Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of Odd Music

November 29th, 2008 – Despite the fact that the Harmonic Generator, created by Isac Zal, doesn’t seem to have any wood or brass fittings, its design strikes me as pretty steampunk. It’s basically a huge resonance chamber that has 32 chromatically tuned notes (comprising of 64 piano strings) attached to the outside. For each string pair, a motor rotates brushes at 600-2000 RPMs to create “pure harmonic sound”. The sound is then picked up using guitar pickups, which then play the sound inside the instrument’s body creating “harmonic feedback”.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any sound clips to listen to, but I imagine it would sound like the music played on carousel rides. Of course, I have no basis for this other then the bell sound I imagine it would have, as well as just the way it looks. It totally looks like an instrument that would feature in a Tim Burton movie.

Gizmodo via Odd Music