Plink Jet makes beautiful music with dried up ink jets

Despite our best attempts at trashing the planet in hopes that Al Gore will grow a beard again, we can't help but love repurposed electronics. The Plink Jet, spotted at NYU's ITP Winter Show 2007, uses the back-and-forth mechanisms out of four old ink jets to slide up and down four guitar strings, with various knob-controlled settings to control pitch and strumming patterns. The resulting noise is nice hybrid of robotic clicking and analog twang, but we hear HP charges a fortune for the strings.

Gallery: Plink Jet makes beautiful music with dried up ink jets

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[Churchill @ Dec 19th 2007 1:45AM]

The background noise makes it impossible to hear what the printers are actually playing. All I heard was what can only be described as people talking at a cocktail party or perhaps it was a flock of geese.

[MEAT! @ Dec 19th 2007 1:51AM]

Wow, they turned four Inkjet printers into a machine that produces the _exact_ sound one would expect from a poor quality recording of a crowded, noisy, echoy convention center? That takes some skill.

Here's something cooler: using the motors in old hard drives to create a primitive speaker system. I probably originally got the link from Engadget, so don't yell at me much. http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/hdspeakers/hdspeakers.htm

[Bruce @ Dec 19th 2007 1:56AM]

Wow! You guys went? That's so cool! I was there too, it's right across from my job and a girl that had a project being demo'd was there. And I have a huge crush on her, so I decided to go and see her. Needless to say she was "busy" describing her project to some old sap with their kid or something and did'nt give me any attention except a "hi" and "glad you could make it" :-(

Guess I gotta find another way of getting to her... :-\

[Reader @ Dec 19th 2007 2:07AM]

That's when the pillow case comes in handy. Go Borat on her ass.

[Jack @ Dec 19th 2007 3:47AM]

you mean a wedding sack? ryhipnol works too btw

[Technex @ Dec 19th 2007 4:13AM]

LOL@Reader!!!! :D

[johnzilla @ Dec 19th 2007 9:11AM]

You know, you could just ask her out instead of moping around trying to set up fantasy situations.

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2007 11:07AM]

No shit, in the words of my late great grandfather, "a faint heart never fucked a fair maiden". Just ask the chick out.

[IndiaTech @ Dec 19th 2007 2:09PM]

@Reader

The right term is anoos...

[tamoghno @ Dec 19th 2007 3:48AM]

i still dont understand what's it actual use .

[Technex @ Dec 19th 2007 4:13AM]

"but we hear HP charges a fortune for the strings."

Best quote of this article :).

[jeremydcox @ Dec 19th 2007 11:09AM]

A few years ago Paul Slocum made a very cool sounding synth out of a dot matrix printer.

http://qotile.net/dotmatrix.html