I know that it's possible to produce specific sounds with a floppy drive, but this tune isn't really played by the drives, is it?
Most likely it is. According to the video description, they're not connected to a PC per se, but instead to a custom-programmed PIC18 microcontroller. At a guess, this chip is converting the MIDI commands into step/direction pulses which are fed into the floppy drive head motor at various preset rates to produce the desired musical tones..
Whilst his creation isn't going to render pipe organs extinct anytime soon ;-) it's still a brilliant effort.
I know that it's possible to produce specific sounds with a floppy drive, but this tune isn't really played by the drives, is it?
Most likely it is. According to the video description, they're not connected to a PC per se, but instead to a custom-programmed PIC18 microcontroller. At a guess, this chip is converting the MIDI commands into step/direction pulses which are fed into the floppy drive head motor at various preset rates to produce the desired musical tones..
Whilst his creation isn't going to render pipe organs extinct anytime soon ;-) it's still a brilliant effort.
Regards,
Valentin