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Sisyphus and the impossible dream:
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A very interesting perspective on the MMX:
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"It has to be cool" is a perfectly valid non-functional requirement.
Especially for something that is as close to the point where art and engineering intersect as this whole journey has been.
@@bradley3549 exactly, finding the perfect balance between engineering, music and the art of the machine itself is really the goal to call it a success. For me at least ☺️
it's a functional requirement, it's even the main one who care about a boring machine that play music, I have a mp3 player that do that
And a critical requirement for functioning Nuclear Reactors oddly enough!
@@dmacpher We don't use the word "cool," we use specific temperature values, as "cool" is relative.
This video genuinely feels like a relief. The joke of “Martin is eventually going to scrap the marbles and design a synthesizer” felt like it was getting closer and closer to the reality.
So much this!
Absolutely agree!
a few videos ago he was so hung up on "it needs to play to note at EXACTLY the right rythm or im scraping the whole thing" he really was trying to make a synthe that used marbles. im so glad he remembered his roots
Agree 100%
Absolutely! When he started on this journey, loads of people warned him for EXACTLY that outcome. It would sound boring, it would look boring. Bring back the rule of cool! 😎
Martin rediscovers not only engineering but also the importance of beauty in art. What a great journey through human creativity!
Very well put Sir, I wish I could have come up with something quite so eloquent.
I was struck when I first saw _the_ Marble Machine. It looked like a dream - surreal, impossible and illusory. There it stood, a hand-cranked piece of plywood on thin legs with pencil-labelled handles, bent wire tracks that rumbled and shuffled as it played. The background was plain white, only accentuated by scattered wires and marbles. Yet it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, a raw piece of imagination brought into reality. So, my congratulations! Whatever you create next will be indescribably phenomenal.
Beautifully written! I agree 100%
Yes! But also, part of the coolness was the thought that it actually worked. The fact that it didn’t actually work , I mean that it had reliability issues to the point that they could barely film believable B-roll - took a lot away, and I understand why Martin was chasing reliability for so long, but yes, in third place of priorities coolness definitely belongs. Sure, Martin needs to keep his limbs whilst playing, and the songs need to be on time, harmonious and groovy BUT nobody is going to care unless it actually looks cool.
Martin, my dude, for a long time people have warned you in the comments that you’re engineering all the art, heart and soul out of the MM. I am SO happy you FINALLY came to the same conclusion on your own accord! Let's go!! Design requirement #3: Rule of cool!
i cant believe AGILE SCRUM with the user stories got him there LOL
@@pvic6959 It's unironically a really good testimonial. Wild
@@pvic6959never would of guessed my work made more sense than ever lol
The Rule of Cool, at least in running RPGs, is that it's fine and fun to add flash and style, but not at the cost of compromising balance. In this case, if he inadvertently improves the machine while prettying it up, I think he'll let that result stand -- but the first priority needs to be on not breaking it.
Being both an artist and an engineer, I'm genuinely so happy to see you realise this! Having watched you for the past 5 years, and even based my own university project around making a marble machine, I was disappointed to see you go towards the functional pragmatic version. I cannot wait to see you create an awesome artistic machine!
It's like we are watching an internal battle between his inner engineer and artist! But in the end, there was never any need to fight.
It's like we are watching an internal battle between his inner engineer and artist! But in the end, there was never any need to fight.
I also saw the same thing, I always thought that he cared WAY too much with timing and the "no compromise" which ended up never finishing the second machine
@@SpeedyGwen Yeah if he wanted it to be perfect, he should of just bought a midi keyboard. The imperfection is what makes us human, without it, it'd be like listening to audio and not an actual performance.
@@prebenkul This is just delusional, he wanted a machine that could play music that didn't sound bad to his ears, and to be able to go on tour with it, which he couldn't do with the MMX, that is he needed a machine that was reliable and consistent. I also think the engineering stuff is interesting.
it takes a massive amount of fortitude to look at such a large body of work and say, 'no this isn't going how I want', then to try again and again and again to get the trajectory to match the goal... hats off to you Martin.
Solving the mechanical problems first (marble dropper, power input, programming wheel, timing etc) with prototypes was a prerequisite to solving the beautiful complete machine. With the engineering journey you've been through, now you are in a better position than ever to approach that goal.
I've been watching for a few years now, and what keeps me coming back is watching the process of an artist teaching themselves engineering. This video is actually a huge step - you've completed a hero's journey, going out into the world of engineering discipline only to have it lead you back to the world of art, but with new tools. So, congratulations, and I look forward to what you have in store!
Very well said indeed
He finally gets it, it might have taken a few years, but Martin finally understands what we've all been trying to tell him.
Speak for yourself, I enjoy the engineering
The best helmsmen stand on the shore. In other words: it's easy to criticize while doing nothing instead of appreciating those who do the work. Martin has made a transition from artist to designer and engineer. That in itself has been an interesting and entertaining coming-of-age-story. Now he's at the point where he's looking for harmony between it all. "Happiness is a journey, not a destination".
@@faithful451Yeah i like the engineering but what i dont like is him edging us for 2 years working on the mmx then just blue balling us by just scrapping it all together without even playing a song on it
@@wassupbros4629The MMX continued and did play a song.
@@wassupbros4629 He doesn't owe you anything
I still can't point at what is the best about Wintergatan. The transparency of Martin's thought process, the walking the edge on giving up, constantly changing everything, the massive deep-dive into whatever needs be be dived, the constant change between art/engineering, pragmatism/ideology, giving up/going live, welding/cutting. I'm not even sure if I want to know. I'm still amazed by your development, a musician doesn't simply go out and end up needing the autodesk staff to bring up their product to his specs, of course after having mastered TIG welding, CNC, 3D-printing, supply-chain management, working with tho most complex spreadsheet known to men. It boggles the mind. The only thing that I do know for sure is I don't want it to stop. Of course giving up due to being overwhelming would be the totally natural for like everybody since day one. But somehow your volition seems to prevent you from failing. I will follow in awe.
great comment! Completely agree
It's like a live fight between the right and the left side of his brain!
I KNEW we would get to this point again! Function over form is great and all, BUT half the reason I want to see the Marble Machine live is because the previous iterations looked SO COOL! Not to mention the music is pretty great too xD
I think the important thing to remember is, he couldn't tour with either previous machine, because marble machine 1 was too fragile, and both mm and mmx were not tight enough for live performance without correcting the timing in post in the studio.
The thing that made me love the marble machine was that the machine reciprocated the energy that you put into it. The machine was playing with you by it's movement, it's sound, it's quarks and it's beauty.
And don't forget its electrons!
Martin, I've been a constant viewer, watching since the original marble machine, through the MMX series and on this most recent iteration. I'm an engineer by training and an artist when I can be. This is one of the best videos you've put out, ever. I'm ecstatic to see the future of the project, approached with this attitude. I believe!
YASSSSS!!!
This makes me incredibly happy. After seeing the original marble machine when it came out, I watched every video of yours up until the day you stopped working on the MMX. The journey was fantastic, but the negative view you had of it and the decision to abandon was sad for myself and many others and made it made it hard to watch someone so obviously go down a path I didn't agree with. I check in every 6 months or so now, just to see if you've realized the artistry you have when you don't focus on function over form, and seeing this today made me so happy. I'm an engineer myself, so of course I appreciate excellent function, but the whole point of this project was function given difficult form. That's what made it beautiful. I'm glad you realized exactly this!
Same!
On the other end, if he wants to go on tour and his machine can barely play one song and he has to repair it after every concert...that's not practical. I see why if he decided to completly change the design but ...yeah same as you. I'm not convinced this new design was the way to go.
FALLING MARBLES ARE COOL! FALLING MARBLES ARE COOL! FALLING MARBLES ARE COOL! Gears are pretty cool but I want to see falling marbles! Maybe Fluorescent marbles + UV light would be really epic!
Imagine coming back from a show with a marble you managed to pick up from the floor - so cool!
Wait oh my god fluorescent marbles would be sick
I definitely would autograph one by Martin!!! As a drummer it's THE thing coming from a concert with a "won" stick from the Artist themselves. Finally noone cares at all and comments it as a fail that they dropped it, though, we hate it as drummers but fans love it!
Yes!! You could take it a step further and make the UV light a strobe. Then you can mess with the strobe timing... make the marbles "fall upwards", or hang mid-air etc. That would be an awesome surprise to switch on during one special song in a full concert.
I vote for UV marbles with UV-lit section of marble machine ...would look amazing on stage!
You finally get it!!
Yay! My Wilson's back. Martin, I love that you have taken this direction again. Remember, you are doing this for a lot of things, but don't forget you're also doing this for you. ❤
Im really glad to came to this conclusion. The Art of the first two machines was what made it interesting to many people. It's still definitly very interesting to see the engineering involved with making a successful machine at playing tight music, but it somehow lacks the magic of the first two
Yessssssssss, finally Martin. That's what I have been thinking about your project for years now. There is no point in a machine that plays music through dropping marbles if it doesn't feel like some mad person did a mad attempt at creating something insane, literal sense of the word. You were almost taking out the soul from the whole thing. It was a relief to watch this video.
The most functional marble machine is just a MIDI keyboard where the marbles are the electrons in the circuits. The marble machine has to be a piece of art and creativity because Martin is an artist at heart, not an engineer. Look at Wintergatan's old live shows. They are filled with creativity, like playing on a typewriter or using a very crude music box with a noisy Lego motor running it. That worked absolutely fine! :)
YAY!!! You have finally come back to your senses! I skipped a lot of videos when you went down the rathole of "tight" music to the millisecond, to the detriment of everything else. So glad you see that Fun and Cool Looking are what attract most of us to this crazy project. Enjoy the process! Have fun!
Came for the original mm, stayed for the exciting personal art & engineering journey! Thank you for giving so much of your self to us! The fascinating wooden marble machine that was just ridiculous cool and magical! Simple but yet so complex! - can't wait for this journey to start!
What you said in the first 30 seconds is exactly why for the past year Ive been feeling kind of sad about the almost obsessive drive for near perfect engineering on this current marble machine. And to hear you realize this and have a total change of direction makes me so incredibly happy, relieved and excited!
One of the things I like about the first marble machine is the sounds the machine makes. It makes it feel alive and honestly it feels like it adds onto the music and doesn't disrupt it.
We have to find a way for Martin to visit Walt Disney Imagineering. The *experience* is the why -- to make people marvel and laugh and gape in awe. The amazing engineering exists to serve *that* purpose. The Marble Machine Project is no different, and I'm so happy to see Martin coming to understand it!
I'm glad Martin finally realized that the only way Marble Machine would be perfectly reliable, playing tight music and also safe, was to make a little black box with a track for a single marble, which presses a button to start an MP3 player. Now we can finally build the Marble Machine.
I’m so happy with everything you’ve said in this video ❤ The only thing I would say is that it IS in fact possible to ask “Why?” for art, and the answers can be: Because it’s beautiful, because it’s cool, because it excites people, because it conveys emotion :)
Hallelujah! My wife (artsy) and me (Engineer) watched every single of your videos for years, and starting with the MM3, we both started screaming at the screen because you just forgot the most important things about the whole project: Fun, creative construction ...and jank! In the initial MM video, seeing all those marbles on the floor, seeing all those handcrafted gears rattling around, super noisy switches, hand written channel names, but still playing great music: that was just super cool!
The first time I became excited about the MMX was with the sound of marble stepper stairs... the noise just sounds so cool! Make it look cool Martin.
You are so right. Whenever I saw the design of the new marble machine it didn't appeal to me as much as the first two, but I didn't question it. This is the way to go!
Good morning Martin! I can't express how happy and excited I am that you woke up from your engineering drowse and found your way back to the heart of the two first machines! I kept on following you because I wanted to support you as a person, but now however, I'm back to being as excited for this artistic adventure as we all were all those years ago!
Thank goodness! My heart sank when you published the mega-stage-multi-platform-hidden-marble-machine design. I have followed your work since before the MM - I stumbled on a Wintergatan music video that blew me away and subscribed. I've loved watching you build the MM and MMX. You're back on track and I love it!
Marvin, your discussion here is spot on. I never realized why I didn’t like the spread out modular design until you talked about it here. The meld of art and engineering was the allure in the first place! Super happy to see you coming back to it!
This genuinely makes me very happy, Martin! You refer(ed?) to the MMX as a failure, but for me it brought so many great memories. The „I moved to France“ video was pure magic with the sky timelapse… and the videos that followed were so creative and just joyful to watch. Whenever you started on your „I want to be a serious engineer“ detour, for me some of the magic was lost. I really really really hope that this new perspective on the marble machine primarily makes you happy. Or at least enables you to decide to be happy with what you do! A happy Martin is a creative land wonderful Martin! I wish you all the best on your further journey and will remain a faithful watcher of your videos :)
What is even more important than visible gears is to see where the marbles hit the instruments, so that cameras can zoom in on the action. This is where the music happens.
I was in love with the (not final) look of the MMX and I actually had stopped watching your videos since you "gave up" on it. I'm very glad to hear that you are back with the spirit I appreciated the most about this project, making cool stuff. 😊😊
Amazing that you have had this realisation. I had faith in you so I have still been following the new machine but couldn't help but feel the soul or the project was gone. the form of the MMX was perfect from an art perspective. You definitely pivoted too hard to "I'm fed up of form stopping function I want my machine to work" Keep going Martin. When you finally finish this project it will be a masterpiece!
I'm willing to bet that you sharing your journey has helped a lot of people learn a whole lot. I know I have learned a lot from it for sure. Even now, I just shared a screenshot(and a link) with the 5 steps of Document Setup with a friend of mine(we're both developers), since it can be applied to pretty much anything you make. I believe that someday you'll manage to complete the marble machine that you really want to make, even if that vision continues morphing as you're working towards it! In the meantime - thank you for sharing your journey and all the things that you learn and discover along the way!
Martin, you have just done what I do with my clients as a business consultant. I think your insight is brilliant, I would love to show it to all my clients to make them realize how important it is to ask themselves these questions before making decisions or investing money and effort.
YESSS!!!! BRING BACK THE ART AND PERSONALITY!! The rule of cool on thr first marble machine was insane and a feel like its a big reason why it resonated with so many people. This whole project started with the spectre of watching marbles fly around and seeing the marvelous mechanical movements the machine made; the clicks, the marbles falling on the floor, the deep low noise of the wooden gears. I was honestly devastated when you got rid of the marble dropper fingers on the mmx (not to say i dont totally understand it, they were a bit of a nightmare). Imo, It marked the beginning of all the art getting engineered and optomized away. I understand you wanted reliability, but the compexity and things you often saw as failure (machine noise, marbles on the floor, loud clicks and shunts) gave them so much personality!!!! (Sorry for rambling on a bit in the end, this has been an amazing project though highs and lows, and has been an extremely important part of my life through middle and highschool, and now adult life (crazy how time does that)). Love you martin, and i hope you can learn to love all parts of yourself and your machine.
#1 for me is your Music. It always has been - I can't wait to hear more Wintergaten! #2 is the cool marble machine #3 pvc pipe bending, welding, cycling and philosophy
This is a crucial turning point in the series. I love how this art project has slowly morphed into something bigger: by now it is just as much about character growth as it is about marbles and music. It obviously wasn't always easy, but it's a beautiful story. I am more excited than ever about the marble machine Martin will build now.
There where stretches over the years where I was convinced that we'd never see a working MM in the form that Martin was envisioning. But it never mattered to me. Because every weekly video was a new insight into someone's wholly unique journey with an unknown outcome. It was always interesting to learn about struggles, creative solutions, epiphanies, going back on previous decisions, doubts, commitments, unproductive lulls, hi-energy sprints and every other conceivable aspect of this creative endeavour. It's the epitome of "The journey is the destination" and I'm all for it. That being said, I do highly favour your resurfaced notion of this machine also being a spectacular piece of art over just an assembly line of ideal engineering solutions.
OMG, Martin, I was so happy watching this video! I've watched your videos for six years and never commented, but I can't hold back any longer! I am literally a requirements engineer (aka Systems Engineer) and have experienced what you described in your video for my entire career. "I'm busy designing! I don't have time for requirements." I'm SOOOO glad you had this realization that saved you all this time before you built something. This is EXACTLY what systems engineering is for! You are singing my song, my man!!! Also, I love the skeleton clock concept. I have multiple wrist watches and pocket watches and they are ALL skeleton clocks! You are exactly right that the interest in this machine is the balance between engineering and art. I was going to say that if you can figure out how to quantify what "looks cool" looks like then you can write some killer requirements, but you are already ahead of my with the skeleton clock idea. Keep it up!!
Martin! Martin! I've only said this to you about 14 times over these many years. You are an ARTIST. You make ART. Making a machine that makes music from marbles is your audacious artistic quest. One thing though. Gears ARE cool but marbles are COOLER. This is the MARBLE machine not the gear machine. What we mostly want to see is marbles dropping in musical time. Marbles are mesmerizing. Gears are too. Don't get me wrong. But the marbles are the star. I highly recommend you explore the realm of KINETIC SCULPTURE as a category. Take a look at works in that category for inspiration. If you look there, I think you will find the sweet spot. It must have the precision and reliability of a well engineered machine but ultimately above all else it is an artistic statement. Cheers my friend.
as a sculptor working with machines...i totally agree. the inspiring 'look' of the mechanical sculpture is what inspires my audience. solving the engineering issues is fun but secondary to the big picture of being fun and creative.
Martin, what was mesmerizing for me when watching the first video was seeing the marbles being captured by funnels after hitting the instruments. I couldn't believe this thing was real. Also, turning a crank and changing levers was absolutely cool. The Marble Machine song was something amazing, too. The melody doesn't leave my head for days after I watch the original video.
This is why we all get frustrated every time multiple episodes and many months are focused on submillisecond accuracy.
I love those to be fair
To be fair I loved those videos too, it'd be great to incorporate those improvements (and the huygen drive especially, for example) into the MMX form factor I was just saddened at the whole stage-like machine, as Martin said that lost the soul of the Marble Machine
The best helmsmen stand on the shore.
You can't convince the culties that your frustration is justified, though.
@@thomasbecker9676 what is up with your crusade to shit on martin's dream? Did he steal your girlfriend or something?
I am happy you've reached this point. I was one of those who liked the original design. The best answer is another question is "Why NOT?" And all I can say is, thank you. I'm glad you stuck with it for so long.
Thank goodness! When I saw the sketch of the whole-stage machine I knew that you were deeply in the grip of "second-system-syndrome" -- the tendency to replace elegant and simple solutions that do one thing well, with bloated broken systems that try to do everything badly. The joy of marble machines is precisely that they shouldn't work but somehow they do. I'm glad you're getting back to that attitude.
Welcome back Martin! After following every step of your journey, it is such a relief to hear these words. My marble machine poster is going back up on my studio wall tomorrow!
Oh man... It has been a long time coming... I'm glad you're here with us. I started watching this channel because you had a cool and fun machine and ambitions to make something fun to watch and listen to. I've stayed for the interesting self education on engineering and problem solving. I've struggled with how quickly you dismiss things simply because it's not precise enough. It's good leaning and discussion, but most of your viewers don't care about the last .1% of "slop". I think you're on the right path now and I wish you all the luck, not just with KZhead, but with your art and self actualization!!!
“The heart of project is playfulness” amen! This whole video really hit me in the feels. I’ve honestly been struggling to stay engaged with the “hardcore engineering” theme of the recent videos. I fell in love with the idea of a marble machine instrument during the MMX days (and it honestly hurts to hear Martin call that a failure). I miss the music that was a constant part of that era. I’m so excited to see how this new approach goes, and I’ll be watching closely now. I’m so happy for Martin!
He’s back! Martin’s back! MM is BACKKKKKKK
What made the original marble machine so wonderful is that it was as much a moving living sculpture as it is a musical instrument. It should be as beautiful to watch as the music it plays.
My prayers are answered! So elated you are returning to making a mezmerizing sculpture! Thanks for all these years of sharing your learning, struggles, ups, downs, and sideways! It's all been great and I look forward to MM XI (you ARE turning it up to Eleven!)
the full circle martin did during this project is so amuzing and cool to watch! Kudos, Martin!
Thank you so much for taking us on this journey with you ❤️
"if i dont turn this project into an amazing sculpture, the project has no validity at all" are words full of sense, reaffirming lost believes and challenging the course of the project these last years, it really moved me. i feel so inspired and grateful to have the opportunity of following this journey.
I admire Martin Molin as a creator so much, that I will never stop watching whatever he decides. I came here for the beauty of the first two machines, but stayed for the ongoing thought process. I like marble machines a lot but for me Martin the creator is the best thing on this channel
I'm so happy seeing Martin come back to his roots. I've been watching since the beginning of the MMX and I cannot wait to see Martin complete this project. Seeing Martin regain his artistic self really spoke to me, i myself have been in a musical rut and it inspiring to see him come back from that. Thank you Martin for sharing your journey will all of us, you are an inspiration to us all!
I have been building a prototype for work and it's taken me years (still not done), but I continue to fight it just because I want to get it over that hill and into the world. Keep at it Martin, I have faith you will complete your machine as well and share it with the world as well.
What I really enjoy about this project is to see the hands-on development of a masterpiece to be. In my opinion, every phase of this project (first marble machine, MMX, enineering phase) was necessary to get a true masterpiece in the end, a masterpiece that is both stunning and functioning, that plays great live music while also being a design-object that makes heads turn. What I am certain about is that you, Martin, now have both the engineering tools and the artistic talent to create this machine. I can't wait to see this machine come to live, and I am 100% sure it will be an absolute success... Thanks for everything, a normally silent youtube follower...
I'm so glad to hear this. I fell in love with your project due to your iterative, almost evolutionary approach to engineering, trying to balance the beauty of both elegant engineering and artsy marble movement. This is making my day.
Glad to have YOU back, Martin. Can't wait to see the new design.
Martin, i discovered a toy store in San Sabastian full of automatas, immediately reminded me of you and the MM. I thought you had los your connection to the playful Martin. Now I see you are back. Bravo.
To me, Wilson always was a symbol of the project, because it's fun, happy, and a mixture of a mechanical thing.
- Почему ты это делаешь? - Потому что могу! Всё, что сделано правильно с позиции инженера, будет красивым с позиции художника. Успехов! 💪
I watched the video with the folks working with the X they are really having a good time with it. It's never going to be perfection but it has always been fun. I hope that you can find a happy place with this endeavor that will make you happy. I always follow to see what you are up to so I guess you could say I like to watch your process. Keep moving forward You have already done great things.
YES!!! I came here to echo the happy and excited fans who are cheering at this great news. My kids ask to "watch the marble guy" every couple of months and we go watch the original video or some of the clips of the MMX. The beautiful marble song on the original video always captivates them along with the fascinating visuals of the machine working. They shout with joy when they see the black marble making its round. It's those little touches that you add which bring it to a whole new level. There's something phenomenal when you combine a beautiful and playful song, a crazy cool and playful steampunk-esque design, and the fact that you're partly playing it manually. It is a work of genius. Over the years it's been inspiring to see you work so hard to see a dream realized. Seeing you persist through all of these struggles brings a fire and hope to keep at it until the dream comes to life. This is what the best stories are made of. Thank you for not giving up and for taking us along for the journey. We can't wait to see what comes next!
We are also here for the process Martin, we like the process, the steps you're going through. I'm happily will keep watching you found the balance between engineering and coolness, this is where the art is.
This is so nice to hear. I am genuinely excited for this realization. I think the idea of "perfect" and millisecond things strayed so far away from the dream made it seem like it was never going to get anywhere or not going to be thrilling to see and be a part of. I am super happy!
I can't wait for Season 4 of the Wintergaten Marble Machine!!!!!!!
Hello Martin, I'm happy to see you are finding your way back to the heart of the project. It is a noble goal to unite form AND function and you've done a great job thus far! I don't think as engineers the question is frequently "why?" The customer/stakeholders hold the knowledge of "why." As engineers, we must do our best to determine the "what" to understand the customer's true vision --this is the heart of every well developed set of requirements. Once we /think/ we have the "what," then we ask ourselves "how?" When Architect and Engineer work cooperatively, the results are often self-evident. Happy to join the engineering discord btw :).
Martin, I'm a greek fan from the start and even though years and years I'm watching all of your videos, it's the first time I'm commenting on one, just to say that I really loved your epiphany and your decision. I was enjoying and waiting for like crazy this new marble machine to finish, yet something was off, something was missing from the process. Your decision made it clear and obvious at last. Keep up!
YES! Thank you! I was following the channel from the first wooden marble machine and loved every step of the way. every problem solved, every idea implemented. The new machine, even though from a technical perspective it is superior in every way, something was just off... the artistic element was gone. seeing the gears work, the marbles in the tubes, the channles clicks and clanks... all of that was magic that cannot really be replaced by bowden tubes and 100% technical efficiency. I'm glad you decided to go back to what this machine really is - a statue. an art! and when making art, perfection can be put aside.
I almost quit following the project - now you've got me back. I'm very excited and happy for you that you reinvited the 'joie de vivre' into the project. Go!
Part of what I like about the Marble Machine video is that YOU seem to be having a lot of fun while operating a product that you made yourself.
I'm so happy you looked behind you to see that Marvin ! It's a great great news today ! You have to know something. 5 years ago when I started studying mechanical enginering, I had a professor, great engineer and excellent professor. Once at the end of its course, he showed us, it's to say two hundred students in an auditorium, your first video. Hear that : no one left the course to watch until the end; and the professor told us how great enginering could be while looking so nice ! He was enjoying watching your machine a lot ! Keep going ! I'm more than ever waiting to see where you are going to go !
There is only just one thing left to say: thank you.
YEEEEESSS !!! Thank you Martin, thank you ! It is just amazing to hear you talking about the other machines, art and beautifulness again, it's like seeing the old Martin but stronger, with we tools and tricks in his hands ! I have been watching you litteraly since the beginning, and I feel that this video is a very important and very refreshing one for the project. It is amazing that you managed to have the hindsight to realise it. I cannot wait to see where you will take this project in the future. THANK YOU !
I am so excited to see where this project goes next! having a steampunk/clockwork aesthetic would be so cool.
The thing I enjoy the most about these videos is how Martin is basically in a journey to find what human nature is. Good engineering comes from a pragmatic standpoint, fix a problem, move on, fix the next problem. It doesn't matter if is pretty just if it's functional, a good example of this is a road of concrete, is very unassuming, but the calculations required to make it safe and sound for everyone is a mathematical marvel. Great engineering comes from the drive to create something new, like the first pipe systems, or the trebuchet in ancient times. And then there is amazing engineering, which comes from the pure drive of the wow factor, the coolness, the uselessness that gives birth to so many processes that still amaze us today. The Colliseum, the pyramids, the hanging gardens of Babylon, none of these were practical, or pragmatic or fixed any real issue. But damn, they are some of the greatest engineering feats of all time. Keep going Martin, design with your brain, but take inspiration from your heart.
I am so happy that you came to this conclusion :D I would have followed your progress regardless of your design decisions , but i think you are on the right way! But please dont think of your "grumpy engineer phase" as a failure of some sorts! You developed a new view on things and then found your inner artist (child?) again. That engineering view on things is a really helpful tool in your pocket, which will help you making MM a success! I wish you the best of luck.
I stepped away from your channel around a year ago because I got tired of seeing you beat yourself up, beat the MMX up, and make no progress--and make so little new music. For some reason KZhead pushed this video in front of me today, and the title caught my attention. And suddenly you were speaking my language! I am an IT business analyst otherwise known as a "requirements guy." Watching you discover the joy of requirements brought tears to my eyes! (Okay, I may be exaggerating a little.) I lead a team of BAs at work, and I think you're about to make an appearance in my next team meeting, of not for all project kickoff meetings in the company from here on out. YOU GET IT! This makes me even happier than learning you're still working on the marble machine. But hearing you're releasing new music would also make me very happy, too. (hint hint!)
Beautiful journey Martin, love hearing you share the story of coming full circle! 💫
YAAAY this is so heartwarming. Proud of you! Remember: No one saw the original marble machine video and thought "wow this would be cooler if only the music was *tighter*" It has been awesome watching you learn about engineering, but it's been awhile now where I've been feeling like you were just making the most elaborate and impractical and limited sampler ever made XD I can't wait to see what comes next!
Dear Martin, I really appreciated you taking this "step back" to take two steps forward. That said, don't forget that a big chunk of the art that was in the first Marble Machine was sound waves. You are a great artist, but more importantly you are a very great musician.
The marriage of art and engineering is actually something one of my professors dived into. It was the oddest thing and I did not understand it at the time. Ten years later, you made sense of it. It seems the very best engineers I've worked with are also the most creative people who do hard, menial work to achieve their passion, which is both working toward the concept and seeing it materialize as a result. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing this discussion and we look forward to more. Thank you so much!
This is a pivotal moment in your Marble Machine journey. I’ve been here since the start of your MMX project, fascinated by the challenges you faced and the myriad of solutions that you developed to address them. I’m happy to hear that you’ve recognized the true spirit of the original playful, imperfect, artistic machine that started it all, and now see the whole point of your continued pursuit of this project. Here’s to the next MM version!
Martin! I’m so happy for you! Glad to see such an openmindness. It takes a lot of effort to recognize the failures and even more to recognize the failures in the decisions you thought were solutions to the initial failures! I’m glad you listen not only to your audience but also to your heart. Keep doing a great work you do, keep listening to your heart. And most important - keep having fun, being it an engineering perfection or cool looking machine or whatever makes you happy. And thanks a lot for a possibility to travel along this harsh path with you!
So I'm not sure what those percentages are exactly, but I have been watching from afar for a long time now and I'll say definitively that for me, it's always been about YOU! These machines are simply pieces of you and I'm proud of the growth that I saw from you in this video! You never cease to amaze. Enjoy your new dimension of creativity and conceptualizing!
Yessss! Marble Mashine is always about COOOOOLNESS! A functional machine is cool, but if it looks cool, that's way better!
I think that the process of making a basic modular pure engineering design is invaluable, now you have a great understanding of what building blocks you have to work with and can use those to paint a marble machine that is beautiful . It’s really not going to be hard to take those parts out of their boxes and place them into an exotic lattice work . Remember most buildings are just boxes and the thing that makes them stand out is all the fancy flashing
I will say though, that part of what makes projects like this cool is simply that the designer wants to do it. There's something beautiful in the act of passion alone. If someone is passionate about something that that gives a thing value. And then others can share in that value.
This video was incredible. To see the realization and the reconciliation, I can't be happier for Martin. This video was like watching Neo finally understanding and changing the reality of everything around him in the corridor scene. It was like the emotion of realizing ET wasn't dead after all. One of the best youtube videos I've ever watched.
I've been watching religiously every single one of your videos since 2018 and I'm constantly impressed with the quality, depth, and perspective you have. And this doesn't only apply to the design of the machines, but to your work ethic and out look to your goal. Your videos motivate me and always have me rooting for you! Please please please continue the super hard work you've always been putting in! I'm absolutely thrilled for this new adventure!
Over five years ago I found Wintergasten thanks to the marble machine. It made me decide to go to college and study engineering. I went ahead and am now working as a product engineer. I play the oboe for over 14 years and mechanical music instruments are something that interest me to this day. I had many discussions with my engineering professors about these 'weird products'. You have just explained the exact reason why music instruments (and the Marble Machine) are weird product/machines for an engineer. Engineers are thought to make decisions based on set requirements. Engineers are trained to focus on efficiency, cost or ergonomics. This does not apply to music instruments. Musicians don't want, cheap or easy. There is only one requirement. It must allow the musician to express him/herself during the performance. That is exactly what you have learned now with the Marble Machine. Congratulations! Keep on going. I can't wait to hear this machine live on stage!
You are 100% correct! Requirements are the most important bit, and it has 0% fun to show to stakeholders, so it's a hard balance to spend time with it and still keep the support for the project!