Giants steps solo by a Robot, Faster (350bpm)!

[ajsteich]

what is the description talking about? "is NOT a musical performance" why not? Brian Eno saw this coming a mile away.

ps awesome vibrato on the midi track's last note

[boingboomchak]

The midi drum part is truely aweful,wheres the swing!!!!!!! Ha Ha Optimus Trane!!

[BriansThing]

The Terminator playing saxophone

[SpectroStyle]

What about air?

[maiaihii1]

I actually find the coolest part of this the blowing (yeah shutup). I wish we could have seen the embouchure and stuff like that, it must have had to change for lower or higher tones, unless it's been playing for years and has perfected its embouchure.

[awfulguitarplucker]

OPTIMUS TRANE

[0live0wire0]

He obviously plays the right notes but this comes to show the importance of how every single note is played, small details make the difference between this bullshit midi sounding sequence of notes and a real musician. Everyone who thinks fucking robots in any sense are a threat to the superior creative mind of an artist should get a life. Won't happen soon technology freaks. Although it's interesting to see something like this and i appreciate the effort.

[ClassicalClarinetist]

awesome tone...... NOT. Where's the soul?

[black0lightning]

theres a big differnce between coltrane and this bot playing it, coltrane put huge amounts of soul into it and every one feels it,with this i feel nothing, and coltrane can play it faster than any bot

[BadUsernameIsBad]

The robot is also off by half a bar for most of it

[xxMrClarkxx]

Coltrane could play it faster.If he was still alive...

[jpasmusic]

poor stage presence

[gruntfuckle]

dumb

[khlymore]

as i told years ago a robot can outperform a human being execution thats why training 20 years an instrument is already useles in my eyes a robot can do instantly all the hardest just like a robotic arm built electronical devices at milimeters of distance and never mises

[Gh0stR1d3r666]

@khlymore You're forgetting one very important piece of the puzzle. Robots can't do emotion.

[khlymore]

@Gh0stR1d3r666 well for the instrument i play piano by the way i think we dont know humans how to transfer emotions or any other thing trough your fingers playing the piano all you can do to the keys is apply weight so the intepretation for the piano actually cud be done by a robot if you record a human performance the presion and weight applyed to the keys can be reproduced again exactly by the robot and there you have interpretation for sax is difererent would be harder

[madfunkwilly]

@khlymore apparently pianists dont have souls

[0live0wire0]

@khlymore musicians don't just perform you know. I wanna see a robot that can generate something like the 5th symphony. Composition skills (improvisation included) creativity and originality are far more important than mere technical ability. That's why it's called an art and not a sport.

[guilhugas]

that explains everything. coltrane had 7 fingers in his left hand.

[Un4tuner]

It has no soul. You can hear it. =)

[thekingofbs]

I don't hear a difference

[jazzmanfender]

กระดอ - -"



[platez81]

:S OK now Ive seen it all :S

[JesusOnToast58]

All hail Coltron!

[awfulguitarplucker]

@JesusOnToast58 i just died hitting the floor with my face straightforward for teh laughs at your comment

BEST PUN EVER!

[JesusOnToast58]

All hail Coltron!

[CisforClarinet]

LOL

[125snipper]

but i know people who can play this fast...and faster! still pretty cool tho to see coltron lol

[goshaix4]

i bet an asian can play this faster

[AUDEPrecords]

Coltron....lol! :-)

This is both impressive, and strangely unnerving all at once. There's just something wrong about a robot playing a saxophone. Something about that brace of cold, lifeless digits manipulating that sax. I don't know, maybe I'm the one who's nuts, but it almost feels like watching a corpse being manipulated to play it.

I will grant this though: for a lifeless robot, you would've expected this performance to sound far less soulful than it did. Play that funky music, HAL 9000!

[Jimbobway228]

Coltron is a little...out of tune XD

[4tothepowerofcheese]

try making one of those for a trumpet...

[petey815]

@4tothepowerofcheese Toyota made one, there are some videos of it on here

[petey815]

@4tothepowerofcheese looks like they also made some that play drums, tuba, and violin.

[nikomakarov]

*what blows into the horn

[nikomakarov]

what makes the air vibrate

[mickysax1]

He'd never catch on in bars..never buys a beer.

[rcagianese]

don't sound good!

[triclone123]

The job of a sick man, a twisted genius, but cool as hell.

[pcsuper1]

Why are people complaining about the lack of soul? Do you expect a robot to have the same expression? It's just a cool engineering trick.

[JOEeeee11]

its funny how soul-less and cold it sounds compared to the original recording

[NickJohnRawson]

so much soul

[StanleyDonwood]

This sounds dreadful

[lberry2]

sounds like chris potter



[BigBoyLloydd]

This is Giant Steps without a soul

[MrParangaricutirimi]

it sound toooo robotic..hahaha.. XD.. i should be surprised when you do the same idea .. but with a robot with 5 fingers per hand...

[busterbrownation]

That's awesome that somebody actually programmed a robot to perform on a saxophone.

Now, if they'd actually play with some breath control, technique, style, etc... I'm afraid they'd give us humans a run for our money, I suppose.

[MrRafaelruizo]

can it improvise?

[iBeep2009]

What do you feed the air in with? Conventional mouthpiece?

[iBeep2009]

 Brilliant!

[JoySprung]

@jcaz181 I think Trane would say WHAT IS THIS INTERWEBS?! then WHAT IS THIS YOUTUBES!? and then WHY DOES IT SOUND SO BAD!

[ThatWeirdoGaL90]

This is a disgrace smfh all this robotic shit irks me

[sambres8]

that is one furious walking bassline

[henriquefbarbosa]

comparing this to Trane is the same as comparing sex to being ass raped by a mechanical dildo

[varelachile]

falta el sentimiento q cada musico le pone en cada tema que interpreta

[jcaz181]

This is disrespectful to the art work of John Coltrane...Trane would b pissed if he saw this

[muel0341]

@jcaz181 Who cares? Any time you produce a work of art, you open yourself up to other people using it to express something different. No artist or musician is God.

[raffaelesax]

e l'anima dove l'abbiamo lasciata ??

[tobifan3]

This hurt my soul....probably more then it should have.

[ministeroftuba]

The amount of butthurt in these comments...

Relax and just enjoy the awesomeness of someone actually taking time to complete a project like this

[VoodooShilton]

anyone who dislikes this misses the point. Of course it's awful. But it's so cool that someone spent the time to do this! and it's technically fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

[mariesalas]

Wow, and it sounds just a robot, no soul.

[SaxBastard2013]

I bet Kenny G. made this robot

[NEOTERICZ]

@SaxBastard2013

are you kidding me? kenny g. is only good for holding long notes

[musbraf357]

I like that COLTRON!!!!

[SpagsJippy]

the thing should be programmed to play a pop song like something from the black eyes peas or lady gaga. that way the visual element will reflect the audial element of that "music": robotic

[falcon4501]

If I was john connor, i'd be like WTF??????machines are going downtown.........to Chinatown!

[MADDMUZICIAN]

He ain't swinging ...

[NinjaNocnik]

but will it blend?

[Microblitz]

Now if it were only possible to replace all wood lickers with a robot!

[Buddy12997]

You know, even though it can play fast it has no soul.

[Am7D9]

Still better than auto-tune and samples and drum machines. :)

[limpsyndrome]

i feel like im trapped in a elevator, tripping on speed...

[hiroki0da0gya]

To be honest, I can't see the difference between this and half the crap being pumped out of the "music" industry these days.

[kylecrocodile1234]

lol thats so stupid but cool

[JacobShulman]

COLTRON

[spoofzilla]

@JacobShulman Hahahaaa!!! Nice.

[ChainsawGutsFuck]

Jazz purists being anal? I never would of thought...

[anabellik]

Hahaha, this is very nice, congratulations!

[evifnoskcaj]

I believe the movie "Gatacca" predicted something like this. Still, this is hilariously fast!

[jonbonjoviham]

Thats pretty damn cool... COLTRON lol

[riffmeista69]

Haters gonna hate

[Zeecarver]

wtf man this thing is crazy

[DoctorOfTheFunk]

why is certain manz gettin so hyped?

[Kanarie1973]

For FUN? The robot is an insult to John Coltrane, that's what it is.

[magicdudegary]

Lol this is hilarious!

[malcocreative]

The background chords sound like midi played on a bad saxophone patch. The horn sounds like a horn though. Wonder how they dealt with the reed, keeping it wet etc?

[MusicNoahify]

freakin' love MIDI

[GabeGuitarr]

excellent, now this time with feeling!

[goreri]

haha pretty funny

[Sunderlanding]

@violentpotato116 Soul? It's a fucking robot. 

[Miketar2424]

yeah, but can it make a martini between sets like a true jazz musician? I thought not.

[turlinen]

That's not fair, he's got twelve fingers.

[burraburiash666]

@turlinen and a pump to blow... but do you think a single sax played as fast as 350 bpm can sounds like this? I don´t. I think is MIDI, and is played at 200 bpm.

[supersax32]

@turlinen Plus the fingers at the bottom you can't see

[iburyyoass]

@turlinen And the best part is, I bet Coltrane could do it faster with only 6.

[MrBDP90]

HOW COULD A METAL SHITHEAP LIKE THAT EVER PLAY MUSIC LIKE SIR COLTRANE THIS IS DISGRACE I HATE IT IT'S BAD AND HAS NO ELAN OR FEELING I BET IT CANT EVEN IMPROV.

[mojobox]

@MrBDP90 It plays sax better than you type.

[Dani3ltheMani3l]

@MrBDP90 duh. its not like it knows what its doing those little metal fingers are just programmed to move in a certain pattern that when you put the sax to it it plays giant steps. no one said this was an improvement or anything. its faster and is on 350 bpm probably because it was easier to program it to a steady bpm rather than the original. idiot. calm yourself.

[93thrasher]

@MrBDP90 hahahhahaha. No shit! relax.

[ABMayweather]

well you need a fucking robot to play this song no one can play giant steps with out missing a note besides john coltrane who is dead(rip)

[arkofsax]

@ABMayweather He missed a note

[addyr100]

@arkofsax its a girl robot

[bandreification]

lol what would trane say if he came back to life for a day and saw this shit

[handicappedhoods]

Someone needs to put a beret and sunglasses on that robot.

[tkrobosgru]

To grrenshayla18,

Thank you for your question. Air supply comes from a certain type of air compressor that is usually used for bubble bath or automatic benders. Then, the outlet air is led into an air tank, because the air has non negligible pressure pulsation. The air pressure is controlled from about 10 to 50 kPa by my own made relief valve that can respond very fast with the time constant about 0.1sec.

[greenshayla18]

Stupid question but where does the air supply come from?

[tkrobosgru]

I am the builder of this robot. Please see also "Another "Giant Steps" by the other Sax Robot ".

[jevonj77]

This robot is not being creative...just to add that. He's just playing the original John Coltrane solo at a faster pace...That's all. So that's easy...they couldn't have just sped up the actual solo and that would have been better...

[jevonj77]

This robot is not being creative...just to add that. He's just playing the original John Coltrane solo at a faster pace...That's all. So that's easy...they couldn't have just sped up the actual solo and that would have been better...

[xXFelixtheCatXx]

@jevonj77 Yeah, and I'm sure you can play Giant Steps this fast too, huh?

[jevonj77]

@xXFelixtheCatXx That's not the point. It's a machine which is playing already predetermined music! If I didn't have to breathe like this machine...and all I had to do was play transcribed solos I could come close to this speed but ...it wouldn't sound any good. The brilliance of John Coltrane was that he creatively played it very fast. So your response is an indication of your inability to fully understand my response.

[xXFelixtheCatXx]

@jevonj77 And what exactly are you expecting from a meagre robot?

[jevonj77]

@xXFelixtheCatXx This is funny...this is my opinion...not yours. In order to be "impressed" one has to see something as being unexpected. Beyond expectation. This is to be expected from a robot...or computer programed to play John Coltrane's solo fast. It would be the same if I had my computer play the original faster then turn around and say...wow! that's impressive! Look how fast it's playing. It is cool tough...a nice effect to have around the house...maybe.

[xXFelixtheCatXx]

@jevonj77 Read the description, this isn't some kind of robotic experiment, it's just a robot playing Coltrane's solo very fast, nothing more nothing less.

[RedRedFortune]

@jevonj77 ... Do you not have any respect for the fucking work that went into that robot? Do you even know how hard it would be? I'd like to see you build and program a robot to play Mary Had a Little Lamb with any brass instrument; shit, I would actually be very impressed with that.

[jsweenie13]

@jevonj77 dude. its a fucking robot. if it could be creative i'd be out of a job

[acs8913]

I wonder how much he charges per hour? hmmmm.....

[JimmyPage97]

that sax is being raped.

[speedgraphic]

LOL I love the f'd up MIDI drums

[elortibamal]

Nada mejor que lo toque un humano real

[rpizzoni]

Sure makes you appreciate Coltrane's tone. But a really cool accomplishment nevertheless .

[egyptianminor]

So fast it makes me laugh, the 'band' is sooo tacky!

[hartery5]

The tone kind of sounds like an accordion haha. Would love to actually see some one rip Giant Steps on an accordion. Now there's a jazz instrument.

[witness124]

It's good....but don't have the soooouuuuulll.

[JamesGod08]

I hope robots do replace actual musicians. This is supreme awesome playing

[0persona]

a masterful exercise in futility

[goddessinsecta]

Sounds like 200 cans of Silly String let loose in a spaghetti factory!

[laundrylint]

Holy shit. 

[MrDavis746]

can it play the blues scale?

[clownpaint20]

that's one funky robot

[H1u1Go]

But will it blend?

[bob22222222222222100]

the held alticimo notes are hilarious

[sinprelic]

to be honest, the robotics behind this isnt complicated. wind up mechanical toys have already achieved this, often with songs like fur elise and some symphonies, even. and they werent even robots...

interesting to watch though, you guys definitely had fun on it i'm sure. rather impressive!

[GeneralDAS]

Can it wet its own reed?

[kekoatkd1]

this is funny.. hahaha!!!

[fanrocketonline]

The squeeks are funny. Maybe these guys should do the experiment farther away from the aviary.

[GenomeSoldier87]

i pucked in my mouth a little after watching this...

[CjHost]

wat da hell is that its sicK, never seen it b4!

[Bjorneization]

Very bad intonation!

[GWFKing]

@Bjorneization chill dawg its a robot

[OprahMemorizedPi]

like a g6

[awfulguitarplucker]

HAHAHAH lol at teh "Badum Tisssh" at teh end of teh song!

[awfulguitarplucker]

i only hope that isnt an invaluable Orsi or Selmer there...

[andvest1]

It may play fast, but it sounds terrible!

[calabazoom]

NO SOUL

[NJmetal94]

@calabazoom you really dont get it do u? Its a fucking robot! Of course there's no soul thats not the point of the video. Do you think it was easy to make a machine play this?

[itstherocky]

@calabazoom So, this wasn't made to realy entertain with "music."

It was just a little fun, something which you could think "oh i wonder if ..."

[andromedarr]

Man...that so fast that the flaps cant move fast enough :D

[trycatchscenario]

Sick!

[plusmaxstore]

Like a Teminator

[plusmaxstore]

Terminator

[woodwind538]

squeeks

[RedEyedDragoon]

and this sounds like shit

[RedEyedDragoon]

this is not music, music is something human that comes from de soul of the musician, yes I agree, its impresive to wacht how this machine play this song this fast, but the melody its empty, it doesnt have the feeling of john coltrane

[Zephur19]

@RedEyedDragoon Thanks for sharing that bit of information that the rest of us obviously couldn't piece together ourselves. As if though the point of this video is show the song rather than showing that they, intelligibly, created a machine that can play an instrument. Who cares about that, right? Stupid robot can't play the song with feeling cause it's JUST A MACHINE!

[RedEyedDragoon]

@Zephur19 thanks to you for your words, Im a musicion, I play the saxophone, and Im know that I cant play a song this fast like that machin, but I can play something with feeling and emocion, that is something that I machin cant do.

[Zephur19]

@RedEyedDragoon So obviously English is not your native language. Either that or you seriously need spell check. Besides that, the point of the video is not the song the robot is playing. The point is that someone has created a robot that can play an instrument! It's the actual robot that makes the video worth watching, not its musical abilities.

[RedEyedDragoon]

@Zephur19 sorry for the bad grammar, your right English is not my native languague, my native languague is the spanish, Im from Mexico, your right the robot makes the video worth watching but I just feel like I needed to give my opinion as a musician, thats all, I dont want to offend anybody with my opinion.

[Zephur19]

@RedEyedDragoon Si tu quieres hablar espanol, yo lo se hablar tambien. Anyway, if I sound sarcastic, I apologize, that's the way I express myself. I get a lot of people who think I'm being mean but I'm just expressing myself. Anyway, giving your opinion is fine but saying that the robot sounds "like shit" is quite an offensive opinion. Considering the point of the video is to showcase a robot that can play an instrumeny as opposed to its performance.

[RedEyedDragoon]

@Zephur19 perdon por el comentario de que el robot suena como #$%&/"! es que la verdad no me gusto el sonido que le producia al saxofon, se me hace un sonido muy vacio y carente de sentmiento, disculpame por el comentario no me medi.

[Zephur19]

@RedEyedDragoon No te preocupes por eso. Es una opinion tuya. Lo que trato de decir es que el proposito de este video es el robot y no la habilidad musical. El sonido de el violin es otra cosa, obviamente.

[fruitydickhole]

I think that this is very impressive and funny.

[scotty2toti]

chuck norris can do that using no hands...

[ac1dslayer]

props for making a robot that works... but real musicians will always hate them ;)

[TheLuaron]

LOL... O.o

[tjvk]

These comments are redundant. No shit the robot "lacks feeling" or won't write any masterpiece in the near future. If you read the blurb then you might understand the point- it's just FOR FUN. Also saying that this isn't impressive is just ignorant. Let's see you create and program a robot to play an instrument let alone perform a piece as difficult at Giant Steps at a faster tempo.

[JimmyPage97]

@tjvk Cant you just put into a program and jack up the bpm? I don't want to shit on robots, I mean that is a skill. But why bring something that "lacks feeling" into an art that requires feelings? 

[riparianlife97701]

Yeah, but is it music? Sounds like crap to me.