Artist Dmitry Morozov, also known as ::vtol::, has created a unique Arduino instrument that looks and sounds bizarre.

The base of the project are three motors which are controlled by the 24-key keyboard. The electromagnetic fields created by these motors (we assume they vibrate those metal pipes) are registered by a guitar pickup.

This is all regulated by an Arduino Mega and kept cool by two small PC fans.

As you may imagine, it’s a complex machine, and Morozov states that “it’s not the easiest instrument to play”. To make things a bit easier there’s a digital voltmeter in the middle to aid tuning.

While the music created by Motorgan may not be to everyone’s taste, we think it would be great to produce audio for retro-inspired games. At around 02:36 in the video above we were sure that was the sound of the bike accelerating in Excitebike.

Make sure you read Morozov’s explanation of how the machine works in the description on Vimeo, and check out the gallery on the ::vtol:: site.

The last time we featured a custom maker project focused on creating music, it was the Raspberry Pi synth bike which is a bit more self-explanatory in comparison.

[Via Arduino Blog]