Media artist Moritz Simon Geist has been working on his Sonic Robots project, combining music and robotics to create a techno-playing bot, according to New Atlas.
In October 2018, four techno tracks will be released that are entirely played by Geist-built robots. The robotic setup is made up of electronics, mechanical actuators, acoustic components and a form of amplification.
MIDI is used to control the music making robots. The MIDI source is fed through to a PCB packing ATMEGA and MOSFET, which moves on to the actuator. The volume gets controlled by mapping the MIDI velocity to “the length of the electric impulse for a motor or solenoid.”
Geist wanted to keep his contraption small and efficient, so he used little motors, solenoids, servos and stepper motors.
Geist played around with different metals, glass and tuned strings to find something that sounded good when the actuators hit the material of his choosing. One example is Geist’s robot karimba which uses spring steel tongues, piezo microphones and a 3D-printed holder to create a suitable sound.
Geist started recording this techno album nearly two years ago, but now, the project has finally come to fruition with the help of electronic musicians Mouse on Mars. Geist formed his own label for the release called Sonic Robots Record (SRR).
The Material Turn four-track record will be available Oct 12 as a vinyl and digital release. Soon after, Robotic Electronic Music, a full-length album, will be available on Nov 16.