4 ms·

The Floppotron 3.0 (2022)

176 points by pabs3 2y ago

gnabgib 2y ago
Popular at the time (1398 points, 128 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31729040 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31729040
walrus01 2y ago
the 'floppotron' is notable enough for its own wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppotron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppotron
ggm 2y ago
When CP/M was still a viable choice to run on an x86 machine, variable speed 5.25" floppy drives were still a thing. They were quite musical simply loading your executables. I believe the idea was constant linear velocity recording was "better" than constant angular velocity, by virtue of right-sizing the recording density across the entire surface. This uses the stepper motor for the read head, as the source of the vibe. Different, but also very fine. I've only heard the star wars imperial march which felt entirely fitting for the instrument.
- anyfoo 2y ago
  > I believe the idea was constant linear velocity recording was "better" than constant angular velocity, by virtue of right-sizing the recording density across the entire surface. Yeah. If you think about it, the outer sectors on a disk rotating with constant speed are flying under the head much faster than the inner ones. So the slow inner sectors basically decide what magnetic density your disk has to have, as the bits will end up really close together there! But the disk will have the same magnetic density on the outer sectors, over a much longer distance. This will go wasted, if your drive reads the bits at the same constant speed (because the gaps between the bits are much larger, meaning you don’t get to use that high density). Drivers like the C64’s 1541 employed workarounds like still keeping a constant rotational speed (300RPM for the 1541), but divide the tracks into 4 different “speed zones”, which determine at what speed the bits are read off the disk. So, on the outer tracks the bits are read off faster, and there are actually more sectors than on the inner tracks.
pabs3 2y ago
Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfkPCZYfFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfkPCZYfFw https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43007606 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43007606
Stratoscope 2y ago
I love the Floppotron 3.0! My favorite piece is The Final Countdown, which fits so well with the theme of the instrument: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-WakfBNHD0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-WakfBNHD0 Watch for the blue screen!
- twic 2y ago
  Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) is also a good fit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfkPCZYfFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfkPCZYfFw There's a good version on Tesla coils too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhxE3pHoyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhxE3pHoyQ Interestingly, there's no Floppotron version of Bad Apple! - i think that tradition comes from a later era of internet stunt music.
nanna 2y ago
I would love to see this thing play live. Any possibility?
- pathartl 2y ago
  I don't think it was _the_ floppotron, but there was an exhibit at Open Sauce last year
axegon_ 2y ago
Funny story, right around the time the first one was published(a bit after but I didn't know about it), I was at my first job and I was tasked with doing a bunch of drivers for fiscal printers for linux. Saying that their documentation was crap would be a huge understatement. I.e: 0x4e -> next 0x03 -> cursor And around 2 pages of addresses and single word descriptions. That was it. It took me 2 months of non-stop brute forcing to figure them out but eventually I figured them out. One of the things they could do is play sound and the test to check if they work when the technicians were installing them was to play the imperial march. When I showed it to the technicians, one of them said "Oh, you copied the floppy drive guy?" I had no idea what he was talking about until he showed me. Lesson learned: it's the internet, you are never the first. But damn, this is impressive.
- ralferoo 2y ago
  One little known feature of linux is that there are ANSI sequences you can send to the console that turn off and off the PC buzzer and alter the frequency. One innocent use I used for this once was when I set up an on-demand modem system using ISDN for the office. If it detected a packet for off-site, it'd start the modem dialing and when the link was up, it'd make a series of ascending tones and after a minute or so of inactivity, it'd take down the link and play some descending tones. People tried not to use the internet unless they heard the ascending tones, so we only used a couple of hours of dial-up per day. One not so innocent use for this was trolling the phone engineers who were tasked with installing something in the rack in the corner of the office. Every time they went round the back of the rack and touched anything, I'd make one of the servers beep, but always a different one and only when they touched a wire. Occasionally I also ejected and then tried to mount the CDROM, so they'd just hear a thud every now and then too. They literally had no idea what was going on and got quite paranoid every time they went to touch anything.
yvdriess 2y ago
If you love the sound of the Floppotron, chiptunes and metal, I can heartily recommend Master Boot Record. https://masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/album/hardwarez https://masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/album/hardwarez https://soundcloud.com/masterbootrecordmusic/doom https://soundcloud.com/masterbootrecordmusic/doom
- zwirbl 2y ago
  The Algorithm is another artist in that vein https://thealgorithm.bandcamp.com/album/brute-force https://thealgorithm.bandcamp.com/album/brute-force
- Pyrodogg 2y ago
  And get to one of their live shows if you can! I recently saw them in Helsinki, great club show. Live guitars and drums and lots of retro tech on stage https://mbrserver.com/ https://mbrserver.com/
  - doublerabbit 2y ago
    Also saw them live. Great band.
- benjijay 2y ago
  Managed to see them in London a few months back, can definitely echo the recommendation! (The warm up act could have done with a sound check but I was very impressed with his playing an OG GameBoy as a MIDI controller)
- jwr 2y ago
  Also, LukHash. He keeps the C64 music spirit alive.
Simon_O_Rourke 2y ago
This is an absolute complete waste of build hours and talent... Therefore I'm forced to absolutely LOVE it!!
GuB-42 2y ago
I wondered what happened to it. The YouTube channel used do be quite active, with a new song about every month, but it has definitely slowed down since the Floppotron 3.0, and the last update is now nearly 2 years old. Only 8 songs have been released on the Floppotron 3.0, compared to about a hundred on the 2.0, why so much effort designing and building such a machine not to use it and also make money? Or maybe, and that's actually what I am interested in, is it featured anywhere else? Live performances? Collab albums? etc...
- vardump 2y ago
  I hope he's well.
bambax 2y ago
This is so incredibly cool... ;-)))
Karellen 2y ago
In a similar vein, there's Device Orchestra https://www.youtube.com/@DeviceOrchestra/videos https://www.youtube.com/@DeviceOrchestra/videos
- PythagoRascal 2y ago
  There is also the amazing Franzoli Electronics with his tesla coil music. Great selection of tracks. from AC/DC - Thunderstruck to Megalovania - Undertale OST, you'll find something you like: https://youtu.be/99aLrgk-uqs https://youtu.be/99aLrgk-uqs
codeduck 2y ago
This hurts me in so many different ways, and yet I love it.
lucasoshiro 2y ago
If you want to see something similar but with code, I made a Haskell program that plays music on 3D printer stepper motors: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42994080 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42994080

176 points by pabs3 2y ago

Popular at the time (1398 points, 128 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31729040 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31729040

walrus01 2y ago

the 'floppotron' is notable enough for its own wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppotron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppotron

ggm 2y ago

When CP/M was still a viable choice to run on an x86 machine, variable speed 5.25" floppy drives were still a thing. They were quite musical simply loading your executables. I believe the idea was constant linear velocity recording was "better" than constant angular velocity, by virtue of right-sizing the recording density across the entire surface. This uses the stepper motor for the read head, as the source of the vibe. Different, but also very fine. I've only heard the star wars imperial march which felt entirely fitting for the instrument.

anyfoo 2y ago
> I believe the idea was constant linear velocity recording was "better" than constant angular velocity, by virtue of right-sizing the recording density across the entire surface. Yeah. If you think about it, the outer sectors on a disk rotating with constant speed are flying under the head much faster than the inner ones. So the slow inner sectors basically decide what magnetic density your disk has to have, as the bits will end up really close together there! But the disk will have the same magnetic density on the outer sectors, over a much longer distance. This will go wasted, if your drive reads the bits at the same constant speed (because the gaps between the bits are much larger, meaning you don’t get to use that high density). Drivers like the C64’s 1541 employed workarounds like still keeping a constant rotational speed (300RPM for the 1541), but divide the tracks into 4 different “speed zones”, which determine at what speed the bits are read off the disk. So, on the outer tracks the bits are read off faster, and there are actually more sectors than on the inner tracks.

pabs3 2y ago

Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfkPCZYfFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfkPCZYfFw https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43007606 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43007606

Stratoscope 2y ago

I love the Floppotron 3.0! My favorite piece is The Final Countdown, which fits so well with the theme of the instrument: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-WakfBNHD0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-WakfBNHD0 Watch for the blue screen!

twic 2y ago
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) is also a good fit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfkPCZYfFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfkPCZYfFw There's a good version on Tesla coils too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhxE3pHoyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhxE3pHoyQ Interestingly, there's no Floppotron version of Bad Apple! - i think that tradition comes from a later era of internet stunt music.

nanna 2y ago

I would love to see this thing play live. Any possibility?

pathartl 2y ago
I don't think it was _the_ floppotron, but there was an exhibit at Open Sauce last year

axegon_ 2y ago

Funny story, right around the time the first one was published(a bit after but I didn't know about it), I was at my first job and I was tasked with doing a bunch of drivers for fiscal printers for linux. Saying that their documentation was crap would be a huge understatement. I.e: 0x4e -> next 0x03 -> cursor And around 2 pages of addresses and single word descriptions. That was it. It took me 2 months of non-stop brute forcing to figure them out but eventually I figured them out. One of the things they could do is play sound and the test to check if they work when the technicians were installing them was to play the imperial march. When I showed it to the technicians, one of them said "Oh, you copied the floppy drive guy?" I had no idea what he was talking about until he showed me. Lesson learned: it's the internet, you are never the first. But damn, this is impressive.

ralferoo 2y ago
One little known feature of linux is that there are ANSI sequences you can send to the console that turn off and off the PC buzzer and alter the frequency. One innocent use I used for this once was when I set up an on-demand modem system using ISDN for the office. If it detected a packet for off-site, it'd start the modem dialing and when the link was up, it'd make a series of ascending tones and after a minute or so of inactivity, it'd take down the link and play some descending tones. People tried not to use the internet unless they heard the ascending tones, so we only used a couple of hours of dial-up per day. One not so innocent use for this was trolling the phone engineers who were tasked with installing something in the rack in the corner of the office. Every time they went round the back of the rack and touched anything, I'd make one of the servers beep, but always a different one and only when they touched a wire. Occasionally I also ejected and then tried to mount the CDROM, so they'd just hear a thud every now and then too. They literally had no idea what was going on and got quite paranoid every time they went to touch anything.

yvdriess 2y ago

If you love the sound of the Floppotron, chiptunes and metal, I can heartily recommend Master Boot Record. https://masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/album/hardwarez https://masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/album/hardwarez https://soundcloud.com/masterbootrecordmusic/doom https://soundcloud.com/masterbootrecordmusic/doom

zwirbl 2y ago
The Algorithm is another artist in that vein https://thealgorithm.bandcamp.com/album/brute-force https://thealgorithm.bandcamp.com/album/brute-force
Pyrodogg 2y ago
And get to one of their live shows if you can! I recently saw them in Helsinki, great club show. Live guitars and drums and lots of retro tech on stage https://mbrserver.com/ https://mbrserver.com/
- doublerabbit 2y ago
  Also saw them live. Great band.
benjijay 2y ago
Managed to see them in London a few months back, can definitely echo the recommendation! (The warm up act could have done with a sound check but I was very impressed with his playing an OG GameBoy as a MIDI controller)
jwr 2y ago
Also, LukHash. He keeps the C64 music spirit alive.

Simon_O_Rourke 2y ago

This is an absolute complete waste of build hours and talent... Therefore I'm forced to absolutely LOVE it!!

GuB-42 2y ago

I wondered what happened to it. The YouTube channel used do be quite active, with a new song about every month, but it has definitely slowed down since the Floppotron 3.0, and the last update is now nearly 2 years old. Only 8 songs have been released on the Floppotron 3.0, compared to about a hundred on the 2.0, why so much effort designing and building such a machine not to use it and also make money? Or maybe, and that's actually what I am interested in, is it featured anywhere else? Live performances? Collab albums? etc...

vardump 2y ago
I hope he's well.

bambax 2y ago

This is so incredibly cool... ;-)))

Karellen 2y ago

In a similar vein, there's Device Orchestra https://www.youtube.com/@DeviceOrchestra/videos https://www.youtube.com/@DeviceOrchestra/videos

PythagoRascal 2y ago
There is also the amazing Franzoli Electronics with his tesla coil music. Great selection of tracks. from AC/DC - Thunderstruck to Megalovania - Undertale OST, you'll find something you like: https://youtu.be/99aLrgk-uqs https://youtu.be/99aLrgk-uqs

codeduck 2y ago

This hurts me in so many different ways, and yet I love it.

lucasoshiro 2y ago

If you want to see something similar but with code, I made a Haskell program that plays music on 3D printer stepper motors: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42994080 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42994080