To the beat of the music: engineer creates an accordion with floppy disks and two Commodore 64 computers

There are people for everything. An example: the Swedish engineer Linus Akesson, who at the end of October presented the Commodordion, an accordion made with two computers Commodore 64. The bellows is made from 5.25″ floppy disks, completing the decidedly retro element of this instrument made from computer parts.

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The Commodordion is a real instrument: works like a conventional accordion wouldonly for the keys Akesson uses the keyboard of one of the most popular home computers of the 80s, the Commodore 64. Just like on a conventional accordion, the melody is played with the right hand; with the left hand Akesson can control an accompaniment. This is how he explains it in a video:

The difference, of course, is that the sound does not depend on the air moving inside the bellows (which still plays a role), but the audio chip that comes with these computers, a sound jewel for the time. For it to work, Akesson had to develop the necessary software to run on the Commodore 64 while you are using it.

And what about the bellows? It is made from 5.25″ floppy disks (the same ones used by the Commodore 64); by opening and closing the plastic bellows, the air passes through a hole and blows on a microphone; the intensity with which you do it defines the volume with which computers play your digital music.

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Akesson has already done other musical projects creating an instruments and software for computers from the 80s; and in this case, as ArsTechnica points out, you have to admit that unlike a conventional accordion, the Commodordion’s ergonomics are terrible: the location of the keyboards and the general weight of the equipment prevent its regular use.

This is what the complete package looked like: the Commodore 64, the 5.25″ floppy drive and the cassette player. (Photo: La Nación)

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40 years later

The Commodore 64 turned 40 this year. It was in 1982 when it was presented in the United States, and it became an instant commercial success.

Diego Chiacchio, a computer collector, creator of the site HomeComputer.com.ar and co-founder of the community of collectors retrocomputacion.com, recalled in a note a few years ago that “Each Commodore had a very low production cost. In addition to the 64 Kb of memory and the 6510 microprocessor (which was a modified MOS 6502) running at 1 MHz speed, the C64 offered graphics and sound performance equal to or better than machines five times more expensive. It weighed 1.8 kilos and today it holds the Guinness record as the most famous personal computer in history”.

GDA / The Nation / Argentina

Source: Elcomercio