Marble Machine X

Diddums · 17 Jun 2019 at 20:00

I was gonna stick this in the Youtube thread but I think given the time, effort, and craftsmanship involved here, it deserves some recognition.

Wintergatan is a small little indie band formed in 2012 in Gothenberg, Sweden. It's four members and their biggest aspect of their gigs is undeniably their marble machine, which is quite simply one of the most amazing machines I've ever seen hand crafted. To put some perspective in to how much these guys know about machinery, the creator refers to his spirit level as a "bubble thingy". Whilst this does probably also have something to do with the language barrier, it does highlight their rather limited technical knowledge.

Here's the first one:

They've now been building another one for the last two-and-a-bit years and last week it played its first rhythm.

It all started off with a drawing:

And just look at the beauty of the machine where it is now:

Absolutely amazing. I can't wait to see it play and will definitely be heading to Gothenberg to see these guys live when it plays :cool:

Syla5 · 18 Jun 2019 at 15:32

Diddums said:
It's four members and their biggest aspect of their gigs is undeniably their marble machine

It doesn't get used in there Gigs, in fact literally only got used in the making of the original video because it was so inconsistent.

They more recently loaned it to a museum and a lot of work needed to be done to it just to get it to play a sample of the original.

Diddums said:
To put some perspective in to how much these guys know about machinery, the creator refers to his spirit level as a "bubble thingy". Whilst this does probably also have something to do with the language barrier, it does highlight their rather limited technical knowledge.

The technical knowledge they have from a crafting perspective might have been limited in the build of the original machine, the understanding of the music and how to get things to work, along with mic attachments, and synthesising, as well as setting up a system to play music that has been known about for centuries was not.

I have watched most of the videos from original though to the conception and creation and build of the new marble machine, and Martins ability to self teach is amazing, and his technical ability is far beyond "rather limited". The team he has gotten together to work on this is hugely impressive, and direct contact with the developers of CAD is not small feat.

I cant wait for the new machine to be finished, but lets not try and sugar coat this as something being done with limited knowledge, tools, or expertise.

Brizzles · 18 Jun 2019 at 15:38

I'd seen the first one before, and thought the second on would be something special.

It basically plays about 10 notes on the same drum, thats it.

Impressive craftmanship, OK , but what did i miss on the 2nd one ?

GiraffePencils · 18 Jun 2019 at 15:46

The video of the second one is just an example of the new loop, so they have the new feeding mechanism for the bb's in place
But only 2 of the droppers are doing anything at this stage

Brizzles · 18 Jun 2019 at 15:50

GiraffePencils said:
The video of the second one is just an example of the new loop, so they have the new feeding mechanism for the bb's in place
But only 2 of the droppers are doing anything at this stage

Ah, Thank you GP

Diddums · 18 Jun 2019 at 16:49

Syla5 said:
It doesn't get used in there Gigs, in fact literally only got used in the making of the original video because it was so inconsistent.

They more recently loaned it to a museum and a lot of work needed to be done to it just to get it to play a sample of the original.

The technical knowledge they have from a crafting perspective might have been limited in the build of the original machine, the understanding of the music and how to get things to work, along with mic attachments, and synthesising, as well as setting up a system to play music that has been known about for centuries was not.

I have watched most of the videos from original though to the conception and creation and build of the new marble machine, and Martins ability to self teach is amazing, and his technical ability is far beyond "rather limited". The team he has gotten together to work on this is hugely impressive, and direct contact with the developers of CAD is not small feat.

I cant wait for the new machine to be finished, but lets not try and sugar coat this as something being done with limited knowledge, tools, or expertise.

I think you missed my point, I was pointing out that despite not having the technical background one would associate with a project like this, they still managed to pull it off, which I think you'll find is a rather good acknowledgement of their skills & talent rather than playing it down.

And you're correct on the live playing aspect, I thought they used the actual machine but it turns out they play the song without the machine. Still pretty good

builder22 · 18 Jun 2019 at 16:54

Nice, but can it play Smoke on the water, whilst onboard a cruise liner

almoststew1990 · 18 Jun 2019 at 17:05

This crops up in my recommended videos (possibly because of this) and I thought it was very interesting but doesn't sound that great or... Nice ?

Zenduri · 18 Jun 2019 at 18:33

Watched the original and watch the weekly updates as its generally an interesting engineering project

Syla5 · 19 Jun 2019 at 08:12

Diddums said:
And you're correct on the live playing aspect, I thought they used the actual machine but it turns out they play the song without the machine. Still pretty good

That's the main drive of the X is so they can consistently use it for live performances. Cant wait for it to be completed.