Some more technological magic commissioned by Festo, that German company that gave us the Air Jelly featured in yesterday’s post. This is a musical composition titled “Fast Blue Air.”
How it’s done:
The music program played by "The Sound Machines" is saved in midi files, and the sound is generated in three steps. For the first “digital” step, the sound machines are controlled by a PLC (programmable logic controller). In the second step, pneumatic components cause the strings to vibrate by either plucking them like a guitarist or stroking them like a string musician. In the third step, the sound is received and amplified by electronic pick-ups, similarly to an electric guitar. The sound machines offer a variety of options for generating very different musical effects.
You can find a more complete overview of the sound machines here. There’s a link to more detail than you could possibly want (unless you happen to be a pneumatic engineer) at that link, as well.
I love this stuff… or: Geeks ‘R’ Us!
Okay the air jelly fish was cool, kinda reminded me of the old Johnny Quest cartoons :)
ReplyDeletebut the music stuff is way cooler!
Amazingly so!
I'm glad ya liked it, Dawn. You seem to be the only one...besides me! ;-)
ReplyDeleteDrats, I am being so good about not clicking on videos and blowing our download limit. But I get the idea!
ReplyDeleteHeck, I was thrilled to find an old player piano in a bar in which someone had installed additional pneumatically activated instruments. For a quarter, you got to watch them all have their say. It was totally awesome!
Now that's MY kinda bar, Lin. How cool!
ReplyDelete