A user demonstrates what can still be done with old hardware like floppy disks and the like. The musical result is truly impressive.
No one really uses floppy disks and old hard drives anymore, as the technology is considered outdated in the year 2022. Hardly a user will still have a floppy disk drive in their gaming PC today, unless they love the retro aspect or want to play old classics from floppy disks.
But what do you do with hardware that hardly anyone needs today? One user has bought hundreds of these almost worthless devices and turned them into a musical instrument. Sounds crazy, and it is.
YouTuber creates music only with sounds from old hardware
How can you make music with hardware? All devices make sounds. For example, your console beeps when you turn it on, or a hard drive rumbles in deep bass when you use it. It is exactly these sounds that the YouTuber Paweł Zadrożniak uses to create music.
Using software, he then fine-tunes how the sounds need to be activated so they produce the right sound or note at the right moment. The final result can be seen in a video lasting just under 4 minutes:
What does the computer orchestra consist of? The YouTuber himself writes about what hardware he uses for his orchestra. Currently, he has:
- 512 floppy disk drives
- 16 hard drives
- 4 scanners
How much power does it consume? In his video, he also explains how much power his orchestra consumes. On average, the consumption is around 300 watts. That’s about as much as a mid-range gaming PC needs while gaming. However, he has measured a maximum consumption of over 1.2 kilowatts.
For comparison: With one kilowatt-hour of electricity, you can run a 9-watt LED lamp for about 100 hours or keep your TV running for around 7 hours.
Making music with hardware is not a new idea
The idea of making music with old hardware is probably almost as old as the hardware itself. There have already been other YouTubers who play music with floppy disk drives (via YouTube.com).
These individuals use not only computer hardware but also pretty much anything that comes their way. Quickly, an electric toothbrush or a kettle is repurposed into a musical instrument.
You can listen to how the main theme from “Pirates of the Caribbean” sounds on electronic toothbrushes in the following YouTube video:
And these somewhat different music videos are really well received by the audience. For example, a user writes under one of the channel Device Orchestra’s videos (via YouTube.com):
If someone had told me ten years ago that a toothbrush, an iron, a typewriter, a toaster, a PS3 controller, and two credit card machines would come together into an absolute masterpiece, I would have invented a time machine to get to this moment faster.
Due to high prices and scalpers, old hardware suddenly became valuable again
You won’t be able to make much money with floppy disk drives or ancient hard drives today. At least, older graphics cards were in high demand in recent years. As there were hardly any graphics cards available for purchase, some users turned to older models. Scalpers and resellers also noticed this, selling old, used graphics cards for immense sums.
However, graphics cards are now affordable again and are no longer priced thousands of euros above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). This is especially annoying for scalpers, who are making huge losses with purchased graphics cards.
Nowadays, you can often find Nvidia and AMD graphics cards at absolutely fair prices without having to resort to such strange offers. However, you should keep your eyes peeled, as the next generation of Nvidia and AMD is coming soon:
What you should know about the next generation of graphics cards before buying a new one
