingboing.net/2022/06/20/how-to-turn-your-floppy-disk-drive-into-an-awesome-8-bit-instrument.html
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/deed.en_US

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