Comments on Dark Roasted Blend: Automated Musical Instruments

Fantastic automated musical instrument!! wish i ha...

2009-02-03T22:21:00.000-08:00

Fantastic automated musical instrument!! wish i have musical instrument someday!! give a thumbs up on su!!

I wonder what that thing sounds like>

2008-11-13T05:35:00.000-08:00

I wonder what that thing sounds like>

Wow Andrew, thank you for the wonderful info.The f...

2008-03-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

Wow Andrew, thank you for the wonderful info.
The first Blue Danube image link is broken.
Will cover some more in our next part in this series!

Interesting post!Godfried-Willem Raes may have som...

2008-03-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

Interesting post!

Godfried-Willem Raes may have some original ideas about things, but at least some of what he builds is nothing new...

First, let's take a look at his "Klung", a supposed "metal anklung" that he built.

Raes Klung

If you look at it, you may notice it bears a striking resemblance to the vintage percussion instrument the Deagan Shaker Chimes (AKA "Deagan Organ Chimes"):

Deagan photo

Deagan article

As you can read in the article, these vintage production-line chimes WERE based on the Anklung... so really, Mr. Raes' idea is nothing new.

Neither is automating them, apparently. The House On the Rock in Wisconsin has no less than THREE sets of Deagan Shaker [Organ] Chimes, all rigged to play (more-or-less) automatically with various ensembles; respectively the Blue Danube Room (opened in 1991),

Blue Danube Room

the Red Room (opened in 1978),

Red Room

and the Circus Room Orchestra (opened sometime in the 1980's).

Circus Orchestra

The chimes in the Blue Danube ensemble (a rather ersatz affair made from an old Mortier dance organ facade) are especially notable, not only because each chime assembly has been taken out of its stand and arrayed visually at the top of the ensemble (rather than being left in the original rack like the other 2 sets),

Upper part of Blue Danube

but also because they are the only real tuned musical instruments in the whole ensemble! (the string and other non-percussion sounds are produced by synthesizers and emanate from a large speaker hidden behind the tympani on the far right).

Speaker in Blue Danube

All the automatic instruments look fantastic.Post ...

2007-08-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

All the automatic instruments look fantastic.

Post by Dan,
Webmaster of http://www.gadgets-club.com the newest gadgets blog

thank you guys... will update with the first oppor...

2007-08-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

thank you guys... will update with the first opportunity. good stuff.

What about that: http://www.graffagnino.net/wwwpea...

2007-08-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

What about that: http://www.graffagnino.net/wwwpeart/ ?
:)

I'm surprised you didn't mention the band Captured...

2007-07-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised you didn't mention the band Captured! By Robots which consists of one human and a band of automatons. See http://www.capturedbyrobots.com/.

Another great automated musical installation is If...

2007-07-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

Another great automated musical installation is If VI was IX, a huge automated sculpture by Trimpin at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. It plays loops of music in different styles on a number of automated guitars, banjos, keyboards, etc. Plus it looks awesome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimpin