When discussing rolling ball sculpture plans with a potential collector, one of the concerns I often hear is, “Oh, I don’t want it to be too noisy,” or “I think the sound (bell/chime/blocks) might get annoying after a while.” Even if I’m not adding specific sound elements, like a bell, people fear the overall effect of the sculpture will be too loud. On many occasions I’ve talked with people about adding sound elements to their sculptures.

You know what? I totally get that. I remember the very first sculpture I built that had a specific, added sound element to it. The sculpture was “Opportunity,” and I put a bell on it that I made out of a piece of rectangle steel cut from a long piece of tubing. I remember fearing that the ding from it would become tiring to the ear, that you’d hear it run for a few minutes and go, “Oh, man, I like it and all, but that bell – it’s always the same. I know it’s coming, and I’m kind of sitting here gritting my teeth until it finally happens!”

Years ago I shared a room with my little brother. He used to snore loudly while I was trying to fall asleep. I knew it was coming, and I’d tense up, waiting for him to ruin my attempts to ignore him! With many nights of uneasy sleep still in my memory, I was highly motivated to not let my art be like the snores of an eight-year-old boy with sinus issues!

To put it another way, I understand your concern. You don’t want to put a piece of art in your home or business, spend all that money and time having it created, and then find out it annoys you. I certainly do not want that for you, either! To make sure you’re happy, I’ve done hours and hours and hours worth of research and testing and solved those problems. How? Read on.

First, a rolling ball sculpture, by it’s nature, does not run exactly the same with every travel of a ball down its tracks. It can be a similar, but it will never be timed exactly the same, especially if marbles are used on the piece. Why? Well, with marbles aren’t round, nor are they all the exact same size, so each trip down the sculpture is just a bit different. A marble will never reach the same point at the exact same time on a repeated basis. Plus, there are really easy ways to purposefully “screw up” the timing of the balls!

How do I force the sculpture to not be evenly timed? Have you ever watched one of my sculptures in person or via video and wondered, “Why are the hooks on the chain lift unevenly spaced?” The answer is to avoid audio fatigue and add visual variety. When I use a chain lift on a sculpture, I often vary the distance between where the pickup hooks are welded to it. In doing so, the balls may come off the lift at uneven intervals, making the timing of their trips down the various paths varied. In this way, the interaction of the balls with the elements on the tracks is also varied, so the ring of a single bell on a sculpture will never happen at the exact same time, and your ear will not get tired of it. It also makes the sculpture more fun to watch, because it does not assume a purely mechanical and completely predictable series of actions.

But what about the sculpture being too loud overall? I know some people assume it will be a constant cacophony of noise and they won’t be able to hear themselves think over it. While the levels on videos can sound too loud, in real life the sculpture makes a sound that you could liken to the running of water over rocks in the distance, or, in a much more boring analogy, a running fan. The awesome upside to this is that they are great for waiting rooms, because you can talk over them easily at normal voice levels, but then if some privacy is desired, they provide a bit of a mask of white noise. This can be particularly useful to staff in a medical location where talking among patients or doctors in semi-privacy is often desired.

I’ll add that one of my most popular public sculptures, “Tomfoolery” is placed in a library. Libraries are where people are supposed to be quiet, generally speaking, and I’ve received exactly zero complaints about its sound level. In fact, when they commissioned it, they asked me to add the bells and whistles! Well, there are no whistles, but you get my meaning. I also built it to their specs to fit in an existing glass case, and you can’t hear it loudly outside of the case. The wood blocks are notable from further away, but they can’t be picked out over the general activity of the rest of the library. You can hear a great example of it in action at the library at the end of the video.

Let’s take this one step further, however. Let’s say you had the piece placed in a location that required an extra level of volume control. In that case, I’d go with a quieter ball! Yes, that’s a thing! Using a phenolic or plastic ball reduces the sound that the sculpture makes, as the material does not cause as much vibration of the track. You can still hear it run, but it is at a much lower level. Phenolic balls also have some wear characteristics that may be desirable in certain situations, but that’s a topic for another post.

As you can tell, I understand your concerns over possible sound issues that my sculptures may create, and I do my best to take care of those before they ever reach your hands. If you have concerns, be they over sound levels or anything else, all you have to do is ask (my contact page is here), and I’m happy to discuss how we might best address them and create a piece of art you’re sure to love.