The Robot orchestra at Wits was dissappointing.

The idea was that 3 music students compose music which they were being examined on, 2 Interactive Media students and one Electrical Engineer student would build and program robots to play the compositions.

It sounds awesome, especially if you like music and robots.

Stage was set with a number of drums including Timpanis as well as Tubular bells a xylophone and some cymbals. You might gather from those instruments that there is not that much variation. All instruments are things that must be struck in order to make a sound. No strings and no wind, I am not saying that there should have been either of those, but the composers were certainly hamstrung by the limited instruments. The Xylophone and Tubular bells also had set tones that they were using. The Robots couldnt slide along their support bar, which again... is limiting. There were also 4/5 tacky as hell plastic robots that flashed red lights in our eyes the length of the proceeding. The best part were the millions of cables and wires that all met at the back of the stage in one mass of awesomeness.

I fear for the future of music if all our composers are all going to be coming up with this dischord John Zorn Non-Music. Seriously what is wrong with a little rhythm? Just a little, you are using drums after all. I did find the sound of the bass drum very interesting, for although it is a real instrument it sounded exactly like a drum machine. That instrument was my main source of complaint, its mechanism for being struck made more sound that the drum itself, so I couldnt focus on the actual compositions.

I really was excited about this and I feel with more support and more time, they are students so I assume they have little of both, it could have been amazing.

I will go to the next one just to see if there is a development next year.