Searching beyond a cappella renditions of Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine and of bands using toy instruments that are rife across the internet, there is an actual song-covering machine.
Made by Pawel Zadrozniak, a 27-year-old programmer and self-proclaimed “nerd” from Krakow in Poland, it’s called the Floppotron – and it’s quite something.
The speed of operation of each part dictates the pitch at which it plays.
“For instance, to play the A3 note (220Hz), the motor must perform 220 steps per second,” Zadrozniak told the Press Association.
“Having the working software, making the song arrangement takes me around two-three evenings, depending on the complexity.”
“My favourites are Smells Like Teen Spirit and The Final Countdown,” said Zadrozniak. “I’m a big rock fan and the floppy disk drivers are quite good at reproducing distorted electric guitar sounds.”
Zadrozniak is employed full time at a semi-conductor company, working on the Floppotron in his free time as “a form of relaxation” – and it sounds like there could be bigger and better things to come from the technological maestro.
“The next generation will be bigger, solve current design issues and will be more modular and portable to be able to feature it in some live exhibitions.”
If you’d like to hear more from Zadrozniak and the Floppotron’s vast musical collection, check out his YouTube channel here.
