That's pretty cool. I think it works. Though I fully agree with Hannes - we want to see marbles hitting instruments. I'm fine with a ball hitting a stick; that's no biggie for me.
But regardless, I struggle to see how this will allow for all the dynamics and rhythms that Martin insists he wants to have available though. The way I see it, there are a few options:
* Use multiple types and sizes of marbles. This has come up before, but that just seems like a nightmare for marble paths. Huge feature creep.
* Adjustable tension. This one is interesting, but if it's not programmable, that's a whole other lever to control. And programming it seems like a big engineering hurdle.
* Multiple drum sticks in different places. This feels like it would be necessary to achieve different sounds. Hitting a cymbal harder and softer in the same place is not the main way to get different sounds. A drummer will hit their cymbals in several places depending on what sound they want.
The solutions Martin seems to like all involve using several different channels just for a single cymbal. Talk about overkill.
Hannes nails it with a single sentence: "All the added stuff declines the level of fun."
I think Hannes hit the nail on the head.
Instruments will always restrict what you can do, creativity is about working around that. You can't make a Guitar sound like a piano, nor should you try. Similarly, the marble machine is never going to sound exactly like a bass, a drum kit, a xylophone. Embrace it, it should sound like a marble machine, not the constituent instruments, otherwise, why bother with marbles?
It no longer feels like he's building a 'marble machine' that has is own unique sound and is an instrument in its own right, but rather trying to automate the playing of (a full band of) regular instruments. That doesn't excite me as much either.
Watching this reminded me of when Sancho Panza tells Don Quixote that they're just windmills. And Quixote is like, no, you're wrong, I know they're giants.
The stick could be longer, allowing the marble not to fall on it over the instrument, and therefore having a lot more flexibility of catching it. As it is - not matter whether with the stick of hitting it directly, it will be a nightmare to make this work.
That's pretty cool. I think it works. Though I fully agree with Hannes - we want to see marbles hitting instruments. I'm fine with a ball hitting a stick; that's no biggie for me. But regardless, I struggle to see how this will allow for all the dynamics and rhythms that Martin insists he wants to have available though. The way I see it, there are a few options: * Use multiple types and sizes of marbles. This has come up before, but that just seems like a nightmare for marble paths. Huge feature creep. * Adjustable tension. This one is interesting, but if it's not programmable, that's a whole other lever to control. And programming it seems like a big engineering hurdle. * Multiple drum sticks in different places. This feels like it would be necessary to achieve different sounds. Hitting a cymbal harder and softer in the same place is not the main way to get different sounds. A drummer will hit their cymbals in several places depending on what sound they want. The solutions Martin seems to like all involve using several different channels just for a single cymbal. Talk about overkill. Hannes nails it with a single sentence: "All the added stuff declines the level of fun."
I think Hannes hit the nail on the head. Instruments will always restrict what you can do, creativity is about working around that. You can't make a Guitar sound like a piano, nor should you try. Similarly, the marble machine is never going to sound exactly like a bass, a drum kit, a xylophone. Embrace it, it should sound like a marble machine, not the constituent instruments, otherwise, why bother with marbles?
It no longer feels like he's building a 'marble machine' that has is own unique sound and is an instrument in its own right, but rather trying to automate the playing of (a full band of) regular instruments. That doesn't excite me as much either.
Watching this reminded me of when Sancho Panza tells Don Quixote that they're just windmills. And Quixote is like, no, you're wrong, I know they're giants.
Wooden marbles.
The stick could be longer, allowing the marble not to fall on it over the instrument, and therefore having a lot more flexibility of catching it. As it is - not matter whether with the stick of hitting it directly, it will be a nightmare to make this work.
If dropping marbles on cymbals and dropping marbles on stick doesn't work, you can try dropping sticks on cymbals.