Dot-matrix printers have left a permanent mark on our minds. They are fast, effective, capricious, and noisy to the core. All we expect from them is to put text on paper and not fly apart. But what happens when the idea is to do something else besides printing? The YouTube channel Midi Desaster decided to explore the musical potential of dot-matrix printers, and the results are formidable.
I don't have any appreciation for printers, I've said it on several occasions. They betray you at the most critical moments, the errors are frustrating, repairs are almost impossible, and ink is more expensive than unicorn blood. One (possible) exception lies in the territory of dot-matrix printers. There are many workhorses out there printing as if it were the first day after decades of abuse, although the noise and low print resolution demand all our patience. No, printers are not perfect, and if we consider the manufacturers' will, they never will be. Now, what if we shift them from their primary role? What can a dot-matrix printer do… when it's not printing?
From Paper to Sound
The answer is music. Very good music, to be honest. The YouTube channel Midi Desaster has a total of 28 videos in which an AEG Olympia NP 80-24 printer works as a MIDI sound generator. The heavy lifting is done by an Atmega8 (which manages incoming MIDI messages) and an FPGA (Xilinx Spartan-3E, to be precise) that manipulates the motor-head-pins-paper combo. All of this is linked to a computer, but if necessary you could connect a keyboard directly and play live.
A Repertoire That Spans Every Genre
Bach, Mozart, Queen, Roxette, Muse, Robbie Williams, the themes from Doctor Who and Benny Hill, the music from Doom and Duke Nukem 3D... even Macarena appears on the list! Midi Desaster left no stone unturned. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since the last update on the channel, but that doesn't reduce the quality of the material already available. Come on in and enjoy.
