Make music with a stepper-driven, 3D-printed tonewheel

YouTuber “The Mixed Signal” has come up with a fun way to make music: spinning a gear-like ferromagnetic tonewheel next to a homemade coil pickup. 

A stepper motor turns the wheel using a CNC shield under Arduino control. When set up, it’s simply a matter of programming in the proper speed via G-code to create the correct sound.

– Werbung –

The concept isn’t entirely new, as this type of assembly was used in Hammond organs produced in the middle of the last century. The Mixed Signal’s project, however, is a very interesting take on this technology, with the use of 3D-printed parts including the iron-embedded tonewheel, as well as the integration of a MIDI keyboard.