Wintergartan Marble Machine, music instrument using 2000 marbles, Karlstad, Sweden


New Instrument Build Prologue #2

Published on Dec 12, 2014

Building and assembling the 128 Teeth gear for the main wheel.
Gear Templates made with Matthias Wandel?s Wonderful Gear Template Generator, check it out together with all the other stuff from Matthias at www.woodgears.ca
To be continued and thanks for watching! / Martin & Wintergatan
 

Prologue #3 Musical Marble Machine - Sizzle Cymbal

Published on Apr 24, 2015

The Musical Marble Machine will be premiered in a video playing a full song as soon it is finished.
Next on the todo is the marble lifting mechanism and the lifting levers for the drums and the bass.
 

Prologue #4 Musical Marble Machine - Vibraphone Funnels

Published on Apr 28, 2015

Redesigning and testing the Vibraphone funnels.
There is still a long list of improvments that will make the machine play tighter and sound better, to mention a few:

- Tighten up gears for smoother timing
- Remove gear noise by varnishing gear teeth
- Build in the vibrato in the vibraphone
- Synch lifting fingers to eachother so they drop the marbles tight
- Build a balanced crankwheel streetorgan style for smoother tempo
- Gear belt from lifting mechanism will have three connected gears to the main wheel and help make better timing
- Mic with real microphones and not camera microphone (and mix and master the audio)
- Getting the drums and the bass ready etcetera etcetera etcetera you know!!! :)
 

Marble Lifting Mechanism - Prologue #5 Musical Marble Machine

Published on May 21, 2015

This video demonstrates the Marble Lifting Mechanism. Following prologue videos will cover how it was constructed.
Camera audio compression makes gears and marbles sound super loud, this will not be a problem later on when the machine is recorded playing music as most of the instruments are recorded with a direct line signal and correct placement of microphones will make for a good signal to noise ratio.
The three plastic buckets are temporary and there for this test run only.

The Musical Marble Machine will be premiered in a video playing a full song as soon it is finished. ETA: Summer 2015.
 

Flywheel - Prologue #7 Musical Marble Machine

Published on Sep 1, 2015

Flywheel!

Built a flywheel to help with the timekeeping. More on all the other progress at another time, the Machine is starting to play music now. The Machine will be premiered playing a full song in a video as soon as it is finished.
All the best!
 

Kick Drum Works! - Marble Machine

Published on Sep 3, 2015

Kick Drum Works! Please Share and Enjoy!

Today i understand how Dr. Frankenstein must have felt when he saw those first little movements in the fingers of his monster. It feels like the next step with the machine now will be to open up the roof and let the lightning strike it.
I"ll cover that in upcoming videos.

The Kick Drum is made out of a coaster from a well known swedish furniture company and a triangular contact michrophone from swedish microphone maker Ehrlund.
 

The Marble Machine is Finished! 2000 marbles, 3000 parts

Published on Feb 26, 2016

(Update: After sending out that megatrailer our leap-day release date is suddenly less certain. So if not today(29) we will be trying again tomorrow. Hopefully we?ve now learned to not cry wolf like that again. To be positive you could argue that it makes sense that the release itself also goes in the same trial, error and failure - vein as the whole buildingprocess has done. So, in that sense, the symmetry is intact.

Best! / M)

Video Premiere February 29:th 2016

So after 14 months of building, the Marble Machine is finished.
A special day for us.
 

Wintergatan - Marble Machine (music instrument using 2000 marbles)

Published on Mar 1, 2016

Marble Machine built and composed by Martin Molin
Video filmed and edited by Hannes Knutsson

Costume designed by Angelique Nagtegaal

Swedish band Wintergatan will play live concerts starting from summer 2016.
 
Article "The most mesmerising video you'll watch today: Musician creates bizarre instrument that uses 2,000 MARBLES (and some impressive engineering) to play tune"

Martin Molin, 33, debuted the amazing marble machine this week
The music box was supposed to take two months build but took 14
It features drums, cymbals, a vibraphone and bass
Molin operates it with a handcrank and it can play any style of music
He is the lead musician in Swedish band, Wintergarten

by Harriet Mallinson
March 2, 2016
 

Marble Machine X - Revisiting the First Machine

Published on Feb 15, 2017

To build Marble Machine X we start by revisiting the first machine and taking some measurements. Karin, Olof and Marius are helping me out and they are working on the first CAD model of the Machine in Fusion 360 and these measurements is our starting point.
 
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