Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Practically note-for-note perfect. I assume this was done similarly to a piano roll?

Interesting parlour trick, for sure.

JimK

The museum at House On The Rock in Wisconsin has similar machines that play whole ensembles of instruments. They are pretty amazing to watch. One of them is setup in a space called the Blue Room where the string ensemble plays, what else, the Blue Danube Waltz. A museum staffer was working in the mechanical room for one of them once when I was there. I caught a glimpse of the workings. There was a large brass disk nearly 3 feet in radius studded with pencil-eraser-sized brass posts. It works like a giant music box. As the disk rotates, the posts strike levers that move the mecanical hands on the instruments. Making that work for one instrument would be hard let alone driving 15 or 20 at the same time. All of the instruments are real. Strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion are all part of the show. Keeping them tuned must be a full time job.

sloop_john_b wrote:Practically note-for-note perfect. I assume this was done similarly to a piano roll?

It's a computer activating servos, and a blower providing the wind. And as far as I can hear, it's needing better breath control, but it's 70% of the way there. What it fails to do is WAIL.