Sun Microsystems?
December 2, 2011 5:12 PM   Subscribe

 
I sooooo badly want to see an exhaustive behind-the-scenes video about how this was produced...
posted by trackofalljades at 5:19 PM on December 2, 2011


Sad 1541, forever alone.
posted by Ad hominem at 5:21 PM on December 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


[previously] Bohemian Rhapsody by the same artist
posted by finite at 5:26 PM on December 2, 2011


I wonder what's producing the waves shown on the oscilloscopes; the first (round) scope is old, but the tektronik is a very modern digital scope.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 5:28 PM on December 2, 2011


Love the oscilloscope solo. Love pretty much everything about it, really, but, man, man:

He dips down from the tonic to the seventh on the first big long note of each melody loop. That big wailed high note leading off each cycle through the core hook is just a huge, huge part of the sound of the song; it sets up this tension that step down in the next bit plays against.

Nails on chalkboard. It's that disruptive for me.
posted by cortex at 5:31 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


It's not Nina, but it's quite impressive in its own way. I too would love to see a behind the scenes short.
posted by Diablevert at 5:35 PM on December 2, 2011


Back around 1996, I was trying to find music software for my (sound card-less) DOS-powered Tandy 1200LT, and found a MOD Tracker that would play back audio through the PC Speaker. The demo it came with was a .MOD version of "House of the Rising Sun". I fired up the program and hit Play. Astounded, I listened to the guitar intro (with real guitar samples) played through the PC speaker of my 7.16 laptop that had hitherto only emitted error beeps.

Then the drums came in, which was too much load on the processor, and the program crashed.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:36 PM on December 2, 2011 [2 favorites]


FunkyJunkytown
posted by finite at 5:39 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Concept would make a great opening or closing title sequence for a movie.
posted by jettloe at 5:51 PM on December 2, 2011




Really old school version.
posted by John Cohen at 6:01 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Demo of what might have been the first example of this kind of thing ever. The Altair 8800b, generally regarded as the first home computer, generated AM interference. Steve Dompier was able to modulate the interference to play Fool On The Hill over an AM radio. The demo at the Homebrew Computer Club is supposedly what inspired Bill Gates to do basic for the Altair. The source was published in Dr. Dobbs Journal in 1976.

This event pretty much started the home computer industry.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:13 PM on December 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


I wonder what's producing the waves shown on the oscilloscopes; the first (round) scope is old, but the tektronik is a very modern digital scope.

That was my first thought as well. That's an Eico 460 scope, not a tone generator.

It would be cool to come up with a dot matrix printer pattern that could produce tones based on the print-head strikes, similar to the Musical Road in Lancaster, CA (and elsewhere)
posted by ShutterBun at 7:56 PM on December 2, 2011


He dips down from the tonic to the seventh on the first big long note of each melody loop. That big wailed high note leading off each cycle through the core hook is just a huge, huge part of the sound of the song; it sets up this tension that step down in the next bit plays against.

Nails on chalkboard. It's that disruptive for me.


Could not agree more. I was humming along in my head, and at every deviation (of which there were MANY) I cringed. Granted, it was always on key, a harmonic of the expected note, but still...
posted by ShutterBun at 8:00 PM on December 2, 2011


This event pretty much started the home computer industry.

I'm guessing the impetus was something along the lines of "we must improve on this immediately or die trying, cuz holy shit, this sounds annoying!"
posted by ShutterBun at 8:07 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


I literally smelled the ozone watching that old scanner. From watching TV drama's, I've learned that olfactory hallucinations are caused by brain tumors so this video has apparently given me brain cancer. Thanks a lot.
posted by delmoi at 8:11 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


m guessing the impetus was something along the lines of "we must improve on this immediately or die trying, cuz holy shit, this sounds annoying!"

Pretty much, Wozniak brought each new iteration of the Apple I and II to show off and even handed out schematics until Jobs made him stop.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:19 PM on December 2, 2011


There's also Man or Astroman?'s Tribute to Steve Jobs*, with an Apple ImageWriter II.


*yes I know that wasn't the original impetus for the piece, but he died just before their most recent tour, which is their first in the youtube era.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:25 PM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Man or Astroman? is still around? Huh.
posted by rusty at 10:08 PM on December 2, 2011


gets me in the mood for some Add N To X
posted by philip-random at 10:39 PM on December 2, 2011




I wonder what's producing the waves shown on the oscilloscopes

I'm guessing the TI 99/4a and the Atari (800XL?) in the picture have something to do with it.

This was cool, but I like Big Ideas (don't get any) better.
posted by pashdown at 10:08 AM on December 3, 2011


I've always felt Maki Asagawa's Japanese folk rendering of the House of Rising Sun was one of the better covers. (This isn't a good version; there's this other better version I heard where Asagawa sings the verses without any accompaniment, before a strumming guitar picks up the end - extremely soulful that).
posted by the cydonian at 11:14 AM on December 3, 2011 [1 favorite]


He dips down from the tonic to the seventh on the first big long note of each melody loop. That big wailed high note leading off each cycle through the core hook is just a huge, huge part of the sound of the song; it sets up this tension that step down in the next bit plays against.

Yeah, that grates a bit, and I wonder why he did that? At first I thought maybe the scanner didn't have the range to produce the right pitch, but after a few more listens, it seems like it does.

On the other hand, the timbre of the scanner is somehow pretty right for this song. And thanks to this post, it has been playing on constant repeat in my head for a few days now.
posted by FishBike at 6:26 AM on December 7, 2011


Imperial march theme, performed by two 3.5" floppy drives.
posted by knave at 11:43 AM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


bd594 uploaded a new video yesterday: Little Drummer Boy Performed by Robot Snare Drum and HP Scanner
posted by finite at 8:41 AM on December 13, 2011




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