The Stockholm Mini Maker Faire 2014 has just finished up, and [Johnny Eriksson] was awarded the Maker of the Year award for his very impressive electromechanical one man band.
As a musician/electrician/furniture carpenter, [Johnny] has quite a few skills — and he wanted to try putting them altogether for a project. He calls it the Popmaskinen (the pop machine).
Using MIDI keyboards, buttons, and knobs, the Popmaskinen translates digital outputs to physical instruments controlled by various electromechanical components. One of our favorite parts is the guitars, which use solenoids to strum, and even more solenoids to squeeze various cords on the pair of guitars.
Perhaps one of the other most interesting parts of this build is the “taktverket” or pace-keeper. It’s a large metal cylinder with adjustable protrusions which actually trigger the individual instruments — it’s kind of like how a music box works. By playing with some of the adjustable switches he can turn individual instruments on and off, which will play music according to the taktverket’s pattern.
For more information you can check out [Johnny’s] Facebook page, Popmaskinen.
[Thanks Jens!]
A music hack that sounds pretty nice, props!
“chords”
The thing about music hacks is that one actually needs to be a musician. Probably a great instrument in the right hands…
Yup, so much work for so little result, musically speaking…
Holy carp! I music hack that actually makes music. Maker of the year, indeed :)
I’m gobsmacked here… a musical instrument post with something that actually approximates real music being played!
Can’t say much for the composition: incredibly monotonous, percussion WAY too loud.
Each string really needs it’s own solenoid instead of a single bar all the way across the fretboard. That way you could break away from just doing punk rock type sounds.