The Trons: self-playing robot band totally kills our self-esteem
We'll admit, we reckoned we were coming along alright with our bar chords, but now we're teetering on the edge of just giving up. Yeah, we've seen robotic mechanisms programmed to make meaningful sounds before, but The Trons are a bona fide band, man. We hear they're going on tour as well -- talk about a guaranteed sell out. Totally killer Sister Robot video after the jump.






















Gizmodo said they were as good as Coldplay... :(
Shows what Gizmondo knows.
OH GOD! I've fallen into my own trap! Gizmodo, not Gizmondo.
Stupid n, how did you get in there. (Ouch Mike, stop whipping me!)
They're much better than Coldplay
Coldplay sucks my bawls.
Very mature. Bravo. I try to make a joke and you shove me down.
Just because you are insecure in your masculinity doesn't give you the right to project your own insecurities onto other people.
Humorless blobs.
The Tron's are from Hamilton in New Zealand. They got the name from what New Zealanders have nicknamed Hamilton, Hamiltron. Unfortunately, Coldplay aren't coming to New Zealand.
Actually, it was a reference to 40 Year Old Virgin. You just missed it.
Who's the humorless blob now?
I would TOTALLY see these guys live.
But I don't get it...if they're robots then how do they go on tour? How is that possible?
FREEBIRD!!!!!
An interesting attempt. Some things to consider the next time around is to add a little variety to the lead guitar line, as the robot only strums up and down, instead of varying the strum times. Also, picking individual strings is useful for some songs.
Give this set the sheet music to Freewill, and it would esplode.
they're robots...
I agree with Danakin
I for one, welcome our lego robot guitar strumming overlords.
They are at least way less annoying than real musicians. Can we get some hip hop robots?
Those look like Erector Set pieces.
But cool nonetheless.
I'd love to see (hear) some synthetic voices belting out a few "computerized" words.
~This was a triumph, I'm making a note here, huge seccess~
@ the_fozz
~It's hard to overstate my satisfaction~
.... with your comment!
All your base are belong to us
Computer generated musical sounds > Robot on instruments
what's the big deal, It'd like... here you have the wheel, a perfect round circular shape, and someone tries to make another very complex object that roles aswell, but isnt a wheel.. Brings a new meaning to the word.. "Fail" imo
I said fail ! now bash me, robot fanboys !
Now if they just had a robot soundman, we could hear something besides the pie pan and the rhythm guitar.
I love that orange guitarbot.
Yeah, he's got all the robot groupies swooning... what a hunk... of metal
Improvements for 2.0: Include wheel drive so that the "chord hands" can move up and down the neck and/or keyboard. Then there'd be no stopping them.
There's also nothing stopping them from fully automating an entire drum kit, responding to midi commands like those generated by any decent drum program.
"... in a totally unrelated event today - Lead animatronic singer Chuck E. Cheese was found dead in his New Jersey apartment this morning. Local residents reported seeing earlier in the morning "a strange man that looked like the love child of a coat rack and a tuba..""
It's not quite Animusic quality, but they're getting there!
Hi,
be sure to also check out Rozzobianca:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG60NDehr0c
Fredy Fantastico on Drums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH9AhHDbe9g
and Lemmy on guitar are simply great.
http://www.rozzobianca.ch/fotovideo.php
Matthias
You guys should really give props to Captured! By Robots. The band only has one human member, and he created all the bots himself. They are all self-playing and are quite impressive. Not only that, but they have been around for over 10 years. They have tons of videos on YouTube. I got to see them late last year here in Orlando and I have to say the technology he has invested into the bots and the way they work is quite impressive!
Heres a song off their 'Dubya' tour (the tour I got to see). Unfortunately there are no closeups of the bots in this vid, you will see he has them doing some rather technical stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZHrVCxrcY
Captured! by Robots FTW!!!
These guys are a lame rip-off.
And Captured by Robots ripped of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.
I for one am going to kick back and relax to soothing metal screechs as our music playing robotic overlords take over the world
my first "I for one" pls forgive
sounds like the white stripes, but with a better drummer.
And a better singer.
I think stephen hawking would be the perfect front man for this band...
so now what?
Yes, but can you f them?
No?
Tokyo is off the world tour then.
You mean "Barre" chords ;)
Didn't Herbie Hancock do this like 15 years ago.
gibson needs to sponsor this guy. get him a couple self tuning les pauls and have him incorporate them into the band...tuning between songs. great promotion...i can see ads for that in my head.
i accept finders fees, thank you very much :)
At least they won't have to worry what they'll look like when they're touring 40 years from now.
Bring in the robot groupies!
Don't let Simon Cowel see these! Otherwise they'll be 40 of em in the charts next week.
captured by ghosts?
Prft, its only cool if they are Rock Band playing robots.
Kraftwerk was doing this *30* years ago… ;)
Very cool.
Reminds me of a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, or perhaps to Disneyland to see the County Bears, but without their "skin" in place.
Dammit. I miss that gorilla at Chuck E. Cheese. The new layout sucks.
Rockobot and the kick-ass-tunes ftw
Very mature. Bravo. I try to make a joke and you shove me down.
Just because you are insecure in your masculinity doesn't give you the right to project your own insecurities onto other people.
Humorless blobs.
Ever play Street Rod II way back in the 286 days? This song sounds remarkably like something from that game. I think I just won a 1967 Camaro in an aqueduct race.
One of the great things about humans is we can't keep absolute perfect tempo (something about not having a built-in oscillator)…and the little screw-ups are what make music art instead of math.
Cool concept nonetheless!
Now make a robot band that can play ska.
Those robots suck! If you wanna see a real robot band check out Captured By Robots!!! Do your homework!!
That's pretty good! Maybe now we can get rid of talentless hacks frequently called pop stars and leave room for real musicians (no, I'm not claiming to be one... couldn't if I tried).
Current limitations include plucking the strings (hardest problem), 'sliding' the guitar strings, and brush strokes on the drums and cymbals, but I think these shouldn't be too hard to overcome since they've managed this much so far. Fun!
WOW this is the best thing i have ever seen od internet... it is very funny