I just saw Loopop’s review of the Echofix EF-X3, and I was totally fascinated by its moving tape that you could see through the see-through top.
This got me thinking: What other musical devices are there with moving parts that’s part of the functionality?
The Motor Synth by Gamechanger Audio comes to mind.
And there’s Love Hultén’s creations, such as for example:
and
What else?
I have always been fascinated by self-playing pianos. Aphex Twin brought this to a new level.
Hammond organs used rotating tonewheels to generate sine waves.
If you’ve ever seen an old Chord Organ made by magnus, bontempi or a few other companies, these strange little “electric air organs” operate like a harmonica? I guess, but with a blower fan (like your house might have a puller fan to circulate the air). The fan generates airflow so that when you press a note it opens an air duct which then vibrates a reed associated with a specific keyed note to create a tone similar to how a harmonica reed makes sound when it vibrates. This would not work without that central fan (which is actually kind of really loud, even at static ambient levels if you’ve ever used one).
reeds which create notes.
centrifugal spinning air puller fan.
The only actual electric part of these is the fan drive, but without which it wouldn’t function because it can only make sound due to the air it moves.
The larger console type models have a string actuated foot “sustain” pedal which controls the aperture breadth so that when the pedal is depressed more air can get through thus the volume can be increased, not really sustain but has an interesting effect.
Have to say this guy is fucking ridiculously talented not sure it counts as a machine tho…
Another approach on mechanical delay:
it’s the volca chord organ. awesome.
