Teensy Gurdy: a DIY hurdy gurdy synthesizer | Hacker News Reader

Teensy Gurdy: a DIY hurdy gurdy synthesizer

github.com

68 pointsbrudgers34 comments

An interesting and fun-looking synth, though not really much in common with the real hurdy gurdy (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

For those curious about something closer to the real thing, here's a laser-cut / 3D printed gurdy that actually works: https://www.nerdygurdy.nl/

And here's a MIDI one: https://midi.org/component/zoo/item/the-digi-gurdy-a-midi-hu...

And finally here's a really great hurdy gurdy player, see the rest of his videos for more super tunes and playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8gohQvUuCs

Also see:

https://www.youtube.com/c/Keijike/videos

Japanese player with lots of videos of himself and others playing Tekero (traditional Hungarian hurdy gurdy)

May as well link a video of impressive Hurdy Gurdy playing, even though not synth related: https://youtube.com/watch?v=AdCU75EMqh4

“Guilhem Desq - Cicatrices”

I had a hurdy gurdy phase as well. My absolute favourite recording/performance: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KzbCNzc9Lb4

Matthias Loibner - Mooreiche

The kind of coloration he teases out of the instrument is mindboggling

Beyond anything I could have hoped for. Thank you very much

Then i need to drop Andrey Vinogradov here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvNZeh6f8vE

Recercatrice -> (lady) researcher -> inquisitor

(Corsican) -> (English) -> (Latin)

Thanks Google translate for helping to expand on this awesome medievalXmodern theme

"Cicatrices" means "scars" in French, not sure what you got from Google Translate...

I know. “Scars” doesn’t have that medieval-modern vibe. He probably should rename his work..lol

On its own, calling a piece like that “research” is quite endearing.

Ossian Brown of Cyclobe plays the hurdy-gurdy masterfully, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqqAun9LukU

Well, you can even do metal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqHeOcItSkQ

Not too many hurdy gurdy players are in metal bands after all. (Even though she just left Eluveitie...)

HN geek checking in to namedrop my own project (sorry it's not Rust + RISC-V!)...

Autumn Equinox are a three-piece of hurdy-gurdy (the "wheel fiddle"), nyckelharpa (the Swedish "keyed fiddle"), and upright bass. We play tunes from and inspired by Celtic and Eastern European traditions, and the hypnotic drone of the hurdy-gurdy is a common thread. We often play tunes by other hurdy-gurdy composers like Andrey Vinogradov and Nigel Eaton as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ntNy6aNOfA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgPXIBhQzGT3O_Y7fLVFb2w

Fantastic. Have you heard of the wheel harp?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGOqIYo9cBE

I had never heard of the Wheel Harp before.

It appears to be a sort of polyphonic hurdy-gurdy: one tuned string per key, and depressing the key engages that string with the wheel-bow. The wheel appears powered by electricity, and the foot pedals appear to either control the pressure or speed of the wheel-bow.

In contrast, the hurdy-gurdy's (and nyckelharpa's) keys shorten its melody string to increase the pitch, like fretting a violin or guitar. The wheel is manually cranked, and the rhythm of the cranking is used to adjust tone and engage the buzzing of the trompette. The HG is monophonic in that you can't dynamically play chords, though you can engage multiple melody strings simultaneously (usually octaves or fifths).

The sound of that thing is so incredibly haunting. I really like it though and I've been thinking about building one.

Beautiful innovation. I love old sounding new instruments!

Surprised to see no mention of Patty Gurdy yet.

https://youtu.be/FBK7i7oChKk

While we're at it, you can't forget Anna Murphy (formerly of Eluveitie, currently Cellar Darling) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDE3Bx1Cb1I

Related video, https://youtu.be/1q3XH-Mp8kc

Composer Bear McCreary has an interesting video about the hurdy-gurdy and its use in the soundtrack of TV show Black Sails:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DXQ0z9NCl8

The sound isn't for everyone, but I like how it's used in the show's opening credits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFTcA4QLHw0

> The sound isn't everyone.

I became mildly obsessed with Hurdy Gurdy videos for a while. This was my gateway drug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmML7bu-iM

and something a bit less purist but still fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0DrXyzlHM8

You may also enjoy the soundtrack to video game Sea of Thieves, in which the hurdy gurdy is a playable instrument:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqgA3nIGByg

While the hurdy gurdy enthusiast are here, I'd like to share something I've been working on that has a lot of inspiration from hurdy gurdy droning... The Electroduochord. It has 2 strings, with a humbucker pickup for each string, and is played by controlling the speed of a rotary magnetic bow, that has an arrangement of magnets that manipulate the overtones of the vibrating strings. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28349487 and the latest version... https://www.flickr.com/photos/duchamp/52017939884/

Is there any pictures or video of it? I couldn't find anything in the repo.

Charles Babbage is spinning in his grave.

Carbon-free energy source?

For the folks down voting the parent post: Charles Babbage spent a considerable portion of his later life railing against street musicians. Street musicians, at the time, ran a sort of extortion scheme. They'd show up in the early morning hours outside your house and play loudly until you paid them to go away. So Babbage worked to try to pass legislation to ban street music (don't remember off the top of my head if he was successful).

And hurdy gurdies were a popular instrument for street musicians in Babbage's day.

This still happens in Amsterdam.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Passages_from_the_Life_of_a_P...

Thank you. It is truly an excellent read.

Missed opportunity to call it the Hurdy Nurdy.

The Nerdy Gurdy is a laser CNC and 3D-printed hurdy-gurdy kit (and now also nyckelharpa kit) sold by Jaap Brand. It's the least inexpensive real hurdy-gurdy you're likely to find, and better than many cheap hurdy-gurdies.

https://www.nerdygurdy.nl/product-category/hurdy-gurdy/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mI1X10VB6U

Its so close ! I can see how they wanted to avoid the confusion.

(2021)

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