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The Commodordion

lftkryo · 531.5K views · 2022-10-21 · 11:27

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Overview

Linus Akesson demonstrates the Commodordion, a fully functional 8-bit accordion built around Commodore 64 hardware with bellows made of floppy disks. He performs Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag and tells the story of the build.

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HN people recommend it as the work of an unusually creative artist-engineer whose whole channel is worth exploring.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2022–2025

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What people said

noman-land · 2025-02 · Strong recommendation

This dude's work is incredible. His entire YouTube channel is amazing. My personal recent favorite, The Commodordion: "A fully functional 8-bit accordion with bellows made out of floppy disks." Legend. [VIDEO]

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maxdamantus · 2025-06 · Recommendation

I've kind of done this, just without the actual "build" part—I instead use a Wooting computer keyboard (which has the hall effect switches you're referring to), and I've written some program to emit MIDI based on key velocity. I've been using it very frequently for a few years, and can confirm it's quite fun to use, though I don't have much experience playing other keyboard instruments and haven't tried to learn it seriously enough to make proper use of chords etc. Demo of me playing here, though try not to mind the messy desk and bad recording setup (one-hand, MIDI going through phone due to lack of speakers): [LINK] The layout I use is not a regular piano layout, but a B-griff layout, as used on a bayan (Russian accordion). I made a demo site for playing with the layout (keyboard or touchscreen), but without velocity sensitivity: [LINK] The B-griff/C-griff layouts naturally fit computer keyboards, and I'd argue they're better in general than piano layouts for various reasons. There's also this cool video of someone using two Commodores for similar effect: [VIDEO] EDIT: turns out the Terpstra keyboard is also able to work using B-griff: [LINK]

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Joel_Mckay · 2022-11 · Recommendation

Always in awe of process people even when insolent. ;) In my experience, people who throw around the H word these days are the same lamers you get stuck beside in a plane for 8 hours... talking at you about bitcoin. Talented artists can learn programs with ease, but software guys usually suck at making content that sells. This guy is far more interesting, and perhaps an exception: [VIDEO]

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Video by lftkryo, played through YouTube.

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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