Bohemian Rhapsody On Old Hardware 137
eldavojohn writes "The sweet sweet melodies of Queen and the late Freddie Mercury are reproduced by hardware almost as old as the song is. 'There are millions of computers sitting idle at home consuming fantom electricity. Let's see where all that power is going. This is dedicated to all fans of Queen and hey let's not forget about Mike Myers and Dana Carvey of Wayne's World. Please note 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 Hard drive as the gong, HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals. Please note I had to record the HP scanner 4 separate 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.'"
Chiptunes... (Score:5, Interesting)
...hell yeah!
If you liked this, you might also check out the 8bitpeoples, who specialize in this sort of thing.
http://www.8bitpeoples.com/ [8bitpeoples.com]
Cool, but needs syncopation (Score:2, Interesting)
The reproduction sounds too -- excuse me -- mechanical. I wonder, was it due to limitations in the timing granularity of the devices used, or just a bad MIDI file?
Re:Takedown? (Score:5, Interesting)
Never -- the RIAA doesn't control the copyright of the melody itself, only recordings of it made by RIAA-affiliated performers. You should be worried about BMI [wikipedia.org] instead, I think.
Radiohead did it first..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, and the Vimeo version is MUCH better quality! (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.vimeo.com/1109226 [vimeo.com]
Radiohead were so impressed that hey linked to it from their homepage for a while.
Wannna hear it on an ancient 1982 computer? (SID) (Score:3, Interesting)
I enjoy the remix groups like the one you linked, but there's simply nothing as good as the original hardware. Ahhhh nostalgia. ;-) Unfortunately I cannot provide a direct link so you'll have to do a little bit of navigation to Internet Explorer (does not work on firefox) and click here: http://www.lemon64.com/music [lemon64.com]
Then:
- Click VARIOUS
- Click M-R
- Click Merman
- Click Bohemian Rhapsody
This version of Bohemian Rhapsody is "okay" but I've heard far better music than this coming from the Commodore=64, like the stuff in the 20CC folder (top directory). I like their TV Tunes Mix and 20CC/van_Santen_Edwin/Final_Axel and 20CC/van_Santen_Edwin/Enigma_Intro. Other favorite sidtunes: Galway_Martin/Arkanoid_PSID (songs 1, 2, 3, and 4) and Galway_Martin/Wizball and Galway_Martin/Never_ending_story. The "DEMOS" directory is also worth checking out.
The 1982 SID sound chip uses just 3 voices and primitive Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release (ADSR) sound generation. No samples like in the later Amiga or Super Nintendo machines - just direct manipulation of the "instrument". It was the first home computer that sounded like music instead of a touchtone phone. In later years hackers learned to use the volume control to do voice generation such as in Impossible Mission where it says, "Ahh another visitor. Stay awhile. Staaaaay forever!" Another first for home computers.
Yep computing in the 1980s was definitely not boring.
Always somebody inventing something new and exciting.
More information can be found here:
http://www.exotica.org.uk/mediawiki/index.php?title=Special%3AHVSC&si=0&title=Special%3AHVSC&sr=0&md=qsearch&qs=arkanoid [exotica.org.uk]
Reminds me of the Symphony for Dot Matrix Printer (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Chiptunes... (Score:1, Interesting)
And waaaaaay before 8-bit, Ernie Kovacs had the concept:
musical office [youtube.com]
and
kitchen symphony [youtube.com]
Re:Big whoop (Score:1, Interesting)
Please submit a link to a video where you have done better.