8-bit Boléro

Posted by Aissen 1 day ago

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Comments

Comment by thomassmith65 1 day ago

  According to a possibly apocryphal story from the premiere performance, a woman was heard shouting that Ravel was mad. When told about this, Ravel is said to have remarked that she had understood the piece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bol%C3%A9ro

Comment by mlsu 1 day ago

And, Ravel did eventually go mad. There's a lot of discussion about whether the recurring patterns in the song had something to do with his neurological condition.

https://bigthink.com/high-culture/bolero-ravel-dementia-2/

Comment by xxr 19 hours ago

“Initially, Ravel was to create a variation on the music of Isaac Albéniz, but copyright laws prevented him from doing so.” [your article]

“[Koji Kondo] had planned to use Maurice Ravel's Boléro as the title theme as it perfectly matched its speed, seeing as under Japanese copyright law, music is released into the public domain 50 years after the composer's death. However, Kondo was forced to change it in November 1985, late in the game's development, after learning that it had only been 47 years and 11 months after Ravel's death.”[1]

Funny how things rhyme.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(video_gam...

Comment by ericio 3 hours ago

RadioLab did an excellent episode [1] about Bolero, where it asks the question if it was a leading indicator of Ravel’s madness.

1. https://radiolab.org/podcast/unraveling-bolero

Comment by fodmap 1 day ago

That Commodore C64 accordion made me laugh.

Ah it's called The Commodordion https://linusakesson.net/commodordion/index.php

Comment by pavel_lishin 1 day ago

It's kind of incredible!

A direct youtube link for the lazy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6z5__6rP58

Comment by opello 20 hours ago

Wow, there are multiple things like that!

Qweremin: C64 Theremin: https://linusakesson.net/hardware/theremin/index.php

Qwertar: C64 Keytar: https://linusakesson.net/music/glyptodont-live/index.php

Very neat!

Comment by sivers 1 day ago

And don't miss the Qweremin:

https://linusakesson.net/qweremin/

Brilliant.

Comment by layer8 1 day ago

It’s probably not a coincidence that the climax starts at 13:37.

Comment by Centigonal 20 hours ago

0% chance that's a coincidence coming from lft

Comment by abetusk 1 day ago

For anyone wanting to know, the keyboard layout is that of a chromatic button accordian [0] [1].

I guess there's a C64 "executable" that he's made available but no source so I don't know what the exact keymapping is. I did find a few different resources that show the layout in action [2] [3].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwsZ41pA_Vo&t=58s

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_button_accordion

[2] https://okathira-dev.github.io/client-web-api-sandbox/button...

[3] https://www.rmwinslow.com/tones/

Comment by consumer451 1 day ago

Ha! I almost posted this here but I thought maybe I was posting too many music videos on HN.

I am part of the LOAD "*", 8, 1 generation, and this is really freaking cool.

One of the funniest things in the video is the variety of neck tie configurations, one for each part.

Comment by jachee 18 hours ago

    LOADING. . .
    READY
    > RUN

Comment by kkkqkqkqkqlqlql 1 day ago

> 0 regrets

That's the most important number in stores like this one.

Comment by emptybits 1 day ago

Yes! Linus must really burn himself up, conceiving and executing masterworks like this! But saying "0 regrets" hopefully means he hasn't lost motivation for his next crazy project!

Comment by lll-o-lll 22 hours ago

Had to check the article because I read that as “greater than zero regrets”.

<= 0 regrets

Comment by drivers99 1 day ago

Listened to this exact video this morning when it was among the newest videos in my YouTube subscriptions. I've had it stuck in my head since then.

Comment by Eupolemos 14 hours ago

Did you hear his "A mind is born"? It is amazing outright, IMHO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWblpsLZ-O8

Comment by tantalor 1 day ago

Several mentions of "the automaton" but no idea what that is. It's a bit vague.

The photo of "the automaton" appears to be a melamine white particleboard panel.

https://www.linusakesson.net/music/bolero/boxes-large.jpg

Comment by Sharlin 1 day ago

Comment by arthurdenture 1 day ago

This is way more pleasant than the kazoo version by famous children's author Sandra Boynton. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U14IBek-wNU

Comment by themadturk 1 hour ago

Though when things really break out into harmony after the 12 minute mark, it's almost pretty.

(Sandra Boynton is amazing, no matter what she does.)

Comment by ageitgey 1 day ago

This guy's other video where he covers Clowncore's 'Computers' on computers is one of the most impressive, incredibly niche things I've ever seen on YouTube. He's a serious talent.

Comment by kpilars 13 hours ago

If you like bolero look at this f guy : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy5Ve3338-E

Comment by timfsu 19 hours ago

Possibly best thing ever on Hacker News. There is something quite appealing about the simplicity of Boléro

Comment by codezero 21 hours ago

This is my favorite song, and I'm delighted to hear it as a chiptune! amazing work!

Comment by aldousd666 1 day ago

I love projects like this. finally someone found a new use for those dot matrix printers.

Comment by ramses0 1 day ago

Comment by nebula8804 1 day ago

He has come a long way since Craft. What a total rock star. In that time I have done nothing as awesome with my life (other than enjoying his productions). Heres to 17 more years of awesomeness!

Comment by chris_st 9 hours ago

Thanks, that absolutely made my day!

Comment by Rochus 1 day ago

Great music survives everything ;-)

That's such a good idea with this old equipment. And you can see that the guy tried hard not to laugh. And surprisingly, the arrangement sounds great. Hilarious.

Comment by swiftcoder 12 hours ago

The theremin built out of a bar clamp is delightful

Comment by teddyh 1 day ago

If I recall correctly, Boléro (the music piece) has a special meaning in the very early Swedish hacker scene, often used as a sort-of in-joke.

Comment by Snild 8 hours ago

Sounds interesting. Tell me more?

Comment by B1FF_PSUVM 21 hours ago

Why do I get reminded of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells?

(Yes, I've heard the Ravel before, I mean the presentation style, e.g. Oldfield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdMtqKZ6GrY )

Comment by guenthert 14 hours ago

I too was waiting for the 'grand together' announcement.

Comment by 1 day ago

Comment by darkmighty 1 day ago

:´)

Comment by YesBox 1 day ago

Beautifully done! What more can I say?

Those disc drive sounds are so cool

Comment by ramses0 1 day ago

Comment by Tcepsa 1 day ago

I am so happy that people make things like this <3

Comment by temp0826 1 day ago

Linus never fails to impress. A true virtuoso

Comment by nrhrjrjrjtntbt 1 day ago

Nostalgic for Torvill and Dean too

Comment by disqard 1 day ago

Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

Comment by LanceH 1 day ago

I miss dynamic range in music.

Comment by jfvinueza 1 day ago

so good