Electric Organ Rebuilt Into Chiptune Playing Wonder

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Electric Organ Rebuilt Into Chiptune Playing Wonder

A Swedish man has used his technical know-how to create a unique instrument to express his love for retro games.


Software engineer Linus Åkesson has taken an old electric organ and modified it into what he calls a "Chipophone," a custom built 8-bit synthesizer, built specifically with live performances of chiptunes in mind. He was given the organ by a friend who had it gathering dust in his cellar and Åkesson agreed to take it on the proviso that he could do whatever he wanted with it.

Åkesson said that he was often surprised by the way the organ was designed, but was able to rebuild it into the Chipophone, the results of which you can see above. If you want to read more about how the Chipophne was built, you can visit Åkesson's homepage [http://www.linusakesson.net/chipophone/making.php] - although be warned, it's rather technical.

There's something very comforting about the sounds the Chipophone makes, the beeps and tweets conjuring up memories of afternoons spent stomping goombas or loading games from cassette tapes. Åkesson says that he has more work he wants to do on it, so hopefully we'll see the Chipophone again soon.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5593601/behold-the-chipophone-the-amazing-chiptune-organ]



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Outright Villainy

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Jan 19, 2010
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Wow, that's fricking amazing! DO WANT.
And there's like a dozen different ways of playing it too, you could pretty much play any retro tune through that with the right approach. Frickin' sweet!
 

Jonluw

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May 23, 2010
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Mmmm... All good and fuzzy pokémon feeling inside now.

Edit: Looks like it takes some serious skill to use it though. I'm getting an urge to pop out my old gameboy advance now.
 

Nimbus

Token Irish Guy
Oct 22, 2008
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I WANT ONE!

Seriously, this is the most awesome thing I will see all day.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Thats a man who loves what he does, and does what he loves!

Epic! Love it
 

SirCannonFodder

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Nov 23, 2007
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Xzi said:
Scrumpmonkey said:
Is playing was spot on with those tunes... especially the Mega Man 2 one i was like : O no way...

Can't beleive he built and can play this so well, i mean he just built the thing how can he be that awesome?! Fear the swiss if they ever turn their mind to war...
Pretty sure they've been neutral in like every war ever, haven't they?

It's because they're too busy building epic machines to be bothered with fighting and dying. :D
Actually, up until around the mid 1700s, they were a fairly major European power. Certainly big enough for Peter the Great to build far, far, far too many statues dedicated to his slaying the Great Swedish Lion.

Anyway, that's really cool, although it could have used some subtitles, the microphone was pretty crappy and he has a fairly strong accent, so it was hard to understand much of what he said.
 

MrPop

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May 14, 2009
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Wow. That's pretty cool.

I couldn't help but laugh though at how rigid he looked though >___> (Not in a malicious way)
 

Heart of Darkness

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Jul 1, 2009
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Of course he had to play the song from Mega Man that's in I Wanna Be the Guy (or is at least reminiscent of it). I'm surprised he didn't throw in "The Moon" from DuckTales to heighten the pain.

But this is awesome, nonetheless. Just the feat of repurposing an organ to play chiptune music seems like a major accomplishment in itself. Mad props.
 

Erana

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Feb 28, 2008
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Wait, you'd mention Chip-instruments without mentioning the 8-bit electric guitar?
OK, I can guess why. The video's a bit boring. Just skip to 1:45 to actually hear him use the thing.
Still, its pretty cool. I want an arp. mode on fucking everything. I want it on car horns, the radio, and even dog barks, dammit!

Macgyvercas said:
Damnit! Why can't America make anything cool like this!?
See? We did! :D
 

Mstrswrd

Always playing Touhou. Always.
Mar 2, 2008
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That's pretty damn cool.

And probably much easier to use than any of those MIDI programs I've seen, as long as you know how to play it.
 

Drejer43

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Nov 18, 2009
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Scrumpmonkey said:
Is playing was spot on with those tunes... especially the Mega Man 2 one i was like : O no way...

Can't beleive he built and can play this so well, i mean he just built the thing how can he be that awesome?! Fear the swiss if they ever turn their mind to war...
it is "swedes"
Swiss people live in Switzerland

Sorry I am very nitpicky about this, like some are with proper grammar.