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