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solarbird ([personal profile] solarbird) wrote2009-02-13 09:48 am
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synth 1938

From [livejournal.com profile] 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.