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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday May 17 2020, @09:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the ker-plink! dept.

All About That Bass – Marble Machine X Keeps Growing:

If you play a string instrument and ever used a capo — the clamping little helper device to smack the pitch up — you may have found yourself wishing that you could use it on any arbitrary fret on each string. Sure, there are partial capos and the spider capo to select individual strings, but you're still limited to transpose along a single fret. Well, [Martin]'s Cyber Capos, a mechanical construct of four arms sliding along the neck, serve exactly that purpose, which allows him to free up his hands for other things while the marbles keep bouncing.

But you don't have to be a bass player, or any musician really, to appreciate [Martin]'s build videos. We praised his general attitude and hacker-like spirit already the first time we mentioned the Marble Machine, and just watching him getting excited about his work and the appreciation for people supporting and assisting in the project, while embracing his mistakes, is a genuine delight.

Cyber Bass - YouTube Video #1
Cyber Bass - YouTube Video #2

Previously:
(2016-03-02) Wintergatan - a Programmable Music Box With 2,000 Marbles


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  • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Monday May 18 2020, @11:37PM (4 children)

    by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Monday May 18 2020, @11:37PM (#996083)

    Oh your point is well taken and overall I agree.
    However I think I see where our differences lie.

    You are an engineer, and see the over-complexity as a detriment.

    I am an artist, and see it as beauty.

    After all the idea is to do it without available technology. If you use that why not just make a MIDI?
    The psychotic beauty of it's primitive form is the point, well, at least in my opinion.

    There is something very unique and beautiful about building a primitive machine of cogs, gears and marbles, designed on the fly, mistakes and all, that transcends doing it with efficiency. I see it as art first.

    I see this as art as well, but much more soul-less, as it uses so much modern tech, but still employs a lot of over-engineering. (I've no idea of it's efficiency! I'm a mechanic as well but not an engineer!)
    I am curious as to your take on it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0DyYLLf3m8 [youtube.com]

    Don't worry, it's not a troll link....your viewpoint I find quite interesting, as we see the same thing from very disparate views.
    As t is Compressor and Z Machines, you may already be familiar and have an opinion.
    A very good day to you!

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    Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 19 2020, @03:13PM (3 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday May 19 2020, @03:13PM (#996371)

    That's actually a really cool video, thanks for the link!

    • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday May 20 2020, @02:50AM (2 children)

      by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Wednesday May 20 2020, @02:50AM (#996686)

      I'm glad you enjoyed it.

      It is pretty freaking insane.

      They play better than I ever did....

      --
      Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 20 2020, @03:14PM (1 child)

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday May 20 2020, @03:14PM (#996920)

        I will say, though, the way these robots were set up is actually how I was thinking when I saw the earlier video with the weird per-string-capo mechanism. The robots here have separate actuators in different places on the strings, plus separate pluckers for each string, so they can play just about any note readily (though the actuators didn't cover the entire fretboard, so there is limitation there).