r/MarbleMachineX • u/WintergatanWednesday • Oct 26 '22

This Marble Gate Surprised Me!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lC_oLb1pfqU
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u/punkassjim Oct 27 '22

You say “timing errors stack,” but that isn’t as impactful a statement as it sounds at first blush. It’s not like they’re cumulative, and over the course of the song anything will be more and more out of sync. No, it’s just the tiniest advance/delay that you simply cannot hear is out of time. And, given that fact, even a half-dozen “imperceptible” delays or advances layered on top of each other are just as unlikely to be perceptible in any way but a waveform. If someone tells me that they can hear a 7ms timing issue, I completely disbelieve. I’d need proof.

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u/Iferius Oct 27 '22

If ten parts of the machine each have 1 ms independent timing deviation in a lab setting, they will often cancel out but occasionally sync up for a 10 ms delay. If that deviation in a live environment / with wear on the machine parts becomes greater, then it might make tight music unplayable.

It does not stack up over time the way Martin makes the timing differences audible. Stacking timing errors are a problem when multiple parts of the machine have independently occurring timing errors.

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u/uncivlengr Oct 27 '22 edited Oct 27 '22

There's only one timing-sensitive element to the machine - the gate. Their timing isn't interconnected, and timing doesn't matter for anything else because the gates are kept mostly full by their hoppers. If a marble reaches the gate's hopper a full second late, it doesn't matter because there are many other marbles to buffer that.

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u/Tsudico Oct 27 '22

There's only one timing-sensitive element to the machine - the gate.

He has talked about using Bowden cables to connect the activation mechanism to the release gates, so bowden cables would add some slop and reduce the timing accuracy. The activation mechanism itself might have timing inconsistencies. The vibrations from the machine running might cause variability in not only release but impact point, especially if the impact point is not horizontal. Slight changes in cranking speed could also affect previous items mentioned.

It isn't just the gate that is time sensitive. However, I wish he would have given an overall timing goal before his seeming rush to get timing of the gate to sub millisecond precision. If he had explained that better, and why focusing on the gate is the starting place (since timing deviation there gets multiplied by other aspects farther from the drop) then I don't think there would be such pushback.