I think it says a lot about me that instead of being impressed by this, my first reaction was instead "man, if this thing is printing a picture of Bach's face at the same time I'm going to be really mad."
I think we still have them widely awailable. If I'm not mistaken, the ones that print grocery checks are matrix printers. So, in theory, you can play on them too.
I used to use an Epson ET-2550 ru-vid.comUgkxciSwynMJ7PnUvvx11rewiu-yFBkZTl53 , an early model of the ink tank style. It worked well, but had one nuisance that drove me up the wall; if you didn't put it in high quality print mode you'd get a streak across the page. I'm happy to say I have yet to see this with this printer. The print quality has been fantastic so far, the set up was super easy. All in all I'm very happy with this printer.
Impressive work. I started listening to this, and a coworker totally freaked out, and started yelling at me that I was hurting her ears. I think she's still mad at me ten minutes later. She's claiming it was in dog whistle territory, though I seriously doubt my cheap Dell speakers will go much beyond 20 kHz.
I wonder how the dot printer would sound like if it had a proper resonating body. I mean it sounds already quite nice, but not strong enough, more like as if it was played through some cheap headphones.
+Matthew Ferrie Hi there! The printer had 24 pins and we destroyed only three during development, so there are 21 pins and this means 21 different notes at the same time ;-) Have fun! Midi Desaster
+Matthew Ferrie Hi Matthew! Yep, thats the way it works ;) But there is a bit of electronics and programming required to do this. Maybe you want to take a look at the equipment here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ySpj_44rsG8.html Have fun! Midi Desaster
Back in the day when computers lived in cold rooms with raised floors, the 'line-printers' could be sent 'print' requests that would play songs as a result of the printing. (Way too much time on their hands in the computer science department.) As with most technology, way better today. Great job!
ebay. amazon. craigslist... literally anywhere that sells stuff. OKI and Epson still make them brand new. They're useful where a carbon copy is required as pressure is applied to the paper. I've seen them used these days mainly for things like invoices.
James Franklin I had no idea that DMPs were even manufactured anymore. I haven't used carbon copies in a decade. Good to know that some people are still kicking it old school.
John Michael Strubhart And they're actually used still quite often in industries where you have to datalog every single action of process to paper format. Continuos paper on dot matrix printers are pretty much essential for that use. My work place also still uses dot matrix printers. And actually process operators prefer quickly going through paper instead of scrolling log file on computer. I'm all into computers, but I gotta agree with them. It's quite a bit more convenient to go through few "pages" of log in paper. It's also very easy to confirm you have backup of data :)
Jothain I think I'd get all choked up if I saw an operating DMP. I have lots of good memories of the 2 that I went through at home. You get used to the rhythm of the printer and I missed that sound after I got my first ink jet. Thanks for sharing your observations!
John Michael Strubhart True, it felt weird that printer didn't make loud noises. Actually when I got into process industry pretty much first memories where when noticed matrix printers that "wow is that thing still operational and actually used?" :)
Do you think it would be possible to scan an image of what printed out and feed it back into a computer using an image processing algorithm to play midi instruments and reproduce the music?
Can someone explain how this works a little? I only see one part moving and most of the song is played seemingly with one line of notes, but there are some parts with chords where it sounds like 4-6 notes at once. How is this possible with only one stepper?
sona11111111 Hi, we made a makin of: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ySpj_44rsG8.html We use the pins of the printer not the motor to make music so there are 21 pins maximum at the same time. Have fun Midi Desaster
The sound nearly puts the Floppotron to shame, only a bit worse that the flatbedscanners. Quite an impressive range. Does this printer has 9 or 24 voices?
Please, you simply MUST do more classical music! Perhaps some famous ones, like the overture to the Marriage of Figaro? Or the first movement of Beethoven's fifth symphony!
That RU-vid Critic Hi there, actually it is not that much for each video after having the printer working. Finding a song, preparing it, set up the recording equipment, action, review the material, upload it - done ;) Have fun! Midi Desaster
So im guessing you convert the sound wave from sine to square wave to time the pin firing? Then maybe use amplitude of the original sine to adjust firing voltage for volume control
Fantastic work! :-) Can you expose for me (us) how exactly was the printer driven, please? Is it some kind of program runing in DOS OS or is it some special driver under Linux or even under Windows? I suppose that it is not so simple as to prepare just bitmap monochromatic picture (format A4) an just "send it to the print job/spooler), isn't it? Thanks for your answer. :-)
+Pavel Glosl Hello Pavel! To see how it is done just take a look at our "Making of" Video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ySpj_44rsG8.html A brief overview is in the description of that video. If you have a more detailed question I would be glad to come back on that. Have fun! Midi Desaster
Now throw in mid-line direction changes for the printer head, and you could make it actually print out a picture _while_ playing music. Not easy, but possible?
Sorry to ask on such an old video, but I have to know. Could you potentially get a printer to play the song by just having it print out a copy of what's on the paper? If I were to scan the sheet music (pun intended) and hit the print button, would I get a repeat performance of the song as the printer copies it?
Can it play any arbitrary PCM waveform or is it limited to pure tones? If I understand correctly it should be able to... playback voice recordings and such.
Hammerklavier Lair we talking Need for speed II OST, because if we are, I totally would like the title screen music first, and the whole OST second... F Yeah!
I've been meaning to do this for about the last 10 years. Especially this song: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yhCD9qxlczo.html I'd even throw a tip your way if you did it ;)
