MAKE: Blog: MIDI glockenspiel

MIDI glockenspiel

Midi Glockenspiel Full

All toy instruments should have MIDI jacks -

The idea was to take a child's toy xylophone and get the computer to play it. Now I know that the computer is capable of making noises electronically but it is much more interesting to watch an instrument being automatically played. I am sure you have all seen crowds around fair ground steam organs, whereas tapes of the same hardly sell at all.

Sounds quite nice. Retrofitting persussive instruments with solenoids can be a bit of a challenge - check the site for more build details - MIDI Glockenspiel [Thanks, Alex!]

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Comments

Oldest comments listed first.

Posted by: ap1.myopenid.com on May 15, 2008 at 1:44 PM

I love this kind of thing.

The whole external monostable oscillator for setting the firing time seems a little silly, though. Certainly it'd've been easier to let the arduino generate a signal of the correct duration set by a trimpot attached to one of the analog input pins, no?

Posted by: vivi on May 16, 2008 at 10:52 AM

Biggest Arduino shield ever :P

Posted by: Collin Cunningham on May 16, 2008 at 11:11 AM

mayhaps - but the pocket piano shield sure gives it a run for its money :o

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