Live data from Hacker News

Bot-controlled piano emulating spoken voice (2009) [video]

youtube.com

21–26 of 26 posts

Re: Bot-controlled piano emulating spoken voice (2009) [video]

#21
I'm really curious about the build of the bot. Are the "fingers" that press the keys pneumatic? I'm about to start an unrelated project but it does need fast responding "pressers", which might be classified as actuators. What are the benefits of using air powered vs electric? Does a bot like this have a huge can of compressed air or need to be hooked up to a pressurized line?

Re: Bot-controlled piano emulating spoken voice (2009) [video]

#22
post #2

It's like with those "Play X backwards to hear the Devil" type videos. You understand it perfectly with subtitles, but close your eyes and it's gibberish.

This article talks about that effect (with a similar example): http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/sounds...

great link thanks! it's like the McGurk Effect https://youtu.be/G-lN8vWm3m0, and why I time Vocal Text to appear just before you hear it https://youtu.be/b-jrV7LyN7E

Re: Bot-controlled piano emulating spoken voice (2009) [video]

#23
post #12

Not mechanical, so much lower resolution... but you might have recently seen the History of Japan video being linked around... the guy who did that, Bill Wurtz also did this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBI-nZTUgf8 There's an entire subreddit of this stuff as I guess it's really good practice for playing by ear: https://www.reddit.com/r/zappafied It includes this awesome Palin one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

That reminds me of the metal band Spastic Ink playing voices, sounds and music from Bambi.

original: https://youtu.be/X5SWc_k_Hmk?t=16m59s

with Bambi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhP4lg28fs0

Something awesome happened to me. I've known the album well but I didn't know the track was from Bambi. It was a weird track. Some time later I decided to watch Bambi because I was into animation classics and it was awesome all the time thinking "where have I heard this before?" Thank you for making me remember this awesome experience I've had.

Re: Bot-controlled piano emulating spoken voice (2009) [video]

#24

I'm really curious about the build of the bot. Are the "fingers" that press the keys pneumatic? I'm about to start an unrelated project but it does need fast responding "pressers", which might be classified as actuators. What are the benefits of using air powered vs electric? Does a bot like this have a huge can of compressed air or need to be hooked up to a pressurized line?

Seeing those banks of enormous capacitors, I'd say simple solenoids.

Pneumatic is one approach. Simple and inexpensive but with a lack of control over actuation speed.

It would be expensive, but linear actuators would give incredible speed and precise control over position and velocity.

Re: Bot-controlled piano emulating spoken voice (2009) [video]

#25

I'm really curious about the build of the bot. Are the "fingers" that press the keys pneumatic? I'm about to start an unrelated project but it does need fast responding "pressers", which might be classified as actuators. What are the benefits of using air powered vs electric? Does a bot like this have a huge can of compressed air or need to be hooked up to a pressurized line?

Seeing those banks of enormous capacitors, I'd say simple solenoids. Pneumatic is one approach. Simple and inexpensive but with a lack of control over actuation speed. It would be expensive, but linear actuators would give incredible speed and precise control over position and velocity.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated for a hardware noob like me.

Re: Bot-controlled piano emulating spoken voice (2009) [video]

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecm5PKTiVhw

Thank you for bringing Paul Lansky to my attention! A radically new soundscape (for me at least). Any more recommendations?

I don't have a specific recommendation, but Lansky sounds a lot like the Tape Musician's of the 50's. Said musicians would slice and glue together countless snippets of sound recordings of real objects or spoken voice to create their compositions. Today, the same can be accomplished digitally. Here is a recent example (though a little pop-music like): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAwR6w2TgxY
Post reply on HN