treewave

October 28, 2003 10:32 PM

"The Band uses unique instrumentation: the music is performed using obsolete computer equipment for instruments. Currently they are using a 1977 Atari 2600 game console, a 1986 portable 286 PC, a 1983 Commodore 64 computer, and a 1985 Epson dot matrix printer."
posted by cody (14 comments total)

also a great article about 8-bit music revival here
posted by cody at 10:36 PM on October 28, 2003

My retinas hurt.
posted by AstroGuy at 10:42 PM on October 28, 2003

i gave it an eight, dick. surprisingly well recorded, and not at all the cacaphony of noise i imagined, plus the chix0r is teh h0tz.
posted by quonsar at 11:00 PM on October 28, 2003

a 1983 Commodore 64 computer

...which sounds so much better than the crappy '84 version. The use of a different kind of plastic ruined the tone, dude. Vintage rules.
posted by swordfishtrombones at 12:31 AM on October 29, 2003

"...which sounds so much better than the crappy '84 version."

Actually, various manufacturing runs of the Commodore 64's SID 6581 sound chip had a tendancy to sound different -- the analog output filters on the chip varied pretty widely with wafer material and quality, the vagaries of analog IC manufacture, and various changes to the production line. I've owned several machines of various vintages and they do, in fact, sound noticably different while playing the same music.
posted by majick at 4:25 AM on October 29, 2003

Seeing this post I thought it was an article about The Band. I was wondering why Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm would be using old computers, but I wouldn't have put it past them.

Also, what AstroGuy said.
posted by trust_no_one at 6:33 AM on October 29, 2003

You kids and your rock and/or roll, I prefer a little symphony for dot matrix printers with my warm milk and cookies.
posted by m@ at 7:04 AM on October 29, 2003

Paul Slocum has put out many great homebrew carts for the 2600. If you own a 2600 (or have a 2600 Emulator, you need to pick up a Synthcart and make some of your own 2600 tracks.
posted by toddst at 7:14 AM on October 29, 2003

More on 8-bit sounds yada yada.
posted by 40 Watt at 7:14 AM on October 29, 2003

This has nothing to do with The Band.
posted by creamed corn at 7:15 AM on October 29, 2003

This is nothing, I used to play in a power trio which consisted of a nautilus shell, a swiss cheese omelette, and a ragged first edition of Waltz's Man, the State, and War. What a racket we made!
posted by Ty Webb at 9:06 AM on October 29, 2003 [1 favorite]

I particularly like their track, "509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded."
posted by Foosnark at 9:09 AM on October 29, 2003

There's a reason why bands/artists doing the 8-bit stuff all sound the same.
posted by xmutex at 12:58 PM on October 29, 2003

Uh, yeah... just like all guitar players sound the same?

/me seriously does not understand how anyone could think I, Cactus sounds like Nullsleep or Rugar or Yuppster. For that matter, Nullsleep doesn't always sound like Nullsleep...
posted by Foosnark at 5:22 PM on October 29, 2003