Introduction and Background - XP

Intro

The purpose of this project is to create a device that plays a musical beat via xylophone keys that is drive by a singular source of rotational input (a DC motor).

Background

Musical machines that use rotational inputs can be found anywhere. Ballerina boxes and wind-up music boxes are common household items that have been around for a long time. These simple devices use a crank input in order to create music. Musical instruments such as the Wintergatan (Marble Machine) are incredibly complex but rely on the same basic principle along with mechanical impact on some sort of key to create sound.

Music boxes are able to successfully convey their desired song because they typically utilize songs comprised of one or two instruments with simple melodies. Difficulty conveying a desired melody arises when using a simple music box or similar machine to play complex music, i.e. music with many overlapping instruments or the inclusion of vocals. Humans are naturally able to distinguish between different sounds within music because hearing works by translating sound wave energy into mechanical energy which moves specific cochlea  to correlate with each audio frequency. More can be read about that here.