Today I was experimenting with some old zip drives I discovered inside a box in my studio. Rather than getting rid of them I wanted to see if I could use the drive as a industrial/data instrument.
The resulting experiment was beyond anything I was expecting. By simply soldering two piezo elements to the head of the drive and boosting the signal with a four channel preamp [which also allows for multiple line outs] the drive, when engaged, sounded rather amazing. I connected it to the computer, inserted a disc then waited for it to mount. I soon noticed that opening various file types directly from the discs would result in a variety of sonic output. Video files for example would create a slightly different texture than a static .jpg file. Media files also allowed the drive to be engaged for a longer period of time as the information was being transcribed.
I sent the audio output from the zip drive to a loop pedal to allow layering and then recorded the experiment/performance. What resulted was a slowly building, dark ambient/industrial soundscape composed entirely in the moment from three different zip discs and a loop pedal.
Raw recording 7m.36s
[sc_embed_player_template1 fileurl=”https://www.jasonsloan.com/audio/ZIP_DEMO.mp3″]
Over the next few weeks I’m excited to begin experimenting with both 5¼-inch and 3½-inch floppy drives. Who knows, there may even be a release in the future of just “disc.MUSIC.” Maybe I could call it “Funeral Hymns for Dead Technology.” Okay… maybe not.
The summer months have proven to be very fruitful in the studio. In addition to the recent visual works and performances, I’ve started working on the follow up to my most recent album 
If you missed my live performance Saturday night on Stillstream, I’ve archived the entire 60 minute concert in the .sound section of this site. I’ll also be adding a few more radio concerts from the archives throughout the month of July.
