Floppy drives may not be the musical instrument for everyone, seriously if you want to annoy the entire office play these video’s loud. They are though a humorous trip down memory lane, surprising all with their untapped (till now) musical abilities.

Heck, you need to be over a certain age to even remember what a floppy drive was used for, the torture that many endured at the coal face of their disk drive. Hands up who remembers the multi disk install? The death of the floppy was near when Windows Office 97 Professional was released, requiring 55 floppies and hours of time swapping disks to install, it was a killer exercise.

Presented for your viewing pleasure are arguably the two best tracks by the two best floppy drive musicians on the internet. MrSolidSnake745 performs a rousing rendition of Ghostbusters while George Whiteside stuns with a compelling performance of Phantom of the Opera.

MrSolidSnake745 plays Ghostbusters
There is something fitting about playing Ghostbusters on floppy drives, they occupy the same time period in our distant memories, a similar reminiscent feeling is drawn from both. The bad 80’s keyboard and high pitched melody of the original track (1989) are probably very compatible with the floppy’s tone as well. Maybe it’s just the collective memories of the movie, the floppy drive and the sound track? Maybe it was just a catchy track back then and it still is? Whatever the case Ghostbusters is the perfect storm of floppy drive tunes.

MrSolidSnake745 is as prolific as he is creative with dozens of tracks recorded with the help of his floppy drive orchestra. Like Ghostbusters Beverly Hills Cop and James Bond also have a similar effect, putting a curious smile on your dial, well worth a listen.

George Whitesnake and orchestra play Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera performance stuns through sheer technical ability. The use of both 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch floppy drives gives Whiteside far more tonal canvas to work with. Here at Highpants we have never been huge fans of musicals but the Phantom  just seems to work when played by a series of stepper motors.

Who wins the battle of the floppy drive orchestra? With more nostalgia than a weekend of black and white movies Ghostbusters won the close office vote here at Highpants. Phantom of the Opera really surprised with how good it was, technically brilliant but not as much heart. Still it was almost a draw.

The floppy drive may be making a come-back, as a musical instrument? Certainly not your usual musical instrument they are however a fascinating platform for the adventurous and possibly one the coolest re-purposing in recent times.

After one of the most annoying trips down memory lane reviewing floppy tunes every face in the Highpants office had a smile, reminding me that music is (and gadgets for that matter) are far more than the tune we are listening too. We build memories around them and they become part of us.

Reference: AbyssalGaming

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