instrument-a-day 23: mechanical synthesizer

This trick was used as far back as the 19th century to synthesize musical tones.  The gears have 24, 27, 30, 32, 36, 40, 45, and 48 teeth, so the notes are all related by simple fractions – that makes this a just intonation scale rather than equal temperament.

There's plans and instructions on thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6662

Posted via email from moonmilk’s posterous

2 thoughts on “instrument-a-day 23: mechanical synthesizer

  1. been really enjoying these posts.

    you should totally laser cut up a keyboard that pivots to engage the bottom of the wheels. cut up the metro card and attach strips to the end of the keys.

    keep up the good work.

  2. Wow, those projects rock… All of them :-)
    I’m printing an earring a day for my girlfriend over at wap.cc, but this beats the daily-stuff by lengths!
    You should make a big concert with all the instruments ;-)

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