A friend sent me this, and it is just incredible.  Since it's a machine, and most of the components were made by John Deere, I figure it's OK on Tool Talk.

OK, Read this first, then open the attachment, and watch. This is almost unbelievable. See how all of the balls wind up in catcher cones.

This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa. Amazingly, 97% of the machine's components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa. Yes, farm equipment!

It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.



extraordinaire_instrument_de_musique.wmv    5880.2 kb

OK, that didn't work.  But this utube url does:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AadNFyvMdbg

That is fantastic! I have seen the video before, and was happy to view it again, Thanks!

That was awesome...

It's not a real machine but an Animusic animation.

From their website: "Both our graphics and music are entirely digitally synthesized. We "invent" imaginary Virtual Instruments by building computer graphics models of objects that appear to create the sound of the corresponding synthesized music track. Virtual Instruments range from being reminiscent of existing instruments to arbitrarily abstract. The animation of graphical instrument elements is generated automatically within our proprietary software called ANIMUSIC|studio. Our technique is analytical and note-based (as opposed to being reactive and sound-based"

they have several DVDs of other cool "music machines"

http://www.animusic.com/

They have several DVDs of other cool "music machines" We bought the first one for our Grandson's Xmas several years ago. First saw one on PBS.

http://www.animusic.com/

Awesome Kool!!!!!!!!!!!  Gives a whole new sound to old Johnny Popper.