A recent fascination has been exploring how soft resonators and inspiration drawn from human (and other animal) vocalisations could be put to use in musical instrument design. Here are a few examples of this, from very recent vocalisation robots to a machine Kempelen designed in the 1700s.

Motormouth Robot KTR-2

Kempelen’s speaking machine

Speaking Piano

Thus far, this has resulted in a series of prototype instruments, mainly using latex membranes. These are pretty embryonic at present but show significant potential in my view.

Soft clarinet

Thread (below)

Latex reed