I Want to Break Free on FLOPPOTRON 3.0

[@9mmluger180]

Freddie Mercury once said: "You can do what you want with my music, but don't make me boring." I'm sure Freddie would have loved this, its just awesome !

[@KC-ey3fx]

Perfectly said!

[@Carlinisalive]

Pretty sure this is top comment on another one of the floppatron vids

[@WorivpuqloDMogh]

Damn right, he would be

[@winstonlobo]

It’s not Freddie’s, it’s John’s.

[@RemyOrtiz]

This is quoted on so many Queen videos and each one is just as deserving as the last. I love this.

[@highestsettings]

Honestly I'm more amazed at how much life you put into the vocal and the guitar solo tracks with all the staccato, legato, and vibrato.

[@aharkness5657]

Yes. And how May-like it is in all its voice

[@y.b4251]

I'm like 86% sure floppotron took over and started to deliver it's message through a series of hints. Imperial march, I wanna break free. So what's next? Live forever? everybody wants to rule the world?

[@simplyskrypt3914]

I think he did through the fire and flames in 2020 😶

[@weskerend507]

Bonnie Tyler - Holding out for a hero, so many layers

[@treyhenrichsen9275]

I've got no strings?

[@timevers6525]

As long as it doesn't start to play soul music it's fine.

[@rastislavzima]

@@timevers6525 country would be much worse I think 😂

[@EpicLPer]

This HAS to be one of the best videos to show off how well tuned and in general what immense kind of tonal range the Floppotron 3 can actually cover perfectly!

[@raven4k998]

and I know the one question burning inside your mind is how many power supply's does it take to power all that stuff to make the music work

[@terabyte1906]

@@raven4k998 probably alot however in theory all the floppy drives could run off only a few as they don't consume much power. What would be more scary is how many controllers all that hardware takes

[@raven4k998]

@@terabyte1906 yeah but what I am getting at is that any psu only has so many floppy drive power connectors and the number of floppy drives he has in those stack and they are almost all powered based on the lights on them lighting up which is why I ask how many psu's dose he use to make them all run like that think about the engineering in there he must have a lot of custom stuff to make it run is what I am getting at

[@raven4k998]

@@terabyte1906 yeah but if the psu is custom it might be a few as one custom psu powering them all cause when you think about it he has to have a custom driver card of some sort to control all those drives using one pc because the motherboards that did have floppy support were only meant to have at most two floppy drives I think connected to them maybe a few more but the point is there's no way he's controlling them all with a single computer without some sort of custom hardware made to do it

[@JensGulin]

@@raven4k998 check out the intro video or the blog. I recall 2 power sources at peak 1.2 kW

[@jakubw.2779]

Floppotron 3.0 is a masterpiece. Completely new dimensions of computer music. Absolutely love every second of it

[@IllegallySighted]

I was just thinking of commenting the same thing. Version three is amazing, and I can’t wait to see more videos.

[@marcriquet4962]

I wish for the return of "Through the fire and flames"

[@Sphendrana]

I'm just waiting for the day they collab with an oscilloscope. That one channel on YT with the epic mushroom song is the one I'm talking about. If you know, you know (but mostly because I forgot the name lol)

[@6Sparx9]

Big Floppa featuring Furbie Organ 😍

[@6Sparx9]

@@Sphendrana Jerobeam Fenderson is his YT name

[@SGManiac1255]

freaking NAILED the tremolo during the Guitar solo at 2:08! i love it!!!!

[@shinyagumon7015]

I love the inclusion of the "Guitar" solo. Perfect

[@SarahAndreaRoycesChannel]

Quite frankly the scanners do a way better Brian May than Freddy Mercury.

[@coski87]

"Scanner solo" you mean....?

[@istvan_m]

I was waiting for it. Brilliant

[@umbertocolapicchioni2467]

It's a synth solo, at least in the original studio version, which this one is based on. It was played on synth+guitar only during live shows.

[@JudahMaccabee_]

I honestly would pay a premium to watch this live at a concert. No joke. Just purely epic!

[@hanswurst4498]

Exactly what I've said to by gf right now. It would be so awesome

[@nicksanford9]

The tight harmonies and vibrato just send this cover into the stratosphere. It’s obvious that lots of technical aptitude and musicianship go into these recreations. The guitar solo is especially incredible on this one. Thank you for these.

[@louskunt9798]

I was like number 499! Dang my OCD!!!! Would someone PLEASE hit 500?!!

[@cocosloan3748]

Freddie ? I knew him personally ! He hated floppy drives ! They got easily stuck ... (you know where😖)

[@liamhotspur9182]

absolutely. and this comes from a scanner!

[@garystinten9339]

I want this song kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJeTXpuclNCIoK8

[@ruben_balea]

I can almost feel how amazingly good Vangelis' "Chariots of Fire" would sound on this device. Gershon Kingsley's original "Popcorn" from 1969 would be nice too.

[@mangamaster03]

As Mr Bean runs along the beach...

[@superscatboy]

If we're going Vangelis, "I hear you now" would literally bring me to tears.

[@ciabok92]

both propositions sounds epic

[@AnnaHandle]

The fact that a scanner can perfectly imitate a guitar solo...with bendings and all, it's like this its true purpose

[@thechosenone82517]

and in the 90ies they never worked. always broken!

[@themonsterunderyourbed9408]

@@thechosenone82517 They still don't work. Printers in general are the crappiest thing ever made.

[@bleughbloop8569]

makes sense when you think about it, the point of an electric guitar is to heavily distort a signal electrically, this signal is distorted mechanically cos it wasn't exactly built for this purpose

[@ParaBellum2024]

In a video at the time, Brian May was seen with a "SynthAxe" guitar synthesiser, but I believe the solo was played by someone else, on a keyboard.

[@Alex-hc4wm]

I want to break free doesn't have a guitar solo😉

[@fision8090]

I still remember the days were there was only 2 scanners, I love how much the floppotron has grown

[@andreasklindt7144]

I just realized that the stack of floppy drives is shaped like piano keys. The small white one on the left resembles two octaves, and the big black one is one octave (color inverted) on the piano keyboard. Beautiful.

[@BonaparteBardithion]

I had to back it up after and make sure I wasn't imagining it. Very nice.

[@signa8]

Took me a few videos to notice that too. The first few, I was thinking I should help source some more black face plates for him, because obviously they are getting harder to find if that's the setup he had to go with :D Nope, I was just being dumb.

[@Brickolas94700]

Wow thanks i never realize that!

[@guitarstitch]

I was just scrolling the comments to see if I was the only one who missed that little detail. I'm glad to see that there are other people who are picking up on small details with each new video. I also couldn't help but notice the "beta" on the banner. That means that it's entirely possible that more changes will come about for this wonderful bit of kit.

[@5alpha23]

It's the little details that makes this really stand out like the glissandi and pitch swoops. The mixture of a very organic approach to a 100% digital interpretation is strangely fascinating and alluring to me.

[@notbydesign3316]

This would be overwhelming to hear in person. I can barely keep it together watching a video. Love your talent and dedication!

[@fauxpas5598]

Floppotron 3.0 is probably too close to being finished to radically change the design, but I really hope Floppotron 4.x is set up for going on tour. :D

[@thiagoalexi794]

Was thinking the same, imagine if you could hear ir physically! 👏👏👏

[@welshtony1]

just think how many times he plays this to make sure it's correct for one then to get all the camera angles, not to mention the video editing. must take ages. hats off to you for these masterpieces

[@firefly2472]

I think he uses a lot of cameras and does al the moving in sodtware. If you would do 1 camera recording per time that would take feaking long.

[@welshtony1]

@@firefly2472 Oh yeah for sure he uses multiple cameras but you can tell this was done in multiple takes to get all the angles otherwise he would be walking in front of cameras

[@tbuk8350]

@@welshtony1 Maybe for this one, yes. Some of them, like his Bohemian Rhapsody one, has moving things like smoke that stay consistent between shots though. My guess is it's a mix of potentially multiple takes, and a lot of cameras placed a further distance away so their not in each other's FOV. The audio itself is definitely from one take though. Stitching together the audio from multiple takes while hiding the stitches would be a nightmare.

[@0108daniel]

​@@welshtony1wait what? Why he need to walk in front of the camera's? The camera's recording and when the song is over he can stop the camera's.

[@ScottGrammer]

Have you considered building a soundboard for the flatbed scanners? A table made of thin wood with a resonator box underneath, that would give more volume to the lower notes? Just a thought. This is the most creative thing I've ever seen done with old computer parts. Amazing.

[@Mac_Omegaly]

This is a legitimately interesting idea. Would suspending the scanner and resonator box also be better? Or is the weight of the scanner and the jarring movements of it's motor take away from the sound too much making this a bad idea?

[@ScottGrammer]

@@Mac_Omegaly I think probably it would be best to leave the resonator sitting on the table so that the scanners don't move around. It would depend on how you design the resonators.

[@bsadewitz]

@@ScottGrammer How about mounting a passive woofer in the box, then placing some adhesive rubber feet on the bottom? 😂

[@EllaBananas]

Def think some acoustic tuning would be the cherry on top

[@theow4241]

I may have listened to the original song over 100 or so times in my life, and this was absolutely incredible! I was with it the whole time.

[@jocramkrispy305]

did you miss a zero, or do you not like it much...

[@Terandium]

​@@jocramkrispy305haha exactly what i was thinking

[@trianglegay]

Wow, Floppotron 3.0 already delivering beautiful covers! I think this is gonna become my favorite version of the song lol

[@The_Absurdistt]

And the Nobel for creativity goes to............. Queen and Floppotron!

[@thefrozenknight420]

After hearing the improvement in floppotron 3.0 now i want a remake of the portal song "still alive" by GlaDOS

[@OutbackCatgirl]

I'd love to see you tackle Holst's Jupiter and Mars from the Planets suite. It would be a great challenge for the new incarnation of Floppotron and truly an orchestral experience. The slightly faster tempo version of jupiter with strings oscillating in the backdrop as brass triumphantly cuts through feels perfect for the new polyharmonic capabilities of Floppotron, and Mars would be friggin perfect for its dark tone and the deep voiced instrumentation that Floppotron excels at.

[@theotherchannel2279]

I second this.

[@mittfh]

The Star Wars themes in the last video give a subtle hint, given Holst's *Planets Suite* was used as the placeholder score while John Williams composed his own, and he included several nods to Holst in his score.

[@stormgold2433]

Instead of the original of Holst's Jupiter, the cover by Manfred Mann might be an even better fit. (kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipm2eomNa8qVa5o)

[@justrecentlyi5444]

That is such a good suggestion!

[@ptr_does_music7042]

Hearing a steadily evolving machine like Floptron perform the line "I want to break free" is...kind of creepy. But still wholesome

[@KayDSmith]

😂👍

[@rogue3095]

Skynet would like to know your location

[@SaltpeterTaffy]

Not to mention "I've fallen in love."

[@ptr_does_music7042]

@@SaltpeterTaffy lmao exactly

[@Tiwack01]

In that context it's like a loveletter from GlaDOS

[@CezarLamann]

As a Queen fan, must say that a tear fell off my eye!

[@ianvicedomini2648]

Freddie would be 110% proud of you mate. It sounds spot on and Brian may would love the riffs as well as the rest of the band. Awesome 👍🏻👍🏻

[@brianethridge208]

Freddie's voice has been called "not human". Fitting that the FLOPPOTRON gets scary close to his vibe! Awesome job!

[@jamesburleson1916]

Sung by the lesser known Freddie Silicon

[@EmyrDerfel]

Freddie Mercury-Reed-Switch though...

[@garrickstokes]

I suspect Brian May would like this. I do hope it comes to his attention! Incredible work. The vibrato is epic 😂🤘🏻

[@peterfireflylund]

He built his own electronic scientific instruments for his PhD research, so he probably would.

[@joshuabray37]

For real… He would really appreciate this.

[@marcruel1398]

Agreed

[@CyberSc0rpio]

Fr!!

[@JessicaKStark]

I'd buy an album of Floppotron 3.0 covers.

[@MagiRaz]

Hell yes!

[@bradyparisien3533]

^

[@disconnected22]

That bank of disk drives has gotten INSANE!

[@TDGalea]

My god I need to hear this thing in person some day. I don't know how. I don't care how. I just _need_ to. I can't appreciate the Queen tracks more after seeing them live with Adam Lambert recently. The Floppotron has always been a masterpiece. 3.0 just takes the cake.

[@MaxxJagX]

This reminds me of old trackers trying to play music on PC speakers back in the 90s. And funny enough, most of that tech likely was made then.

[@revolver265]

Using the stepper(?) motors on rails to mimic the lyrics being sung is awesome, there's so much intonation that can be achieved by that and with the new Floppotron, you can even subtly tune it by changing what stepper is making what noise for more nuanced sound. Once you nailed that, your covers certainly got a style :0

[@themightybob]

Glad to see there's still people out there that understand the potential of 80s tech and then some! God if we started using 80s tech again, the things we could do with it now 80s tech is just cooler

[@harthorn6111]

Seriously so thankful that you let us hear the whole entire song!!! If only all KZbin channels that do creative music covers followed your lead!!

[@bennylloyd-willner9667]

This song feels like it was written with the future Floppotron in mind, the synergy effect is massive ❤️

[@MisterSandmanAU]

I love how Fred Mandel's keyboard solo has been perfectly replicated here. The four + honourary keyboard player of Queen would love this.

[@urbanpatrol22737]

oh my for some weird reason it sounds as tho he is singing it ( ooooo chills )

[@Jaikweer01]

One of the best covers i heard in a long time. I thourouly enjoyed that. The evolution of floppotron actually gave it so much more emotion

[@aydenlokey3641]

If computers conquer humanity my bets on this being the song that plays.

[@pliat]

I would love to hear some classical or baroque music on it, what about toccata fugue in d minor?

[@biggerbigfoot]

You really make the words from Freddie Mercury come alive: “You can do anything with my work, but never make me boring.”

[@wilberforce95]

That guitar solo was pretty impressive

[@kreuner11]

By floppotron 5 there aren't gonna be enough floppy drives in this world

[@93Volvo240]

This is AMAZING! The Floppotron is probably the coolest piece of technology I have EVER seen! Oh, could you do Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World? Again, amazing machine and good luck with all future Floppotrons!

[@acdii]

Can't help but sit here with a big mile on my face as I listen to this. Best use of recycled old computer hardware EVER!!!!

[@yarpenzirgin1826]

Another proof that you can use anything to make music when you feel it. Hats off Pawel, nice, creative, unusual and brilliant :).

[@ichbineinpopstar]

my dude. i have never seen so many floppy drives (let alone flatbed scanners) together in one place. floppotron 3.0 is truly a marvel. and this song kicks ass.

[@ВикторБогатов-л2р]

Freddie uśmiecha się, gdy to słyszy. Super!

[@ImperialEminence22]

Pardon my French, but I fucking LOVE this! It's one of my favourite Queen songs, and I rushed at the chance to listen to this, because I already love everything else you've done on these fantastical machines, and it absolutely upheld the awesomeness of the band itself, 1000/10, fuckin fantastic!!! Freddie would be so proud!

[@Brickolas94700]

Where is "you" french here? (perso je ne le vois pas des masses 🤣)

[@ImperialEminence22]

@@Brickolas94700 "pardon my french" is an English term commonly used as a preface to when you want to use profanities when talking 😆

[@Brickolas94700]

@@ImperialEminence22 Thanks, every day it's a learning day!

[@ImperialEminence22]

@@Brickolas94700 no worries! Happy to help 😁

[@cristopherkurtin7858]

When reading the lyrics, there's some "talking piano" effect present. Floppotron finally has enough channels to at least barely simulate the phenomena 😁

[@eabelcourt]

This is actually perfect and one of your best musical recreations thus far. Absolutely bravo

[@Racingisgood]

I still find myself in awe at the amount of work you put into this! Absolutely amazing my friend! Congratulations on your third version. It is terrific!

[@kjamison5951]

I have just noticed today the arrangements of the floppy disk drives. I originally saw them as black and beige in an odd arrangement but today I saw the keyboard patterns. The Floppotron 3.0 continues to entertain and educate!

[@rocket2739]

The low notes have improved so much since 2.0 !!!

[@trnguy6137]

There are 2 things I know Freddie would look down with a smile: the actor who portrayed him in the bio movie Behemian Rhapsody 2: this rendition of his song.

[@plektosgaming]

Amazing work. That said, some 5.25 floppies for more bass would be an excellent addition. For those interested in the tech, there's little difference between the two drives in terms of power supply and interface - just that the stepper motors operate a little differently. Many old PCs used to have both types, and they even made a few combo drives with both in the same chassis.

[@warrax111]

problem is, 5.25 are too expensive. Like 20-30x more than 3.5

[@plektosgaming]

@@warrax111 I remember when they were simply throwing them out as e-waste. I suppose if you want one from ebay that someone is trying to sell for $300 you are welcome to play their game, but where I live, you can still find piles of them in electronic surplus stores for $10. The interesting thing is because it would be used for just bass, he would only need 2-3 to make enough noise. The old full height ones are quite loud.

[@warrax111]

@@plektosgaming The average price here in auction and local auction groups, is around 25$-35$, according state. 3,5'' Floppies can be bought for 1-2$ in average. So it's 20x more expenisve.

[@nixxonnor]

Absolutely awesome! The best Floppytron tune ever. The vocals were amazingly replicated as well. Simply a thing of beauty, a joy forever!

[@Azmania3000]

This is amazing and hilarious for too many reasons. Now I can declare my love for computer noises without shame

[@crazysupernovagaming3638]

You know, I'd fucking love to see the original mix of 'Popcorn' on this. Every iteration of the Floppotron never ceases to amaze me!

[@ursinegrubby916]

This is kinetic art. Love it. Have a tear in my eye it's Soo good.

[@pacman2k1]

Pawel, this whole thing (your channel, it's history and of course THE FLOPPOTRON) is just genius! i hope that i will still see new releases when i'm 70 (if i become this old...) that would be 30 years from now. :) keep it up!

[@davidbubble6863]

This setup seems to give more depth on sound due to sheer number of floppy drives. I wonder if CD-ROM, 64k modem or 5-inch magnetic disk drive can add more variety of sounds to floppotron. I'm curious how "Through fire and flames" will sound like on floppotron 3.0 lol.

[@the_washingmachine1295]

Never seen a cd rom used for this but he already has used a 64k modem in bohemian rhapsody :D

[@BilltheFifth]

I like you said "Floppotron" and not "The Floppotron" like it was our friend. :)

[@watchm4ker]

The 5" drive might, given the mechanism is similar to a 3.25" drive. Dunno about a CD ROM, since it doesn't use the track servo for fine adjustments, like a magnetic drive.

[@flamefalconz]

@@BilltheFifth but he is not our friend?

[@TheAlexdodd]

i'd love to revisit Still Alive.

[@koldphuzhun]

The Floppotron proves once again its intense capabilities at the hand of its conductor. Well done. Well done indeed.

[@battlepig1014]

Floppotron 3.0 sounds amazing! I would love to hear music from the movie Your Name, like Zen Zen Zense, on it.

[@philippspielkind2151]

Definetley one of the best ones yet, keep it up!

[@locomotiveAlex1996]

please do electric dreams at some point, that would sound great on the floppotron :D

[@rastislavzima]

Yeah that would be the point where we will know that it(he?) has achieved self-consiousness which (as I've wrote above) is the phase in its evolution it surely is heading to.

[@mikosoft]

I second this request!

[@EmyrDerfel]

Looking forwards to the descent into Radiohead's "Fitter Happier".

[@GamjaField]

And Mr. Blue Sky

[@grudgnor]

What a great song for the floppotron. All of the little nuances in the voice and instruments are really captured in the transcription and the sound coming out of those mechs! I love it!

[@alystair]

Would love to hear anything from Disasterpeace, I feel his work would do well - anything from either 'Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar' or 'Fez' would be phenomenal. Thanks for keeping this project going~

[@FoxSlyme]

Oohhh, FEZ is one of my favorite games and soundtracks

[@FrankBitterlich]

Just hypnotic. I could watch and listen to this for hours.

[@MrPete81]

OH MY DAYS!! The guitar solo just made me cry! That coding must've been a nightmare but it's SO damn accurate - well done :D

[@kelvinfurtado]

I never seen something so fantastic in my life. Because of this I love the information tecnology. You are a dedicated genious, this is a piece of art.

[@LT_Foxfyre]

That was absolutely amazing! The solo was just *chef's kiss*. As for suggestions, I'd be really interested to know what a Justice song such as D.A.N.C.E or Genesis would sound like on Floppotron 3.0.

[@2smilymike]

oh my gosh yes! I'd love a Floppotron Justice cover

[@osuunaftmath]

This is so damn cool! Chuckling and nodding my head in pure bliss.

[@dantheoriginalman]

You should do "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba! Been enjoying these for years, and loving the newest setup! Thank you so much for doing these videos, and I look forward to many more to come!

[@mgraemem]

This is the logical extension of running different length loops on an IMSAI 8080 and listening to the rf generated on an AM transistor radio. Mad props. What a piece of kit. The scanners do a good job with guitar solos. :-)

[@colgabister4429]

Can we get Jukebox Hero on Floppotron please?

[@cluelessfish]

Really love how you have taken the time to document everything and upload everystep to yr website on how it works ive allways wounder and its answer all my questions sitting in my head :)

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

With KZbin's song detection algorithm getting so good that it can recognize many covers of songs in its music database, and with how good you've gotten with this--especially now with version 3--have you gotten any copyright claims because of it? And if so, what do you usually do about them?

[@kaloogarele]

Wow!!! I am not afraid of coding the whole thing, but getting the right note out of the device ... it's another level!! Engineer AND artist? That's really one in a billion. Hat tipping

[@sneakyjackson5271]

Interesting song for the floppotron, maybe it’s trying to tell you something…

[@DeatheCore]

Even the vibrato on the guitar solo omg! There is so much complexity to this fundamentally. Love it.

[@Lopolin_LP]

Here's a List of Songs I personally like to hear: - Rush E - Industry Baby (cuz of the Slander memes rn) - The Wolf (by SIAMÉS) A few ones that are probably less likely to be played: - Camel by Camel - Robot Race (senbei) - Dreamscape and I'm already giving up... seems like there's not much known music in my playlist...

[@AOBykov]

It looks like the musical device has become a Floppotron orchestra. It sounds richer to my ear. Congratulations.

[@thatguybrody4819]

i'm conflicted. it sounds amazing, but floppotron 2.0 just had this unique feel. i think it's the two distinct tones the different scanners gave off that harmonized just right. the 4 now have almost the same smooth tone to me.

[@YAUUN]

I know what you mean, Floppotron 3.0 is almost too good.

[@cypherpunk6417]

One thing that's wonderful about all this that isn't immediately apparent is how what would have likely become e-waste and ended up in a dump, instead became an entire orchestra, thanks to Pawel. It's truly amazing.

[@JohnLeePettimoreIII]

who else is hearing freddie inside their head?

[@nasoran]

You outdid yourself. Completely new dimensions of computer music. Absolutely love every second of it.

[@chewie3290]

Everything is great, the song, the floppotron, the way you show lyrics, great one !

[@haydenunsell]

Anything from Pink Floyd would be and awesome flopitron cover!

[@cmayhem]

I remember having a program that played, "Daisy Daisy" on my Commodore 1541 floppy drive. This is so awesome!

[@guymross]

When the quantitative becomes qualitative! Brilliant.

[@bartosz_xenon]

I just want to say that I've heard every detail and it made my morning.

[@stefanejegod8644]

Oh god that "guitar" solo was perfect. Biggest smile on Pawels face @2:25

[@overseerofyahweh7811]

The scanner solo is just amazing!

[@DrG8521]

When the robot uprising inevitably happens, the Floppotron 3.0 will be leading the charge with "Ride of the Valkyries"

[@russwilliams4678]

This has been stuck in my head for 2 months now because of this!

[@BGPhilbin]

I'm a musician and am always on the lookout for something interesting. I've seen at least one or two of your other videos here and there, but this is NEXT LEVEL! This tune resulted in my subscribing and turning on the bell icon for notifications. WONDERFUL! EXCELLENT!!

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Bloody brilliant! The Floppotron is better than ever!

[@claudesmoot1880]

Say, "I want to break free." Without saying it. 10/10..... NAILED IT!!!!