Only a nerdy musician could come up with this.
Ever wondered what a dinosaur sounded like? Courtney Brown, a sound artist and computer engineer at Southern Methodist University, is making that dream a reality.
Her project, Dinosaur Choir, turns fossilized dinosaur skulls into playable instruments so anyone can listen to dinosaur calls in a modern music setting.
Using 3D-printed skulls of hadrosaurs, the duck-billed dinosaurs that roamed the Earth 70 million years ago, Brown recreates the airways and crests that may have carried their original calls.
The idea began in 2011, when she heard a museum exhibit play a possible call of a Parasaurolophus, and she immediately wondered if people could actually play dinosaurs.
Brown uses CT scans of fossil skulls to 3D-print the crests and airways, then adds a mouthpiece and a mechanical larynx to produce sounds ranging from soft murmurs to deep, resonant calls.
The latest versions include sensors and a digital voice box, so players can control the sounds with breath, voice, and mouth shape.
Dinosaur Choir has already been performed alongside tuba and saxophone and showcased at international instrument competitions and music conferences.
For curious listeners, the software is available online, and Brown plans to release the 3D-printing files next year.
The goal is simple: to let people hear what dinosaurs might have sounded like, bringing prehistoric creatures into the modern world through music.
