Bit-52s, all-automated band, James Cochrane, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Article "This guy's cover band is better than yours because robots"

by Lorraine Murphy
January 14, 2014

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The Bit-52's The World's Greatest Robot Parts Band playing The B-52's - Rock Lobster

Uploaded on Sep 7, 2010

What do you get when you combine retro computer parts with an up and coming robot band?

The Bit-52's

This idea has been simmering in my mind for the last couple of years and after many months of procrastinating it is finally complete. I was also motivated to finish my robot band after seeing a YouTube Video "The Trons" from pieplateindustries in New Zealand.

The Bit-52's consist of:

Male vocals - TI99/4a computer, speech synthesizer and terminal emulator ii module
Back-up female vocals - Two HP Scanjet 3C scanners (Not Printers), UBunto and sjetplay written by NuGanjaTron
The Guitar, Keyboard, Cow Bell, Cymbal and Tambourine are all controlled by various types of push/pull solenoinds for a total of 23. The Solenoids are powered by four ULN2803 darlington drivers and everything is controlled by two PIC16F84A microcontrollers.

Some viewers have mentioned issues with respect to timing. What they do not realize solenoids are mechanical devices and their performance are affected by many factors. Tempurature is a big factor, the solenoids heat up very quickly and the magnetic field strength decreases which slows the response time and piston strength. If you do not press down on the fret board hard enough the string will tend to waver causing it to sound out of tune. All the solenoids were taken out of surplus junk equipment and each are being used for applications for which they weren't designed for. Sure if you want to spend a $1000 you can get stronger and faster actuators. So quit complaining and enjoy the video for which it was intended for.....to put a smile on your face.

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EOL Robot Band covers The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson

Uploaded on Jul 17, 2011

Intially I was working on my own version of Mad World and I did complete it however the Robot Cello didn't work out because the sound of the solenoids and stepper motor was drowning out the song. The Cello also did a lousy job of playing long notes. The printer head would exceed the left or right limit and change direction causing an interuption to the note being played (maybe a wide carriage printer will work better for long notes?). Slowing down the stepper motor did not work because it didn't generate enough movement to create a sound with the bow. So I scrapped the project altogether. One night I was working on the Cello and the stepper motor started to jitter almost ripping the Cello sting and Bow apart. As I was jumping over to the power switch I noticed that the jittery sound reminded me of a song. That song turned out to be The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson. I programmed a small part for the Cello and it sounded great. Who would have ever though to use a Cello for that song? 2 months later.... my video was complete. So Enjoy. I may follow up with a another video showing what circuits, parts and tools that were used to make these robots.

Muting the guitar strings was a bitch but if you look at the solenoids on Fret 4 and 8 you will see that I covered the pads with foam and velvet. It is soft enough to stop the strings from vibrating.

Some people have been asking about a keyboard sound, Yes there is one but it had such a small part in the song I did not video tape it. However you can see it in action in my other video "The Bit-52's Rock Lobster"

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Little Drummer Boy Performed by Robot Snare Drum and HP Scanner

Uploaded on Dec 12, 2011

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Robot Band covers Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger featuring Stephen Hawkings DECtalk Vocals

Published on Mar 26, 2012

In my previous videos I have received alot of comments requesting the vocal styles of Stephen Hawkings so your wish is my command. This is song is based on the group Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger"

Vocals Digital DECtalk Express play both the male and female vocals (the same unit as Stephen Hawking used back in the 80's) and it is controlled by a Genesi linux box
Robot Snare, Robot Bass Drum and Tambourine
Robot Keyboard and my trusty old HP Scanner

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Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know - Old School Computer Remix

Published on Sep 28, 2012.

HP Scanjet 3C as the vocals. It lags a bit due to the fast paced vocals. In order for the stepper motor to play a note it has to be moving and with that large carriage it takes a few milli seconds before it can play a note. It doesn't sound like a lot of time but stretch that over a 4 minute song and voila...out of sync. Programming does help to compensate but it is not perfect.
Amiga 600 Bass on left audio output and Guitar on right audio output
Each audio channel was feed into an oscilloscope
2 Harddrives as the drums and cymbal
Xylophone as the Xylophone (duh) my apologies glockenspiel
Both the Harddrive and Xylophone are controlled by one PIC16F84A mircocontroller

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Robot Band The Bit-52's cover Private Idaho by The B-52's

Published on Mar 30, 2014

Fred's vocals by DECTalk Express which is also used by Stephen Hawking. Cindy and Kate's vocals utilized two HP Scanjet 3C flatbed scanners. The robot guitar, keyboard, snare and bass drum all are controlled with a couple of PIC16F84A microcontrollers.

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Robot Glockenspiel Performs Popcorn

Published on Apr 6, 2015

In my previous video "Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know - Old School Computer Remix" I was in a rush and built a robot glockenspiel with solenoids, wooden dowels, paperclips and elastic bands. It worked but wasn't very reliable so I decided to make another more professional one. This one contains 8 servos and is powered by an Arduino UNO, MIDI shield and Adafruit's 16 channel I2C servo driver. My next project is to finish my robotic violin player.