Giant Music Box – Marble Machine X

 What can you do with a Bass Guitar, Computer, CAD Software, and Power Tools?

There are those who create synthesizers out of old Nintendo machines. Sebastiaan Jansen is creating a mechanical version — Marble Machine X — which he has been building and designing for 7 years. 

The machine is made mostly of wood with metal, and plastic tubing, and uses metal marbles or ball bearings for various tasks.  He used a computer to design templates for the machine’s wooden gears. He then made the gears by hand with power tools. 

in the video below,  Jansen plays a specially-designed bass guitar. The entire video is 20 minutes. If you would like to see Jansen’s Marble Machine X play the bass, start at the 11:00:00 mark.  

The YouTube channel documents the machine being designed and built as  it is still a work in progress.  The creator of the machine plans on taking it on tour with his band.

Marble Machine X

In 2016 bandleader Martin Molin of the band Wintergatan released the “Marble Machine” video. Soon after Martin started working on a new and improved version, called the Marble Machine X. This build is ongoing and is a collaborative effort of about 20 engineers from all around the world, including me. My part of the job consists of converting the digitally composed music into templates to be put on the machine.

—Sebastiaan Jansen, sebastiaanjansen.be/marblemachinex

 

 

Start at time marker 11:00:00 minutes to see Machine X play