The Tabletop Barrel-Pinning Workshop
Set a pin. Choose its voice. Turn the handle. The brass remembers what you tell it.
No. 14 of a small edition — fully working, please use freely
The shelf of saved airs
Nothing pinned yet. Place a few brass studs and save them — they'll sit here, ready to play again whenever you visit.
The barrel turns once. Each pin lifts the contact finger as it passes underneath, and the finger answers — bright bell, plucked gut, breathy whistle, or the dry sweet pluck of a music-box tooth. Try a single pin first. Listen to where it lands. Then add another at the opposite side. Then a third somewhere quarter-turn off.
The drum holds sixteen positions, climbing the scale as you move around its circumference. Sparse looks like nothing and sounds like a whole melody. Crowded looks like a melody and sounds like delighted chaos. Both are correct.
You can mix voices on the same drum — pin a bell next to a whistle and they'll answer in turn. Save anything you like; it stays on this machine, on this device, waiting for the next time you sit down.
Tip: each pin remembers the voice it was set with. Click a pin again to remove it.