Re: A pint and a memory
He does mention in the write up that instead of every floppy drive in a bank playing a single tone, he changes how many are playing over the course of the note to approximate a guitar, or piano etc.
I guess that sort of makes it a synthesizer, but as you say, that's the whole point!
The drives are grouped in columns by the software and the whole column can only play one tone at a time, but with varying number of drives playing. By changing the number of active drives I can make the tone volume change over time and mimic piano keystrokes or plucking guitar string which volume decays exponentially. The envelope can also be used to get other nice sounding effects, like vibration (sinusoidal envelope), etc.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
