Internet Gold -- The Best Music Videos | Robots VS Music -- Musical Instruments Played by Robots

Welcome to my latest installment of my series "Internet Gold -- The Best Music Videos". Today I have another visual treat for you. Let's begin:

What do you think of when you hear the term "electronic music"? 

-- You probably think of one person (or a small group of people) sitting in front of a computer with some audio software loaded up. Or you think of the same person (or small group of people) standing in front of a huge audience pushing the play button and then "dancing" to the song while turning a knob or two -- maybe. 

When Nigel Stanford thought of the term "electronic music", he envisioned something entirely different.  

Well, actually, he sat down in front of a computer by himself or with a small group of people and had some special software loaded up as well. So far, so similar. But in his case, it was not some audio software. He sat in front of a control program for industrial robots made by the German company Kuka --which by the way was bought by the Chinese company Midea in January 2017. 

The Kuka industrial robots are capable of some incredible things. To showcase their capabilities, the company produced a couple of promotional videos. The best of which I present to you. 

Electronic music 

is entirely rethought in this video.

One of my favorite comments on the video sums it up pretty well: 

I'm not sure if this guy misunderstood the phrase "Electronic music" or was the first one to get it right...

Two robots play an electric guitar, two play an acoustic piano, 3 robot arms play the drums, 2 robots operate a DJ setup with two turntables and a mixer and one is playing the synth. Hard to imagine? Let's have a look at it. 

You might wonder:

Was that real? 

The answer is complicated. There is actually quite a debate about it on the internet. I did my best to try and solve this mystery. 

Let's start with the 

Lasers

-- You might be relieved to read that this part was CGI. The robots did not really go mad and cut everything with their lasers. Not yet, at least. 😅

Music 

The robots performed all the movements you saw, but at the point when the robots went "mental" (after 2:35) the video material was probably sped up.

Who played the music that we heard?

I have tried to find that out and I believe that we really heard what the robots played until 2:35. After that, I'm not sure whether a human played the music or whether the instruments were tuned in a way that the sped up sound resulted in what we heard. Or whether the robots actually played those parts in that speed. Some people argue that the Kuka robots are really capable of moving that fast and that accurately. While others argue that it's all CGI. I wish there was a "making-of-video". Nigel, if you happen to read this and happen to have the video material to produce a making-of-video, I'm sure the internet would appreciate seeing it.  

If you can find out more about this, let me know in the comments! 

Here is the "proof" 

that the robots really did what I claim they did. 

The bass

The piano

The drums

How long did it take to make this video? 

The first tests with the robots were from May 2015, the video was released in September 2017. A good two years... 

My favorite comment on that topic:

I don't think we can appreciate how much time and effort went into this video. Well done

Are you convinced it was mostly real?

Or entirely real? Or do you believe it was CGI? Let me know in the comments what you think about it. 

Stay tuned for the next installment of "Internet Gold -- The Best Music Videos"! The next post is revisiting the previous one for a more in-depth dive into cymatics. 

Do you want to suggest what could be featured next? 

Let me know in the comments. 

I do have a nice lineup of cool content and won't run out of ideas any time soon. 😉 So stay tuned for the next installments of the series.