Geoff Morris

Moritz Simon Geist has built a (giant) robotic version of the classic Roland 808 drum machine using Max for Live, Arduino, and a heap of solenoids.

From his website: "I see hacking – in this case music hacking – as a form of anti-passiveness, through which I think the individual can have an impact on his or her environment, status and state of mind...Within the last five years the rise of Arduino, Ableton Live and Max/MSP has made this much easier."

Videos, pictures, and technical details of Geist's MR-808 project

Let's get physical: MR-808 is the first drum robot that reproduces the drum sounds of the 80s - in the real world. 
The robot installation MR-808 is a replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808 – with robots playing the drum sounds! I (Moritz Simon Geist) have been playing electronic music for several years now, and at some place I was bored of the electronic music production process. With binary logic, everything is possible. 
So I decided to go back to the roots of sound generation – the physical sound generation – but combine it with the electronic music structure we like so much. 
I liked the idea so much, that I couldn’t stop building my own drum robots, and ended up replacing all the electronic sounds of a whole drum computer, placed in a 3,3 x 1,7m² case. I am very proud to present the “MR-808” – a mechanic replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808! 
Read on: http://sonicrobots.com/mr808-eng/ 
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MR-808 - mechanic sound robot (all drums, miced) 
A mechanic relay controlled via arduino (bass sound) 
Gameboy - Arduinoboy hardware (8 bit chiptune sound) 
Everything was programmed in Ableton, only equing and compression has been applied. 
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Filmography: David Campesino 
Music: Moritz Simon Geist

MR-808 - mechanic drum robot

MR-808 - mechanic drum robot from Sonic Robots on Vimeo.


Sonic Robots - A M4L controlled robotic drum machine.