GRIDI

The world’s largest working MIDI sequencer, 2015–18

In 2015 I built GRIDI: a 2.80 × 1.65 metre table where anyone can compose by placing balls on a 16×16 grid. Each row is a pitch, each column is time — electronic music, turned into something you can walk up to and play.

It started as a one-night piece for the Israel Museum, inspired by Damien Hirst’s spot paintings there. A team of us — Ronen Peri, Michael Zeron, Nadav Vainer and me — soldered 256 switches and more than 2,000 wires by hand. Then a Billie Jean video went viral, and GRIDI went on the road until around 2018: Germany, Italy, Finland, Spain, Singapore, two years at the science museum in Haifa, and a crowd jam with Coolooloosh at the Jerusalem Jazz Festival.

Choke Beat Orchestra performed Money on it. Sponj played it. Kids treated it like a game. A second version in 2017 ran as a standalone instrument — no laptop on the side.

• 16×16 256 steps
• 2.80 × 1.65 m four CNC plates

Watch

How it works

Place a ball in a dent and it plays the next time the cursor bar passes. Drums, bass and melody light up in different colours. The first table was four CNC-cut plates on a metal frame; in 2017 we built a second version that could run on its own.

On the road

1. 2015
   Israel Museum, JerusalemPremiere at Contact Point (Nekudat Maga), curated by Renana Raz
2. 2016
   Digital Life Design, Munich
3. 2016
   WIRED Next Fest, Milan
4. 2016–18
   Slush, Helsinki
5. 2016–18
   Madatech, HaifaTwo-year exhibition at the Israel National Museum of Science
6. 2018
   Jerusalem Jazz FestivalCrowd-built jam with Coolooloosh at the Israel Museum
7. 2018
   Esplanade, SingaporeARTcade at Theatres on the Bay
8. 2018–19
   El Hormiguero, SpainLive on national TV with Daddy Yankee

Press

• Is GRIDI the largest sequencer in the world? MusicRadar, 2016
• Orbs Light To Billie Jean On This Huge Sequencer Hackaday, 2016
• Is This The World’s Largest MIDI Sequencer? Synthtopia, 2016
• GRIDI is a large scale physical MIDI sequencer MIDI.org, 2016
• Create Big Music Mashups on This Enormous MIDI Sequencer Board Make, 2015
• DLD 2016 — a table anyone can compose on FOCUS, 2016
• GRIDI is a Giant MIDI Sequencer Hackster, 2016
• GRIDI — a large scale MIDI sequencer Cycling '74, 2015
• GRIDI is the world’s biggest MIDI Sequencer IDM Mag, 2016
• El Hormiguero tribute to Daddy Yankee Antena 3, 2019
• Choke perform Money on GRIDI KALTBLUT, 2017
• Playing music with interactive embedded LEDs Music Crowns, 2016

Team

• Yuvi Gerstein Creator
• Michael Zeron Electronics and programming
• Ronen Peri Max/MSP
• Nadav Vainer Industrial design

Also

Sponj live on GRIDI — a session with Tom Iddan, filmed at David Gerstein’s studio. Old clips and stills also lived on @gridimusic.