Because it was square.

July 11, 2012 6:53 PM

Nice looking and sounding diy bass made with a C64. (SLYT). At first I thought she was just using the body of the thing, but there is some C64 goodness in the sound as well.
posted by not_that_epiphanius (30 comments total)

Holy shit that's sweet.
posted by grog at 7:05 PM on July 11, 2012

I can't tell if this is the most encouraging or discouraging thing I've ever seen as far as diy electronic music goes.
posted by griphus at 7:06 PM on July 11, 2012

How the hell is that discouraging...? If I understand correctly she's using the soundchip in the C64 to process and output the sound, which is nothing but awesome.
posted by Huck500 at 7:11 PM on July 11, 2012

Discouraging because I want to do that and can't yet. And I'm being optimistic with that "yet."
posted by griphus at 7:13 PM on July 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

Well, there's goes my last excuse for not starting that psychedelic doom metal band.
posted by NoMich at 7:14 PM on July 11, 2012

Hah, Jeri Ellsworth, that didn't take long to figure out. That's the lady who did the C64-in-a-joystick five or six years ago. Fully functional C64, complete with like 30 games and the video out circuitry, all contained inside the joystick. You could actually hack it to add a keyboard and a floppy drive again, if you were so inclined. Amazing piece of work.

She's older than I thought. I had this image of a young female gaming geek with a giant brain, instead of a late-30s professional with a giant brain. But now that I actually think about it, I can't imagine most young people being very interested in the 64... you had to have been there to appreciate one. The Raspberry Pi or one of the Arduino kits would be *way* cooler, if you were just starting now. I doubt a 64 would hold their interest more than ten or fifteen minutes.
posted by Malor at 7:15 PM on July 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

I am in awe. Awe, I tell you.
posted by The World Famous at 7:16 PM on July 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I decided to go with piezo pickups...knowing that I was going to Maker Faire, and there would be a lot of Tesla coils.

Can someone explain to me what piezo pickups have to do with Tesla coils?
posted by jcreigh at 7:17 PM on July 11, 2012

probably that standard magnetic pickups would get massively messed up by the tesla coils. (just a layman's guess)
posted by raihan_ at 7:19 PM on July 11, 2012

This is the 64-in-a-stick, if you're interested.
posted by Malor at 7:20 PM on July 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

When she played that square wave riff I couldn't help myself.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:25 PM on July 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

How the hell is that discouraging...?
posted by Huck500

Her: "... considering the tracking doesn't work that well ..."

Still, that's awesome.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:41 PM on July 11, 2012

... I couldn't help myself.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium

I'll have what they're having.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:47 PM on July 11, 2012

I am awestruck. She is my new hero of all things bass and beautiful.
posted by Isadorady at 7:49 PM on July 11, 2012

I neeeeeeeeed one.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:01 PM on July 11, 2012

Can someone explain to me what piezo pickups have to do with Tesla coils?

I'm guessing Tesla coils wreak havoc with magnetic pickups, making piezoelectrics preferable if you're expecting to be surrounded by a bunch of mad scientist hackers.
posted by Songdog at 8:24 PM on July 11, 2012

fabulous!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:27 PM on July 11, 2012

Way cool!
Like mucho!
posted by quazichimp at 8:31 PM on July 11, 2012

Saw her with it, but never heard it actually played on an amp until now. I assumed it would sound ok and kinda interesting, but it sounds fantastic!

[Requisite "What's Felicia Day doing with a C64 guitar?" joke]

posted by -harlequin- at 8:39 PM on July 11, 2012

Jeri is a an amazing force of creativity in her own right, but I really enjoyed her collaboration with George "Fat Man" Sanger for their "Fat Man and Circuit Girl" webcast.
posted by InspiredChaos at 9:16 PM on July 11, 2012

[THIS IS HEROICALLY AWESOME]
posted by Spatch at 9:18 PM on July 11, 2012

Discouraging because I want to do that and can't yet. And I'm being optimistic with that "yet."

Ah, got it, thanks.
posted by Huck500 at 10:37 PM on July 11, 2012

pure genius..
posted by 3mendo at 12:26 AM on July 12, 2012

pure not able to play bass. when people do these projects they should find someone else who can actually play the thing.
posted by ReeMonster at 12:46 AM on July 12, 2012

Wow, that's insanely cool. Makes me wonder about the intersection of a Venn diagram for the sets of "bass players" and "FPGA programmers".
posted by Zonker at 5:53 AM on July 12, 2012

Neat project and a fascinating brainiac of a woman / poster girl for geeks everywhere. Ahem.

Anyhow, 18 AA batteries, are pretty heavy, although I imagine it probably gives the bass a nice solid heft considering the C64 keyboard shell is pretty light if I'm remembering accurately.
posted by Skygazer at 6:53 AM on July 12, 2012

This is really neat! I guess the qwerty keyboard doesn't do anything (yet)?

Speaking of music, filters and waves, I'm reminded of these which look pretty cool.
posted by ODiV at 7:46 AM on July 12, 2012

holyshit, WANT.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 3:42 PM on July 12, 2012

The keytar is great, but a SLYT post is reeeeeally thin for Jeri. She made working silicon chips in her garage for chrissake. I would say she needs a proper FPP, but it's not really necessary since you can just check out more of the 227 videos she's posted on youtube. And if that's just not enough hardware hackery for you, head on over for 92 videos from Ben Krasnow (A DIY scanning electron microscope? Transcranial magnetic stimulation at home? Seriously?).
posted by madmethods at 11:21 PM on July 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

Madmethods, thank you for reminding me about Ben Krasnow! I first came across his videos when searching for a DiY fMRI machine and then somehow lost him again. Bookmarking now...
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:07 AM on July 13, 2012