The Floppotron inventor has upgraded. 512 floppy drives, 16 hard disks and 4 scanners join together to form a complex nerd orchestra.

Somehow Paweł Zadrożniak can't stop enlarging his Floppotron. His last floppotron from 2016 already consisted of 64 floppy drives, 8 hard disks and 2 scanners. The recently completed Floppotron 3.0 has grown into a monster of 512 floppy drives, 16 hard drives and 4 scanners.

No piece of music has so many voices. So what are all those drives for? Their purpose is to vary volume. The drives are grouped together, all playing the same note. By successively turning off individual drives, it is possible, for example, to simulate a piano strum that starts out loud and then gets quieter. We'll see what the Floppotron 3.0 can do when Paweł uploads videos with more pieces.

The sound of a floppy disk drive is created by a motor that sounds higher or lower depending on its speed. By precisely regulating this speed, a melody can be played. For polyphonic melodies, several drives are connected together. The scanners add high tones to the floppy orchestra, the hard drives are responsible for the percussion.

Thanks to the Moppy software, it's relatively easy to build something like this yourself - colleague Kevin Hofer made a nerd jukebox out of five drives some time ago that works perfectly.

My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.

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