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Calm Classics with Ritula Shah 10pm - 1am
7 June 2021, 15:30
Watch this amazing LEGO orchestra play Star Wars
Countless pieces of lego, 42 instruments and one John Williams epic. The force is strong with this one...
In a galaxy far, far away, a 95-piece Lego droid orchestra performs the theme to Star Wars.
No, this isn’t the latest instalment in George Lucas’ magnificent film series. It’s the spectacularly clever work of musician Sam Battle. And it was no easy feat.
The tremendously technical performance look 3,148 hours of planning, 42 instruments and 95 classically-trained Lego droids.
Making up the talented tiny orchestra, is a sea of 46 R2-D2s, 25 Gonk droids and 24 mouse droids. And sitting among the intricate Lego bricks are four cellos, ten violins, eight xylophones, eight keyboards and a spectacular percussion section ranging from electric drums to gongs and chimes.
Read more: Star Wars ‘Imperial March’ in the style of Beethoven sounds momentous and sad
Watch this awesome droid orchestra! - LEGO Star Wars™ BOOST Droid Commander
The self-playing orchestra is driven by the touch of an iPad button, which directs all the Lego pieces to play the instruments based on computer instructions.
Battle explains: “The synths were MS10s and MS20s, I had most of them already, I borrowed a couple and they just look nice in a row.
“All of them monophonic, but between each synth was a tiny bit of overlap, the levers were pivoted in such a way the keys were quite light to push for the Gonks. This was a very solid setup that worked without fail every time.
“The R2-D2s on the xylophones tended to drift, so before each attempt all of their heads needed to be reset to a centre point so the beaters would hit in time. I ended up doubling up the R2-D2s so their out of time nature wouldn’t be as noticeable (two droids on each note means more of a chance it is in time).
Playable Lego piano
He continues: “The violins needed re-setting each time, luckily the song only needed three different notes from the violins, so four violins per note (and two for the least used note).”
The price to pay for such a splendid show? Five all-nighters from the dedicated musician himself.
Bravo, Sam. You can find more videos like these on his quirky musical YouTube channel LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER.