294.3M views · Mar 2, 2016 · 4:33 · 2 HN recommenders · 10 mentions · discussed 2018–2025
Wintergatan's video of the Marble Machine, a hand-built music instrument that plays a song using about 2000 marbles on a mechanical clockwork-style mechanism.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN treats it as the canonical example of a Rube Goldberg style musical instrument and a work of love, and references it in threads on unconventional instruments and machines.
“This thing is a work of love.”HN comment, 2019
“This thing is a work of love.”
Original video that inspired the Minecraft recreation
Absolutely. This thing is a work of love. Original video that inspired this Minecraft recreation: this video And the rest of his WIP videos for the "Marble Machine X": link
“The video shows the details pretty well too, and the piece being played is of quite good quality.”
Wooden machine that plays music, with details shown
Here is something similar ("useless" complex machine made from wood) that somebody made to create music: "Wintergatan - Marble Machine (music instrument using 2000 marbles)" this video The video shows the details pretty well too, and the piece being played is of quite good quality. One can see that the machine can just play a pre-configured song, but the operator can add and/or change a lot while running it to create variations of that pre-configured song. The machine is programmable, so that song could be changed.
“which was Rube Goldberg-style machine inspired by mechanical clockwork music devices”
Original Marble Machine video behind Martin's new project
A few years ago (I think it popped up on HN and all over Reddit) Martin made the Marble Machine[0], which was Rube Goldberg-style machine inspired by mechanical clockwork music devices like clock-towers, music boxes, and street organs. A little less than a year, he announced that he would be making a newer version with much more design intent, better precision, and the ability to tear it down to take it on a world tour. I personally have been following the project through the weekly videos he puts up about the various design challenges he's been facing, and how his team has been growing from himself to around 10 people. The growth, scale, and skill seen from Martin has been amazing. The project has gotten to the point that he met with the developers of Fusion 360 because the model had so many parts it almost broke the program[1]. I figured that this video would be interesting to HN because it discusses the project management of such a massive endeavor, and I think the project as a whole might appeal to the hacker/maker side of HN. [0]: this video [1]: link
“I was imagining something like the Marble Machine”
Compared to the marble-powered computer idea
When it said marble-powered computers I was imagining something like the Marble Machine this video Looks like a cool educational project though.
Example of an unconventional instrument
> It's like we're stuck in a codebase that was started centuries ago, and everyone is too afraid to commit a bugfix, let alone a major refactor. This describes everything about the classical music world. They're still playing the same old pieces by the same old composers, on the same old instruments. There's nothing wrong with doing old things, but it's somewhat baffling. As a home guitar player and producer, I can trivially get pedals and amps that practically let me make any sound I want with my guitar, as well as equipment for alternative techniques like the E-bow. If you jump over to the MIDI/DAW world, there's pretty much no limit to what you can do. Some stuff is already coming out that lets you translate humming into MIDI in real-time. Yet people trip over themselves to tell you why there shouldn't be pianos of different sizes, let alone (god forbid) pianos with different keyboard layouts. I can only imagine the reaction of the average classical performer if you were to suggest making a major overhaul to the design or performance of an instrument itself, if not adding in new instruments altogether. As an engineer, I've been doubly baffled by the adherence to doing things traditionally just because that's how it's always been done. The attitude I've perceived from people in the classical world that I know is that they pretty much don't believe there could be a better notation, technique, etc. Meanwhile in the software world, it feels like we have a new coding language e
“Software coding is more flexible than hardware coding, just doesn't look as nice”
Example of hardware programming
The New Turning Omnibus : 66 Excersions in Computer Science by A.K. Dewdney. Different applications of CS principles : link ; link Using AR glasses with [1] to get a "math equation" to send to a 3d printer. [1] link Software coding is more flexible than hardware coding, just doesn't look as nice : this video
“Reminiscent of Wintergaten's Marble Machine, which continues to evolve as Martin Molin works on it.”
Full song with an earlier machine version
Reminiscent of Wintergaten's Marble Machine, which continues to evolve as Martin Molin works on it. Full song, with an earlier version of the machine: this video Martin is working on V3 of the machine. Plenty of updates on Youtube: link
Example of creative work outside the box
link this video link link That's the thing about art: when people make general statements like this one, others will go on to create things purely to see what's outside the box.
“constantly close to self-disassembling from being used, like Wintergatan's Marble Machine”
Example of a contrived ad hoc instrument
She's really good. Here's an example of her covering a well known piece by Morricone: link From the headline I kind of expected it to be about some more contrived apparatus, something that was built ad hoc and is constantly close to self-disassembling from being used, like Wintergatan's Marble Machine: this video
“here's an obligatory link to Wintergatan's Marble Machine”
It's not industrial or metal but here's an obligatory link to Wintergatan's Marble Machine: this video
