Musical DIY shaitan machine or what did a Swedish musician with two thousand balls
Once again, the creation of musicians served as a pretext for publication. This time they were the Swedes from the instrumental group Wintergatan. When I saw that the permanent leader of the team, Martin Mulin, and his colleagues had built, I realized that it was worth writing about it. A mechanical semi-automatic acoustic instrument, called the Marble machine, is amazing. Skeptics express the idea that this cannot work at all. The inventiveness of the author, the ambitiousness of the project and the courage of the plan border on the best manifestations of creative madness.
The difficult and painstaking work on the tool began about 3 years ago and lasted for 14 months. By February 2016, the Wintergatan had completed their work on the Marble machine. The presentation video published by the group blew up YouTube and currently has over 40,000,000 views.
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It should be noted that the team is not the first time creating interesting mechanisms, as can be seen by looking at their numerous videos.
For example, this one, where Martin plays a huge music box with a punched tape and some wild variety of the Termen cello called Modulin
Interestingly, in childhood, the creator of the machine, Martin Mulin, loved to draw various mechanisms. The musician's children's hobby has not passed with age, now he not only draws them, but also builds them successfully. The thing in question in this post exceeded even the wildest expectations of fans of the group who are used to the extravagant tricks of Mulin. The principle underlying the machine is as follows:
A complex mechanism set in motion by the muscular force of the musician’s hands (like a barrel organ) forces balls to move, which fall on instruments in a certain order and extract sounds from them. It looks like this - the person turns the pen drive, the balls fall, and a melody appears. The order of the falling balls is determined by a special "software" wheel, acting like a roller of a huge music box.
Drum (software wheel) indicates that the creator of the machine seriously studied similar on the principle of the device of the 18th - 19th centuries. This is evidenced by other inventions of the Mulin, as already mentioned "box" with a punched tape and a mechanical piano, with which the musicians also experimented.
Although it may be better to just watch the video:
I think that many will agree with me, the performance of the melody on such an instrument is truly a fascinating spectacle.
Numerous pedals, keys and levers are used as controls for the combination instrument, and ordinary ground rice is used to create some percussion sounds. In total, more than 3,000 moving parts were used to create the machine. The vast majority of parts of the device were cut on a CNC plywood machine.
The vintage look of the tool reminded me of an animated movie I first saw several years ago. The video showed a surrealistic non-existent automated stringed and plucked instrument with a large number of fingerboards.
It is possible that this well-known online video was one of the sources of inspiration for the musician and inventor.
About how exactly the machine works, Mulin told in detail in the relevant video:
Interestingly, for high-quality sound reproduction the machine is equipped with a large number of microphones installed in a special way (they allow to hide the noises of the operating mechanism and amplify the sound). Switching occurs through the mixing console, which is also an integral part of the instrument.
As the inventor himself said in one of the interviews, the instrument was conceived as something like a mechanical DJ installation, which allows combining the performance of a previously recorded melody and making changes in it in real time.
As it turned out, Mulin does not suffer from the “Stradivari complex” and does not seek to hide from people, taking the secret of success with him to the grave. As a true altruist and enthusiast, he decided to share his invention with the world, having laid out in open access a huge amount of video materials about the principles of operation of the machine, as well as information about assembly, debugging and tuning.
He explains in detail how and what is arranged, answers the numerous questions asked by engineers, musicians and representatives of the DIY-fraternity. All materials are available on the YouTube channel of the group, as well as on the official website.
Below I enclose several such videos, more details will be available on the channel and group site, where a special section has been created for those interested.
According to the author, for the creation of the machine is enough standard musical instruments, microphones, a mixer, plywood, wood and other commonly available materials. As for the equipment, the most difficult thing that was used to create parts is a CNC machine, unless, of course, the inventor’s brain is considered equipment.
Moulin's experience once again demonstrates that the enthusiasm of fanatical singles can, if not move mountains, then force steel balls to “sing”. Perhaps the Mulino machine is one of the most unusual musical instruments that I have ever seen. And yet, it is especially valuable that the musician shares his experience and applies his efforts to captivate other enthusiasts with the creation of non-standard and original instruments.
The creative impulse of musicians, inspired by the creation of Mulina, was not long in coming. Many of them have created covers for the work performed with the help of the machine in the presentation video. A year later, the group published a video with cutting from a variety of covers on the Marble Machine with the note: “This made me so happy!”
PS Unfortunately, I was not able to find the drawings of the machine, although judging by the reports in some forums, they walk around the network. If someone accidentally discovers the desired for many DXF or already owns them - drop the link in the comments, people will thank you.
Few details
The difficult and painstaking work on the tool began about 3 years ago and lasted for 14 months. By February 2016, the Wintergatan had completed their work on the Marble machine. The presentation video published by the group blew up YouTube and currently has over 40,000,000 views.
')
It should be noted that the team is not the first time creating interesting mechanisms, as can be seen by looking at their numerous videos.
For example, this one, where Martin plays a huge music box with a punched tape and some wild variety of the Termen cello called Modulin
Interestingly, in childhood, the creator of the machine, Martin Mulin, loved to draw various mechanisms. The musician's children's hobby has not passed with age, now he not only draws them, but also builds them successfully. The thing in question in this post exceeded even the wildest expectations of fans of the group who are used to the extravagant tricks of Mulin. The principle underlying the machine is as follows:
music is played thanks to the interaction of 2000 balls with percussion instruments, bass guitar and metallophone, which are mounted on a wooden frame.
A complex mechanism set in motion by the muscular force of the musician’s hands (like a barrel organ) forces balls to move, which fall on instruments in a certain order and extract sounds from them. It looks like this - the person turns the pen drive, the balls fall, and a melody appears. The order of the falling balls is determined by a special "software" wheel, acting like a roller of a huge music box.
Drum (software wheel) indicates that the creator of the machine seriously studied similar on the principle of the device of the 18th - 19th centuries. This is evidenced by other inventions of the Mulin, as already mentioned "box" with a punched tape and a mechanical piano, with which the musicians also experimented.
Although it may be better to just watch the video:
I think that many will agree with me, the performance of the melody on such an instrument is truly a fascinating spectacle.
Numerous pedals, keys and levers are used as controls for the combination instrument, and ordinary ground rice is used to create some percussion sounds. In total, more than 3,000 moving parts were used to create the machine. The vast majority of parts of the device were cut on a CNC plywood machine.
The vintage look of the tool reminded me of an animated movie I first saw several years ago. The video showed a surrealistic non-existent automated stringed and plucked instrument with a large number of fingerboards.
It is possible that this well-known online video was one of the sources of inspiration for the musician and inventor.
About how exactly the machine works, Mulin told in detail in the relevant video:
Interestingly, for high-quality sound reproduction the machine is equipped with a large number of microphones installed in a special way (they allow to hide the noises of the operating mechanism and amplify the sound). Switching occurs through the mixing console, which is also an integral part of the instrument.
As the inventor himself said in one of the interviews, the instrument was conceived as something like a mechanical DJ installation, which allows combining the performance of a previously recorded melody and making changes in it in real time.
Swedish altruism attack
As it turned out, Mulin does not suffer from the “Stradivari complex” and does not seek to hide from people, taking the secret of success with him to the grave. As a true altruist and enthusiast, he decided to share his invention with the world, having laid out in open access a huge amount of video materials about the principles of operation of the machine, as well as information about assembly, debugging and tuning.
He explains in detail how and what is arranged, answers the numerous questions asked by engineers, musicians and representatives of the DIY-fraternity. All materials are available on the YouTube channel of the group, as well as on the official website.
Below I enclose several such videos, more details will be available on the channel and group site, where a special section has been created for those interested.
According to the author, for the creation of the machine is enough standard musical instruments, microphones, a mixer, plywood, wood and other commonly available materials. As for the equipment, the most difficult thing that was used to create parts is a CNC machine, unless, of course, the inventor’s brain is considered equipment.
As a conclusion
Moulin's experience once again demonstrates that the enthusiasm of fanatical singles can, if not move mountains, then force steel balls to “sing”. Perhaps the Mulino machine is one of the most unusual musical instruments that I have ever seen. And yet, it is especially valuable that the musician shares his experience and applies his efforts to captivate other enthusiasts with the creation of non-standard and original instruments.
The creative impulse of musicians, inspired by the creation of Mulina, was not long in coming. Many of them have created covers for the work performed with the help of the machine in the presentation video. A year later, the group published a video with cutting from a variety of covers on the Marble Machine with the note: “This made me so happy!”
PS Unfortunately, I was not able to find the drawings of the machine, although judging by the reports in some forums, they walk around the network. If someone accidentally discovers the desired for many DXF or already owns them - drop the link in the comments, people will thank you.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/370599/
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