Before iTunes, This is How Computers Could Play Music

We spotted this YouTube video from user bd594 embedded on Geekologie and instantly fell in love. You see, this guy has far too much time on his hands and has composed Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody using an orchestra of out-of-date technology. Come on inside to hear what an Atari 800XL on keyboards, Texas Instruments TI-99/4a on lead guitar and an HP ScanJet 3C on lead vocals sound like...

The ~~nerd~~ brilliant artist who created this masterpiece has this to say:

This is dedicated to all fans of Queen and hey let's not forget about Mike Myers and Dana Carvey of Wayne's World. No effects or sampling was used. What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?)
Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound
Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar
8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass
3.5 inch Harddrive [sic] as the gong
HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals. Please note I had to record the HP scanner 4 seperate [sic] times for each voice. I tried to buy 4 HP scanners but for some reason sellers on E-Bay expect you to pay $80-$100, I got mine for $30.

I keep hearing parts of the song are out of tune. Keep in mind the scanner and floppy drive are not musical instruments. These are mechanical devices whose motors tend to drift and can cause some notes to be out of tune.

[ Via Geekologie ]

Comments (3)

I can't begin to imagine how much work that must have been to setup. I was surprised at how well he managed the whole piece - very well done!

posted by steelfrog on April 23rd 2009 at 8:57am
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That is super-amazing!

posted by clampers on April 23rd 2009 at 3:59pm
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This guy is amazing. When Radiohead had one of their remix contests he used old equipment to play 'Nude', rather than remix it. It was brilliant. http://www.vimeo.com/1109226

Glad to see he's still working on this stuff. If only I were independently wealthy or a rock star (listening Radiohead?), I'd be setting up some kind of funding to keep him at it. It's so rare to see something new like this and consider the amount of work that's involved. I imagine it's the way people felt about early animation and how it was painstakingly made, one frame at a time.

posted by warrenpeace on April 25th 2009 at 10:48am
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