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Toto’s “Africa” Played on Tesla Coils

197 points| datashrimp | 5 years ago |nerdist.com | reply

78 comments

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[+] artistsvoid|5 years ago|reply
Not sure if I can create some excitement for this here, but it doesn't seem completely off-topic. Immediately had to think of Animusic: "Unlike many other music visualizations, the music drives the animation. While other productions may animate figures or characters to the music, the animated models in Animusic are created first, and are then programmed to follow what the music instructs them to do."[0]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGCTLJDoMGw

This isn't my favorite, but the 'futuristic theme' makes it maybe more obvious why I immediately thought of it. I think I've seen all their stuff, and Tesla Coils creating music would have been right up their alley.

These two are some of the best for sure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlyCLbt3Thk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41a3DR0sZ-c

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animusic

[+] andrewflnr|5 years ago|reply
Those last two videos are absolutely delightful. Thanks for sharing.
[+] paulodeon|5 years ago|reply
I saw a live performance using a 12 foot Tesla coil at Burning Man 2017 It was earthed to a 18 foot tall geodesic dome. They played a medley of tracks and then the base of the Tesla coil mildly exploded and started burning. I went by the next morning and the whole camp had packed up and left. Pretty awesome experience. If anyone knows any more about that project I'd love to hear it.
[+] vmception|5 years ago|reply
> I went by the next morning and the whole camp had packed up and left.

That's happened to me at Burning Man too. Entire buildings gone when I wanted to go and ask about what happened last night, like the camp never existed.

I like the anonymity and definitely be aware that no closure or responsibility is possible too!

[+] davidf560|5 years ago|reply
Here's an acquaintance of mine playing with a musical Tesla coil and a propane blowtorch:

https://youtu.be/M91AYp3_x5k?t=122

He also has some small tabletop-sized coils that are really neat:

https://youtu.be/li3rGKFfQ1A?t=18

And here's the Ghostbusters theme at one of their performances while spectators are standing inside the cage:

https://youtu.be/bTkjgBRiCsE?t=2198

[+] barbegal|5 years ago|reply
Towards the end of that first video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M91AYp3_x5k&feature=youtu.be... he definitely gets struck by the arc, which makes me question what the point of the metal suit is. Is it just for show, to make it look more dangerous?

My understanding is that the frequency is such that it doesn't interact with anything in the human body neither the heart nor the nervous system but I would expect that an arc to the eye would cause some amount of UV damage.

[+] leeoniya|5 years ago|reply
Eye of the Tiger on a dot matrix printer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8I6qt_Z0Cg

[+] juststeve|5 years ago|reply
This is awesome - getting those chords to work must have been a pain with the harmonics and also keeping the groove. Thanks for sharing
[+] war1025|5 years ago|reply
We had a dot matrix printer growing up. I remember the first time I saw an ink jet printer it was basically magic.
[+] xwdv|5 years ago|reply
Could you send this in a fax? (Never used a fax)
[+] dougmwne|5 years ago|reply
Fun! Idea: Could the song be played at 2x or 4x speed, recorded at a high framerate, then slowed down to .5x or .25x so that song is in real-time but the sparking was in slow motion?
[+] izzydata|5 years ago|reply
Would the sound frequencies really scale that way though? I feel like when you speed up or slow down audio it doesn't sound right.
[+] mfsch|5 years ago|reply
Perhaps a bit off-topic, but the chorus of “Africa” is almost exactly 20 seconds long, so it is a great song to wash your hands to if you’re sick of “Happy Birthday“.
[+] kleiba|5 years ago|reply
Sound-wise, quite reminiscent of some C64 tracks, although with a bit more meat behind it.
[+] protomyth|5 years ago|reply
It looks even better in person and sounds almost the same, just without the beat/percussion backing track.

Dammit, I really wish when people would do this stuff they would not add backing tracks.

[+] FlyMoreRockets|5 years ago|reply
They should generate the percussion beat with a honking big spark gap.
[+] pugworthy|5 years ago|reply
I don't mind it. I think it tightens it up nicely.
[+] latortuga|5 years ago|reply
There's a video for Chopin Nocturnes Op 9 with no backing track on the person's channel!