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An engineer has built and programmed an all-robot band
- smusamashah 4y agoRelated but its all mechanical Wintergatan - Marble Machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q
- sumtechguy 4y agoHe is currently working on v3 of it. v2 was more of what he did with v1 which was hack it together and try to get it right. He learned about half way thru v2 that method was good for prototyping and looking cool and was good for 'close enough' but was failing to get the control and precision he wanted. He ended up adding way more complexity than he liked. v3 he is starting with reduce part counts and 'how do I actually build this thing' and decent testing of each part iteration to find ones he likes.
- Rochus 4y agoWell, a sample player likely sounds better and costs less, but automating the instruments is certainly a lot of fun. I do it the other way round, in that I replace a full live band by a single person (no sequencer involved): http://rochus-keller.ch/?p=1153 http://rochus-keller.ch/?p=1153
- Sjeiti 4y agoI expected the article to be about Compressorhead.
- IvyMike 4y agoI expected the article to be about Showbiz Pizza.
- jephson 4y agoI expected the article to be about The Trons https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trons https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trons
- jumboshrimp 4y agoThere’s really only one analog worth mentioning in this thread about robots-cum-musicians. https://youtu.be/Fd5c3Qtcr_w https://youtu.be/Fd5c3Qtcr_w
- bigiain 4y agoI quite like this one: https://youtu.be/bAdqazixuRY https://youtu.be/bAdqazixuRY AUTOMATICA - Robots Vs. Music - Nigel Stanford More industrial robot arm choreography and creative film making, but with some fun mindless destruction too. (And if you like that, another one of his I like is tghis: https://youtu.be/Q3oItpVa9fs https://youtu.be/Q3oItpVa9fs )
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- worldsayshi 4y agoThere's also One Love Machine Band - https://youtu.be/vcci6vPGBHQ https://youtu.be/vcci6vPGBHQ
- nurettin 4y agoIt is not a band until they dramatically break up.
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- richrichardsson 4y agoGiven the context, one would hope that would be a catastrophic mechanical failure, ideally involving explosions.
- andrewclunn 4y agoThat's not gonna happen until they do an AC/DC cover.
- grugagag 4y agoThey break down instead, and they do break down all the time, no drugs needed
- robomartin 4y agoIs “robot” overused these days? Headline: “Engineer builds robotic lawn care system” Reality: A programable sprinkler valve timer.
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- linkjuice4all 4y agoIn this case these are more like machines that play instruments than what most “common folk” would consider a robot. This is certainly an interesting creation but for some reason the lack of sensors or some ability to respond to what it is doing or it’s environment seems to fall short of “robot”.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y agoIf we constantly have to change our technical terms to fit whatever misconceptions the "common folk" have... well that's a lot of pointless redefinition and recoining.
- linkjuice4all 4y agoWhich one of these counts as a "music playing robot"? - Toyota Partner Bot [0] - A general purpose humanoid robot that can play a trumpet - Automatica [1] - A group of assembly arms that can play instruments - A Player Piano [2] - A bunch of servos stuck to musical instruments Arguably they're all robots - they use automation and mechanical means to actually play the instruments (not a synth reproduction of an instrument). But you'd be hard-pressed to convince someone that a player piano is a robot these days. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Partner_Robot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Partner_Robot [1] https://www.themusicman.uk/kuka-robot-nigel-stanford/ https://www.themusicman.uk/kuka-robot-nigel-stanford/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_piano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_piano
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
- FLpxpyJ 4y agoReminds me of this precious gift to the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0hwNWas9mk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0hwNWas9mk
- Pyramus 4y agoDirect link to Youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@onehackerband https://youtube.com/@onehackerband
- camel-cdr 4y agoReminds me of Electromancy: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9tBkb9DJTrA https://youtube.com/watch?v=9tBkb9DJTrA From the channel description: > I’m a disabled musician building a robot metal band to keep playing music. DIY robot instruments, broken manikin bandmates. Creative mind of Step "Satyra" Tranovich
- svdree 4y agoPat Metheny has done something similar with his orchestrion project, 12 years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsYEOUKS4Yk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsYEOUKS4Yk). At the time I went to see him perform with it in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, which was impressive, but still missing the band energy that normally makes the music come alive. He did mention that it was the first gig on the tour without major technical issues, it does seem like a nightmare to set it all up correctly.
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- sampo 4y agoThere is also Compressorhead since 10 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/@RobocrossMachines/videos https://www.youtube.com/@RobocrossMachines/videos
- laboratorymice 4y agoSomewhat related and also amazing: https://www.youtube.com/@animusic6837 https://www.youtube.com/@animusic6837
- adenozine 4y agoI knew this would be in here somewhere. This definitely stirred something when I first saw it. If I hadn't already begun a career in computers, I'm certain this would've catalyzed it.
- Mizza 4y agoMy favorite one of these, if you like drum and bass: https://vimeo.com/93923609 https://vimeo.com/93923609
- martin_a 4y ago> This video has not been rated. Please login to view the video. Wow, Vimeo is even worse than YouTube.
- jtvjan 4y agoGoing in exactly the opposite direction, the Electronicos Fantasticos have been making electronic instruments for humans to play: https://youtu.be/UB7ZyZSKLX8 https://youtu.be/UB7ZyZSKLX8
- kovacs 4y agoLOL this is amazing! I love Japan :)
- EL_Loco 4y agoCheck out Compressorhead! They make this look more like "An engineer has built a couple of self playing instruments". Still pretty cool though. Compressorhead video page: https://www.youtube.com/@RobocrossMachines/videos https://www.youtube.com/@RobocrossMachines/videos
- not_the_fda 4y agoNot really that new. An artist is Wisconsin made whole rooms of self playing instruments in the 60s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9HeaddNiqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9HeaddNiqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnXu6YNrJ7A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnXu6YNrJ7A
- dmd 4y ago(And if you haven't been to The House on the Rock, it's honestly worth a trip to Wisconsin /just for it/.)
- zzzeek 4y agothe ratio of "how many people have any idea such a place exists" over "how amazing and vast the House on the Rock is" is unfathomably low. it's as mystifying as the place itself
- aliqot 4y agodont forget your walking shoes though, even as a young person my dogs were barking by the time I'd seen it all. At the time the infinity room was not blocked off but the last few feet and young me wanted to see the toothpick at the end
- RajT88 4y agoThe one tragedy is that they seem to be having issues keeping the self-playing instruments in good repair. Many were barely functional last I was there a few years back. Of interest is that House on the Rock is the setting for the showdown at end end of Season 1 of "American Gods". Worth a watch if you enjoy the place.
- tgv 4y agoFirst one dates back to 1805: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panharmonicon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panharmonicon. I've seen small mechanical ensembles from the 1920s, which included multiple bowed string instruments (which sounded horrible, BTW). Apparently, it was the ‘Phonoliszt Violina’ made by Hupfeld. There is more than one video on YouTube.
- bitwize 4y agoI thought this was gonna be about Compressorhead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaY7vohLXK4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaY7vohLXK4 Notable for featuring a four-armed drummer bot, and headbanging action on many of the robot players. It's really like if Dr. Wily discovered metal in the 80s. This band looks more like a real life Animusic. Cool, but not as metal.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoWe had a player piano in my house as a kid. My Dad bought it from Shakey's Pizza when they remodeled. Along with a score of piano rolls. I pumped through Under the Double Eagle march endlessly as a kid. What a thrill to hear all that music come out of a piano through my effort! Maybe if this guy's music robot was pneumatic and required a kid to pump the compressor, then it'd provide that same thrill.
- zzzeek 4y agoI clicked this link expecting to finally see a writeup on the amazing people who created Compressorhead and got... some instruments with automation attached to them. Which is great. But a headline like, "there's an All Robot Band!!!", that would be... Compressorhead. This is "engineer has added midi automation to live instruments" which is not novel by itself at all. There's 100 year old player pianos that have guitars and snare drums in them (which frankly sound better than this, hitting the hihat from below?! like this one I saw this summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sc9ULNA64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sc9ULNA64) .
- 4b11b4 4y agoWhy not listen to a recording at this point.. While it might be impressive, it's not interesting (to me). The point of witnessing live music is to experience the hard work and character of a human with their instrument. An entire band in sync together - witnessing this incites some emotion in me. Improvisation... this is exciting.
- slfnflctd 4y agoRobotic musicians that could improvise - especially if they can do so alongside human musicians - would be interesting indeed. It seems to me that we have all the building blocks needed for this. If someone isn't working on it already, they should be.
- speculativename 4y agoLook into George Lewis' voyager, foundational for this stuff (but not a humanoid robot per se). Been around for a while.
- _spduchamp 4y agoI'm working on a robotic drumming project, but rather than playing canned sequences, I'm experimenting with rhythm synthesis to create an intuitive and expressive instrument that anyone can play. This was a test of an early version with rhythm synthesis happening with oscillators in Puredata that trigger OSC hit instructions to the robot which is just an ESP8266 wired to a Vertiq smart motor. https://youtu.be/zeHJXyyhJ70 https://youtu.be/zeHJXyyhJ70 My model of rhythm in that version was extremely naive, so now I'm now trying to grok Godfried Toussaint's The Geometry of Musical Rhythm with the goal of moving the rhythm generation to the microcontroller. This is to have a toolset for making autonomous musical ensembles. I'm definitely having challenges figuring things out, so if anyone else is interested in this stuff, ping me and I'd love to share notes.
- robotguy 4y agoHave you seen Yellow Drum Machine? https://youtu.be/_RyodnisVvU https://youtu.be/_RyodnisVvU
- swimfar 4y agoCaptured by Robots also did this, but his look like humanoid robots and have conversations with the singer which are part of the act. The type of music isn't for everybody (or most people). But if you're musically open I'd recommend checking out one of his shows if he's in town. It's an entertaining performance. https://capturedbyrobots.com/ https://capturedbyrobots.com/
- Optimal_Persona 4y agoI was gonna say the same, I went to DePaul music school with Jay before he was...assimilated. He may not have been the very first to have a virtuoso robot band, but he probably isn't far from it.
- newobj 4y ago+1 to the GWAR of robot bands
- stevehiehn 4y agoIMHO, Captured by Robots is great because it isn't just bots playing instruments, it's a full-on theatrical performance. At least that's what it was when I saw it like a decade ago.
- xtrohnx 4y agoThe Logos Foundation in Belgium has been in the robot musician game for a long minute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos_Foundation Godfried-Willem Raes is a fascinating guy and builds the robots. I asked him once about how he coded his firmware and he insisted that nothing but a very specific flavor of Power Basic was appropriate. I can't remember the exact tech he uses, but a lot of the performances of the orchestra involve human dancing and movement that is translated into musical phrases for the robots. The sensors have excellent latency, but don't work so well with clothes on. As any engineer would conclude, the true problem was in wearing pants and so the performances are mostly in the nude.
- footlose_3815 4y agoAlmost 15 years ago I saw this kind of thing in Seattle. The tower had electromechanical / pneumatic fingers and pluckers running over the strings. Here's a blogger's experience http://maiden-voyage-travel.com/one-of-my-fave-museums-experience-music-project-in-seattle/ http://maiden-voyage-travel.com/one-of-my-fave-museums-exper...
- filippp 4y agoBut we already have Kraftwerk...
- _qua 4y agoWe already have Chuck E Cheese
- deeths 4y agoFor a steampunk throwback of this idea, there are a number of self-playing full orchestras at the House on the Rock (an amazing museum of all things kitsch Wisconsin) that use 100% mechanically driven pneumatically controlled instruments. It's amazing and this video doesn't do it justice, but here's a pretty good idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpaRGpoMyjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpaRGpoMyjg
- keraf 4y agoIt's just missing VALL-E for vocals, and it can go on tour.
- jonathankoren 4y agoReminds me of a real world Animusic video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyCIpKAIFyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyCIpKAIFyo Also, at first I thought was going to be the person (or persons) that have their own restored Rock-Afire-Explosion bands and then reprogram them to play contemporary songs.
- buildsjets 4y agoDoes the "Rock-A-Fire Explosion" at Showbiz Pizza count as prior art? https://showbizpizza.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rock-afire_Explosion https://showbizpizza.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rock-afire_Explosio...
- saghm 4y agoI was thinking of Chuck E. Cheese when I saw this headline. I'm glad my mind isn't the only one that thought of something like this!
- AaronM 4y agoIs it just me, or does it sound off? Kinda like the uncanny valley, it sounds like the song, yet it also doesn't sound quite right. I think its mostly in the drums that I get a sense of unease.
- genderwhy 4y agoIt's reached sort of high school level garage band renditions of the songs, imo. So yes, it's off, but also it's impressive? It fits into an interesting place where it's very cool and also has clear room for improvement.
- dmcginty 4y agoMy personal favorite example of composition for robots was the project Squarepusher did for Zima (yes, the defunct drink that tasted like alcoholic diet Sprite) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkUq4sO4LQM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkUq4sO4LQM]. That being said, there's a long history of music being sequenced for machines to play. Automated calliopes and orchestrions go back over a hundred years. Also, Conlon Nancarrow should be credited with being the first modern composer to write music purely for machines using techniques and speeds that would be impossible for a human to replicate [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2gVhBxwRqg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2gVhBxwRqg]. I really like how the One Hacker Band took a lot of these preexisting ideas, but added things that I haven't seen applied to sequenced physical instruments, namely using machine learning to allow the band to compose music.
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- knewter 4y agoPlease, chuck-e-cheese has been around since I was a kid