He Used a MARBLE MACHINE to Produce a FULL SONG ?! 

He has manufacutered even more amazing music marble machines since this first project. He is vlogging his engineering challenges.

This is 100% editing magic. Martin has said himself, this machine is not capable of playing the song in one take. The video is several takes edited together. That said it is cool to watch 😊 I've been watch Martin since the very start of his Marble Machine X build. Unfortunately, he realised that the design of the first and second machines was basically bad. He's grown as a designer and engineer, so hopefully, he can find a way to build the third marble machine. Great reaction. Enjoyed the disbelief on your face. I couldn't believe it was really when I first watch the video.

He is on this third one since this machine. The second one looked similar to this machine but with more high-tech engineering, but as of right now, the 3rd concept/machine will look way different and much larger, like the size of a stage.

I'm so glad to see this masterpiece resurfacing, I remember seeing it when there was probably 100k views on it thinking it was the most amazing machine ever, and now see it with 250m and it's making me so happy that the Wintergaten is getting the recognition it deserves

This Marble Machine was basically hand built. The gears were traced onto paper, applied to a sheet of plywood that was then cut with a bandsaw. It was fragile, threw marbles all over the floor, and was basically good for this video. He then moved onto the MMX. It was intended to be used on a world tour. It was designed to be portable and among its many requirements was that it could barely lose a marble to the floor. This is not surprising given the hazard to the performers of walking around on a stage with marbles rolling around on the floor. He nearly completed it before abandoning the project, announcing that there were design issues that just couldn't be fixed. The MMX is now in a museum being completed by a team of fans. They have released some music and the flaws in the machine are obvious. He has had a number of epiphanies about his approach to the first two machines. He basically quickly designed the mechanics and took to building. It made for interesting videos but the consequences of building in untried and untested mechanisms led to a lot of rework, especially in the MMX. Whole sections had to be replaced causing downstream impacts. He just kept circling the drain. This time around, Martin is putting a lot of effort into planning the system overall and testing major component ideas with multiple alternatives to find and focus on the best. He is taking a more structured engineering approach although not being an engineer himself, he is a bit slow and making mistakes along the way. The main thing is that he is learning. Unfortunately, a lot of people are missing the important shift in Martin's approach and are impatient. The other difference with the MM3 is its size. I think it will change the nature of his concerts. Had MMX worked, it would have been brought out for a song or two but his band would have been largely unchanged. It was the same size as the original. MM3 is huge. Rather than being a novelty in the background, it will be virtually the stage with band members basically playing within it. I think his concerts will become the MM3 accompanied by a few humans. Still a spectacle.

From what I hear, he worked at a museum and had A LOT of time on his hands.

1:50 it's full of contact mics, especially the drum parts. The levers control the gates for the marble drops for the different channels and instruments, and the triggers are controlled by the large programming wheels, using lego pins that can be reprogrammed like a music box that uses punch cards (which he has a separate smaller machine that does this too for one of Wintergatan's early albums). This machine eventually went to a museum, from what I remember.

Martin is still engineering a thirt one... to go on a world-tour with it!

The mic you see is only to catch the mechanical ambience of the gears turning; each instrument is mic'd seperately. The drums are small contact mics covered by thin padding of various materials, to achieve different sounds. The "thump" occurs when a marble drops on it. Marbles hit the strings of the bass to "pluck" them, but Martin has to do the fingering on the fretboard to get the notes he wants. The song (vibraphone notes, bass hits, and drum pattern) is encoded onto the rotating drum with pegs. Hope that helps.

There's a video he posted exactly a year after this one, a compilation of all the covers other people made using regular instruments or some unconventional methods. It's well worth checking out as it showcases skills and ingenuity of many other people.

Wow, never thought I'd see anyone do a reaction to this. Have been tracking them for years

What impresses me most about this performance is that Mr. Wintergatan understands his machine so well that he knows _exactly_ when to let go of the crank so that the machine spins down to stop on exactly the right note for the end of the song.

I'm so happy you could appreciate the time it takes for the marble to drop from the gate to the time it hits the instrument; I must have watched a collective 20 hours of him (Martin) learning then mastering this one factor over several years.

I can barely engineer a sandwich... wtf...

The craziest thing about something like this is that normally you see an impressive contraption and the smarter you are/more you understand the less impressive it is. This is legitimately so amazing that the smarter you are the MORE impressive it is because you realize how much is involved in this and it's mind blowing!

I remember coming across this a few years ago. He was working on another one I think when I last checked.

Spaceship? No. THIS is pinnacle of engineering 😂 😂 😂

The gears rotating in this one sells the song really, like it would have been a good song on its own, but the constant churning of the gears elevates it into greatness

After losing your marbles, just gather them up and put them into a machine to harness your madness into art.

Other commenters have already filled you in on this guy. I love this video and have watched it a number of times over the last few years. The song popped into my head, as soon as I saw you were gonna react.

From what I understand, there are three spinning wheels in the back, controlled by the operator using levers. Those wheels have nubs that hit the release levers, which drop a marble onto a pressure pad, That sends an electronic signal, which plays a note. Everything is electric, except for the cymbals and the bass guitar strings.. As you said, the amount of work it took to make a music box like that probably took months.

Awesome someone gave this to you. Saw this yrs ago. His channel is pretty cool. Shows alot of how he does this

This man must have mastered the art of patience.

this is quite the throwback.....its so good that i still think its not real 😂

Yeah, I've been subscribed to Wintergarten since that first video went viral 8 years ago. It's been an amazing adventure watching this man, a wonderfully talented musician, teach himself design and engineering all while exploring the philosophy of following one's passion.

Marten, the man in the video, engineered all of this and composed the music. I'd highly recommend checking out his whole channel. That man is... SOME kind of musical savant sent by the Muses themselves to amaze and impress the world with his work. I would also highly recommend checking out his video about the 'Modulin', a modular synth-violin he created, and proceeds to play an amazing cover of the Wily Castle theme from Megaman on. Dude is on a completely different level. Literally built different when it comes to music.

I watched this with my daughters when it came out. One of the first times I asked my kids to watch something online.

Wintergatan's video "All Was Well" music box and modulin is worth a listen as well. It's not the marble machine but it is really awesome and beautiful.

o - It's a GIANT "MUSIC BOX"! :) : note the large cylinder w/ pegs actuating levers that control release of the "marbles' (metal balls) which strike the vibraphone bars, and other things. It's mechanically driven by a large flywheel he cranks up to speed. - At one point though (in middle of piece), he was manually actuating the ball drop levers. - "Mad genius"! :)

DUDE thank you... I remember watching this YEARS ago so I was trying to remember some keywords to find it again but nada.

YOU GOTTA SEE VERSION 2 of the machine! All metal, etc.

Brother thats a hold my beer moment and let me cook tf 😭 he ´s a genius

He's been refining his marble machine like crazy. He's more of an engineer than a musician, in my opinion. Writing music that would fit an instrument like this is so fucking nuts! Vintergahtahn (long as' [I think... the low 'a' sound]) is how it's pronounced

So glad you are sending this on to other reactors. I can't wait to see their reactions too! 👏

🤯🤯🤯….theres hope for humanity with guys like this..🤍🔥🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Love animusic. So fun to watch. There's so much out there for you to find. Hours of fun.

The Dark Horse Podcast uses this song as an intro and outro. I never knew it was this created like this.

I love your energy, you're so chill!

Wow, how long would it take to create a machine like this, to design it and then put it together? This is absolutely incredible and so fascinating to listen to and watch. I've never seen anything like this before, really really impressive!😊👍

03:41 Do my eyes spy some Legos there?

The marble machine contains multiple microphones, to pick up all the parts. For example, the "snare" sound is a marble hitting a pad that contains a contact microphone.

I've been following Martin for years, he's building a bigger and better machine now.

I also follow his channel since a couple of years and saw him on stage in Gothenburg almost 15y ago. He is like a modern Leonardo DaVinci. So many different skills required to do something line that. But yeah, he never really finishes. But that's probably also to keep his channel up.

I agree with everything you said. Genius. Insane. Incredible. This is crazy.

Put your take on it and send it to Winter, he would be over the moon ! = )

Martin Molin is a musical magician.

That guy sure have some balls.

It takes another musician to really get a sense for how crazy this is.

Only by looking at the guy and the machine, he reminds me to an artist by the name Jean Tinguely, who also created machines like that one.

Props for not seeing this until 2024!

Wait until you discover OKGO

the on and off are the levers he throws

Mind if I mention that since this video, he has been in the process of engineering the Marble Machine version 2.

Vintergatan is the Swedish name for the Milky Way. It means Winter Street

He's about done with his Marble Machine X... check that one out.

I'm not going to belittle the talent it took to design and build this thing, but he has admitted that this was not done with one take as machine kept breaking down. So he had to just keep playing and put all the parts that worked together.

He said afterwards that he used editing to make it much more smoother than it actually was.

This is a very old version of his machine. He made many changes before scrapping the whole thing and starting new

There are contact mics on the precision instruments he's building a new machine now it's been a years long process and many redesigns and iterations

Supposedly he's making another one with 10k marbles.

analog computer - truly amazing

He is an all round genius and can play just about any instrument you can think of and also some he has invented himself. His band Wintergarten are amazing and well worth looking up.

Not only did he do this... but he's got a TON of videos of making and remaking it... he's a bit of a Mad Scientist...

You know what man the movement's are spot on for so long that it's absolutely mesmerizing 6:50

Probably the dark blue/black marble is a visual indicator to the editor/s to know kind of where to cut from one view to another looking if it made a full cicle

honestly he has come sooooooooooo far. Watching his channel is quite the ride

Martin's inspiration was an animated music video called "Animusic Pipe Dream". Except Martin did it in Real Life! Go react to THAT!

Hes still building these machines. and he builds them all by him self and some team members. this was the first i think or one of the first ones.

There is a "Museum of Mechanic Music" (Mekaanisen musiikin museo) in Varkaus, Finland. Why isn't this instrument there? :( I was a kid when I went there and museums were generally boring places to be in, but this was actually pretty interesting!

Yeah bro, humans are amazing 😂🙏 glad you watched this

This machine is crazy. Seen it awhile ago still crazy today

If you like this one check his channel for the full build video of the next iteration of this historic music machine

You should check out the band he was playing in before he made this machine, Detektivbyrån So creative.

the one in this video is the prototype of the MMX Mk. II

Followed his projects for a number of years. He's gets _very_ easily sidetracked. So he never really finishes anything, because he is too busy upgrading minor details, then fixing the problems it caused. Or he wastes a lot of time with setting up and editing his videos. The fact that the first machine made it as far as to play a full song is a miracle. I like my maniacs to be more practical and productive, like Sam (LOOKMOMNOCOMPUTER, This Museum Is (Not) Obsolete).

He's straight outta Dr Zeus's world 😄

I can't believe you never seen this before. It's an old video and everyone i know has seen it by now. He's got newer videos and improvements on it too. The videos showing how it all works and how he's made it and further refined it is more interesting to me then he music video.

Absolutely incredible 🔥

2:28 timing is actually the easiest part to do XD

This is some Modern Day Davinci level talent...Wow!

Do not know what the inspiration chain was but either Wintergatan was inspired by Animusic's Pipe Dream or vice versa...

have you seen the wind beast art project? i don't recall the official name but it's those automatically moving things that walk across the beach and stuff.

YES! I found your channel through Azahriah (yes, I am Hungarian) and I am soooo happy to see Wintergatan on here. Absolutely adore that band. I wish I could see them live.

Where does Martin get the money to engineer and build these machines ?!

When he's playing it manually. He doesn't spin that thing to remove the marbles. It's just a vibrato.

Minor league engineer. I just make brake shoes for trains. Don't ride them!

Just amazing

Next machine what he is building will be much more better .....When he like some interesting stuff maybe look in : shimon jaming robot .... Or maybe look in Venjent

AR, just watch his series of making "The Marble Machine X", there's more of that stuff and his madness of this projects xD

That machine can't play that music. It's a prop.

Winter is coming!

Oooh this is something that I would request had I known it existed lol That takes a lot of time to create, I mean these days you can input stuff on a computer, with the right program and make a 3d model and simulation for it. But yeah this seems like a tedious process.

Отсутствие конструктора в детстве дает плоды во взрослой жизни. )

he s the grade randson of Da Vinci 😅

I think he used some sort of a program to calculate all this. obviously he didnt do it inside his mind only

Anthony have you heard "John 5" before? Pretty crazy too😊

Yes sir!!! Thank you

If no one already said it Vinterggatan means Milky way in Swedish

My man is a musician and engineer at the same time. It’s good my asian parents don’t know about him.

Is the black ball the 2000th ball and it's the final note in the song 🤔