"Aerology" - with electric bells

In many cartoons, films, and theatrical productions whenever a fairy is near bells are heard. The most famous example is probably Tinkerbell from the fairytales about Peter Pan. And considering that I have had the name "Organfairy" for allmost ten years - it started it's life in a Yahoo group because somebody else had taken my real name - I think it is only appropriate that I get myself some real bells.

But instead of just banging on some bells with some hand held mallets I decided to make a set of electrically operated bells. Actually it is two sets of kindergarten glockenspiels that was tuned in C. But I put them together and tuned one of them a semitone higher so that I got a chromatic scale. I build a wooden frame and added a motor driven mallet for each bell and finally build a controll circuit for it. It can be controlled by a computers parallel port or by simple switches - like the switches under a keyboard. It doesn't have MIDI but I might build a MIDI interface for it.

The melody that goes with this video is "Aerology" by Jean Michel Jarre. It was originally played on big tubular bells. But I think my small fairy-bells does a good job here. The other sounds are played on the Yamaha HE-8 and Technics SX-C600 organs, Roland E-15 and SH-2000 synthesizers, Yamaha VSS-30 toy keyboard, and Korg Rhytm 55 drum machine.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• wood
• work
• electric
• glockenspiel
• Yamaha
• HE-8
• Technics
• SX-C600
• organ
• Roland
• SH-2000
• E-15
• synthesizer
• VSS-30
• Korg
• Rhytm-55
• drum
• machine

[fuzzybobbles]

Ever thought of building a laser harp? If you can do Aerology mechanically, then a laser harp has to be the next step. I can help when it comes to the laser side of things. Also how to trigger a note when you put your hand/finger in the beam. A joint project maybe? :o)

[organfairy]

@fuzzybobbles - I am actually doing some experiments on the next step. But the next step for me is a theremin.

[fronkenpoop]

Nice build. I really like this idea. How are the electric motors are operating the hammers? I would have gone down the solenoid route. Also, driving via serial from PC - how does this interface with the computer, and (presumably) sequencing software?

[organfairy]

@fronkenpoop - The computer interface is parallel - the printer port - so it is just simple on/off. There are several (or there used to be several) DIY relay boards for PC use on the electronic kit suppliers homepages. I got the driver from one of these pages and it is basically a simple step sequencer.

The reasons why I used motors are that 1) I didn't have to worry about the hammer mechanism as the motor is actuator AND fulcrum, 2) I had a bag of free motors.

[TheOrphe]

what type of electronic controls it ? arduino , arm , pic ???

[organfairy]

There are 13 monostable flip-flops made with schmit triggers (74HC14) that controls the motors through 13 power transistors. This makes sure that no matter how long a note is held the motors will only be on for 200 ms.

There are two ways the schmitt triggers can be triggered: 13 wires from a one octave keyboard or a binary signal from a parallel port.

So in other words: There is no micro - only logic gates.

I have thought about making a MIDI interface though.

[keyboardjeff]

JMJ! Very nice. I love it.

[keesvangelis]

in one word

awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Downbeat1984]

dudeeeeeeeeeeeeee seriously this is amazing

[lake40]

thats very well put togeather

[fuzzybobbles]

Ever thought of building a laser harp? If you can do Aerology mechanically, then a laser harp has to be the next step. I can help when it comes to the laser side of things. Also how to trigger a note when you put your hand/finger in the beam. A joint project maybe? :o)

[fuzzybobbles]

Ever thought of building a laser harp? If you can do Aerology mechanically, then a laser harp has to be the next step. I can help when it comes to the laser side of things. Also how to trigger a note when you put your hand/finger in the beam. A joint project maybe? :o)