[HN Gopher] The Commodordion
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The Commodordion
Author : cowtools
Score : 486 points
Date : 2022-10-21 17:44 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (linusakesson.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (linusakesson.net)
| arbitrage wrote:
| Amazing musicianship.
| torh wrote:
| This is the best accordion I've seen in my life! Such a cool and
| geeky project. Just what we need more of.
| RocketOne wrote:
| That's completely geeky and absolutely entertaining. Can't
| believe the amount of work that went into that bit of ingenuity.
| skybrian wrote:
| Very neat!
|
| I haven't done a proper writeup yet and there's no retro-
| computing involved, but perhaps folks will be also be interested
| in a demo of my homemade accordion. (MIDI controller,
| technically; sound generation is on a laptop.)
|
| https://youtu.be/4ZueoLaISdw
| rkagerer wrote:
| And the bellows is made of floppy disks. This is a masterpiece.
| sixstringtheory wrote:
| This guy is both an inspiration and makes me question the value
| of my own existence. Always love watching and reading his work.
|
| Now I want to figure out how to build a guitarch-linux.
| Wuzado wrote:
| Check out his C64 demo "A Mind Is Born", where he fits a
| "procedurally-generating" song with visuals in barely 256(!!!)
| bytes.
|
| https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/
| spydum wrote:
| On one hand I wish there was more, on the other I think it
| would have been too much? It's brilliant for sure. I love that
| these guys have been making this stuff since the ASCII scene
| (for those unaware lot of cool procedural bits like this used
| to get stuffed into warez greetz and plenty of smaller binaries
| before that such as coms and what not in the BBS scenes)
| Razengan wrote:
| I wonder what the demoscene could do with modern CPUs and their
| AVX multisymmetric parallel whatchacallit and what not. As in,
| getting the most amount of stuff done with the least amount of
| instructions.
|
| Does anybody know any examples?
| aasasd wrote:
| Probably '.kkrieger' would be a more-current inspiration,
| though it's almost twenty years old itself:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.kkrieger
|
| My uneducated guess is that perhaps the thing of the day now
| is proper voxels (not Minecraft's "voxels") and lots of
| shaders on top. But then again, this endeavour doesn't really
| differ from just making experimental game engines.
| throwawayben wrote:
| https://youtu.be/Imquk_3oFf4
|
| I don't think it uses any fancy modern CPU features but this
| is probably the reigning champion of the 256 byte demo, and
| its write up[0]
|
| [0] http://www.sizecoding.org/wiki/Memories
| pwrrr wrote:
| Well the fact that you are limited by the C64 itself makes
| you use every bit of creativity to pull off such a demo as A
| Mind is Born.
|
| I think it is this limiting factor that is partly responsible
| for keeping the C64 scene alive. While it is limiting, there
| are also still infinite possibilities of creativity. I don't
| personally find say, the PC demo scene as interesting because
| it is not really limited in any way other than size
| competitions. But still there you get a lot more mileage out
| of every opcode than on the C64.
| userbinator wrote:
| It's been discussed on HN before too:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26511266
| raphar wrote:
| Amazing. I though I was a nerd.
| l0c0b0x wrote:
| If this were to be fake, it would be the cruelest video on the
| internet, IMHO.
|
| This is such an amazing display of talents, it requires and
| analysis video of its own to go over the geekery, the music, the
| time and effort, the creativity, the whys and hows. I was
| speechless and awed throughout the video and reading about the
| project. I feel so lucky to have seen this!
|
| Happiness.
| vidarh wrote:
| Yeah, I usually rarely bother with watching videos of projects,
| much preferring to read about them, but watched this to the
| end.
| Eupraxias wrote:
| I'm so happy to see this at the top of the list on a Friday
| afternoon. Totally made my day, as well as a few others who are
| too busy right now trying to close out the week to f5 on HN.
| vidarh wrote:
| I see Akesson, I click through. Absolutely amazing. Curious why
| he chose a Datasette emulator instead of cartridges, though.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| It's a lot easier to dump out a pre-recorded audio stream (or
| even generate it with a simple modem) than it is to interface
| with the C64's expansion connector.
| vidarh wrote:
| The simplest PCB designs for C64 cartridges requires fewer
| components than the datasette emulator pictured, or you can
| buy a ready-made more advanced one with a 64K eeprom for
| ~$20.
| egypturnash wrote:
| This feels like the kind of project where "it made me laugh the
| most" is as good a reason as anything else. I sure laughed when
| I got to that part.
| vidarh wrote:
| Certainly the whole thing is awesomely bizarre, so not
| criticizing the choice. It just seemed to make things more
| impractical since it adds the requirement of the "play"
| button and pressing keys on both machines and waiting for the
| load on startup instead of just turning them on.
|
| But then again practicality isn't a high priority for this
| thing.
| vintermann wrote:
| I'm guessing he's using a variant of his own Qwertuoso
| program for the playing, and it's tiny, less than 4k. Even
| with the horribly slow default C64 tape loader, that would
| be about a minute.
|
| Linus is one of the demoscene's experts on fastloading too,
| so he may not use the default loader!
| Optimal_Persona wrote:
| Very cool! It's funny, over the years I've seen high-tech digital
| Roland accordions used in very trad venues where I wouldn't
| expect them.
|
| But TBH when I saw the thread I was expecting something a little
| more like Keith Cary's Commodium (a mandolin made from a metal
| bedpan)...
|
| https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/odd-jobs-the-fanta...
| floppydiskette wrote:
| Related: I made https://www.keyboardaccordion.com to be able to
| play the accordion layout (chromatic and diatonic) with a
| computer keyboard. (Desktop only, of course.)
| colomon wrote:
| This is a fantastic idea! I had no trouble playing scales along
| the row.
|
| Is the source code available? As a C#/D player, I find the
| relationships between the rows unfriendly, and miss the bottom
| two buttons of the row. Plus I'd love to have real accordion
| sound samples, and maybe MIDI output...
|
| (ooo, plus I guess if you only wanted two rows of right hand
| notes, then you could have two rows of bass buttons, just like
| a real box only with a lot more chords available...)
| westmeal wrote:
| Linus is the fuckin man, I love this guy. His demos inspire me to
| no end.
| kennyloginz wrote:
| The SID chip is so sick!
| kstrauser wrote:
| Bravo. Bravo, sir. I flat-out giggled with glee during that
| amazing video!
| johnklos wrote:
| That is so dumb. I love it!
| danrochman wrote:
| Amazing - bravo!! Is Weird Al Yankovic on HN? Because he REALLY
| should see this.
| amanj41 wrote:
| this would have fit in perfectly in the white and nerdy music
| video
| sintezcs wrote:
| A pure geek porn
| quadcore wrote:
| Incredible
| bergenty wrote:
| What a sad project but amazing implementation and vision.
| Awesome!
| zogomoox wrote:
| No, he managed to combine three traditionally uncool things,
| namely 8 bit computing, accordions and ragtime music, resulting
| in an underflow of uncoolness which is extremely cool.
| vintermann wrote:
| I like all those things though...
| mdp2021 wrote:
| Your use of the term 'sad' seems to not match that of many of
| us.
|
| I was not informed about its history, so I checked, and
| discovered that it means "satiated" - so the current use of
| 'sad' comes from the idea of the discomfort that being burdened
| by too much nourishment brings.
|
| You must mean that the project is very "satiating". Good:
| surely it can fill us with a most fulfilling nourishment. But I
| would have used the most unambiguous term.
| dwringer wrote:
| Toward the end, the article states "unfortunately I won't be
| playing this instrument very often, and I most definitely
| won't practice for hours to improve my left-hand technique.
| This rather undermines the potential for the Commodordion as
| a viable musical instrument."
|
| I believe there is a certain element of sadness in that.
| However it's hopeful that he will continue experimenting with
| the lessons learned, so I wouldn't describe it as sad.
| [deleted]
| scrozier wrote:
| Not knowing in advance who Akesson is, I was prepared for this to
| another bad attempt at music-adjacent technology. Then I watched
| and listened to his performance...wonderful!
| pwrrr wrote:
| Amazing indeed! Linus always comes up with mindblowing stuff. A
| true genius!
| Caitlynmeeks wrote:
| This is the best thing ever! Wow! Great work!
| adhoc32 wrote:
| Only respect for this mad guy. Not only did he build it he also
| played it in public.
| joemi wrote:
| This is so much better in the video than what I thought it would
| be from just the pictures. Which of course makes sense since it's
| Akesson. He's one of the people behind the Teenage Engineering
| Pocket Operators, after all.
| gimmeThaBeet wrote:
| I remember Linus videos with the pocket operators, somehow
| didn't internalize that he worked for teenage engineering, and
| in retrospect it feels like the most plainly obvious thing in
| the world. _Of course he does._
| raphar wrote:
| Intro to Pocket Operators
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFD9_8H7lPA
|
| Cool stuff
| jrd259 wrote:
| I am delighted to live in the era where such hackery occurs and
| is also so easily shared.
| tommek4077 wrote:
| This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen - and I have
| kids.
| l0c0b0x wrote:
| Took the words out of my typing hands! (Yeah, and I have kids
| too!)
| bityard wrote:
| This is pretty impressive!
|
| I play piano accordion (but not particularly well). I started
| watching the video first and was a little troubled that the
| bellows appeared to be home-made, crappy looking, and not nearly
| as effective as they could be. Aftermarket bellows are not hard
| to find and are not even that expensive if you get them from
| China. But then I saw that he made them out of _floppy disks_ and
| decided that was pure genius.
|
| This also made me realize that a computer keyboard pretty closely
| resembles the right hand of a chromatic button accordion, so I
| assume that's how it's laid out.
|
| Anyway, he certainly plays this cobbled-together instrument far
| better than I'll ever play my analog accordion. There are MIDI
| and other "digital" accordions out there but they are either
| extremely expensive or limiting in terms of what you can do with
| them, or both. This gives me hope that one day I could possibly
| build my own programmable digital accordion.
| dhosek wrote:
| Some years ago, I had a dream about meeting someone playing a
| button box accordion which had a qwerty keybaord in place of
| the usual buttons.
| newcup wrote:
| The layout on a chromatic button accordion is surprisingly
| similar to a keyboard.
|
| This was quite straightforward to touch type with:
| https://twitter.com/ykarikos/status/1038145486618861573
| Maursault wrote:
| > my analog accordion
|
| Perhaps you were joking, and you made me smile, but there are
| no "analog" instruments (save perhaps analog synthesizers),
| because what could they be the analog of, or analogous to?
| They're the real thing, not an analog of something. You meant
| your _acoustic_ accordion. It would be very confusing to call
| acoustic instruments analog, because even an electric accordion
| or electric guitar or digital synthesizer still uses analog
| electronics for amplification.
| yetihehe wrote:
| From wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_signal
|
| > An analog signal or analogue signal (see spelling
| differences) is any continuous signal representing some other
| quantity, i.e., analogous to another quantity. For example,
| in an analog audio signal, the instantaneous signal voltage
| varies continuously with the pressure of the sound waves.
|
| > In contrast, a digital signal represents the original time-
| varying quantity as a sampled sequence of quantized values
| which imposes some bandwidth and dynamic range constraints on
| the representation.
|
| > Analog devices are a combination of both analog machine and
| analog media
|
| So, in common scientific use, this is fine. You are speaking
| of accordion analog, not analog accordion.
| Maursault wrote:
| I think you are confusing _sound_ , or vibration
| propagating as an acoustic wave through a medium such as
| air, which is what acoustic instruments produce, with
| _signal_ , or the representation or analog of sound by
| changing levels of voltages, what, say, a microphone would
| produce, which is also electrically analog, or analog
| electronics. An accordion produces sound as air flows past
| vibrating reeds, producing sound acoustically. Acoustic
| instruments have no signal if they have no electronics.
| Thus, there is no accordion analog nor analog accordion
| scientifically or otherwise unless you consider a digital
| synthesizer's accordion-sound mode an accordion analog. If
| so, the C64razy _digital_ accordion in the article is also
| an analog of an acoustic accordion and an accordion analog.
| yetihehe wrote:
| I think you suffer from overpedantry and you are
| confusing electrical signal with just signal.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal
|
| > In signal processing, a signal is a function that
| conveys information about a phenomenon.[1] Any quantity
| that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal
| to share messages between observers.
|
| > In nature, signals can be actions done by an organism
| to alert other organisms, ranging from the release of
| plant chemicals to warn nearby plants of a predator, to
| sounds or motions made by animals to alert other animals
| of food.
|
| Sounds are also signals. And using "analog" with
| accordion is not strict technical term, it's layman's
| term for "not digital". According to your usage,
| Commodordion is not digital, because it emits sounds, not
| numbers.
| Maursault wrote:
| > I think you suffer from overpedantry and you are
| confusing electrical signal with just signal.
|
| Tu quoque, ad hominem, and equivocation. "Signal" has
| multiple distinct meanings. You are conflating homonyms
| in equivocation, as well as attacking me personally while
| arguing, "you too!" Not all signal, by the definition
| you're conflating, is sound (such as semaphore, gesture,
| facial expression and even pheromonal response), and by
| the same vague definition, not all sound is signal (such
| as Berkeley's tree falling), not unless it is
| communication.
|
| Context and semantics matter here. If we define sound as
| signal and vice versa, then there is no literal
| distinction between acoustic sound and analog signal,
| creating ambiguity and confusion. In the context of audio
| and sound, and from your own citation:
|
| > in an analog audio signal, the instantaneous voltage of
| the signal varies continuously with the sound pressure...
| The term _analog signal_ usually refers to electrical
| signals
|
| A sound is also a a long, wide body of water that
| connects two other bodies of water, but it would be
| absurd and equivocating identical words of different
| meanings to claim that acoustic sound is also a body of
| water.
| Grothendank wrote:
| Yooo, his performance is immaculate, had me dancing to the
| entertainer like it was 1913. Yeee!
| MaintenanceMode wrote:
| This is truly bananas and wonderful. As an "old" that had a
| Vic-20 and a commie 64, this just warms the heart.
| fancyPantsZero wrote:
| This made my day. Absolutely magnificent! My hat's off to you
| sir.
| jrochkind1 wrote:
| This is completely insane.
| felipelalli wrote:
| lol
| otikik wrote:
| This is amazing.
|
| It heralds the coming of the Spectrophone and the Amiguitar.
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(page generated 2022-10-22 23:02 UTC)