synth 1938

[solarbird]

From stickmaker on another forum, this is the Novachord, a 1938-1942 discreet synthesiser that never caught on. It's an actual synth; the guy who made this page did so after doing a complete restoration of a unit originally manufactured in March, 1940.

If you are at all into weird instruments, particularly weird and/or old and/or historical analogue electronic instruments, you have to go listen to the post-restoration samples towards the bottom of the (very long, very large) page. It's mostly a true restoration; he added an XLR output jack (which he used for recording the samples) and changed the spring-based keyboard connector system to something less crazy, but the sound-generation elements are all per 1938/1940 factory spec.

Go play those post-restoration samples and just imagine that noise coming out of what looks pretty much like a spinet piano in 1938. Brain. splody.

Comments

[arjache.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's stunning. I had to keep reminding myself that some of those samples weren't from a modern synth.

[kvogel.livejournal.com]

That was wonderful!! And I know just enough about old tech electronics to really appreciate the effort involved.

[solarbird]

I've rebuilt amps from that era. (Well, okay, the late 50s. Same technology, really.) Terrifying amounts of work. I love crazy obsessive fans who actually do things, and this guy totally counts.

[quen-elf.livejournal.com]

Most amusing thing: the instrument was seriously toxic! Awesome.

But yes, 'ahead of its time' is a pretty obvious statement. Impressive bit of gear (and absolutely ridiculous amount of work in restoring it).

[wrog]

what I was wondering: where the hell does one get replacement tubes from?

[solarbird]

Russia!

Also, a lot of common tubes are still made. In fact, some that were out of production for decades came back into production in the late 90s and early 2000s in the US, what with microfactories and such.

But things like the 6L6 - common in guitar amps - never completely went away.