Flutist Robot #2 - ROBORAMA.info

[sonicawesomeness]

For a scary, creepy robot, it sure plays beautifully...

[FullMetalFerret6]

Lifeless dead tone. Still fairly impressive.

[kittynila1990]

the robots tone is awful. seriously.

[224108spacer]

that's scary

[onln4jesus]

Interesting indeed!

[Beatboxbob]

Hmm, I'm not sure the robot provides any possibilities that a human player doesn't. Although I'v not really seen this potential fully explored. A flautist robot at a live concert would almost certainly be a novelty item, at least for the moment. However, examples such as the guitar playing robots do provide other possibilities as they're not limited by four fingers on the left hand and those not being able to discombobulate over the whole neck. thus, more possiblities acoustically.

[miamigurl123]

Geez. I hope they never get these things to sound better than the real thing.... or else I might be out of a job in twenty years. :-p

[joethemusician]

they could never replace a human musician. remember, most of us play music not only for the final product but for the process in creating it. my students do not take lessons just to sound good but to have a hobby! A robot can never take music away from us as professionals or amateurs.

[KawhackitaRag]

Though I understand these people's efforts here to make a robot to closely copy the human method of playing a flute, I prefer automatic instruments which are not bound to the limitations of the human performer, such as lung capacity, breathing, etc. That is not to say that a player flute should not be able to impart many shades of expression to the music such as dynamics, widely variable vibrato, etc., just that a good arranger can bring out the human qualities in any mechanical instrument.

[Beatboxbob]

Tbh, organ flutes don't follow the patterns of actual flute playing.

You have an interesting argument, similar could be said of synthesized music, which isn't limited by sounds which can actually be acoustically produced. The trouble is people like the limits, and to push them. It's too easy to say I have an organ/synthesizer that sounds like a flute, and pretend that it's better than the real thing. It's just not.

[KawhackitaRag]

They're not better, just different. They're equally good because each can produce sounds that the other cannot. I think having a wide variety of sounds available is good for a composer. They can bring in a real flute player, or use a robot. Or use a synthesizer, or a pipe organ rank. The possibilities are endless because each one of the 4 named represents a multitude of subtle sound differences (different musicians, brands of flute, scales of pipe ranks)

[KawhackitaRag]

...and of course in live performance, for concerts, you probably want to have live musicians. Even an enthusiast such as myself likes to hear live musicians often. However, I certainly don't mind sitting down to the occasional automatic musical instrument concert (such as a pianola concert with a real pianolist, or a fairground organ concert representing different music arrangers' talent). As a musician, I think in some ways it's more fun to make the music live, yourself.

[KawhackitaRag]

Apparently, flute pipes (and also some other pipes such as clarinet and violin pipes) could be made and voiced to sound sufficiently realistic as to not warrant the automation of those actual instruments in an orchestrion. Even the wonderful Hupfeld Phonoliszt-Violina Orchestra, with a piano, harmonium, and three real violins, settles for ranks of flute and clarinet pipes rather than the actual instruments.

[KawhackitaRag]

Jacques de Vaucanson created probably the first automatic flute-player in existence (that is, that actually played an actual transverse flute) in the early 1700s. Unfortunately, I believe this automaton was lost track of and has not been seen in modern times. Nobody until now seems to have bothered to build an automatic flute, since different kinds of flute pipes (a type of organ pipes) produce such a wide variety of beautiful flute sounds, some quite close to the tone of a transverse flute.

[jaha56]

This sounds a little bit like the Intermezzo from Carmen. Regardless, this is a nice sight to see, although nothing is as good as the real thing!

[runner157]

ya..now for some vibrato..ha ha

[hankfletcher]

Good work, keep it up!

[clarinetcritic]

ONce again, the intonation on this robot sux!!

change it

[FrogLoverxox]

indeed it does Sheeneyeah I thought htat sounded pretty crappy tho it's cool that a robot can play. I'd like to see him do some Vibrato now! lol.

[Sheeneyeah]

It lacks emotion and musical colour.

[flutedudette]

wats da song called??

[tigercubgurlie]

whoah.....