Toaster Plays “The Imperial March” with a Delightful Toothbrush Accompaniment

All electric motors make at least a little bit of noise. In DC motors, noise is caused by minute vibrations that are the result of slight imbalances or simple friction. Stepper motors are additionally affected by the quick starts and stops during stepping. Motor noise is almost always considered undesirable, because it indicates inefficiency. It is also just plain annoying. But with precise control, that noise can be turned into beautiful music. The host of the Device Orchestra YouTube channel has created an entire series of videos where he does that with various motorized devices. In his newest video, he used a similar technique to make a toaster play “The Imperial March” along with a delightful toothbrush accompaniment.

“The Imperial March” was Darth Vader’s theme music that was created by legendary composer John Williams for The Empire Strikes Back, and it is easily the best music of the entire Star Wars franchise. Slightly different versions have been included in other Star Wars films, but nothing compares to the original. Its dramatic staccato perfectly encapsulates the Empire’s oppressive rule and Darth Vader’s own foreboding nature. You can understand why it is the ideal music for a toaster to play just before it incinerates your bread. In this case, the toaster is only capable of playing one monophonic “channel,” so it was necessary to give it some help in the form of two toothbrushes and a typewriter.

Unlike most of the other appliances that the Device Orchestra uses to make music, this toaster doesn’t contain a motor. But it does have an electromagnet that is used to hold the toast down until it is ready to pop back up. By attaching a rubber band to that mechanism, the electromagnetic could be rapidly activated at a frequency corresponding to the necessary notes. That electromagnet is controlled by a development board — possibly a generic Arduino Uno. The toothbrushes and typewriter do have electric motors, so they were controlled in the more conventional manner that the Device Orchestra has demonstrated in many previous videos. A piece of toast, some googly eyes, and a couple of glow stick “lightsabers” were used to dress up the little mechanical band. As you can hear at the end of the video, the toaster and its bandmates are able to perform “The Imperial March” with remarkable accuracy.