CDM has a great image of a solenoid powered physical sequencer which amongst other things has a great physical representation of quantizing, almost like a blocky moire pattern. When I was searching for info on the music of wires post I found a few great videos of music created using solenoids to play objects, check them out (but watch out for motion sickness with the wild camera moves on the first one!)
And a solenoid powered xylophone, which is interesting how the click of the solenoids combine with the xylophone tone – almost like having a clicky drum kit playing along…
Very interesting. Like a cross between the Raymond Scott Wall of Sound sequencer and the Xylomatic.
Raymond Scott’s “wall of sound” was essentially a complex electro-mechanical sequencer that triggered an array of Eico 377 audio generators (and possibly many other things).
The Wall of Sound:
http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/pic/other/1950/manhattan.gif
The Eico 377(which I also used to own):
http://users.stargate.net/~tofu/pix/eico_377.jpg
The Xylomatic (available on eBay from time to time):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smVAnBWDsyE