Playing with Otamatones

post by jefftk (jkaufman) · 2025-01-02T19:50:01.781Z · LW · GW · 0 comments

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A couple months ago Nora (3y) got very into Otamatones. She wanted to watch lots of videos, primarily TheRealSullyG. She asked for one for Christmas, and so did I:

They're a lot of fun, but I haven't yet figured out if it's an instrument I'll ever be able to reliably play in tune.

The basic idea is you have a touch sensitive ribbon which triggers a pitch dependent on the location of your finger, and then you squeeze the cheeks to control the volume. Nora's small pink one is the standard size, and I find it quite hard to use with grownup fingers. My big red one is the "deluxe" model, and at the larger size the ribbon is quite playable.

Lily made a video of the Mary Ellen Spider song with an Otamatone actor, though (perhaps for the best) the instrument is not featured musically:

I measure both models as having 29-31 half steps (2.5 octaves) depending on which setting you're using:

• Standard, low: A#1 (59Hz) to D#4 (312Hz)
• Standard, medium: G#3 (213Hz) to D6 (1,184 Hz)
• Standard, high: A#5 (920Hz) to D#8 (4,980Hz)
• Deluxe, low: F1 (44Hz) to C4 (265Hz)
• Deluxe, medium: D#3 (158Hz) to B5 (980Hz)
• Deluxe, high: E5 (671Hz) to A#7 (3,676Hz)

Overall it's a fun and silly instrument, though there are a few smallish places it could be better:

• It's a little quiet for group playing, much quieter than a fiddle or mandolin. If I'm playing with others I'm generally on the loudest setting and wishing it were a little louder. This is less of a problem now when I'm kind of terrible at it, but if I do get good it will be limiting.

• You can hook the "deluxe" model up to an external speaker, at the cost of losing control over cheek articulation. And I was hoping the bass would sound better with a speaker intended for that range, but it turns out that's not a voice they've gone for.

• Instead of an octave selector I want either a pitch range knob or a five-setting switch: three settings is often not enough to place the 2.5 octave range where I want it.

Still, I'm happy! And now Anna is asking for one for her birthday, which would let us play as a trio.

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