Floppy drives + FPGA + keyboard = synthesizer

Premiers tests d'un "synthétiseur" fabriqué avec deux vieux floppy, un clavier, le tout connecté à un FPGA Altera d'un kit DE1 de Terasic. Il peut y avoir deux notes simultanément. Le FPGA reçoit les signaux du clavier, détermine les touches appuyées et crée des signaux de commande pour les têtes de lecture des floppy, les faisant vibrer à la fréquence voulue (elles sont actionnées par des moteurs pas à pas).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• synthesizer
• floppy
• FPGA
• DE1
• Terasic

[mathfff]

it was an improvised (and pretty bad) version of "seven nation army" ^^

[mathfff]

The goal is to do a step one time in a direction and next time in the other to create an audible frequency.The "interface" links the two blocks to distribute the frequency values based on keys pressed.

Hope my explaination is clear...any questions? ;)

(sorry for my bad English ^^)

[mathfff]

Thx ;) No, I haven't written a tuto but I can explain it if you want...

This is not very complicated : there are 2 main blocks in the VHDL code and an "interface" between them. The first block reads scan codes from the keyboard to know what key you're pressing. The second block generates 4 square signals to 2 floppy. Each floppy is controlled by 2 signals :

/STEP : the stepper motor do a step at each rising edge

/DIR : level on this pin indicates direction of the step

[JohnGloryHole]

Fantastic! I love the geekiness of this!

[dushanostoich]

how about to use 5.25 floppies :D haha

[Alexandr97521]

Что за музыка играет на 0:36 секунде ?

That for music plays on 0:36 to second ?

[JDTV1995]

must. have.

[j00mi]

A FPGA is way to expensive for me to build this setup. Ever tried to realize it with a arm or atmel?

[haxorseidis]

Every horror movie would be proud of such sound track :D

[richardbirch2007]

I REALLY love the sound of a floppy stepper motor. It's such a raw bassy sound, would make a KILLER track

[Oxygenic]

What's the name of the first tune/song you're playing? :)

[1amerr0r]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOW!

[artifactingreality]

Excellent work. I want one.

[sanginaire]

Excellent ! Ça serait intéressent de faire de la musique expérimentale qu'avec des périphériques d'ordinateur.

En tout cas, great job. =)