Members Monday Weekly Update October 8th 2018

Hey Everyone, 

thank you all for really thoughtful questions, appreciate it. 

Emma and Elaine helped me pick out 20 of the questions too keep it somewhat readable!

But first a quick note about the picture: My new screw assortment! Model XXXL OVERKILL HAHA! All makers dream, I have every machine screw head type in every length... haha. Makes it so fun to work on the machine I can always design something and pull out a 55mm M8 Flat head bolt whenever I need it. Will make an assortment system in the future. 

Ok now to the questions:

1: Kyle Welsby 

I have a question, do you update the CAD project with any hand-made alterations as you go along? 

Hitting the nail there right away :) I should do that, and I do it sometimes, but not always. If the CAD is going to be able to produce perfect blueprints that anyone can build a MMX from, I have to do that. I am thinking of having professional CAD-people clean up the whole CAD project once the machine is finished, hopefully they can spot all changes and correct afterwards.

2: Andrew Sharpe

Are there any other exciting project ideas you’ve had during the last 18 months of marble machine x you can share with us?

I have several instrument ideas that I had to put on ice, one is a music box mechanical keyboard. Think of it like a Rhodes piano, or a Celesta, but instead of hammers hitting tiles, you have music box metal tongues to produce the sound. And two rows of tongues to make the shimmering vibrato effect used on the massive music boxes at speelklok museum. 
A music box keyboard!


3: Filamax

Just as a bit of brainstorm, do you think you could modify the xylophone into a marimba for a more unique sound?

Yes! I think you mean from Vibraphone to marimba. If you put dampening on a vibraphone, you get a much shorter sound, like the “Little Mermaid” theme from Disney! I am planning to have a dampening lever on the Vibraphone on the MMX to control the sustain, much like you have on a normal Vibraphone. This feature didn’t exist on the first machine.

The term “Xylofon” is often used to describe the instruments Vibraphone and Glockenspiel. Vibraphone and Glockenspiel has tiles of metal with long sustain whereas Xylofon and Marimba has plates from wood with short sustain, probably you meant vibraphone! But “Xylofon” is so commonly used to describe this group of instruments so even I say Xylofon sometimes to just make conversation easier, although It hurts me when I contribute to this mixing up of terminology :)

Glockenspiel is smaller than vibraphone, higher pitch, no vibrato, no resonance pipes.

Xylofon is smaller than Marimba, higher pitch.

4: Homunkoloss

I would like to know if we get to see/hear the modulin again? Or if you will make a new improved one?

Yes! I am planning a version 2.0. Where some of the modules will be placed in a base station, and some in the handheld instrument, to make it more ergonomic. That thing weighs so much. I had an email from Dieter Doepfer, the guy inventing the Deeper modules a week ago. It was the first time he had seen the modulin and he was happy about how I used their products which made me happy. Definitely will make an updated V2 for the World Tour and I am thinking maybe doing that as an open source project and asking for help with the development so we can do a really serious thing out of it.

5: oldstancher

How's the rest of the band doing? Do you guys keep in touch at all?

I talked to Evelina yesterday, she is working on a solo album with Marcus! It is a little bit hard on the band that I got lost in another round of building, I promised the audience on our last tour to release new music before making another MMX but then the MMX took hold on me again. But I am going to Sweden over Christmas and will meet the band again at that time. Looking very much forward to playing music with them again!

6: DJRockinRob

Are there plans to motorize the MMX? I get the novelty and nostalgia of hand cranking but with as advanced as your muting system is, theoretically you could motorize it and save your energy for back to back multi hour concerts.

When I first saw your question I was like, no, I just have to develop the muscles needed :) Or we can take turns turning the thing. But in another way, a motorized version could have another aesthethical point. I think I can play music for a whole hour with this machine on muscle power only, especially since the foot pedal gives you good variation. You can also use left and right hand alternating, same with left and right foot. So perhaps it will be possible to do it!

7: Paul D. Zinn, Jr.

What are your thoughts about the idea of collaboration and how to do it well? Big projects need input... but also guidance by an individual... Do you think you've found that ballance? If yes why? if no what would you do differently?  

Great question, I have been completely tormented by my inability to find this balance. It is a really strange position to be offered help from thousands of people but not having the brain capacity to sort it through. Now I have Chris, the project manager, and we will ask for help in next video again! Much like I did on the connecting rods. I think I really want to open up the project from now, and also include people in the building of the music instruments for the world tour, Modulin 2.0, 90 degree kick drum, music box keyboard, disc changing music box.

8: Magicanz

How is fika in France? Is it kind of the same deal? Do you still have fika regularly?

No fika anymore! The custom here is to have an ”apero”  small drink at 5 o’clock everyday. That’s the French version of fika plus constant coffee drinking in cafes. 

9: Matt Travers

What's your favorite Daft Punk album?

Random Access Memory, love it, and the process they used to make it. Only thing is too many splash cymbals :)

10: happy_loving_vegan

What is your favourite joke of all time?

I like the ending of the animal rights/c word joke from Ricky Gervais in the show Humanity, towards the ending of the show. Its the one i came to think of right now anyway.  

After that it’s a great comment on the flaws of political correctness. 

Edit: I didn’t see your username when answering the question so it was only happy coincidence it was about animal rights. 

11: Alexander

How many instruments do you own in all, both ones you bought and ones you have made yourself? I'm curious. =]

I actually have no clue, I’ve never counted them, it could be 3 figures!

12: Mike Monaco

How many MMX techs will you need to reprogram/swap in and out the programming wheel sections? Will they be on stage adding to the show somehow while they change the songs, or will they just run in and out with the wheel sections and work out of site?

I would like the technicians to be visible somewhere on the side of the stage so that the audience can see them working. We have made the programming plate twice as big so now we are using 4 plates instead of 8. And I think we could use as many as 8 technicians for the reprogramming, 2 per play. 

13: Max Bainrot

Where do you find the godlike motivation to stick to a project like this for so long and still love it as much as you do?

The inspiration comes from 2 sources. The first is the pure fact that I am so excited about this idea and it doesn’t let me go until I’ve finished it. But I’ve been excited for such a long time that I am starting to get really tired of being excited, so then I am drawing on the inspiration from the second source. And that is that I am addicted to the psychological state of “flow”. In the “flow” you can actually hide from all other problems in life. So while I am solving a problem with a marble divider I am unaware of the fact that I will one day die. Haha… In that sense it’s easier to stay focused inside the warm flow than exposed to the outside reality. 

14: Tom Oliver Zürner

Is Germany on the list of venues?

YES! Definitely!

15: Genie W

Have you come up with a way to reprogram the machine reliably on stage?

Yes, we are lasercutting thin plastic templates for each plate and each song. This means that programming will cease to be - putting a magnet where there is a hole in the plate. The DXF file with a pattern for the template will automatically be generated from MIDI through a software that is being developed especially for this. 

16: Soumik Pal

Have brands/media companies been in touch for larger scale partnership or projects? Anything you can share in the works? 

Yes we get a lot of offers of this kind. But 19 out of 20 are uninteresting to me and with regard to the ones that are interesting I’m very picky and like to take my time deciding. So in the future I might collaborate with larger brands but it will be a slow and careful process. 

17:CAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAW

What's been your favorite sub-assembly to make so far? Which one has been the most challenging?

Most challenging - The marble divider, because of the individual nature of the 38 channels and the many failed designs. 

Most fun - The programming wheel because it’s the brain of the machine and so far the success rate as been pretty good for that one. 

18:  Matthew Heer

How much time goes into one of these videos?

I’m constantly thinking about next week’s video. For example, when I’m going to drill a hole in something, I need to think about light, which room I can do it in, where it is easiest to set up the camera and so on. I can’t just drill the hole right away. Any maker on youtube will tell you that a making project takes three times longer while filming the process. So a large amount of time spent on the video goes to stupid things like changing the batteries, clearing the memory card, setting up the camera etc. And then one whole day (sometimes 15 hrs) goes to editing and rendering the video. Three days goes to obsessing about thumbnail and title, and a lot of energy goes to thinking how the Youtube Algorithm will scan the video, especially which keywords to use. Titles and description texts are written both for the humans but also for the algorithm bots. I don’t have another idea for how YT should solve that but anyway, as a creator you feel that you are catering to the algorithm a lot and its kind of annoying :) Lately I’ve been editing on Wednesdays, my procrastination have made me wait until last day. Which has been a recipe for disaster. My new goal is to edit much earlier in the week so I can post the video every Wednesday at 4pm. Also my internet is slow so yes, there is a lot of these stupid time consuming things that goes into the videos :)

Earlier i have been struggling with format and subjects for videos, but lately I feel more secure: I want the videos to document the MMX process. It seems to me that most viewers are very happy with the videos where I go a little bit more in depth and closer to the actual design process. As soon as I make a video that is not about the MMX - half amount of views, quarter amount of likes!

Let me end it like this: It sounds a lot like I am complaining, I don’t want to do that - but I am always frustrated with how filming makes the MMX progress soon slow. Im already slow anyway - filming on top makes me twice as slow. But it is all worth it thanks to the connection I get with you all from the videos. I have tried working with other filmers/editors. It hasn’t worked so far. I need to continue to try more collaboration like that I think.

19: JC

Have you thought about custom Marble Machine or Wintergatan disc golf discs?

No but really great idea, THANK YOU, let’s do it! 

20: Stephen Grobe

We all love the work of John Williams (Star Wars) but whom/which are some of your favourite, more obscure composers and film scores?

The most obscure I can think of is a Swedish artist called Jan Cardell. http://www.jancardell.se/

When I was 16 and visited the Hultsfred music festival where he played with his mechanical orchestra “The Rytmobile” and I’m sure that it inspired me to build the Marble Machine. 

I like simple pop music a lot, so i don’t listen a lot to more challenging stuff but one example I really like is the a-tonal piano music of Olivier Messiaen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovMnmIoZh74

Thank you all so much for your questions! I couldn’t answer all today but we will have another Q&A in the coming weeks!

We have a question for you...

Regarding Wintergatan Wednesday’s video length, which timeframe do you think is best and why?

10 minute video length

20 minute video length

30 minute video length