Computer Controlled Recorder Could Feasibly Play Forever - Has No Mercy

Back in my formative years at school I can remember having a spit-encrusted old recorder pushed into my hands and being told that I was expected to learn some masterpiece of the order of "Mary had a little lamb" or "Baa baa black sheep" (I'm not sure why my music teacher was so obsessed with sheep).  Now, in my hermetically sealed chamber where I scrub down with antiseptic every ten minutes the very thought of all those latent germs gives me the creeps; if only I could go back in time with Amin Rahimi's Auto-Recorder.

Built as a project for his computer interfacing class, the Auto-Recorder is basically a standard Yamaha instrument mounted in a frame, blown by an air-horn motor and controlled by a computer.  Using pulse width modulation the speed of the compressor can be altered to change the pitch.

There are videos of the beast in action on Amin's site.  Now if you'll excuse me, I've got the overwhelming urge to scrub my lips with wire-wool.

Amin Rahimi [via MAKE:]