OMG Absolute Geek-a-licousness

[furrbear]

HP ScanJet 3C takes lead on Bohemian Rhapsody

And now, because you secretly asked for it in your heart of hearts: a version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody as played by an old scanner, floppy drive and Atari and TI computers.

Not the best sounding version, mind, but squeezing the modern rock classic from creaks, hums, drones, beeps and squeaks of antique equipment should soften the hearts (and ears) of any lover of old school computers.

An HP ScanJet 3C fills in for Queen's Freddie Mercury on lead vocals, while a Texas Instrument TI-99/4a takes Brian May's job as lead guitar. Accompanying organ and piano is an Atari 800XL, and an 8-inch floppy disk replaces Jon Deacon on bass. Roger Taylor's percussion is meanwhile faithfully recreated by a 3.5-inch hard drive.

YouTube user bd594 said he composed the piece entirely from noises coming out of the machines themselves, with no effects or sampling added. The scanner, however, was recorded four separate times to accommodate for lead and backing vocals in the song.

It's a bunch of old equipment so don't expect pitch perfect music coming out of 'em - and synchronization comes apart a bit at the end. But hey, we're living in the days where Auto-Tune can fix anything short of cats fighting in a bag. This could be the next gold platter single here.

Comments

[grizzlyzone.livejournal.com]

You may want to go out to 8bitpeoples.com, and see what folks are doing with old game consoles.

I would recommend "Icarus" by Trash80.

Free downloadable MP3 albums. Lots of them.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

My old, retired SCSI ScanJet would play something on it's own using the stepper motor as part of a self-test if you held the lone button down while turning it on. I forget the tune, but it was a decent rendition.

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

That's just awesome. Even more so because hell ... I had both the 800XL AND the TI-99/4A as a child. I can't say I ever did THIS with either one of them, though ... :: laugh ::

[matthewpilon.livejournal.com]

That is AWESOME

[bigdave.livejournal.com]

That was fantastic!

Will you do the fandango?

[caestus.livejournal.com]

Thank-you for posting this brilliance.