Zylotone - Theme Maker - Digital

What is a Zylotone?

A Zylotone is a musical instrument where you create music by tapping on a tube. The special thing about the Zylotone is that each Zylotone is specially tuned to a song. The tubes are therefore always played from left to right. It is therefore not necessary to understand notes in order to play a Zylotone; you just have to be able to tap in the right rhythm.

A video says more than 1000 words. Watch this video and you will quickly understand what a Zylotone is.

How do I make my own Zylotone?

I created this file with OpenSCAD, so you can use the ParametricModelMaker from Makerworld to create your own Zylotone without any previous knowledge. All you need is the sheet music of your favorite song.

How can I create my favorite song with the Zylotone?

Search for the name of the song on a video platform and add the words “piano easy”. You will receive a tutorial in which your favorite song is played on the piano. Make a note of the order of the notes. You can use exactly these notes in ModelMaker. The notes must be separated by commas without spaces and entered in the appropriate field.

Click on Customize at the top of this page and you will be taken to parametricModelMaker. This is an ingenious tool that you can use to customize your Zylotone online. Enter the name of the song and the notes (separated by commas, without spaces) in the corresponding field. It is now possible to create up to 10 lines. Press generate and use the download button to download the file. Save it as a 3mf file (the file should then also have the extension .3mf). Open the file in Bambu Slicer and you can print your Zylotone.

Tip: If you use several staves to create several rows of tubes, you should make sure that all staves contain the same number of tubes. Missing tubes can be filled in with an X.

Note on printing

If you are printing a very large Zylotone, your printer must be properly calibrated. The bottom of the tubes is only one layer thick (0.2 mm). If you have problems with this, you can set the thickness of the base to 0.24 mm and then print with a layer height of 0.12 mm.
The thickness of the base can also be set to 0.4 mm. This makes the Zylotone more robust, but quieter.

Can I personalize my Zylotone?

Yes, that's no problem. You can choose any of the three colors under Colors. The colors must be specified in HEX code. You can quickly find many examples on the Internet. The diameter, wall thickness, base thickness and a few other parameters can also be set.

Found and created your favorite song?

Then post the sheet music of the song here and share your favorite song with us.

Examples:

Major Scale: C1,C#1,D1,D#1,E1,F1,F#1,G1,G#1,A1,A#1,B1,C2,C#2,D2,D#2,E2,F2,F#2,G2,G#2,A2,A#2,B2
All Notes: C1,D1,E1,F1,G1,A1,B1,C2,D2,E2,F2,G2,A2,B2
Pink Panther Eb1,E1,F#1,G1,Eb1,E1,F#1,G1,C2,B1,E1,G1,B1,Bb1,A1,G1,E1,D1,E1
The Blue Danube Waltz: C1,C1,E1,G1,G1,G2,G2,E2,E2,C1,C1,E1,G1,G1,G2,G2,F2,F2
Ode to Joy E2,E2,F2,G2,G2,F2,E2,D2,C2,C2,D2,E2,E2,D2,D2
Imperia March: G1,G1,G1,Eb1,Bb1,G1,Eb1,Bb1,G1,D2,D2,D2,Eb2,Bb1,Gb1,Eb1,Bb1,G1
Mario E2,E2,E2,C2,E2,G2,G1,C2,G1,E1,A1,B1,Bb1,A1,G1
Simpson C2,E2,F#2,A2,G2,E2,C2,A1,F#1,F#1,F#1,G1,F#2,F#2,F#2,G2,Bb2,B2

Indiana Jones E1,F1,G1,C2   D1,E1,F1   G1,A1,B1,F2   A1,B1,C2,D2,E2   G1,G1   E2,D2,G1

Would you like a flexible Zylotone?

Then simply use my analog generator  “Zylotone - Theme Maker - Analog”.

A brief history of its origins:

The idea for this instrument came to me while tapping on a tin of potato chips. I cut cans to the right length to play songs. I quickly printed out the first tubes. The first approach was a physical calculation to generate suitable tones. L = v/4f with suitable frequencies led to the first prototypes. Unfortunately, theory does not correspond to reality here either. I therefore printed tubes of different lengths and carried out a frequency analysis. Here I discovered a necessary deviation of the length from the theoretical value of up to 10 %.

Using the well-known antiproportional relationship, I carried out a regression and obtained the perfect tube lengths in each case. I only liked the straight-line design to a limited extent, so I oriented myself to the design of the mystical panpipe. My Zylotone was born.

In addition to the analog version, I also created this digital Zylotone Creator, which you can use to print a fixed Zylotone.

More examples: