All I can say is, it's about goddamned time:

Creators of the original Singing Tesla Coils, the crew of ArcAttack uses high tech wizardry to present music in a whole new light.
ArcAttack employs a unique DJ set up of their own creation (an HVDJ set up) to generate an 'electrifying' audio visual performance. The HVDJ pumps music through a PA System while two specially designed DRSSTC's (Dual-Resonant Solid State Tesla Coils) act as separate synchronized instruments.
These high tech machines produce an electrical arc similar to a continuous lightning bolt which put out a crisply distorted square wave sound reminiscent of the early days of synthesizers. The music consists of original highly dance-able electronic compositions that sometimes incorporates themes or dub of popular songs.
Joe DiPrima and Oliver Greaves are the masterminds behind the design and construction of the Tesla Coils while the music is developed by John DiPrima and Tony Smith.

ArcAttack! (Thanks, Mary!)

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I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Copyfight • Gadgets • Happy Mutants • High Energy • music

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the Other michael

I wonder what Grainger, Derbyshire, and the Barrons* would think!

*yes, I KNOW. But, still.
Takuan

do try this at home
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build_A_Plasma_Speaker/
plasmator

@22 – slithybrilig – yeah, they hang fluorescent tubes from a scaffolding in some of their shows. Hella cool to watch them glow. PS – your name rocks.

@17 – the other michael – Yeah, the dude on stilts is the same one who’s wearing the Faraday suit in the video I posted above. He’s also sat/danced on top of the scaffolding during shows, which can be pretty terrifying to watch.

@21 – noen – I forwarded them a link to the boingboing post, so they may come in and correct the record a bit, but I believe all sound you’re hearing is robots. Robotic midi-controlled drumset, a PVC pipe organ that’s robotic, and the Tesla Coils singing themselves. There might be additional sound being generated from something else, but I think it’s all being played “live” – ie: I don’t think there’s any recorded music being played along with this.
dielucky

I have seen them four times. Year before last Maker’s Faire, Austin, This year at Maker’s, and at Flipside. Truly the greatest.
Phikus

I got to see some of these in action in person at an art exhibit. Truly frankencool.
Godfree

Why, yes, that IS just about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
Ugly Canuck

Darn those stiltwalkers, always getting in the way….
Brother Provisional

I can’t say that I care for the accompaniment, but otherwise yes, this is completely awesome.

Do they play requests? If so, “The Model” by Kraftwerk. Pretty please.
nimrodpower

Delia’d be awesomely happy if she’d still be alive to witness :)
Palilay

Don’t know about the poor sound quality and cheezy backing track though. This is far more visceral :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZEpP_zzaw
(Nothing is officially a musical instrument until someone has used it to play “popcorn”. ;) )
Bonnie

Telsa Coil doing the Imperial March is pretty dang awesome too!
http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2009/02/19/tesla-coil-plays-imperial-march/
Anonymous

so they played music and had teslas doing arcs. i don’t see them as ‘singing’ or creating the music in anyway though. yay?
noen

Yeah, I see they have the drumset (from their website) over on the left. They should have a Dalek giving off sparks in the middle or else being the ground for the coils. That would just about complete it.
jgstewart

Japanese experimental guitarist Merce Death does something similar with, um, guitar. Lots of videos on his web site.

Geektastic!
RevRalf23

I saw these guys at Flipside as well (they were set up right next to the noise camp where I was stationed). First time I’d seen anything like it. They played Dr.Who, Zelda, and a bunch of other cool stuff. They also had an automated drum set for some of the performances. And they had this giant tiki throne with these tubes of neon hanging off that would glow when sparks from the coils touched them. Excellent neighbors, just as good as the guy with the propane fueled pipe organ that was camped a few tents from me during Flipside 2007.
Jake Bullet

I think “awesomesauce” is my new favorite word.
Parsec

This is Parsec from Arcattack (the guy on the stilts with the mic). I would like to thank you all for the awesome comments!
hassan-i-sabbah

wow.
mrsomuch

why are they sitting down! why are the lights on! what’s wrong with these people! seriously? what?

super brilliant ace.

+1 vote for ‘awesomesauce’
noen

@ #5 any mouse:
“i don’t see them as ‘singing’ or creating the music in anyway though. yay?”

Had you bothered to look into it you would know that tesla coils are indeed capable of reproducing music.

Steve Ward’s Singing Tesla Coil video

“This is a solid-state Tesla coil. The primary runs at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range, and is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones you hear.

“So just to explain a little further, yes, it is the actual high voltage sparks that are making the noise. Every cycle of the music is a burst of sparks at 41 KHz, triggered by digital circuitry at the end of a “long” piece of fiber optics.”

In this performance there is, in addition to the tesla coils, a PA system playing a track. No doubt to enhance the over all experience. Please do a little research next time, thanks.
LambdaCalculus379

Holy freaking crap, that was amazing! I loved the remix that they did!
Jugglepunk

“Is that just about the coolest thing you have ever seen, or what?”

Yes, yes, yes, oh god yes. I think I just made a big sciency mess in my trousers.
plasmator

I know a couple of those guys. They just tested a new faraday suit too. Their performances are only getting cooler.

Here’s a first test of the Faraday suit, using the Imperial March:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJqoRaphiEk

Any time you hear drums, that’s probably a midi controlled robotic drumset.

Fun geekery abounds.
Auto Parts for Brains

I want one. :P Brings back the days when I would spend minutes just looking into how electric currents like the ones in the video stick to my hands in a plasma ball. Sigh.
adamrice

I would like to imagine that Delia Derbyshire is gazing down from heaven, and smiling.
crenelle

These folks look like they’re friends of Steve West and Jeff Larson. Steve built the first zeusaphone a while ago, Youtube has a number of zeusaphone performances, usually at science fiction conventions, and usually outdoors too.
Ugly Canuck

Thanx Plasmator I like that even better than the Dr.Who piece.
Can that faraday suit be modded to look like Vader?
That awesome truly would be.
slithybrilig

I love how, in Plasmator and Fett101′s video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJqoRaphiEk ), the arcs fluoresce the tube in the background.
Anonymous

I love the (unintended?) pun “it’s about time“.
Boeotian

@Plasmator:

That video is Amazing, thanks!
Dano312

Shoulda been done with all the lights turned off and audience members given fluorescent tubes (aglow with Tesla energy, of course) to do battle with.
Roy Trumbull

Back in the 1970s a company in the San Jose area came across a novel effect. An ionized flame could be turned into a loudspeaker. I saw a demonstration. They did some research and found the effect had first been noted in the 1930s.
If you go on the Space Mountain ride at Disneyland the high frequencies you hear are made by a ceramic transducer bonded to an aluminum plate.
There are lots of ways to radiate sound.
Anonymous

Wow!
Only a minor negative note: the drum machine pattern in this video ruins the music as it has a different time signature from the Doctor Who theme tune, both the original and the one in the video. The drum machine is in 4/4 while the tunes are in 3/4. My guess is that the tune comes from a midi file while the drum track was later added by some dance obsessed DJ.
nanuq

If the machines broke down, would they need a sonic screwdriver to fix them?
Anonymous

mmmmmmmmmm

Smell the Ozone !
the Other michael

did anybody else get nervous when the metal-stilts-walker showed up?
Bender

@17 Other Michael

Nervous? No. Hopeful? Yes.
Fett101

@5 “so they played music and had teslas doing arcs. i don’t see them as ‘singing’ or creating the music in anyway though. yay?”

The Telsa is making sounds, acting as an instrument. Try the following video where you can here the Tesla itself more clearly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJqoRaphiEk
mjc

Reminds me of “Harmonic Voltage” from the first Animusic DVD.
Anonymous

They did Stigmata by Ministry at a campout with Parsec doing the vocals, it was the best version I’ve ever seen of that song. Jourgensen would have approved.

Tesla coils sing the Doctor Who theme in orgy of electric awesomesauce

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