
Dot matrix printer playing “Eye of the Tiger” [video] - jgrahamc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8I6qt_Z0Cg
======
ceronman
I loved this. This fit's perfectly with Stallman definition of hacking [1].

    
    
        composing a funny joke or a beautiful piece of music may well involve
        playful cleverness, but a joke as such and a piece of music as such
        are not hacks, however funny or beautiful they may be. However, if the
        piece is a palindrome, we can say it is a hack as well as music; if it
        is empty, we can say it is a hack on music
    

Playing The Eye of the Tiger _per se_ is not hacking. Playing it with a dot
matrix printer is. In its purest form. :)

[1] [https://stallman.org/articles/on-
hacking.html](https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html)

~~~
bch
Next step: generate a QR code that looks like a tigers eye, that links you to
code that generates the program that runs the printer, that...

~~~
jonah
How very Rube Goldbergian.

[http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_1_urb-rube-
goldberg.html](http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_1_urb-rube-goldberg.html)

~~~
bch
I was thinking quine[0].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_%28computing%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_%28computing%29)

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kens
That's pretty impressive. Printer music goes way back, by the way. Here's a
(low-quality) recording of a 1960s-era IBM 1401 mainframe playing the Blue
Danube Waltz on a 1403 line printer: [http://www.apropos-
logic.com/1403music/1403_blue_danube.mp3](http://www.apropos-
logic.com/1403music/1403_blue_danube.mp3) And here's the 1401 playing tunes on
a radio via RF interference from the core memory:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPk8MVEmiTI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPk8MVEmiTI)
Unfortunately the 1401 at the Computer History Museum isn't currently
authorized for line printer music because the stress might destroy the print
chain and they don't have a replacement.

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bullfightonmars
A fantastic band called Tree Wave [1], from Austin, used a dot matrix printer
as a synth [2] in a bunch of their music [3] around 10 years ago. It's pretty
fantastic stuff. Paul Slocum whom lead the group did some amazing work hacking
together instruments from Commodore 64s and Atari 2600, going as far as
writing and building a custom synth cart for an Arari [4]

[1] [http://www.treewave.com/](http://www.treewave.com/) [2]
[http://www.qotile.net/dotmatrix.html](http://www.qotile.net/dotmatrix.html)
[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byKx8bZ5eq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byKx8bZ5eq8)
[4] [http://www.qotile.net/synth.html](http://www.qotile.net/synth.html)

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jgrahamc
Explanation of how this is achieved:
[https://vimeo.com/57960146](https://vimeo.com/57960146)

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
I used to work with a guy who did this with food sorting machines. You've
never heard Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby" until you've heard it played on 192
air valves.

~~~
patcon
please please please does this have a web presence?

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
I wish. I would have posted it if I had thought to record it.

------
tdicola
My favorite version of this hack is Renault changing the RPM of their F1
engine to play God Save The Queen:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRXwWbo_mX0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRXwWbo_mX0)

~~~
jrockway
Same idea with traction motors, though arguably not "intentionally":
[https://youtu.be/6xAGqP7enQI?t=2m21s](https://youtu.be/6xAGqP7enQI?t=2m21s)

Electric motors and speakers are basically the same things. Speakers are
optimized to be more efficient at producing sound, motors are optimized to be
more efficient at moving things, but at the core, they're the same device.

~~~
martiuk
Ha, reminds me of the Class 323's we have in Birmingham:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y25aCRWgvWc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y25aCRWgvWc)

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pmorici
This is cool but my favorite all time video in this genre is "Big Ideas (don't
get any)" on Vimeo [https://vimeo.com/1109226](https://vimeo.com/1109226) In
addition to driving a number of pieces of old equipment in unintended ways to
make the sound the video is also very artfully done.

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prbuckley
Eye of the tiger played using floppy disk drives,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMcRd_4RwRQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMcRd_4RwRQ)

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DiabloD3
If you like this, you'll love everything this guy does:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRa1raJXF22KpZ8IknQpGEw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRa1raJXF22KpZ8IknQpGEw)

~~~
errantspark
I'm not sure if you meant to convey a judgement relative quality. I think that
the this video is more impressive than 8 floppy drives. I never thought a
single printer would be capable of that tonal quality and that range of
polyphonics. I don't mean to hate on MrSolidSnake745 though, his videos are
dope.

~~~
jacquesm
A loudspeaker is nothing but a coil, a magnet and a piece of cardboard and it
too is capable of incredible tonal quality and a huge range of polyphonics.

This one really got me:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCPjK4nGY4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCPjK4nGY4)

~~~
userbinator
Apparently he somewhat cheated in that video by mixing in a bit of the
original audio.

Here's what it sounds like on its own:
[https://vimeo.com/1483630](https://vimeo.com/1483630)

~~~
mg1982
Thanks for that. I am literally more disappointed than when I found out there
was no Santa Claus.

Now I'm too sad to work, instead of just being too lazy.

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sspiff
This is brilliant.

It reminds me of the old HP ScanJets, which came with SCSI commands to play
musical notes[0] (someone at HP must have had too much free time on his hands
;)). Some videos of the scanners are at [1] and [2].

Another interesting hardware hack to produce music is the "hard drive
speaker". You can see some of them in action in a rendition of Radiohead's
"Big Ideas: don't get any" [3], as well as various printers and other devices
used for their auditive side effects.

[0]:
[http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/97feb/feb97a8a.pdf](http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/97feb/feb97a8a.pdf)

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tatiU2ha0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tatiU2ha0)

[2]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S53Mly3A8c8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S53Mly3A8c8)

[3]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmfHHLfbjNQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmfHHLfbjNQ)

------
vool
[The User] did something similar back in the '90s with their 'The Symphony #1
for dot matrix printers'

[https://vimeo.com/6868193](https://vimeo.com/6868193)

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martin-adams
The sound quality is so good, YouTube prevent it playing on some devices
because of the copyright protection on the music.

------
archagon
I really love this floppy drive rendition of a song from one of my favorite
games as of late:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f5bSyO4Dx8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f5bSyO4Dx8)

~~~
raldi
That rig would be _amazing_ for playing the theme to Threes:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unr0A2iOe1E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unr0A2iOe1E)

~~~
archagon
If there's a MIDI of it out there, maybe they would take a request!

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anilmujagic
Brings back the memories from high school time, when I was helping my father
in his accounting office. I was able to recognize the document being printed
just by the sound pattern the printer was making :)

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ori_b
I think the first one of these I saw was this one, back in 2004ish, I think:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S53Mly3A8c8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S53Mly3A8c8)

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ben1040
See also, a 3D printer playing the Imperial March from Star Wars.

[https://youtu.be/pKsvXfUvCkQ?t=26](https://youtu.be/pKsvXfUvCkQ?t=26)

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ashmud
If you have a cooperative LCD monitor, it will play some tones:
[http://genabitu.github.io/screentunes/](http://genabitu.github.io/screentunes/)

From here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856829](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856829)

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krick
I have seen a lot of stuff like this already, but never saw any source code.

~~~
tlarkworthy
The music MIDI-to-CNC converter is open:-

[http://hackaday.com/2013/04/21/3d-printing-some-sweet-
music/](http://hackaday.com/2013/04/21/3d-printing-some-sweet-music/)

I have tested it, it works!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Zben7GJcA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Zben7GJcA)

~~~
TheLoneWolfling
Now try to get recognizable speech. Now _that_ would be creepy.

(Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible without "deeper" control.)

------
cmarschner
Bohemian Rhapsody on a zoo of old hardware:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4)

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kevinmchugh
singing tesla coils! Also known as zeusaphones or thoramins.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXsfGVVGb-Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXsfGVVGb-Y)

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ericfrederich
Wish someone came up with this like 20 years ago when these printers were
prevalent. Imagine a virus that would make printers do this. Where is my time
machine.

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pinewurst
What makes this really funny to me was that it was always Steve Ballmer's
theme song to be played whenever he took the stage.

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chias
Next step: something that can scan the ink printed to the page and recreate
the music that the printer played when printing!

~~~
pvaldes
An interesting way to encrypt a message...

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cgtyoder
Can anyone determine the printer model?

~~~
jaak
It's an AEG Olympia NP 80-24 (more video here:
[https://vimeo.com/57960146](https://vimeo.com/57960146))

~~~
p1mrx
So they're driving the motors and pins using custom equipment; it would be
more impressive to pull this off through the existing data interface.

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pointernil
Level Next: make it speak. Chose an appropriate text like some philosophical
speech by Bender ;)

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ExpiredLink
>> _Ink-redible stuff!_

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a8da6b0c91d
What's the deal with modern dot matrix printers? I very, very rarely need to
print anything. What I want from a printer is somewhat legible text and ultra-
reliability with low operating costs.

A couple years ago my consumer grade b/w laser printer died after five years
of rather infrequent use. I decided I'd rather just take a USB stick to
commercial printers than ever shell out for some consumer grade piece of crap
again. Might a modern dotmatrix be cheap and super reliable? Like, I can buy
it and plan on it working for the next 20 years?

~~~
userbinator
The only downside to dot matrix is the noise and low resolution - otherwise
they are extremely reliable, high-throughput printers that are still used
extensively in various industrial and other niche environments. The ability to
print lines or even individual characters as the data comes in and use
continuous feed paper is not possible with inkjets or lasers.

Operating costs are relatively low but they are definitely NOT cheap to
purchase.

~~~
dirktheman
Occasionally, you can find one on craigslist or at a yard sale for a couple of
bucks. They're pretty much indestructable, and printer ribbons can be found
online.

I used to work as a service rep at an airline. We used these things
extensively for printing airline tickets. These tickets had four red carbon-
copy type pages that needed to be printed at once, and a dot-matrix printer is
the only thing that handeled this well. It was a small office and we had just
a rickety old Star Gemini II printer, but I must have printed thousands of
tickets with it before it was decomissioned when e-tickets made their
entrance.

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mortoc
Typetunes

