Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/30/hotwheels-xylophone.html
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4 Likes
I think that we’re picking up a bit of hiss and pop from the track.
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I now expect a years long quest to realize this repeatably through over-engineering:
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With bars hanging from one end it seems more like a semantron than xylophone.
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This could benefit from better microphone placement, the sounds of the cars could make the composition more interesting if it was quieter. Still thought this was quite cool.
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This definitely brought a smile to my face on a hectic day. I was initially thinking it was some super elaborate computer controlled release mechanism and was (briefly) sad that it was edited. But - it was edited well and still is an amazing and whimsical video 
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It seems like he would need to have a far more complicated machine to release the cars at the right times. We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg here!
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Beautiful.
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I was going to say glockenspeil.
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Not much more complicated than late 19th century tech. Similar to the holes in a player piano scroll, you could line up/space out (a ton of) cars in the appropriate pattern and feed them to the tracks. I made something similar to make a 12-channel spatial speaker array for an architecture school project. Chassis of a belt sander, a long scroll with a ton of methodically places holes cut out to let the speaker leads connect or not. Super low tech but it lead to real 5.1 mixing a few years later. Mechanical solutions to random things like this (or ‘old Time’ in-camera movie effects) are so much more fun than the admittedly easier but not as soul-satisfying digital solution.
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The difficulty would be the ~1.5 second delay between pressing the key and the sound. And now I’m picturing a hot-wheels Linotype, which would assemble rows of cars with letters written onto the rooves. (roofs?)
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it would’ve been difficult to film otherwise
OK GO laughs at your difficulties.
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This cheered me up immensely.
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Nice little tune
What’s the deal?
“Hotwheels Xylophone” is a decent band name =).
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Definitely not any xylon around. Idiophone is definitely correct, as should be metallophone.
Now, can I get my pedant’s badge?
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Came for the pedantry. Leaving satisfied. I’ll do my part by saying that the German word “spiel” (“play”) has a long-e sound, and is therefore spelled as I do here, and that the glockenspiel is the portable, wearable, marching version. I would have said “bells”; I think @LutherBlisset covered it definitively.
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Hell’s bells, I lost my pedant’s pedant badge over the -spiel / -speil issue, didn’t I?
retreating to Oscar Meyer Wienermobile topic to wein about it
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There, there…
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