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An engineer has built and programmed an all-robot band

guitarworld.com

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Re: An engineer has built and programmed an all-robot band

#53

Post by deeths »

For a steampunk throwback of this idea, there are a number of self-playing full orchestras at the House on the Rock (an amazing museum of all things kitsch Wisconsin) that use 100% mechanically driven pneumatically controlled instruments. It's amazing and this video doesn't do it justice, but here's a pretty good idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpaRGpoMyjg

Re: An engineer has built and programmed an all-robot band

#55

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

linkjuice4all wrote: post #50
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we constantly have to change our technical terms to fit whatever misconceptions the "common folk" have... well that's a lot of pointless redefinition and recoining.

Which one of these counts as a "music playing robot"? - Toyota Partner Bot [0] - A general purpose humanoid robot that can play a trumpet - Automatica [1] - A group of assembly arms that can play instruments - A Player Piano [2] - A bunch of servos stuck to musical instruments Arguably they're all robots - they use automation and mechanical means to actually play the instruments (not a synth reproduction of an instru…

All of them are robots in my book. Robot is a technical term, and technical terms need precise definitions.

While I see the point that laypeople might not be convinced, I'm fine with that. I don't think redefining the term is actually useful for people who design and build robots. I'm not a roboticist, but I'm sure they already have various terms to denote varying levels of autonomy and active perception.

Re: An engineer has built and programmed an all-robot band

#56

Post by Optimal_Persona »

swimfar wrote: post #41

Captured by Robots also did this, but his look like humanoid robots and have conversations with the singer which are part of the act. The type of music isn't for everybody (or most people). But if you're musically open I'd recommend checking out one of his shows if he's in town. It's an entertaining performance. https://capturedbyrobots.com/

I was gonna say the same, I went to DePaul music school with Jay before he was...assimilated. He may not have been the very first to have a virtuoso robot band, but he probably isn't far from it.

Re: An engineer has built and programmed an all-robot band

#57

Post by jonathankoren »

Reminds me of a real world Animusic video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyCIpKAIFyo

Also, at first I thought was going to be the person (or persons) that have their own restored Rock-Afire-Explosion bands and then reprogram them to play contemporary songs.

Re: An engineer has built and programmed an all-robot band

#59

Post by speculativename »

slfnflctd wrote: post #43
4b11b4 wrote: post #38

Why not listen to a recording at this point.. While it might be impressive, it's not interesting (to me). The point of witnessing live music is to experience the hard work and character of a human with their instrument. An entire band in sync together - witnessing this incites some emotion in me. Improvisation... this is exciting.

Robotic musicians that could improvise - especially if they can do so alongside human musicians - would be interesting indeed. It seems to me that we have all the building blocks needed for this. If someone isn't working on it already, they should be.

Look into George Lewis' voyager, foundational for this stuff (but not a humanoid robot per se). Been around for a while.

Re: An engineer has built and programmed an all-robot band

#60

Post by saghm »

buildsjets wrote: post #58

Does the "Rock-A-Fire Explosion" at Showbiz Pizza count as prior art? https://showbizpizza.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rock-afire_Explosio...

I was thinking of Chuck E. Cheese when I saw this headline. I'm glad my mind isn't the only one that thought of something like this!
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