No comment on this one just yet; I’ll have to pick my jaw up off the floor. Amidst a sea of new robotic percussion, this Wii-remote-controlled, Max/MSP-based mini-ensemble of wooden African percussion is musical, expressive, and downright stunning. I love the mechanical (literally and musically) grooves, and with a single human controlling it live, it’s true to the one-man-band history of these sorts of instruments. “One human, three machines, rhythm,” says the video description. I hope to do some research and share more soon, but I can’t resist sharing the results now.

Thanks to Patrick Flanagan for the tip on his work. Patrick predicts that “this is the beginning of steamfunk.”

Note: please see comments for more on what’s happening; Patrick is using robotics to effectively augment his own personal performance and improvisation, allowing him to play multiple instruments at once. He is actually playing in one of the available modes, however, and has some nice reflections on what he’s doing. I’ll follow up with more details – as I said, wanted to give you a peek at the video first. So, before you jump to conclusions, ask about what’s unclear or what you’d like to know. We’ve got the artist here to discuss.

The Body, The Circuit, The Computer and The Voice: robot cowboy from STEIM Amsterdam on Vimeo.

If you want to look for some of the roots of live electronic musical performance, STEIM is one place to start. Founded in 1969 by a group of Dutch composers (Misha Mengelberg, Louis Andriessen, Peter Schat, Dick Raaymakers, Jan van Vlijmen, Reinbert de Leeuw, and Konrad Boehmer), and led by the late “founding father” Michel Waisvisz, it has remained an important hub for inventing music technologies. It was one of the first places that gave an indication that these kind of experiments could extend beyond academic labs into grassroots DIY movements and DJ/VJ club culture alike.

Amsterdam has been looking to do a Handmade Music series for a while, and this Wednesday we kick it off. There’s a huge lineup, so I’m packing two video cameras and one audio recorder into my luggage today before flying out.

You can check out the whole lineup on the STEIM blog, for a sense of what the Dutch DIY community is up to:
Feb 17 2010: Hotpot Lab #2 – Handmade Music Amsterdam

The event is Wednesday night; doors open at 20:00 and it’s free. See the STEIM concerts page.

I’ll also be doing an informal “State of the Union” address on the state of DIY tech, where things might go, and where people may get involved – and most importantly, what we can do to make these developments musically productive. One of the things that came out of comments last week is that we need better documentation. If people want to get involved in a broader community, outside even our traditional music community, DIY platforms for software and hardware must first be better documented, more usable, and more accessible.

Anyway, I’m thrilled to have a chance to bridge New Amsterdam (NYC) with Old Amsterdam, and start that conversation by listening and learning from a great group of people. Stay tuned.

We’ll have some guest posts through the week while I’m traveling, as well, and I’ll be back on home soil next week.

The Machine Orchestra explodes the idea of a laptop orchestra, building a full-blown machine ensemble of the future. We turn to guest writer Jordan, a member of the ensemble, to look behind the scenes in a couple of articles. Rejoin us for part two later this week. -Ed.

Welcome to the world of Dr. Ajay Kapur and Michael Darling, the two California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) professors behind a novel laptop powered ensemble, the KarmetiK Machine Orchestra. Inspired by the work of visionary laptop ensemble pioneers and long-time friends Dan Trueman, Perry Cook (PLORk) and Ge Wang (SLOrk), Kapur has assembled a powerhouse of technical minds and creative musicians to create a laptop group unique in its own right. Backed by Kapur’s background in Musical Robotics and sensor systems, and Darling’s years of experience in technical theater design and mechanical engineering, the Machine Orchestra is taking the “laptop ensemble” into new territories.

With both the recent posts on musical robotics here on CDM and the debut of the Machine Orchestra at REDCAT / Walt Disney Theatre (LA) just days away, what better time to introduce the Machine Orchestra? The following is the first of a series of posts which I will be guest-writing here at CDM on the creation of the Machine Orchestra, the artists behind it, and the all-new undergraduate powerhouse that is the CalArts Music Technology: Intelligence, Interaction, and Design (MTIID) program.

For today’s article, I got to sit down and pick the minds of the conductors themselves, so without further ado, welcome Ajay Kapur and Michael Darling.

KarmetiK Machine Orchestra – REDCAT Preview from KarmetiK on Vimeo.

J.H: Ajay, How did you get started with musical robotics?

A.K: I was fortunate enough to study with Eric Singer in Brooklyn with LEMUR. He taught me the world of microchips and introduced me to mechanical engineering (Eric, thanks for showing me how to use a mill). Two years later, I crossed paths with the world-famous Trimpin, who has changed my life forever. Completely inspired, I began building my first robot, the MahaDeviBot—a robotic percussionist that models an Indian Goddess with 12 arms playing multiple instruments.

J.H: What is the Machine Orchestra?

A.K: The Machine Orchestra stems from the idea of localized sound. Inspired by the hemispherical speakers used by PLOrk and SLOrk, our goal is to take localization a step further, by distributing robots and instruments throughout a venue so that the audience can see and hear how the sounds are being created on stage. My aesthetic involves the physicality of performance– showing the audience what the electronic performers are doing through the use of gestural interfaces and robotic kinetics. The Machine Orchestra debut on Jan 27 has over 10 performers, 43 actuators, and 65 speakers. Very exciting. Check out our website for a detailed description of what to expect.

J.H: Michael, how did you get involved with Ajay and what is your involvement in The Machine Orchestra?

Michael Darling: Well this whole thing started as random conversations and a student’s idea. My student Matt Setzer had been using the programming and interface techniques he was getting from Ajay and the fabrication skills he was getting from me in his personal art making. After Matt forced Ajay and I to meet, what I remember from our first meeting is that we met in a hallway, walked down the hallway, and by the end of our short walk we had hatched a plan of collaboration …In the Machine Orchestra, I mentor and direct the physical and tangible aspects of the project. At this point, I create the physical armature that lets the robotic instruments perform. I also teach and guide the exploration and development of the design, mechanical and structural aesthetic. I am working with Jeremiah Thies (CalArts Theater Faculty) who has brought us his expertise in video design and technology.

J.H: What is the visual aesthetic of The Machine Orchestra?

M.D: When I started in on this project Ajay had already been building robot instruments for some time and was using a product called 80/20 which is basically industrial LEGO. It worked great except for the fact that it looked like 80/20 and that drove me crazy… I have always seen these robots as individualized organic forms and the construction of them to be an additive process with each aspect building off the next. At this point, we are trying to hide the fact we are making this out of scrap and surplus. I think we are still looking for what will physically make the Machine Orchestra look like “ours”.

J.H: What might we expect from the Machine Orchestra in the future?

A.K: This project is ready to tour. After our show in January, I hope we can start performing all over the world. We have made all the robots travel-ready and they can fit in suitcases…coming to a city near you! We also have 3 new robots in the works, but what they are remains a secret :).

Legendary artist Pat Metheny has gone to robotics for his next album, and you can finally see a first glimpse at what the results look like. The Orchestrion is a project by the musical robotic specialists LEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots).

That’s all I’ll say for now, but I definitely will be working to cover this story in more detail.

After more than a year of work and collaboration, I am extremely excited to tell you about the Orchestrion Project. In 2007, 17-time Grammy-winning jazz artist Pat Metheny came to LEMUR with the idea to produce an album and tour backed entirely by robotic musical instruments. This led to a year-long project where we produced an orchestra of nearly 40 robotic instruments, including GuitarBots, mallet instruments and a large array of percussion. These instruments, augmented with several instruments by other roboticists, comprise the Orchestrion, a robotic orchestra entirely under Pat’s compositional and improvisational control.

Pat spent the better part of 2008 composing for and recording with these instruments. The result is a new album entitled Orchestrion, scheduled for release on January 26, 2010. I’ve had the pleasure to preview the album and see Pat perform in studio with the Orchestrion. I and others who have heard and seen the Orchestrion Project believe it is some of the best music Pat has ever produced.

From February to May 2010, Pat will be touring the world with the Orchestrion. I am eagerly looking forward to the tour and the exposure it will bring to our art form and the great music produced by Pat Metheny with these instruments. When Orchestrion comes to your city, it is a performance not to be missed.

I would like to personally thank all of the LEMUR artists and apprentices who worked on this project. I especially want to thank Leif Krinkle and Boris Klompus – without their hard work and dedication, the extraordinary results we achieved would not have been possible.

This project, along with other projects, performances and installations we’re working on in New York and Pittsburgh, should make 2010 a banner year for LEMUR. I hope we’ll have the opportunity to share our work with you.

We’ll have the album on January 26, and the tour in February.

Thanks to Brian Cass of the Overclock Orchestra.

So, your human drummer can’t bang out the elaborate breakcore beats you’ve composed, huh? Build your own robotic replacement, putting the magic of positronics into rhythm.

That’s what the folks of Texas Central Positronics and the David Crowder Band have done with Steve_3po, the robotic drummer. It brings new meaning to “drum machine,” blending acoustic sound with programmed rhythms.

The secret to controlling this machine with MIDI is none other than one of our favorite kits, Highly Liquid’s MIDI Decoder. For more on that side of things, see the recent story by Mike Una here on CDM:

DIY MIDI In, MIDI Out For Your Gear: New Kits from HighlyLiquid

The challenging part, of course, is building the robotics. The talented creators at Texas State Technical College, including mechanical engineers Josh Caldwell and Eli Hernandez, worked with “bwack” (the father and son Bwack team) to create Steve. You can read the complete story at Texas Central Positronics, in a post from October:

Introducing – Steve

“bwack” has done other terrific work in the past, including a 760-pound, large-format MPC that stands seven feet tall. And they say drum machines have no soul.

Thanks to Richard Devine for finding this, and Simon Stansfield for bringing it to our attention.

This instrument is not alone among robotic drummers, of course; here are a couple of other top picks:

Glastonbury Festival 2008 was host to this fantastic-looking robotic drummer with four arms and a combination of hydraulics and servos. Sadly, as often happens at these festivals, the credits for who created this lovely invention appear to be lost. Anyone out there know the origins of the work?

Another fine example of robotic drumming comes in the form of Haile, by Georgia Tech’s Gil Weinberg and Scott Driscoll. Haile not only plays the drums, but responds intelligently (via computer) to “heard” sounds and rhythmic patterns. A very early CDM story talked to the creators about how they pulled off the trick.

But wait — there’s more! There are robots responding to plants and playing bamboo and Chinese instruments, an all-robotic band, robotic Theremins, robotic knives, Taiko drummers, robots that play Guitar Hero for you, Game Boy-controller robotic drum machines, Roombas controlled by MIDI, robotic Ballet Mechanique instruments, and, for the holidays, Robotic sleigh ride-playing chimes.

For ensembles filled with unique and creative robotic-powered instruments, look no further than the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, which recently relocated from here in NYC to tech capital Pittsburgh. One of the most exquisite recent creations from a residency with this group is Zemi17’s wonderful Gamelatron, which, as the name implies, robotifies the Indonesian gamelan ensemble. That instrument visited Handmade Music; here it is at Galapagos in Brooklyn from earlier this year:

Also in the robotic gamelan category, here is Rui Penha’s own contribution (independent of the other project, believe it or not):

Robotic Gamelan from Rui Penha on Vimeo.

A network of several independent robots play some of the javanese gamelan instruments: 2 bonangs, 2 demungs, 3 kenongs, 1 saron, 2 peking and 1 slentem, some gongs and an additional slentem in the near future. This network is controlled by a computer sending serial information using Max/MSP.

In this specific case, all the robots are being played using custom controllers made out of an Ikea salad bowl, an Arduino and two ultrasonic distance sensors.

Best of all, here is Processing-based software for arranging sequences gamelan-style, which can be used to control this instrument (or others). It’s funny, as I had built a similar circular sequencer which I showed briefly in Dublin at the DEAF fest – so perhaps the age of circular, cyclical sequencers is here, to replace all these rectangular step sequencers we’ve had so long. (Similar notation is sometimes used in the analysis of gamelan cycles.)

GameLan from Rui Penha on Vimeo.

To me, most beautiful of all is a set of work called “Felix’s Machines”:

From the description — thanks to opuswerk in comments for reminding me of this:

The Artist, Felix Thorn created this monster which was filmed by Tom Swindell, Directed by Tom Mansfield and edited by Chris Barnet.

Extract from composition: ‘Glide’ recorded and filmed at Gasworks winter 2008. www.felixsmachines.com

www.youtube/tomswindell

Chris Barnet the editor channel is here www.youtube.com/user/chrismicrofilm

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

Updated: Still more wonderful creations…

Byeong Sam Joen’s “Telematic” Drum Circle, far from the more automated selections here, imagines robotics as a way of encouraging interaction in a group.

Telematic Drum Circle (The 9th Session) @ Siggraph Asia 2008 in Singapore from Byeong Sam Jeon on Vimeo.

Telematic Drum Circle (The 9th Session) @ Siggraph Asia 2008 in Singapore

Website: TelematicDrumCircle.net

Artist: Byeong Sam Jeon (BSJeon.net)

Period: 12/11/2008-12/13/2008

Siggraph Asia 2008: Suntec International Convention Centre (Singapore)

Robotic Installation: Darren Communication Center @ Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (USA)

It’s designed to be used interactively over the Web. Kyle McDonald has even hacked it for MIDI support:

Telematic Drum Circle (Hacked) from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.

Thanks to our friend, the resourceful and talented Memo Akten, for bringing this to our attention.

Amanda Ervin makes elegant noise-making apparatuses from simple circuits, and is able to share that process with her students (see her classes among 3rd Ward’s Circuits lineup). She’s going to show off some of her latest creations at the open showcase of Handmade Music Brooklyn, our monthly party + science fair + musical performance + ruckus. (More details soon on Handmade Music events that are springing up worldwide, thanks to the hard work and creativity of the DIY music community!)

What really impresses me about these projects is that Amanda has made both the project and the curriculum – that is, she can teach you to make these, too! It’s often easier to make something for yourself alone than it is to make it reproducible, so I do admire that in a design.

If you’re in the New York area, you can catch the event free, Thursday evening September 17. (Directions) If not, we’re working with 3rd Ward on ways to translate the educational experience online.

Here’s a musical excerpt from Amanda, as well:
Animal.mp3

Handmade Music info: More on Amanda’s work (with additional sounds and videos) on our Handmade Music site:

Handmade Music Brooklyn: Amanda Ervin’s Circuits, Open Call

Want to contribute your work? If you can make it to NYC this month, we’d love to present your work. All projects, all media (electronic, acoustic, hardware, software), and all levels of functionality (working, partially working, in-progress, completely broken) are welcome!

Handmade Music 9/17 Call for Works [Google Docs form, also embedded after the jump]

Voltage from Bam Studio on Vimeo.

Oh, sure, it’s all fun and games until your modular robots have a little too much fun and your rig erupts into a fireball.

But then, modular synthesis fans – you understand, nonetheless.

William Paiva sends us his work as one of the animators and writes:

Hi everybody. I’m a reader of both Create Digital Music and Create Digital Motion, and I’ve just uploaded to Vimeo and to YouTube a short animation film about robots and synths. I think you might like it. Reards.

And you have crazy, crazy dreams, man. Brilliant work. Here’s the team:

Directed by:
Filippe Lyra e William Paiva

Produced by:
Barros Melo Animation Studio

Director of photography:
Filippe Lyra e William Paiva

Animation:
Filippe Lyra
William Paiva
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
Leo D.
Tony Farias

Design:
Filippe Lyra
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
William Paiva
Natalia Franca

Illustration:
Filippe Lyra
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
William Paiva
Natalia Franca

Editor(s):
William Paiva
Leo D.
Filippe Lyra

Sound:
William Paiva e Leo D

Music:
William Paiva e Leo D

Just like modular synthesizers, people connect with each other in order to achieve diverse objectives. In Voltage, robots, half-human and half-synthesizer, powered by a huge amount of energy, connect to each other in an electric and chaotic trance.

Be sure to check out William’s blog. [in Portuguese, which may get named as 2009's Language of Awesomeness on CDM.]

Electronics and code and whatnot are great fun, but a lot of people want to know, how can they add actual, physical motion to a project? I’ve rounded up the last few odds and ends from the London Music Hackday organized in the offices of The Guardian, and came across Alistair MacDonald and Mr. Duck’s Percussion Machine, which uses Arduino with servos to strike beer bottles.

Here’s the perspective of the non-techie on the affair from the newspaper’s music blog:
Beats and geeks at Music Hack Day

Of course, I’ve heard from at least a couple of people that for this audience, you’re not entirely ready to do all your work in the cloud. APIs. Yawn – the computer musician audience still is happiest with as much CPU power as they can muster, live sound making in native code on a local machine, and, you know – rocking out. But that to me is a bit interesting in itself.

Also from the hackday:

While the Arduino is ideal for hard projects, software projects turn to the fuzzy textile-friendly Arduino LilyPad. (Side note: the LilyPad turns out not quite the perfect tool for all occasions, and a discussion of all soft electronics may be what’s next. But it is a good starting point.)

Rain Ashford used the LilyPad to make an interactive felt cat named TwinkleStarduino. Just don’t cross the streams – er, threads: “Yep – all the components are connected by conductive thread – none of these must touch each other or you’ll get a short circuit – which is a challenge in itself :-)”

Rain’s blog post discusses some of the challenges of the project and some of the things that went wrong, which I quite like. (One of the goals I set out for our own music hackday last month was to break s***.)

Musichackday 2009 – my hack: TwinkleStarduino [I like cats]

For fans of RjDj, the interactive music engine for the iPhone and iPod touch, here’s an example of the sort of work you can hack together in a day with the help of patching environment Pd:

ShakeNRoll by ookoi

Lastly, photos by organizer Dave Haynes:

And yes, it sounds like the EchoNest is interested in doing a hackday here in America. And with the help of the site we’re building, noisepages, we definitely plan more hackdays on CDM, too, with a CDM-style focus. Stay tuned.

Greensboro, NC-based art music band Invisible are indiscriminate about technology – in a good way. Plastic cups, keyboards, typewriters, machines controlled by robotics, if it’s in the trash or at a thrift store, it has a place in the band. Sequences are executed in physical, radial player instruments, without a controlling computer anywhere in site. As voicemail tapes get sampled and typewriters tap lines of absurdist lyrics as each typed letter plays a piano note, something magical happens. Perhaps it’s that, novelty aside, somehow these sound-making objects come together for a reason – the machines assemble in the way the band does. And then a chair is a marimba.

The Rhythm 1001 takes “tangible” to a whole new level — everything sequenced is mechanical, triggering found objects. The video above features the sequencer at Charlottesville, Virginia’s Second Street Gallery. (Gents, if you ever visit Brooklyn…) Thanks to Evan Hill for the tip.

Is it “Digital Music”? I think it is very deeply so, perhaps because the objects get treated as discrete musical events (read: percussion).

Incidentally, guys, I agree with a lot of things you’re saying about the use of computers for music, but HAL here tell me he won’t let me fr

Transmission ends.

Handmade Music hits Brooklyn again Thursday night with a terrific lineup:

• Robotic gamelan instruments with the Gamelatron, created by Zemi17 and the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (LEMUR) – check the video above!
• Rescued PDAs and iPods making music, with the Linux-powered ReWare project (which even allows you to run Pd on an old iPod), by Hans-Christoph Steiner – expect a box full of handhelds making noise
• Gestural Android handheld music, as I demonstrate the possibilities of the Google Android platform and G1 phone for OSC
• The Arduino-based Hard/Soft synth, designed by Gijs Gieskes and built by MAKE’s Collin Cunningham

Full project details at:

http://handmademusic.noisepages.com/

How to participate:

Online! Wherever you are in the world, you can join our live video stream:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cdm-tv

Apologies: while a test of the connection had worked for us last time, network performance was inexplicably poor. We’ll try to work on a better solution for the future. It’s the challenge of relying on a connection other than your own.

Schedule:

7:00p Online chat with the creators

7:30p Public event starts

8:00p Performances + demos

You can also ask questions to our creators by leaving them in comments here, or the day of / during the stream by sending a Twitter message with hashtag #cdmtv. (Follow CDM on Twitter) We’ll have clips of the show available by Friday

In NYC:

FREE, at Brooklyn’s 3rd Ward, 7:30p Thursday. rsvp@3rdward.com or on Facebook

Directions

3rd Ward

Thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon for the free beer, plus our co-organizers at MAKE, Etsy, and XLR8R.

Last-minute NYC-area projects! If you have a project you want to bring, we will have a PA, amp, and projector. We welcome those last-minute projects that manage to come together. Just bring it by and find me at about 7p.

In Your Neighborhood:

We have folks interested in starting up Handmade Music around the US and internationally. Sign up via Google Docs if you have any interest in helping organize (no commitment) and expect information in the next couple of weeks.