Quick 'n Easy Intonarumori

I made an intonarumori for extra credit in a music history II class at Columbia College Chicago. This design is my own interpretation and is not meant to exactly recreate Luigi Russolo's instruments. Besides, the people who spend a large portion of their life trying to perfect these things do not like to post good pictures of the guts. They also do not provide detailed information on string length, the method of string attachment to the pitch lever, or other useful tips for intonarumori building. At the time I shot this, my prof and I were having trouble keeping the pitch wheel from slipping because it was missing a proper nut to keep it from moving. I tried to prevent it with some random extra washers and an acorn nut I had on hand but it was no use. I needed a lock washer and a regular nut. I don't have this instrument in my possession anymore, but I will be happy to answer any questions or try to film more videos with it's other tone wheels if there is enough demand.

[@eatchocolate]

Dude this is awesome. I was researching the futurist movement for fun and was astounded by the intonarumori! Good job!

[@jonnda]

@criticalotodo I am glad to hear that you want to make one. I tried to create such a video when I made the first one. However, since I recorded it on an old mini dv camcorder, did not have enough hard drive space to edit the video on, and the external hard drive I was borrowing which I transferred all the footage too was taken back by it's owner (my dad), I don't have this footage anymore.

[@jonnda]

@msimmo4 Thanks for your comment. I tried to copy the simplest design, which also had the most graphic documentation. What I discovered in my two weeks of internet research was that the intonarumori family was incredibly diverse. The more complex the design, the less information there was regarding it's construction. In short I realized that some intonarumori had a sliding "bridge", and some worked like mine does. Others had both, and some of those controlled tension and slider independently.

[@INVERNOrec]

Great work! Fantastic!

[@jonnda]

@Mrsbruitage Funny you mention it, I am actually making another for a foley artist. I recently got a new camera with a low enough resolution that I can edit the film easily on my slow computer. I lost the footage of building the first one, but I plan on filming the process of the second and posting it. I discovered I am crappy at drawing useful/legible plans, so I don't see that ever happening. Till then, buy a cheap tambourine, and enough lumber make a 1'x1'x2' box out of 3/8" or 1/2" plywood.

[@jonnda]

@williestratton I marked the center of the membrane/drum-head, &cut a nickle sized disk of aluminum that was approximately the thickness of cereal box cardboard. I then drilled or punched small hole in aluminum, applied glue to a side of the Al, lined up the hole in the aluminum disk with the mark on the membrane, &stuck them together. When glue dried I punched a hole in membrane. Guitar string can pass through hole,but be stopped by the ball end/knot which rests on the Al & spreads the stress.

[@jonnda]

@jonnda Also, as I did not work from plans and improvised as I went, making clear plans from the original has been difficult for me. I am like one of those cooks that does not use a recipe, but instead assembles a dish by intuition and approximation. I made this instrument after looking at many pictures and listening to sounds of the original, and then making estimated guesses on it's construction along the way.

[@crazzzy102]

Very nice sound for dubsteb base !!! realy !!!

[@jonnda]

I am glad to hear that! I like most electronic dance music, esp. trance, prog house, &whatever DANGER is. I once tried to remix some Enya to moderate success. I'd like to make use of the intonarumori in such a way, but over all I have had trouble making anything that a dj friend would risk playing. If you'd like to sample this audio, please do. If you/anyone else needs something cleaner, then y'all will have 2 wait until I complete the 2nd one because this one lives with my old prof.

[@user-mm3sd3uh6y]

dubstep befome it became mainstream and died)

[@yggno5799]

Awesome !

[@jonnda]

@jonnda ...I have been commissioned to make a lighter collapsible travel version which should be finished sometime late december at the latest. The main difference is that the owner can take the box apart and travel with while it's a stack of parts. If you know any thing about making a box, then feel free to use your own construction techniques. That part does not matter. I will try to find a different method of recording the process, and post it as soon as I can.

[@jonnda]

@williestratton Figuring out a way to attach the string to the pitch lever was what drove me mad. No one on the internet seems willing to take a good picture of how they did it, & there are no available documents that explain the action of the lever on the string other then it changes the pitch. 4 all I know, the string could have been attached to a cam, had a direct connection to the lever &changed the string length and location as the pitch went up, or attached to a wheel like mine is.

[@user-ds2lj6qv3k]

planning on building myself one of these basically the same as what you have here --- how did you attached the string to the tamborine?

[@jonnda]

I cut a nickel to quarter sized disk of what I think was some scrap aluminum flashing like that is used for roofing. The edges were sanded smooth, a small hole was drilled or punched in it, and the disk was glued to the center of the tambourine on the outside. I may have even made two identical disks to sandwich the drum head with the thin aluminum. I can't remember what glue I used, but I suspect I just used a good quality cyanoacrylate. The goal here was to reinforce the goat skin and spread out the load over a larger surface area, because just a hole in the skin would of course allow the knot or ball end of a guitar string to slip through and more easily split the drum head. This design had a couple of years of use before the head eventually ruptured. I don't claim to have engineered the best way to do it, only that it is one way.

[@user-ds2lj6qv3k]

jonnda also what was the current wheel Made of? I love that sound

[@jonnda]

@@user-ds2lj6qv3k I believe that would be masonite, the edge of which has been rubbed against stringed instrument rosin.

[@thetimepassingpicture6019]

should be availible on amazon

[@jonnda]

@msimmo4 Please feel free to post a video of your own intonarumori as a response to this video. ^_^

[@FahadBaseer]

I'm curious as to why you went with a cylindrical shape as oppose to the usual cone.

[@jonnda]

Sorry I replied so late. I am not an experienced sheet metal worker, I have NONE of the proper tools for the job, and that duct work style galvanized sheet steel was surprisingly a bitch to work with because of that. It was tough to bend and very springy. I have a rough Idea of the tools I need, but I am mostly a builder of guitars and speakers, occasionally I do machining, so yeah- no tools for sheet steel. It wasn't exactly flimsy, but it was free and on hand. I had limited time, and I was having such a hard time working with it... So it became a cylinder, instead of a cone. If I had to do it again, I'd probably try to make a cone out of cardboard, or repurpose a metal/plastic cone from something else

[@damianoaisa2339]

Is it possible to find somewhere the designs of these machines?

[@irontoad123]

a torque nut would be best. good vid. thanks for showing the working parts. i would have thought wire a better choice than string to transfer vibration. but i see you were "economising"

[@jonnda]

Yes, well I was also concerned about the stretch of the wire. The drum head on this was on the flimsy side and I was concerned about increased wear and tear, so I used a nylon string. It certainly can, and has, been strung up with a high e string from an electric guitar, but this raises it's pitch and changes it's timbre... I also seem to recall the range of pitch was reduced.

[@jmdtofficial7675]

This might be a stupid question, but what type of string did you use?

[@jonnda]

JMDT Official I believe I used a used monofilament G, B, or high E string from a nylon string guitar in this video, but I experimented with other used strings from my classical guitar with good success. The thicker strings, of course, lower the pitch and timbre but also are less elastic (which is a seriously important aspect of my interpretation of the intonarumori) and seem to narrow the pitch range. I have also used a light gauge, high e, electric guitar string (about .010" or .009") to good effect. It doesn't have the same strong low pitch, but the other fun metallic string sounds make up for it. This is also hard on the drum head as the metal string is a good bit less stretchy.

[@jmdtofficial7675]

Thank you!

[@damianoaisa2339]

è possibile trovare da qualche parte i progetti di queste macchine?

[@jonnda]

@jonnda P.S. to anyone who did not read the "show more" video information.v I cannot claim to be an expert, nor do I claim that the information I gathered and subsequently interpreted during my short online research was perfectly accurate. As you may have noticed, my mission was not historical accuracy but to quickly and cheaply build a working instrument that could justifiably be classified as a member of the intonarumori family. I succeeded in doing so with $40 and about 2 weeks of work.

[@gorddowning7927]

Add some blue smoke, and it could be my old Evinrude. No snark. I love home made instruments.

[@harrywhickman6712]

Does anyone know where an intonarumori can be purchased?

[@jonnda]

Home Depot is my best answer for you, but it requires lots of assembly. I once tried to sell a second one, but after the deposit, the lady never paid up. I didn't do as good a job with finishing it because of that, and I'm not sure I want to sell it. I also don't have much time on my hands anymore. The one featured in the video needs a new head, I keep forgetting to fix it and give it back to this prof... Really it would be best if you made your own because there is no intonarumori repair/maintenance shop. A theremin is a half decent substitute and is readily available.

[@anthonyarcana4391]

hello there, im trying to build one that sounds exaclty like yours, lets say more droney, but cant fing much documentation online, the part im not getting is how you tune the string with the ledder, or better how the ledder is attached to the string, hope to have an answer from you, and super sick job! bravo!

[@jonnda]

I couldn’t find information either when I built mine, so I had to improvise. The string attaches to a small wooden wheel. The axle for the wheel is a bolt, and the wheel is retained with lock washers and nuts on either side. In the video you can see him attempting to tighten the nut because the wheel was slipping. I eventually put an additional lock nut on the door side of the wheel. There are better ways to keep the wheel from slipping, but this is what I engineered at that time. The bolt then goes through a washer, the vertical support, another washer, and then another nut, the lever arm, and the bolt head. I believe I used a carriage bolt as that would prevent the lever from slipping on the axle/bolt shaft. I can take pictures and post it to Google drive if this isn’t clear. Think of the design as a giant guitar tuner, but instead of gears and a knob on the back of the headstock like a guitar, this uses a lever. The diameter of the wheel matters, and you will need to experiment. smaller wheel, less pitch range, but less likely to brake a string or drum head. Larger wheel, more pitch range, but not all that range might be useful and might case damage to the drum head. In the original design, it seems that the lever moved a slider that moved down the length of the string slide a guitar slide. This is probably a better idea, as it puts less stress on the drum head, and pitch is independent of string tension.

[@anthonyarcana4391]

thanks a lot for the answer its amazing to see you still willing to help after years, i would be super thankfull if wou would maybe post pictures of how you attached the string to the wheel that is the only pats i dont get, thanks a lot again

[@anthonyarcana4391]

@@jonnda can you maybe post those pictures? They would be so helpful

[@jonnda]

@@anthonyarcana4391 I work two jobs, do you need them now or can you wait until I have some free time on Saturday?

[@anthonyarcana4391]

@@jonnda oh I’m super sorry didn’t mean to make pressure, absolutely I’ll wait, and once again thanks for the answer

[@tusconcactus7119]

非常に興味深い

[@WillieStratton]

how did you attach the string to the membrane?

[@jonnda]

Super glue some thin aluminum sheet metal disks about the size of a nickel on both sides of the skin, punch a hole in that for the string to go through. It aint a perfect solution, but it worked long enough.

[@msimmo4]

Hi, It's taken me 8 months to make a video response. At the moment it doesn't sound as good as yours but I'm working on that. I'm using a guage 42 guitar string at the moment and looking to have some better surface on the wooden spinning wheel.

[@jonnda]

Well, it took me 8 years to do a text response. Sorry. Nice work though.

[@msimmo4]

​@@jonnda That's OK. I've been working on my Intonarumoris for nine years now, just as I was getting near completion my workshop is locked down due to the pandemic and there are no live musical performance :( I reckon it wont be until 2022 when my project all comes together.

[@jonnda]

@@msimmo4 Sorry about that :-/ ...if you ever do complete them, make a video and share the link here!

[@ivan55599]

I'm not a musician. So how you attach string to tamburin?

[@jonnda]

I made two thin disks of aluminum about the size of a nickel, glued them on each side of the drum head, then drilled or pinched a hole the the aluminum/skin/aluminum sandwich. the string goes through and is either knotted or just has the ball end guitar strings often have.

[@ivan55599]

Thanks for the answer. (Luckily) I haven't yet made intonarumori, but now with an attachment info, I may make one soon.

[@dariozeri3695]

I'm not so good at english and i didn't understand, what is the wheel you are usin made of? I mean at 1:50

[@jonnda]

it's called masonite in English.

[@jonnda]

@tuscan cactus ありがとう

[@migueliglesias4890]

Sounds like a cow. In a good way. Great work!

[@jonnda]

Jose Miguel Iglesias LOL! It's an Intonarumori man, if it makes any noise- I've succeeded. Thanks for watching. :-)

[@migueliglesias4890]

jonnda, thank you for showing and sharing how does it look on the inside. I had not learned about the Intunarumori until yesterday, and that one of yours right there sounds clean, noiseless and a rich low tone (compared to others on videos I've watched). It sounds more as a cello than a cow, actually. It's a mechanical synthesizer. Greetings from Tijuana.

[@jonnda]

Jose Miguel Iglesias You're welcome. Just keep in mind that this was my solution to recreate the sound of one kind of intonarumori, based on some very basic low quality pictures and drawings. My interpretation has little to historical accuracy other then achieving a similar tonal quality. The pitch range can be raised by switching to a thinner string. I'm not sure what you mean by noiseless... This is a noise maker after all. It is a clean recording of it, if that's what you mean. I was never told about this instrument until the man in the video taught me about them. Two or three weeks later I was making him one for extra credit. :-) Also after WWII, Luigi Russolo abandoned the big wooded boxes for the early tools of electronic music such as tape loops and oscillators. They were sorta early synths. Then again, pipe organs, early electric organs, and the Hammond Novachord. -Nathanael from the Chicago area.

[@irontoad123]

I prefer to pay homage to history without being slavish in reproduction. Im sure luigi used items lying about, redundant and ready for the scrap heap. his core idea was turning the noise of mechanisation into something interesting or even aesthetic. I get my best ideas looking about dumps, and abandoned areas. You meet the best girls there too.

[@thetimepassingpicture6019]

this should be sold like as in people can go out and buy it

[@jonnda]

Yup. I tried to sell one once. I got a deposit, and she changed her mind. I don't blame her.

[@daleturner]

Too bad she changed her mind :-( I would love to know how much you were asking. I'd FREAK over one of these!!!!

[@jonnda]

I'm sorry, I can't comprehend the meaning of your message as it is a sentence fragment. Would you care to elaborate?