The Chipophone — an 8-Bit Chiptune Organ

adunk writes "Linus Åkesson has built an 8-bit synthesizer inside an old electric organ case. 'All the original tone-generating parts have been disconnected, and the keys, pedals, knobs and switches rerouted to a microcontroller which transforms them into MIDI signals. Those are then parsed by a second microcontroller, which acts as a synthesizer.' The Chipophone is perfect for playing classics such as the Super Mario Bros in-game music or Rob Hubbard's Spellbound. A description of the build process, with photos, is available."

Comments

Re:Blasphemous

[YrWrstNtmr]

I inherited a similar one a few years ago. Mid 70's one owner Yamaha DK-40, pristine condition. ~$3500 orig price. I couldn't give it away. Name your price, free delivery anywhere in Ohio. No takers. I talked to the main piano/organ dealer in the city I was living in. "If you can get $300 for it, you're lucky. I have a basement full of those."

Throwaway culture or no, some things just aren't worth it.

The guy is amazing

[blind biker]

Well, a couple of years back I was thinking of a similar project: use an Atmel AVR 8 bit (RISC) microcontroller to create a sound chip, controlled by MIDI. Well, this Linus dude did that, and MUCH, MUCH more! Pluse, the guy is a great musician (he can actually play a full organ, which in addition to hand, needs also foot coordination), and can play the whole of Rob Hubbard's Spellbound entirely by heart.

In a perfect world, this guy should be famous, make millions, and sportsmen like Tiger Woods would be happy to mow his lawn :o) (that's my geek utopian dream).