Drum Robot MR-808 Interactive - Massive Acoustic Roland TR-808 Art Installation

Published on Aug 18, 2016

"The Drum Robot MR-808 Interactive at the Krake Festival Berlin."

Some of you might remember the Sonic Robots MR-808 from this post back in 2012.  It looks like it was shown at a number of festivals.  You can find the list of events on the right of the Sonic Robots website here.  The following are some details and pics via Sonic Robots:

"MR-808 interactive is a drum robot installation featuring an oversized robotic drum machine which is programmed live by the spectators!

The audience can program the drum robot in a collaborative process and listen to the emerging of the sound. At the exhibition site, the crowd can stand in front of the robot, composing the music in realtime.

The drum robot installation MR-808 Interactive (2015) is intended for a collaborative music creation process which turn the listener from a passive spectator to an active player, visualizing the ongoing bond of mobile digital interfaces and physical actions.

The original installation MR-808 was developed in 2012 by the collective Sonic Robots under the direction of Moritz Simon Geist. It got an upgrade with the interactive part in 2015 / 2016. The drum robot has so far been presented on various events, from techno club nights to media and hacking congresses. The robot installation is a replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808 with robots playing the drum sounds. For the installation eleven sounds of the 80s drum computer TR-808 are replaced by mechanical actuators and physical tone-makers. You can read more about the technique and background here."

via Ask.Audio

MR-808 - mechanic drum robot

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

"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"

via Boing Boing

Update:


Rise Of The Toys from Science Fiction Children on Vimeo.

"Let's get physical: SCIENCE FICTION CHILDREN perform "Rise Of The Toys"
The Track features the MR-808: 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.

Read on:
www.sonicrobots.com/mr808-eng/ -- Technique
www.sciencefictionchildren.com -- Band

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Cinematography:
David Campesino
Philipp Baumgarten

Rise Of The Toys
Written by Science Fiction Children

Band:
Art Hustle
Moritz Simon Geist
Dr. Valentine
Katharina Hoffmann

Performed at Sputnik 2.0,
Dresden 2012

Only reverb, equing and compression has been applied to the tracks."