I make an electric piano wire instrument

You can find the sample pack and other exclusive content by supporting me on my Patreon page:
/ nicolasbras
I'm Nicolas Bras, musician and homemade instruments builder, on this channel you will find tutorials, compositions, building projects, improvisations, live concerts
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Find my music on nicolasbras.ban...
Music :
Nicolas Bras - Guyane, Homemade (album)
Nicolas Bras - Tounda (unedited)
Nicolas Bras - Mouth Harp (unedited)
Nicolas Bras - Piano Wire Sanza (unedited)
Sandrine Morais : Video edition
Charlie Rabuel : subtitles

[@ChrisKaplan]

I think this guy is never bored.

[@NicolasBras]

You're perfectly right!

[@h2o1969]

@@NicolasBras I believe it.

[@retrocjt]

Or is he so easily bored, he thinks so deeply, and creates these incredible projects!

[@mooflaghero1]

Or he is always bored

[@nathanjasper512]

This dude is awesome. I'd love to go to his house and be like, "Hey Nick what are you making today?

[@amj.composer]

As a musician, composer, and DIY music enthusiast, I find it insane how insanely talented and creative you are. It's almost hard to believe. I think I have basically watched all your videos

[@daveyjoseph6058]

literally making gibberish sounds

[@feli_1]

@@daveyjoseph6058 with instruments they have made themself and its rythm

[@daveyjoseph6058]

@@feli_1 this is what happens when writers write with writer's block.

[@sooth15]

The spinning pan flute instrument is really neat!

[@Projacked1]

Sounds like a gong.....love it! The tuning part=fascinating.

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@Frownlandia]

Metal is so rich in unexpected overtones! I was just in a hardware store the other day with some angle aluminum and the variety of tones you could get by holding it in different places was incredible...

[@charles_antoine7737]

You have so much talent and creativity. You inspired me to start creating my own instruments and to learn others thanks a lot a don't stop what you do please.

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks a lot! I'm really happy to see other builders, please use all those ideas and improve them!

[@sammikinsderp]

SO cool. The only instruments I ever made by hand was a few bamboo flutes. Never properly tuned but fun to play and fun to make.

[@atarirob]

I'm amazed at how good that sounds. It sounds like FM synthesis almost, one string sounds like multiple different frequencies clashing in the most elegant way. Fantastic work, mate.

[@GuyNamedSean]

That's what it is! I knew it sounded similar to something I would always mess with on a synth when I was a kid. I really love how soft and rich the sound is.

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks a lot!

[@reasonforhopewithin]

It sounds like a ton modulator

[@reasonforhopewithin]

Ring lol

[@ossiehalvorson7702]

Tbf it literally is multiple frequencies. Overtones and whatnot.

[@joethompson11]

That bicycle wheel one is amazing!

[@ScrapwoodCity]

Really interesting idea!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@BrotherTris]

When frenchmen are like you, they are the best people in the world to hang out with… I’ve met several like you in my time on earth so far! 😁👍 every creative has an iPad with procreate on it 😎 love your channel I’ve shared it with everyone I know who will also love it

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks a lot for your support!

[@cainanlove8432]

The final song sounds like something out of earthbound. Awesome!

[@thorgal8692]

I like how excited he is when he finds somthing, that make a new cool sound and how he makes an instrument with this ... that is really cool

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks! I'm happy to share this!

[@billbergen9169]

probably the best instrument u built so far

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@manvilathwal7]

WOW!! HE'S CRAZY ABOUT ALL THESE THINGS. ONLY A CRAZY PERSON CAN MAKE ALL THESE KINDS OF INSTRUMENTS AND EVEN BY HIMSELF. A VERY VERY UNIQUE TALENT TRUELY❤❤❤ 👍👍👍

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@Davett53]

Way to go....we're having fun now. Keeping doing your thing,....always a delight.

[@cbmtrx]

You've given me a lot to think about. Merci.

[@normanfreund]

A bicycle pan flute love it. You come up with some crazy ideas.

[@vespathekid]

Watching this just reminded me of a trick we did as kids. We would loop a long piece of thread through a wire hanger and tie the ends together. Then we hung the thread over the top of our head and leaned forward so the hanger hung down. Then we pushed the thread into each ear with our fingers and would swing the hanger into walls and objects and listen to the sounds/vibrations it would make. Just like then this is cool stuff!

[@NicolasBras]

I love doing this too, this is the acoustic version of my intro!

[@echodelta9]

Younger hippie days someone taught us at a party to use an oven rack and 2 strings, built in reverb.

[@elefantindaroom3543]

Nothing makes me happier than people who can make music out of anything!

[@warlord-chan9540]

The first note you played on this instrument immediately reminded me of the Elfenlied intro.

[@divyajnana]

EVERYTHING here is absolutely, totally cool. Thank you.

[@crapadopalese]

Not only is the invention ingenius, the music you make with it is also funky. Awesome!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks a lot!

[@augustjschroeder]

This reminded me of a video I saw from a guy called "Edward Black Rose" where he made a keyboard that struck pieces of wire to make them vibrate, but he used a laser and a light sensor to pick up the vibrations. Kinda similar idea, maybe you could try his design when you're back from tour.

[@nateKitsura]

dude i know you're gonna become so much famous, and you deserve every little bit of it, i genuinely think you're a genius

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks! We will see, but I'm working on it!

[@TheBanana93]

Anything can be an instrument if you want it to. I like to find random things and play something on them its good fun. I can't make stuff though so you are on a mad level

[@ni1661]

the track at the end is VV DOPE

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks a lot!

[@tomasribeiro3697]

the music reminded me of felix colgrave's animations, the wheel of flutes in particular.

[@saifmanman]

ahhhhh man i love that you cut the workshop sounds to be on beat

[@NicolasBras]

I always have fun mixing the workshop's sounds with the background music!

[@datavalisofficial8730]

This is insanely good

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@danielleohallisey4218]

Such a great, haunting sound. I love the way the tuning warbles as the strings vibrate!

[@NicolasBras]

Mee too!

[@DanielSimu]

This is great, but I love that pan flute carrousel too! Thanks for sharing your work!

[@djijspeakerguy4628]

One thing I’d like to touch on is that guitar & bass pickups, while they serve a similar purpose to microphones, actually work by sensing how far the metal string is. A pickup contains a magnet, close enough to the string to slightly magnetize it. When the string is vibrating, the magnetic field changes, and this causes a coil of wire in the pickup to generate a small amount of electricity. In contrast, microphones use any sound vibration to physically vibrate an electrical coil inside near a magnet, which causes the same generator effect. This is why pickups can’t pick up your voice, or something like a nylon string. They can, however, pick up the sound out of a smartphone due to the speaker having a vibrating metal coil inside, which has a similar effect to the pickup as a guitar string. So, while similar in many ways to a microphone, they are not the same thing.

[@echodelta9]

Try using one of those tiny electret mics as a contact pickup on the base. They work wonders, or get into MEMS mics even more up to date. Then amplify it and have the amp drive a low resistance coil with a iron core and place it close to the wire. In one phase it will be deep and the other hookup it will rival a water-phone or anything to score a space movie. This is how the e-bow works, it's rather simple.

[@milododds1]

"Electric Antennae" - I love it!

[@arsenbaiken4345]

Keep going on! You'll hit a trend one day

[@NicolasBras]

Working on it!

[@newtonframes]

Cool idea

[@gustavgnoettgen]

I recommend one or two Floyd Rose saddle for tuning this easier. Maybe with extra screws to push the wires up.

[@KEPHALLE]

As guitar player myself, when I saw you used a Seymour Duncan pickup for this experiment it suddenly came into mind the scene from Back To The Future when Marty tells Doc "Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?" Cool experiment though!

[@michaelcherry8952]

I just spent 8 minutes watching a guy play around with wires and guitar pickups and it's the best thing I've seen/heard all week! A true musician finds music everywhere! Unfortunately for you, it means that every time you do anything at all, your mind is thinking "Can I make an instrument out of these sounds?" ;-)

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks a lot! Yes it happens all the time

[@evilanno3394]

Great work.

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@joemug4079]

Love your channel, fellow musician.

[@skinisdelicious3365]

The song you mar with all those intruments legit is what plays in my head when i take acid. Music liek that. I love it

[@stevenmayhew3944]

wall-mounted grandfather clocks use a coiled wire for the chime, hence the colorful sounding gong sound. Cuckoo clocks use the same thing followed by two whistles. Your instrument sounds bell-like.

[@sebastianfors4491]

Impeccable.

[@CleverNameBot13]

Interesting sound possibilities. Actually usable and very configurable. I liked it in the less refined versions with tons of overtones. The less one thinks of bass guitar, the better here. Excellent work!

[@Resomius]

I am impressed how much bell sounds you get with that metal pices. What is awesome!

[@prestonashworthmusic]

Brilliant, as always.

[@philippequintard2378]

Tu cartonnes , Ce qui m'impressione c'est la qualité apporté a l'éstétique visuelle en plus de la sonore. grand respect.

[@NicolasBras]

Grand merci! C'est souvent l'objet qui dicte la forme, moi je m'adapte!

[@philippequintard2378]

​@@NicolasBras yes and it show in a certain way , as the violin with nail even if it's not made to be super fancy (des bois precieux des gravure etc) it seem as it's fall all naturly in place. here it's the (because of the packaging) form of the string who give this feeling. 10 years ago I made some didjeridoos in plastic, the first one did have this almost organic even though it was vacuum cleaner and leaf blower tube (i suppose) it all seemed to fall in place, the made with pvc tube didn't had this vibe. But it could also be the confidence and smile you present the instrument with that could be a part or the origin of this impression. ( association implicite?) Either way thanks for sharing all those idea!

[@rays7805]

That instrument makes music that sounds like avant garde stuff from the the early or mid 20th century. But that music had to be constructed with lots of tape editing. Your instrument does it live.

[@NicolasBras]

Yes very electroacoustic stuff!

[@dmor6696]

you've travelled back in time and i wanna see the future, cmon

[@NicolasBras]

The future is terrible, so I came back!

[@Darkstar96X]

An absolute genius idea... The final composition sounds like a track from Earthbound or some survival/horror game from before the 2000s

[@shanksket3343]

You and Chad Zuber are probably my two favourite “chiseled straight from heaven” kind of creators, lol

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@robomatrix4582]

i'm not surprised this works, this is pretty much an electronic piano, except with a very small sound board. i'd like to hear this being used to play something like, the theme from i dream of genie.

[@Nic-tg2ei]

Best video on youtube.

[@uisato_]

My god, so much work is being put into this videos! Amazing, Nico!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks a lot! I try!

[@petermoriarty4674]

I LOVE these sounds! So inspiring... thank you!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@eighthourlunch]

OMG! I wind my own guitar pickups, and this idea never once occurred to me. Thanks for the video and the inspiration!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks, and have fun!

[@thislittleunknownband]

Very nice work and music! Intersting to watch this!

[@Redjimon]

I have an old wind up clock that uses a coil spring as a chime and sounds similar too it. Hits it with a small brass hammer

[@azlandpilotcar4450]

Would make an excellent wind chime!

[@n.h_minh]

Good! Keep going Nicolas!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks, I will!

[@ernst-filipmichel9744]

Reminds me of the music in the DJ booth in warioland 4

[@deborahsennedot4523]

So Floydian the beginning ! All you do is great, go on ! Vous êtes passionnant, un mixte entre un génie et Jason Momoa :D Bien à vous.

[@NicolasBras]

Grand merci!

[@frankH117]

Just amazing bro! I never thought of this idea. good job

[@philippe-lebel]

Great. As always.

[@NicolasBras]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@glebpalamarchuk9087]

Now I know how to make an insane speed woodwind arpeggio, nice

[@EeekItsSnek]

With that wheel panflute its like a prog rock song.

[@mikoajp.5890]

It really benefits from being staccatoed

[@brewcewillis8328]

I think for these kind of experiments you should opt for an active pickup. i think it will produce a more powerful and clearer sound - possibly even other frequencies that a passive pickup can't capture.

[@Chaddilaculus]

I love this bit! The finished instrument sounds a bit like 8-bit video game music but in higher resolution if that makes sense. If I wasn’t inspired by your other projects already, I definitely feel like I need to mess around with magnetic and piezoelectric pickups now and sample some ASMR type stuff! Kudos! Thank you for the great content! This is quickly becoming one of my favourite channels!

[@Mgr.PiotrKogut]

perfect for drum and bass techno etc.

[@rodericklopez9850]

Very creative! Very musical! Great job!

[@p3u1]

Nicolas, this video was very well edited, I can definetely see a nice bump in the quality of your content

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks! I try to learn from every video!

[@Raku777]

Thanks for sharing. Happy to see that you are still breaking new ground! I like bass sounds a lot and like how the instrument sounds. I also liked the smaller coiled ones too. There is a lot of potential here.

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@hDansRandomCrud]

You are a madman! I love the electric kalimbass, and I need to know more about the rotary pan pipes and "trombone flute".

[@NicolasBras]

I will have the occasion to work again on those systems! And the bass pump flute is already in my ebook

[@AndreasKoch55]

What a nice idea! Great work!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@massivenoone]

Sevish has entered the conversation

[@hhhobby]

it's nice to watch and listen 👍

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@arbyscurlyfries9490]

0:46 anybody else just hear a long forgotten doorbell from childhood

[@WilliamSaadGuitar]

Very interesting Nicolas!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks a lot!

[@devtank]

Wow that really reminds me of the 90's band Laika, their first album Silver Apples of the Moon. So good man! Really love it.

[@NicolasBras]

Thank you!

[@IsaacKuo]

I wonder if this instrument could use a mouth violin instead of a pickup. You have a plastic disc in your mouth, attached to a rosin'd string (anchored to your shoe or something). Then you take the wire and rub it along the string? I imagine the wire parallel to a fretted fingerboard. Pressing the wire against a fret defines how much length is free to vibrate. Then you rub the wire along the string. So, you've got: 1) Mouth disc and rosin string. The string is vertical, anchored to your left shoe. 2) Fingerboard and wire. These are held horizontally. Your left hand holds the fingerboard and fingers the wire against a fret. Your right hand holds the other end of the board. You move your hands up and down to rub the wire against the string.

[@NicolasBras]

That could work!

[@IsaacKuo]

@@NicolasBras Thanks for your experienced opinion! I really don't know if it would work at all. I don't play any bowed instrument so I don't know how to apply rosin and bow it to make sound. I thought maybe to try and slide a wire along a string and it didn't make any useful sound. So I was completely out of my depth. In the meantime, I got distracted with a more promising prototype. I'm sure you could make it work in minutes but I'm struggling to make any useful sound. It's a nasal ocarina, or "nasocarina". It's just a cup with some holes, held against my face to complete the chamber (mouth and tongue to adjust chamber volume). My index finger blocks my left nostril and my right nostril blows air at the nose hole - that's my problem, I'm no good at blowing transverse so maybe I need a nose plug with a slot to aim the air. The base of the cup has finger holes. The point is, the finger holes allow rapid note changes, while the mouth/tongue control can alter key and increase range. You can stack a bunch of nasocarinas which is good for selling them at shows, or you can put swag in the cups. You can even throw them at the audience, because a plastic cup is very sturdy but also light enough to not risk injuring someone (here in Louisiana, thousands of cups are thrown from Mardi Gras parade floats every year).

[@JimmyTehHand]

This instrument would sound amazing in a lite breeze.

[@lotmom]

Yess! New Nicolas instrument!

[@SSRT_JubyDuby8742]

Genius 👍

[@DRsewage]

6:00 fun in that is it sounds like chords being played just by one string and they are all minor chords (or I just hear it like that)

[@NicolasBras]

There is a lot of overtones, and non inharmonic overtones, I usually follow the feeling of the moment and try to use feeling instead of musical theory, the results are better for this kind of instrument!

[@clemmcguinness1087]

Love your work. Please do more

[@NicolasBras]

Thank you! Will do!

[@michaelsmusicinstruments9980]

great idea, as always very innovative, sounds a bit like a controlled theremin with vibrato

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@knasterask1]

Very nice design❤

[@raymondo162]

if you twisted the wire to make a flat disc-type shape, you would have what is inside a cuckoo (and other) clock. it's called a gong wire. you are very welcome

[@plixplop]

I'd love to make a "horror movie sounds" instruments with this kind of technique, it would be so cool to make live sounds with it from your haunted house on Halloween.

[@robertosupertramp9322]

Oh Man I love your videos!!!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks man!

[@rodrigocodesso6577]

The best of the world!!!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@timeltdme4355]

i really liked the sounds in the start of the video, but the end result was so different. not sure if it was the pickup or much softer body of the instrument compared to the vice, or a combination of both. overtones were suppresed and long drones were gone as well.

[@tocodelray]

Wow I just found your channel and this is amazing! I'm so inspired to sample sounds from random things around the house!

[@FunkyAivan]

Awesome!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks!

[@jonathanredman8497]

I just came across your channel today. I'm very interested in your work. Subscribed!

[@NicolasBras]

Thanks and welcome!

[@bottomfeederbluescbgs4132]

Get a spring, stretch it out to 2 screw hooks or posts on a peice of wood and throw a humbucker under it. Plug it into an amp on distortion setting and use a slide to play it like a lapsteel. Trust me. You won't regret.

[@NicolasBras]

I will try!

[@connieLo87365]

so awesome, I 'll never be able to tune my harp the same way again