The Commodordion Turns Two C64s Into A Single Instrument

One of the key reasons the Commodore 64 became an icon of the 1980s was its MOS 6581 “SID” sound chip that gave it audio abilities perfectly outside of all those of other microcomputers of the 8-little bit era. The SID became one thing of a legend by alone among chiptune lovers, and a number of digital instruments have been made that crank out their seem through a SID chip. Not quite a few of those glance anything at all like traditional musical devices however, so we’re delighted to see [Linus Åkesson]’s new task: two Commodore 64s joined back again-to-back working with a bellows to sort a fantastic new instrument termed the Commodordion. It can be played in a related way one particular performs a standard accordion: melodies are played with the ideal hand, chords with the still left, and volume is adjusted by various the tension in the bellows.

The two computers are in essence unmodified, and boot Commodore Fundamental like they typically would. A personalized circuit board emulates a cassette player and delivers the application to be loaded into memory. Both equally personal computers run the identical system and can be switched amongst the right-hand and left-hand purpose by urgent a certain critical mix. The application in question is called Qwertuoso, and in essence maps notes and several attributes of the SID chip to keys on the Commodore’s keyboard.

Of program, it’s the bellows that tends to make this instrument a legitimate member of the accordion household. Produced from 5.25″ floppy disks and sticky tape, it forms a extra-or-much less air-tight system linking the two desktops. The airflow in the bellows is measured by means of a microphone placed upcoming to the air intake: the total of noise produced is around proportional to the volume of air being expelled or inhaled. This details is then utilised to modulate the quantity generated by the two SID chips.

By [Linus]’s personal admission it’s not the most ergonomic of devices, so we’re doubly amazed by the amount of ability he demonstrates even though actively playing it in the online video embedded under. It’s not the 1st time possibly that he has turned a Commodore 64 into a musical instrument: he previously designed a church organ and a theremin. Although the Commodordion may possibly search intricate, it’s basically significantly less complicated in building than a mechanical accordion.