So, you’re really hot stuff now that you’ve got a vintage Roland TR-808, huh? Ready to have your pride taken down a few notches? If you haven’t seen it, have a look at this.
The MR-808 is a “real-world” replica of the Roland sounds. And when people throw around buzzwords like “post-digital” to try to describe the spirit of the age in which we live, this is what they’re trying to get at. In some sense, this creation is a tribute to the 808′s minimalism and essential design. And this is still a creation of the digital realm. The robots are controlled by Arduino, a small embodiment of our computer world. There’s a Game Boy making drums. Sequences live in Ableton Live.
What the Sonic Robots project does is add another layer. The design brainchild of Dresden-based artist Moritz Simon Geist, the project makes the sounds itself escape code and circuits, and come back into physical, acoustic space.
That’s a fine gimmick, but there’s a lot of craft here. First off, the band itself is making some great music. They really are a band, and the project’s flash still passes the “close your eyes and you’ll still like it” test. They do some serious engineering – like accounting for latency. And by entering this physical domain, they reclaim the basics of sound design. Of all the insightful documentation, it’s great to read Simon talking about finding a perfect clap.
For music to be personally expressive, though, it doesn’t have to impress anyone but yourself. And that seems to be what motivated Simon to make this happen. (Hint: it tends to be behind any truly hard-working musician.) Boredom, here, was the mother of invention:
The robot installation MR-808 is a replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808 – with robots playing the drum sounds! I (Moritz Simon Geist) have been playing electronic music for several years now, and at some place I was bored of the electronic music production process. With binary logic, everything is possible.First, one terrific video expresses the drama of this coming to life. It really is a kind of toy theater, the 808 made enormous, hollowed out, and filled with dancing physical objects:
So I decided to go back to the roots of sound generation – the physical sound generation – but combine it with the electronic music structure we like so much.
I liked the idea so much, that I couldn’t stop building my own drum robots, and ended up replacing all the electronic sounds of a whole drum computer, placed in a 3,3 x 1,7m² case. I am very proud to present the “MR-808” – a mechanic replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808!
MR-808 – mechanic drum robot from Sonic Robots on Vimeo.
What you’re actually hearing:
MR-808 – mechanic sound robot (all drums, miced)The band, the music video, the live act. Proving that they really are a band, Sonic Robots also have a lovely music video out. What’s great about it is that that theatrical backdrop makes the machines equal band members. Normally, tech – laptops or analog or otherwise – is mainly hidden, silent, flickering boxes that are effectively dead weight for an audience. Here, it’s as present as the humans.
A mechanic relay controlled via arduino (bass sound)
Gameboy – Arduinoboy hardware (8 bit chiptune sound)
Everything was programmed in Ableton, only equing and compression has been applied.
Rise Of The Toys from Science Fiction Children on Vimeo.
Cinematography:Solving latency. There’s an extensive article that deals just with how to keep all of this physical business operating in sync. One advantage of machine-sequenced music is that you don’t have to get so close to zero-latency. But that does mean engineering things to stay in time. Copiously documented:
David Campesino
Philipp Baumgarten
Rise Of The Toys
Written by Science Fiction Children
Band:
Art Hustle
Moritz Simon Geist
Dr. Valentine
Katharina Hoffmann
Performed at Sputnik 2.0,
Dresden 2012
Only reverb, equing and compression has been applied to the tracks.
A latency control concept for midi driven mechanic robotic instruments
Max/MSP does the heavy lifting here. The solution is simple, though – there’s just some use of the pipe object from Max/Pd. It’s more about trial and error, back in the physical world.
From top: the design, the giant buttons, the Ableton Live sequence that controls everything (though here, Live is basically just a MIDI sequencer and mixer).
The machines. You’ll find extensive documentation of each detail of this rig:http://sonicrobots.com/category/robot-technique/
There’s a run-down of the full setup, plus details of how the robotics work (ideal if you’re experimenting with Arduino and solenoids, even in more modest ways).
Every time I post something, I find someone in comments says “but you didn’t mention — [xxx]” – there’s even a quite-decent summary of robotic projects past.
The music. I’ll close with this. Perhaps you don’t need to build your own robotic physical 808. Maybe you just need a Game Boy and a tape machine. But whatever it is that makes you happy in making music, it’s worth following. And so I do enjoy the music Simon has produced:
And great work on the part of the whole band – hope to get to see y’all soon in person.
http://sonicrobots.com/
DIGITAL JUICE
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