Magical Musical Thing: A vintage analog synthesizer for kids
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2022
- In this video, I explore the strange toy that is the Magical Musical Thing (Mattel 1979). I speak to Franklin Eventoff, the toy's inventor, and learn about the other instruments he created as well. I also learn the secret to tuning these darn things.
You can download the sample library of the Magical Musical Thing here: www.decentsamples.com/product...
This sample is meant to be used in conjunction with Decent Sampler, a plugin which can be downloaded here: www.decentsamples.com/product...
You can hear Franklin Eventoff's musical output here: • The Organ Grinders - H...
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Find my FILM & INSTRUMENTAL music here: davidhilowitz.bandcamp.com
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Imagine you've made a toy at the dawn of your career and then like 30 years later someone calls you asking how to tune it into a proper instrument.
Haha, yes, it must have been a strange experience for him. He really couldn’t have been kinder, though.
@@DavidHilowitzMusic I hope he watched this video too, very wholesome!
And you REMEMBER! 🤯
@@jcortese3300 because you have probably had a very memorable hard time trying to explain the manufacturer why should they make a certain musical mode of the sounds this toy makes
@@deniskhafizov6827 You could tell this was the case by the pain in his voice when he said they could’ve turned it into a proper musical instrument rather than a noisemaker for 25 cents more… that’s gotta hurt
I had one of these when I was about 10 or 12 years old. My father saw me taking it apart and said “if you break that I won’t be able to fix it because it is all electronics inside.” So, I took it apart many times to explore the inner workings. This was the start of my electronics career that includes a Ph.D in electrical engineering!
Oh wow, same here. Had one, disassembled it as a kid, surprised how simple it was, and ended up with a Ph.D. in EE. Go Hawks!
I had one too, but closest I've gotten to a degree is watching bbt
I had begun dismantling a cheap electronic keyboard I had gotten from Walmart when I was probably around 9, only for my mother to go berserk and throw it out before I had a chance to put it back together. Really wished more parents encouraged that curious mindset, but my mother is a shill for store-bought products and never had an appreciation for any hands-on / DYI crafts.
@@sirshrooma aw sorry man, I was always taking stuff apart and always got them back together working, with the one exception of mom's tape recorder, which still worked, I just couldn't get the spring back into place that made the little door pop up.
The look on her face though, the equivalent these days would be if your kid completely disassembled your laptop... 😲😬😧
sadly my interest in electronics started the same way, im still planning on fixing my camcorder i took apart with a tape still inside for no reason. the content inside is super sentimental to me and i dont want to mess it up so its sat for years. waiting.
My jaw dropped when I saw Franklin's picture in your video. In my day job, I buy material from him for sensors all of the time. Didn't know he originated that instrument.
Same here! impressive =)
I sometimes make basic oscillator circuits and guitar pedals (just for fun) and I'm definitely going to check out his innovations now.
So he created the design of a ps2 controller too 😱
So cool! He clearly cares about what he makes. I’ve got mad respect for this guy now
There's a Japanese made toy called an "Otamatone" that also uses a variable resistor and a speaker, but instead of discrete notes it's continuous. it also has has a silicone piece that you can manipulate to change the sound that comes out of the speaker and the whole thing looks like a music note with a face
came to the comments for this!
check it out, its amazing. i dont play mine often, but it always puts a smile on my face :)
i have one rn
@@brawlinharry6461 same
but do you know lahee?
Nice but who asked?
Lovely work! I have both the Sonica and the Musical Thing for a year or two - never got around to making the video I had planned on the history. But now I can re-direct people to yours if I make a video on the Sonica.
Thanks so much! I'm a huge fan of your channel, by the way :)
Fancy seeing you here ! 😆
Please please make a video on your Sonica ! 👍
You two could collaborate on the Sonica video.
Well if there was one TH-camr I follow who I thought might have a Sonica, then you'd be the prime suspect (with Simon the Magpie or Sam from Look Mum, No Computer as the possible alternatives).
Cool! PLEASE make that Sonica video :) better yet, as a collab with David!
10:09
For kids growing up in the early 2000s, I would definitely say Guitar Hero is a huge contribution. It's doesn't teach you anything but it was an introduction to guitar for a lot of people
for sure!! going on 15 years of playing; all originating from that unforgettable game
I found it funny then and I found it funnier now with hindsight, how wound-up some guitar players got about those games! “You’re wasting your time getting good at fake guitar when you could play those songs FOR REAL for JUST AS MUCH EFFORT”, so went every other guitarist with opinions in 2008 :)
I say it’s funny because in actuality they got so many kids into it for real once they got good enough at the game and started to wonder how difficult the real thing is. Those guys (who barely played GH) viewed it as a competitor against guitar practice time, but in actuality it was a competitor against other video games!
I could already play woodwinds and keys before GH, but it was GH that made me get my first guitar. Doing two very different things with each hand was very novel, and I honestly don’t know if I’d’ve given that a go were it not for GH. I haven’t played GH in over a decade now, even in 2012 it was a throwback, but it definitely helped!
Plus, Rock Band tried to be a bit more realistic. With their keyboard that you could set to accurate keys or just the five colours… apparently those were decent generic MIDI controllers too. And that way-too-expensive real guitar controller hybrid, which would unlock a real-frets mode for guitar rather than the 5 colours too. I don’t think the latter sold very well, but I definitely got the impression they wanted to sell it as musically educational rather than just a rhythm game.
Speaking of rhythm games, I was always vaguely interested in (but terrible at) DDR, but after GH I tried beatmania and some of its offshoots. So I can think GH for getting me into rhythm games AND guitars, I guess!
@@austinharris538 14 years of playing, originating from a love of music that found metal through Guitar Hero.
@@kaitlyn__L It's funny you mention rock band because as someone part of the community you see SO many people who started on rock band drums quite literally building their own actual drumsets, just to play the game with real drums. Many of them learned on the game and went on to play the real instrument. This stuff really does get people into music, it's a good thing!
@@_PinkiePie. exactly!! I love that!
My jaw hit the FLOOR when i saw that he was able to make this old instrument into a DAW plugin holy HECK. This is the first video I've ever seen of his, I'im super impressed.
It's really cool, but what he did wasn't "making it into a daw plugin" like a vst or anything. He just fed the audio into it. DAWs are designed for this. You could do the same with any synth or guitar, etc with an output or a microphone.
@@jacksobrooks Worth jumping to 10:27 to see what the parent commenter is referring to; it's not just a recording, but a sample library (with a UI, it seems?)
To say that your TH-cam channel is underrated is a huge understatement. Your videos are extremely interesting and very well executed. You obviously put a lot of time into them!
Agreed!
agreed.
I came to the comments to say the same thing! Agreed.
This is an AMAZING story. From the "toy" to all your research and dialog with Franklin, and then, actually fixing the instrument and creating the Library. Thanks for sharing.
Mr Eventoff is clearly a genius, despite the modesty about his electronic knowledge. I also loved the track you put together with his invention. I guess the nearest equivalent to this in my youth was the Casio SK-1, an incredibly cheap and limited sampling keyboard with a pretty mind blowing additive synthesis feature.
the sk-1 coupled with the lack of caller i.d. broke new ground for prank phone calls of that era :D
Not to mention for its time it was crazy it had a microphone sampler that would even throw your sample into its demo song. That was insane as a kid
My Dad taught me to solder when the 9v battery connector broke. He had a Realistic soldering gun that was way too hot and using solder with no or very bad flux, I had to learn to resolder it again and again; like every time I changed the battery. Thanks Dad for the silly noise toy and the useful skill of melting lead and tin to join electrical connections!💙
I can't imagine how thrilling Franklin must feel seeing something he created be given so much respect and care, in the form of a completed song! It kinda is magical haha
Yeah I really hope he saw this
Wow, you talked to the guy that invented force sensing resistors?
That's super cool, this vid is so good, has all the content you could ask for relating to the instrument.
Wow, blast from the past! This was in fact my first musical instrument in the early 80s. Here in Germany it was called "Musikstab". We had a school concert in the third grade, where every child could perform something. While my class mates played some German folk songs on their recorder or glockenspiel, I performed "Yellow Submarine" which I knew from Sesame Street.
Not quite in tune, the 7th note in that major scale you played was definitely out I'd say 😅 All things considered its close enough. Loving your content though , just stumbled across it . Interesting stuff .
You might have the only properly tuned Magical Musical Thing! I love it!
Really, really interesting video. Not just a 'fix-the-old-synth' video (which are fine), but the inclusion of the inventor and hist story really lifts the whole production. Thank you!
They need to make more of these, I absolutely love more budget instruments like this, and especially ones aimed towards kids: especially with music education getting so many budget cuts.
I love that you were able to talk to the original designer! It makes this video a great case study on product development.
This would already be a perfectly delightful video with the instrument and song alone. But then you got to talk to Franklin and enrich it a whole lot more! I love this.
David, this is exceptionally cool - to think a little cheap toy lead to iconic electronic instruments... wow. Someone should turn this into a podcast. Nice work!
I saw a Cadillac auto designer do an interview with a auto youtube channel. I'm glad that channels like yours allows these people who worked behind the scenes of these companies give us all a voice to the past.
I'm blown away by this. My sister had one of these things and I had forgotten it completely until just now. What you documented here - the history, inventor, repair, and sampling - is so amazing. I wish I could like it more than once!
Check out the Otamatone.
Though I suspect you’re already familiar with it. I just picked one up on a trip to Japan. It’s something of a “fretless” version of this. I’m having a heck of a time getting the fingering right to play the major scale without mistakes.
Thanks for the new sample pack. I grabbed it on decent sampler.
Entertaining video, as always.
We bought one of these for our children when it was new. When the sound board stopped making sound I used the controller as a control voltage source for various DIY synthesizer modules I built and played with. Thanks for expanding my awareness of what I was working with, and of its creator. This is a nice video. Thanks also for your Decent Sampler instrument; I downloaded it to mourn that none of the parts of my children's Magical Musical Thing have survived the decades.
It's great that Frank Eventoff is still creating things. Apparently his company is called Sensitronics now but it's hard to find out what instruments or concepts they're working on today.
Thanks for making this video. I had one of these when they came out. I used it as an ironic instrument in a punk band. Tuning was always something I wished I could do. I settled for distortion by playing it into a cranked up mic. I had to subscribe. Love vintage micro synths.
My sister (born 1974) had one of these when we were kids! I shared a picture with her and she loved the memory! My 26 year old (who has and loves their Omnichord) found your video and I really enjoyed it! The in tune part you created sounded amazing and like it would have been perfect for a John Hughes movie like Sixteen Candles!!! Thanks for this great video!!!
I REMEMBER PLAYING WITH ONE OF THESE in the 90s! I can still feel that plastic membrane!
I am not a musician, but a tech nerd and your channel is just amazing, You seem to be born to do this. The topics, the way you film and present including your voice has a very soothing effect. Its great.
Love your stuff. As a beginner to music in my late 20's, I've found so much knowledge and appreciation for music and musical hardware from your videos. It sparks creativity and experimentation in myself, as I assume it does for many others. Thanks for putting the time in to create these free sample packs and for crafting such elegant videos. I look forward to every upload!
Great to hear!
Another late 20's beginner to music here!
"It was a noisemaker, rather than an instrument."
There's kind of a sad story there... I don't remember this thing but it was great you reached out and got some info.. what an extraordinary man !
And I liked your original comps too 💯
He seemed like he wanted to offer everyone the pleasure of the toy he created for his daughter.
Sad that some penny pincher screwed with that idea
wow I am really fascinated on how cool and in depth those videos are, awesome man
Always enjoy your videos and the style you have developed to present all the information in such a visually stunning and cool way!
Your content is always such a joy to watch and I'm filled with a sense of discovery and inspiration every time I see a new video. I'm a fairly new music hobbyist and use DS constantly as apart of my freeware music suite so here's a thanks for making such an awesome tool (and another for everyone who makes samples in DS). Can't wait to see what sample you uncover/ make next!
Loved the quality of the video! Was expecting it to be like a quick playthrough of the instrument but wow, I'm just amazed at all of the effort that went through, and the fact that you are able to tune it in the end whilst learning so much about the creator and other instruments as well, just amazing!
I love TH-cam videos like this. Thank you David and Franklin for sharing your knowledge and experiences.
Gotta say the design looks quite contemporary to me and I think that`s the case with pretty much everything with clean and minimalistic looks. I also think the "toy" is pretty neat for what it is I think I would have had a lot of fun annoying adults with one of these if I had one when I was I kid :D
I just stumbled on this channel by chance and I don`t know what content you do exactly but while watching you fiddling with this thing (I meant Magical Music Thing sorry) my immediate thought was - "It`d be really fun to see him circuit bend one of these." :D
I don't usually comment on videos but this is so well made and you clearly put an incredible amount of effort into your projects. I genuinely can't believe you don't have millions of subscribers and yet you still make such high quality content. Good job!
This video and your channel is absolutely amazing… not just the music, but amazing story telling. Very talented. Thank you for your hard work!
This might be my favorite video you've done yet. Loved that you spoke with the inventor of it and how cool he was.
What a great story. Wonderful work. Thanks, Dave!
Thank you so much for letting us hear Frank! I checked out The Organ Grinders and I would gladly listen to them over Pink Floyd any day
Fantastic video. I'm so glad it got the attention it deserved considering the work you put into it.
This is really cool and I like how simple it is! It's also really great that you were able to speak with the inventor, hear his story, and share it with us! Being able to put the time into researching it and fixing it up was really cool and your videos area always really nice, but this was even better with the inventor involved. Well done!
I used to have one of these when I was a kid. They're not exceptionally sophisticated, but a cool relic of the time. What I really miss is my Casio SK-1.
David you are a true magician !!! Congratulations
I'm so glad I found this channel. What a fantastic time I had watching this video. Can't wait to explore your channel further! :D
I LOVE these videos. All the obscure synths and the care and respect you show for the most humble of them is just great. This episode specifically was like an episode of radiolab.
WOW listening to Organ Grinders that's great music. Thank you David for this piece of musical history.
I was impressed because force sensing resistor is something big in my journey of creating new instruments. I have a lot of Sensitronics parts in many prototypes. It's difficult to imagine today's music tech world without Mr. Eventoff's invention!
Thank you again for this video it's really amazing. Subscribing!
That is like the coolest product design. if they sold this today but with some modern synth and some different sounds, I would buy it instantly.
I accidentally discovered your channel. What an amazing video! Really, you are the type of people making TH-cam worthy! Thanks for the amazing journey back in time.
Great Video! Putting in the comments from the ads was a great choice. Nice storytelling and fullfilling to see the impact a small idea had on many people's lives
Fantastic video. Didn’t expect the inventor of the fsr to make an appearance 🤯
Very well done video! I decided to grab one of these on EBay. Can’t wait to spend the 2 hours with the razor blade and multimeter. I literally have nothing but time as I’m stuck at home with the Covid. Thanks for doing this!!!(the video, not the Covid😜)
Good luck! Maybe you’ll get one that’s more in tune from the get go. Hope you feel better!
If you want a custom one, then you can make a sensor with paper and some transparency film. Cover the paper with pencil lead (or another source of graphite) in the area that you want to use as a control, then do it again on another piece of paper. Punch holes into the transparency film to correspond to your choice of notes. Then put the transparency film between the graphite on the paper, fasten it all in place (with tape or whatever), put 1 metal paper clip on each of the pieces of paper (the paper clips need to be in contact with the graphite, but not each other- also, the transparency film should keep them away from the other piece of paper), wrap a separate piece of electrical wire around each paper clip, and you should now have a variable resistor.
Take that resistor and plug it in as a frequency control resistor on an oscillator (you can look them up online, they're very simple), and you're good to go. For tuning, either vary _other_ resistors in the oscillator (to control the octave), or use a pencil or eraser (experiment a bit) to tune individual notes.
There are better materials than paper, and it may be worth triming the paper and transparency, then laminating the thing, but this is an easy way to build custom one-off variable resistors.
Are you vaccinated?
The quality of your video is so high. I love the investigation/history part, interviewing the instrument’s creator was so cool 👏
You really go above and beyond with these videos! A level of thoroughness that I didn’t know I wanted. Keep up the good work!
As usual, a video par excellance. Love your work with DecentSampler too- that reel-to-reel piano has become my go-to piano for dark ambient work. I don’t use piano very often though so I have yet to actually release a song with it 😅
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that yours is the best-sounding track featuring the MMT that has ever been recorded.
what beautiful storytelling. more of this please
We had one of these as a kid and I totally forgot all about it, so cool to see it again, and super cool that you actually got the designer to tell you how to tune it!
this was awesome.
guitar hero and rock band was definitely the introduction of a lot of people into music. Even post malone admitted it
Top notch quality! Absolutely amazing commentary and editing. I'm an absolute sucker for synths and old time-y stuff so this scratches my brain in the best way imaginable.
You are amazing. Such patience and persistence. And a great story teller too. Thanks for your research on this one. Great to hear from Franklin.
That was a fun toy - although since it was "a noisemaker", I had to use it in only approved locations, even if I was playing the songs out of the included song book. :P
As others have said, I also opened mine up to see how it worked - it wasn't nearly as cool on the inside as Simon, Blip, Little Professor (calculator), or the Mattel hand held games were - much less interesting stuff to see.
Amazingly this instrument isn't that different from that Soviet synthesizer in one of your previous videos. Of course, with a separate variable resistor for each key that one would have been much easier to tune. Although I love that you were able to tune this one with pencil marks.
I had one of those toys........it was fun. Super cool that you were able to speak to the creator. It's always interesting when you can get info straight from the source.
So cool. You are an utter inspiration. Please keep sharing your incredible adventures with us!
I actually had one of my first musical experiences with that cat keyboard, so yes, at least for me that would be the equivalent
I love this channel, every video I watch I learn something new.
Man, your storytelling/research is so amazing. As stated by other comments, your channel is too underrated, even for non-musicians. The amount of work, and love, you put into these videos is very visible. Thanks for existing!
This was fantastic. I love that you reached out to Franklin. It was cool getting his perspective. Thanks for sharing!
Congratulations. Your efforts are invaluable. Redrawing all the connections which are about to be lost. This will inspire many creative people.
What a wonderful job you did! I'm out of words to describe how impressed I am.
That’s about the best thing I’ve seen for a long time. Simple, yet so deep. It put a smile on my face!
It is amazing how creative and skilled some people are.
Underrated is a true is all senses with this video and your channel. if stuff like this was just 5% more recommended in everyone's TH-cam home page, the world would be a happier place.
what an amazing video! learned so many things and getting to know about Franklin made my day
@Dave, it has a magical sound. Thanks for your benevolence.
Your way of explaining instruments and video editions is amazingly nice to watch. thanks
Salutations from Brazil.
Great video. My three sisters and I had one of these. Hours of fun. We all play instruments, were in band, etc. Back in the day, toys inspired us.
Very cool. I carried mine around until my family relented and my grandma got us my first piano too. Glad you found one of these and documented it’s origins. It started a journey that got me through college and continues today. Thanks.
YES! I had one of these when I was in kindergarten in 1979. I loved it. I brought it for show-and-tell and wouldn't let anyone else touch it.
Man, you’re an exceptional dude and your enthusiasm is infectious!
Great story! I loved it. And I learned about a man that created something that maybe impacted in a creative way the childhood of so many people. Thank you!
I love everything about this video - including the nostalgia of seeing that advertisement from my childhood, again. I love your channel, btw.
This was one of my favorite toys. I think I had it until it completely broke. I was in search of it a few years ago but talked myself out of buying it on Ebay, What a fine video documenting it and interviewing the creator. THANK YOU for sampling it and sharing for free.
What a great little adventure this video was. Nice tuning!
Fascinating and beautifully put together.
I still have this! Perfectly working. I really loved it when I was a child. I still remember the feeling of the buttons on my fingers.
This video was just wonderful. We had one of these when I was a kid and now my niece has it.
Very cool mini-documentary. I love this kind of content.
Awesome job on getting a fantastic interview. You really went the extra mile on a great video 👍
This is so awesome! I came from the seventies and barely remembered this. Thank you again for a new inspiration David. You really went all out! What a learning experience! Blessings 🙏🎶🎶🎶
I had totally forgotten about this toy! You have reached into my brain and reminded me of something I haven't thought of in decades. Wow!
Do0d... this literally destroys anything on the internet today. That is some serious dedication and unbelievable focus. 🤟🧡👍
Oh man I'm absolutely in love with your videos
You got yourself a new subscriber! Love to see the instruments that made our early years. Cheers!
I never knew these existed. I made a very similar instrument when I was a kid. I used arcade style buttons with different lengths of wire to vary resistance. Mom was mad when the little radio she listened to while putting on her makeup disappeared from the bathroom. She didn't stay mad though. We started regular trips to radio shack. Bless her
Did not expect to watch this whole thing with bated breath. Great work!!