Welcome!
Was it cool?
Welcome everyone to the Wintergatan universe. I have been doing really good progress on the Marble Machine X lately.
Actually, I have been focused. I'm working six out of seven days. I take one day away from the machine per week
I am getting somewhere. So I have been actually happy with the rate of progress lately.
Last week we could see the cyber bass play some notes for the first time ever.
[bass playing]
I could really see the cyber bass function the way I wanted it to.
Now when the marble drops on the cyber bass actually works,
I need to put PMMA pipes to feed the marble drops from the marble divider.
So this is a work that I've been doing several times during the progress. In this bending process
I am using an 18 millimeter medical silicone rod and some maizena
cornstarch that helps the rod slide freely inside the pipe
and if I'm just patient and warm the pipe very evenly I can make this bend look
really nice. But a real trick with these pipes is that the space is so tight between them.
So the first pipe is easy,
but then to add the second pipe is really, really difficult because all the pipe start to collide like really quick.
So that is the real issue
Well, the real issue is that I've done this like five times.
I've changed the marble drop so many times during this design process and every time I had to make new PMMA pipes
because the marble drop location was like it slightly altered so
This is like the fifth time I'm making all 38 pipes or something like that. Craziness
[piano music]
[marbles rolling]
They work!
That's cool. This looks sick!
And you know what I say about marks like this they tell the story
I knew that the marbles from the bass were spreading in a quite big areas
I needed to build a special funnel for the bass. The cyber funnel, of course.
I wanted to make something functional but make it fast
so I improvised this design and
I love to step away from the CNC machine, step away from CAD and just create something with paper and pens.
I'm sketching the shape here with my DiResta marker. I've actually done a collab with Jimmy DiResta.
I'm very very proud of this because it's it's a fun story. I bought this print from him a long time ago.
"Thank you, brother", he writes. I was like my heart was melting when I saw the signature on the back.
To me seeing Jimmy Diresta build things
is like seeing a jazz musician play a fantastic solo.
He's like, drawing a line with a marker and I'm just looking at that line and there's something special about it.
I can't explain it. Ever since I saw him making these prints on his letterpress machines,
I wanted to make a collab so I asked him a long time ago, and he said just "yes".
So I made a little variation of the MMX design. This has been printed on a letterpress by Jimmy DiResta.
It says "Printed by DiResta" down here and it has Jimmy's signature and my signature
I wanted it to look like a patent drawing and on the patent drawings you have always like a lot of attorneys
like verifying the the drawing. So this time it's me and Jimmy who are attorneys on this document
I have a picture here of the actual printing plate that he used to print these. Here's another really fun one.
This is my personal favorite one. So I think it's a really fun that I bought this print "If it looks straight it is straight"
and then Jimmy sent me this one. There is something special with the contrast of a print like this.
It just doesn't look like anything else.
Down here, you can see the attorney signatures.
We just put these prints up on the Wintergatan website in three different batches.
They're like 100 copies made of each batch.
My mother is shipping these from Sweden in triangular super cool cardboard boxes. So we're just doing this,
so there's no fold, and this role will fit in the triangular cardboard box.
So thanks, Lena, for helping out with the shipping on this project.
And I just want to say thanks to Jimmy DiResta for being such a big inspiration. Go check them out if you want
a piece of art made by me and Jimmy DiResta. I'm so proud of these.
With the two-dimensional sketch of the cyber funnel
I could bend all the metal wires and fit onto the sketch and then I could start to put the funnel together
I'm using silicone bronze stick brazing for this work and it's wonderful to work with. It has a lower melting point
than the steel, which means that the steel doesn't disappear. You can glue the steel together, so to speak.
And you can easily control the result
And this was going really good, really good, really good, until
disaster hit. I ran out of argon gas for my TIG welding machine and it's so funny because I was always a fragile
snowflake, but this process and this project has made me more brittle than ever.
I got so frustrated from running out of argon gas. And my normal place to get one is closed
so I have to kind of divert from here and to do things on the Marble Machine X,
that doesn't require TIG welding for a couple of days
Since I can't show you the final functioning cyber funnel just yet,
I wanted to show you the drum drops that I finished last week.
You saw parts of this in the marble racing video,
but not all. And this is actually a really huge progress.
So all the three drum drops, for the kick drum, the snare drum and hi hat are now matrix sentinel marble drops,
Which is a huge thing because these kind of marble drops is the perfect version. It's the best design I made
And now for the first time we have a matrix sentinel marble drops on all the instruments
already assembled on the Marble Machine X. So that has never happened and
this is the last version of the marble drops I will make. If these doesn't work in the end
I have to start on a new marble machine, so I will not replace these anymore on the Marble Machine X.
But I think it will work and so far they seem to hold up really good.
This is a perfect illustration why I designed these like this. If I drop marble from the left,
check where it's landing in the funnel.
Little bit to this side. Check again... little bit on this side where my finger is.
And if I drop from the right channel
It's a little bit towards this side.
Although all the marbles were caught I want them to hit the middle. This is very easy on this design. I just take
this plier.
I give a little bend out...
And I do the same on that.
Still a little bit too much
to this side
Little bit better
so let's give this...
Let's double check this one again
Dead in the middle.
This easy adjustment of the marble arc
is what this design is giving me. I love it. I'm very happy with it.
So I want to show some details about the funnels that I didn't show in a funnel video.
So back here I can put a set screw
and these will clamp on the PMMA pipe internally here. So now I can just tighten these set screws,
and the funnel sits so. And I love the fact that the PMMA pipe is vibrating a little bit.
So we have two motions: we have this opening, but we have also this
moving around a little bit. I think that adds.
I don't think it looks rickety, I think it looks organic.
Beautiful, hahaha. Yes!
Top for the morning to y'all!
I am working on another marble funnel
I've the parts here on the table.
So I have cleaned these parts with acetone
Up until today I had assembled two marble funnels, but now I assembled a third one for the hi hat.
So I welded the two halves, they go together like this.
In the original funnel video I didn't talk so much about this spring steel on the backside, here.
So this is a very nice design addition.
Instead of using a hinge in a spring, we're letting the spring here be the hinge.
So, shout out again to the funnel team and shout out to D.I.Wire
for bending all these wires so beautifully.
I'm sanding the tops of these wires to have a unison slope. Tops are sanded and now I need to
band this top wire.
And it's done!
Let's do a test drop.
I think it should be lower.
And I want the marbles to hit higher up, so I'm gonna reduce the length even more of the pipe.
So this placement works perfect,
but I just can't accept it from an aesthetic point of view because these are on the same height.
And as these grow beautifully like mushrooms, I want like an unbalance here as well. I need to put this lower.
You see [tik took tok]. It's much better than [pook gok].
I have been going a little bit crazy today because while the funnels are there
and I made the drops work, all of sudden
the motor stopped working. Couldn't turn the machine, the tempo went down and down and I texted Alex, and he was like,
"It's probably resistance in the machine somewhere". So I disconnected the conveyor belt and fish stair
Then I felt the wheel on this side. I couldn't turn it by hand and I found some resistance
So this little screw has unscrewed itself and it stopped the whole machine.
Here.
The only thing I can do is to cut it off
This makes me a little bit worried about the machine on tour.
It's so vulnerable. We have to secure all things like this.
Before the world tour we have to take the whole machine apart
and epoxy all screws in place into the plywood.
And what now?
Ah, I thought there is a lot of resistance
and I forgot I have the clamp here.
The clamp was there to stop the gear, so...
Oh, yeah!
Closing thoughts. I bought a new piano you saw it a little bit in the video
It's a super cool white Yamaha from 1976 freshly renovated
So I'm so happy that I have a real piano in my studio
I'm going just play something for you on the piano in upcoming videos
But it's the mark of me
transitioning a little bit into composing music for the Marble Machine X because the Marble Machine X is
actually just on the verge to need some songs.
Which is very exciting and it's... it's tricky because I need to make sure
that this project is not a waste of time
There are some different kind of mental battles going on with this project. I've said this before but the doubts about the project is
is increasing with the success of the project. It's it's very strange,
but, the machine is so loud, and I have been kind of naive about that in the design process
I have designed for looks a lot, but I've not designed for silence of the marbles
For example the cyber bass when you hear it. It has a perfect line level you don't hear the marbles at all
But for the vibraphone that is going to be an issue
For the drums. It's a little bit of an issue
I can do a cool trick with the drums where I put normal microphones plus a contact microphone and I put an audio gate on
The normal microphone that is triggered by the contact phone that workaround seems to be very very promising
My second word that I don't like to talk about. I need to make music
that lives up to this machine. You have to be able to listen to the songs that the Marble Machine X play without seeing it and
and be amazed right? That's like
That's what I'm going for
I'm not happy with just having some marbles playing a song and playing it well.
I'm... going to make music that I never heard before with this instrument
so I'm not happy with this project if we have a Marble Machine X a place well and that can play songs and I can
make some cool Daft Punk covers and play the popcorn melody and drive everyone insane. And yeah, we did it
That's failure
What I want is to make music that I never heard that
can touch people and inspire people
when you hear the songs without seeing the Machine. That is the
Acceptable grade
now when I have my piano, I'm going to put my Mozart composer hat a little bit more on, because the engineer in Martin is
soon finished. So the composer Martin can can can come up
I don't like to talk about it because sometimes I feel like I should just
You should just deliver art and you should not like share this part of the process
But if you want to know really what's going through my head
It's like how can I make music that is more beautiful than how this machine looks so
That's just the next problem in the long row of problem solving that you are
Witnessing me trying to do here on Wintergatan Wednesdays
Will get there I will get there the question is how and when.
But anyway, we have to basically fix the funnels in front of the vibraphone and connect the vibraphone funnels and
The basic function on the whole Marble Machine X is completed
So that's just a couple of argon bottles and a couple of weeks away and from there
I can just connect my new audio equipment so I can record 36 channels at the same time and I can start composing
so we are there now I have no clue how I can do good videos about me composing that is going to be like
That is going to be a challenging time for for you and me I think, but hey we're gonna do this together.
I feel so much support from you. I don't always
Answer the comments, but I see comments and I see all the support coming my way
I want to thank everyone who has ever commented on a Wintergatan video for all the positivity you're giving. It's
really really encouraging and I want to thank everyone who are supporting this crazy dream
through patreon and YouTube memberships. I can't thank you enough for being the best community
Thank you for watching Wintergatan Wednesdays, and I hope you're having great luck with everything you're doing. See you next week. Bye