[atari 2600]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjONQNUU8Fg&eurl

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjONQNUU8Fg&eurl

[atari 2600]

Is this an example of giant steps being made in robotics?


Is it music or just sound?

[porkmarras]

Whichever way,i've found that really interesting.

[atari 2600]

Of course, computers being programmed to make music is nothing new, but a robot that plays Coltrane is.
Since midi can transcribe notes, and this robot demonstrates that a machine can be made to play the notes physically, then surely one can be made to play keys, guitar, violin, and so on...which leads us to the inevitable conclusion: bands with some robot members...or, bands that are all robots.

[Iain]

Wasn't there already a band that had at least one robot member if not all. I seem to remember someone posting on the old board a topic along the lines of "should I go and see x or y band" and one was this band with a robot someone had made playing drums I think. Well, a mechanical device which looked like a human (sort of).

[atari 2600]

Oh, that's good, Bunny, I wonder what their name is.

If cyberpunk were more fact than fiction, then there might be real "cyberpunk" bands with some form of crude robot member(s).

[atari 2600]

Nolan Bushnell invested in Chuck E. Cheese with his Atari money. The animatronics he helped to introduce are dated now and were originally pioneered by Walt Disney Imagineering, but one can feel their influence on
Star Wars' famous Mos Eisley cantina scene from 1977...later on (ROTJ, 1983) there was, of course, Jabba's Max Rebo Band too.
---
PCs sprang fairly directly from the Atari company when Steve Wozniak stole parts.
home videogame consoles were first made by Magnavox with their Odyssey and Odyssey3 systems, but it was the Atari 2600 VCS that really first had broad appeal.

[atari 2600]

Did anyone see The Office last night?
There was a great little ironic bit with Pam having her first art show that really, in the end and rightly so, resonated the point home about naturalistic rendering being made obsolete by photography.
Not to imply that drawing skills are not important. That's not true. One must learn to draw from life before they can ever become truly expressionistic with their art.
Anyway, this should get one thinking about the parallels in music. Since a machine can be made to play music with great nuance and expressiveness like the robot that plays Coltrane's iconic "Giant Steps" tenor sax arpeggios, then doesn't that now lend more creedence to a more improvised music as an art form as opposed to composed music that is thought-out beforehand?
Because, you see, interestingly enough, for all of its spontaneous-sounding, fiery flourishes, the structure for "Giant Steps" grew out of Coltrane's practicing of his personalized scales. Ah, how discipline can make you more free...even when flying with a head full of junk. Sacrifice of time, (and the due suffering hee hee) are just that important, fellow coaxers-forth of the sound. Sorry, if I lost you just there...along the way. Of course, he (Coltrane) wasn't the first in this department. That was really Charlie Parker blowing on "Cherokee."

[atari 2600]

The robot is playing all the correct notes with the correct intervals but the tone does sound off which is probably due to a) the fact that it's a machine and not a person, b) there be no backing band present, c) how the sounds were recorded, and d) the make, type and size of the saxophone. The one in the video looks like it may be a baritone sax and not a tenor sax.

[cryptowonderdruginvogue]

daft punk = 2 robots
:P

[atari 2600]

What are ya doin', man?

Interloper!

I was having fun in the thread all by myself.

Get out of my room!


You made a funny about the Daft Punk. Good for you. Domo Arigato.

[hat and beard]

Originally Posted by Iain

Wasn't there already a band that had at least one robot member if not all. I seem to remember someone posting on the old board a topic along the lines of "should I go and see x or y band" and one was this band with a robot someone had made playing drums I think. Well, a mechanical device which looked like a human (sort of).

There is a band called Captured! By Robots which is all robots except for the one dude with the guitar. Apparently he builds and maintains them all by himself.

I saw a performance once and it was pretty much shit, interesting though it may have been. Apparently robots aren't so good at jazz either.

 

[Iain]

That's them I think! Thanks, that's been annoying me since I half remembered it.

[Torn Curtain]

That is shit indeed:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Captured%21+By+Robots&search= Search