Version 3.0
June 14, 2022 8:22 AM   Subscribe

Though we last heard from Zadrożniak and the Floppotron 2.0 in 2018, this month we learned that it is time to goodbye to Floppotron 2.0, and witness the power of the 16 hard disks, 4 scanners and 512 floppy drives of the fully armed and operational Floppotron 3.0.
posted by mhoye (24 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is over-the-top extra in the best possible way.
posted by humbug at 8:27 AM on June 14, 2022


*claps for joy*

I still think the Floppotron version of Sweet Dreams is the second best version of that song ever and I’m a guy who is very skeptical about cover songs.

Can’t wait to see what’s next!
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 8:36 AM on June 14, 2022 [4 favorites]


…And on the day it achieved sentience, it played Also Sprach Zarathustra, unbidden…
posted by adamrice at 8:47 AM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]


This is why i help fund Metafilter
posted by armoir from antproof case at 9:12 AM on June 14, 2022 [4 favorites]


Oh and… from the comments of the Sweet Dreams video:

I TRAVELLED THE WORLD AND THE SEVEN C:\s
posted by armoir from antproof case at 9:17 AM on June 14, 2022 [13 favorites]


He color-coded the floppy cases to make out black and white keys of a keyboard, with a vertical keyboard side, like a midi controller. Noice.
posted by eclectist at 9:18 AM on June 14, 2022 [2 favorites]


My scanner does not play music or have any tone. Fascinating nerdery...
posted by Windopaene at 9:47 AM on June 14, 2022


This made my day - thanks for sharing.

Floppotron 3.0 > Web 3.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 10:14 AM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]


Oh, good! We saw the other day that Floppotron 2 was going away but at the time couldn't find any info about what if anything would replace it. This post has made me very happy!
posted by Stacey at 10:32 AM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]


Wonderful!
posted by Quietgal at 10:48 AM on June 14, 2022


Genius and madness ... sometimes they are so close.
posted by Termite at 11:59 AM on June 14, 2022


Genius+Madness=Magic...this has always been the way (also BIG THANKS to humbug for sharing this awesome creation!).
posted by Doleful Creature at 1:10 PM on June 14, 2022


...where do you even find that many floppy drives any more?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:36 PM on June 14, 2022


Confused: does this help extend the blockchain in some way?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 2:08 PM on June 14, 2022


Please install at Walt Disney Concert Hall immediately.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 3:55 PM on June 14, 2022


...where do you even find that many floppy drives any more?

You can't. Floppotron has them all now.
posted by saturday_morning at 4:11 PM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]


Floppotron sounds like a normal musical instrument here, which does detract from the charm but is impressive as hell on a technical level
posted by Merus at 4:35 PM on June 14, 2022


I don’t know what is making that little trill at the end, but it sounds remarkably like a flute.
posted by Comet Bug at 4:57 PM on June 14, 2022


This makes my DAY.
posted by Peach at 5:13 PM on June 14, 2022


...where do you even find that many floppy drives any more?

I actually have a portable USB floppy drive (in bondi blue, to match the iMac of the era it was made) It still works! And my Mac recognizes and mounts it.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:25 PM on June 14, 2022


Thank you for this Best of the Web 🙏
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 7:41 PM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]


This is incredible but I’d really like to hear some sort of additive synth running on this thing, like something that will take a waveform, decompose it to partials, then try and play it back. It’s entirely possible that there isn’t the pitch range or volume resolution for it to work, but a speech recording playing on hundreds of disk drives has to be horrifying in a good way.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:01 AM on June 15, 2022


Jon Mitchell, you might want to check out David Lee Roth's "Running with the Devil" vocal track as performed by a piano.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:53 AM on June 15, 2022


I'd love to hear it do speech synthesis. Hook it up to a GPT-3 for extra uncanny.
posted by Marticus at 3:37 PM on June 16, 2022


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