Musical Tesla Coils Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI. The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB If you look at another You Tube video which is from a different angle, you can hear the echo off the building and get a better idea of how loud it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JScc2plLQOI

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Musical
• Tesla
• Coils
• Dance
• of
• the
• Sugar
• Plum
• Fairy
• Zeusaphone

[DavidAndrewSingleton]

Happy Birthday Tesla! You would be 100 today. But your dead, so your not.

[jiccoby]

Putting someone in the middle of that would be the most hilarious way to murder someone.

[jsymons1985]

ozone smells, it has a distinct 'fresh air' type smell in low quantities

[piratekitsune]

wow, this sounds a lot more menacing when performed on zuesaphones =P

[Grahamster909]

@MasterMWL I don't think ozone smells the burning grass probably would smell.

[Grahamster909]

@MasterMWL I don't think ozone smells the burning grass probably would smell.

[QuantumConundrum]

Witness and fear the graceful power of science!

[yourmomdidsayyourean]

So freaking cool I love science woot!

[Vipmaxp]

I bet running a nice synth through that...like a juno.. would sound nice.

[peaceonearth347]

My god, their electricity bill must be enourmous!

[moosepiss9]

@scottycanes Actually, if you REALLY want to be technical, just read a bit on the webertube.

It's actually pretty cool how they do it. What's happening is they've run a MIDI signal through an optical cable to a PWM (Pulse Width Modulator) circuit to produce an "off-on" signal. The Tesla Coil itself has a set resonant frequency, so it always sounds the same. The PWM is turning the coil on and off at whatever frequency rate the MIDI is pushing to it, thus simulating different frequencies. Cool!