If youโve spent any amount of time on the Internet, chances are youโve seen the Wintergatan Marble Machine video. If you havenโt, stop reading this right nowย and go see it. Weโll wait. This article is not about that video, but about everything else in Wintergatanโs YouTube channel you might have missed – and you certainly donโt want to miss it.
Wintergatanโs channel is primarily dedicated to music, much in the same way that the Marble Machine is a musical instrument – but one with an incredible story of engineering to tell. Every video is a little different, focusing on different aspects of the engineering that goes into their homemade instruments. One might be about how to program music for a music box, starting with composing in midi, then transposing the notes onto ticker tape for the music box. The next video might be about woodworking techniques used in creating the mechanisms of the instruments. Itโs one part woodworking, three parts engineering, a splash of experimentation, and a pinch of madness.
Unlike his prowess as a musician, Martin doesnโt excel at any one particular technique in his engineering. Itโs all pretty rough cut wood, thereโs plenty of mistakes when heโs punching out a melody on the music box, and his 3D printed drums rarely sound right the first time out. So much of the story of his videos is sharing the trial and error nature of engineering, experimenting with different jigs, mechanisms, and sounds. As incredible as the machines are, theyโre also accessible.
The current focus of the channel is building a new version of the Marble machine – one thatโs more reliable, more portable, more versatile. As Martin develops the machine, youโll get to experiment the design and engineering that goes into each component, and itโs a massively exciting story to follow.
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