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A Marvelous Hand-Cranked Conveyor Belt That Uses Marbles in Groups of Eight to Create a Steady Beat

by Lori Dorn on April 30, 2019

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In 2016, we wrote about an amazing hand-cranked instrument that uses 2,000 marbles to make music, which was created by Martin Molin of the band Wintergatan. Since that time, Molin and a team of experts have created a number of instruments, including a marvelous hand-cranked marble conveyor belt known as “Marble Machine X”. This percussive instrument releases eight marbles per crank that are driven by ratchets and pistons that organize and create a steady beat.

The pistons are connected to the crankshaft with a 2:1 gear reduction which means that the conveyor belt goes in time with the music and in half time. I can even use the mechanical sounds from the ratchets and the marbles climbing the fish stair to create parts of the beats.

Marble Conveyor Belt

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A post shared by Wintergatan (@wintergatan2000)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wintergatan (@wintergatan2000)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wintergatan (@wintergatan2000)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wintergatan (@wintergatan2000)

Molin kept fans up to date with the instrument’s progress with an incredible series of 78 videos, from start to finish. Here are just a few.

via Mike Shouts


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