Gallery of Misfits - The Con Brio ADS 200R, Electronic Sackbut, EMS Polysynthi & Datanomics Datasynth

via noyzelab

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Sneak Peek Into Modular: the documentary

Some pics via Modular: the documentary where you'll find even more.
Above: "The Paramus hybrid digital/analog synthesizer...this is the analog interface."



"The Sonde...a super oscillator capable of generating 200 sine waves...allowing the user to perform complex additive synthesis!"



"Fantastic panel graphics adorn Le Caine's Serial Sound Structure Generator"



"Hugh Le Caine's Electronic Sackbut, built in the mid 1940's, was the first electronic music synthesizer to employ voltage control...it also featured an extremely expressive keyboard that gave the player 3 dimensional control over pitch, volume and timbre."



"Electronic music legend Morton Subotnick with an original set of Buchla modules created for the San Francisco Tape Music Center."



"Andrew Kilpatrick with some of his modular creations"



"Bruce Duncan amid a Modcan system"



"Master technician and sonic wizard Jeff Blenkinsopp and portions of Malcolm Cecil's legendary TONTO."



"Mark Verbos and his monster Buchla...packed with modules of varying vintage and some of his own design."

Electronic Sackbut Synthesizer - First CV Synth From 1945

YouTube via TreasuresTresors | April 14, 2010 |
via brian comnes in the comments of this post.
"Hugh LeCaine of Ottawa created the Electronic Sackbut Synthesizer in his home studio over a period of three years from 1945 to 1948. This synthesizer is the first voltage-controlled synthesizer ever built, preceding the manufacture of commercial synthesizers by twenty years. Le Caine, a nuclear physicist with the National Research Council, was passionate about music. He was concerned that the musical notes produced by electronic instruments in the 1930s, such as the Hammond Organ and the Morse Robb Wave Organs, lacked a certain expressivity. Determined to shape technology for the needs of the musician and expand the possibilities of musical sound he built a synthesizer that allows for complex variations in pitch and tone. This, LeCaine achieved, through the innovative use of voltage control. The technique provides an automatic background voltage that can remain stable or be altered through the manipulation of the knobs and keyboard. The keys are sensitive to a vertical pressure that controls the volume and a lateral pressure that changes the pitch. In this way the musician can simultaneously manipulate the volume, pitch, and timbre of each note and produce gradual transitions from one sound to the next. The rudimentary appearance of the synthesizer its three legs made of crossed pieces of scrap wood and with instructions penciled onto its surface camouflages the brilliant concept behind this invention. LeCaine's Electronic Sackbut Synthesizer is the precursor of today's electronic instruments.

See this treasure on the official Canada's Got Treasures website!"

Sackbut Synthesizer

Sackbut Synthesizer from Michael Ryan on Vimeo.

Update: non private video re-posted here. Thanks to brian comnes in the comments.

Music Non Suck - Early Electronic Music

Radio 216;s Musique Non Suck

Track listing:
01. Raymond Scott - Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (1960)
02. Laurie Spiegel - Patchwork (1976)
03. Pauline Oliveros - Bye Bye Butterfly (1965)
04. Tom Dissevelt - Ignition (1963)
05. Roger Powell - Lumia (Dance Of The Nebulae) (1973)
06 RCA - demonstration of synthesizing a human voice on the RCA Modular Synthesizer (1955)
07. Ralph Lundsten - IT (1968)
08. Ron Geesin - U.F.O. (1972)
09. Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece - Waterwheel (1976)
10. Charles Dodge - discussion on the cumbersomeness of early computer music
11. Charles Dodge - He Destroyed Her Image (1972)
12. Bell Labs - demonstration of the VODER speech synthesizer (1939)
13. Ursula Bogner - Für Ulrich/Pulsation (1969)
14. Erkki Kurenniemi - Sähkösoittimen Ääniä #1 (1971)
15. Gil Mellé - Wildfire (Andromeda Strain Soundtrack) (1971)
16. Delia Derbyshire - Effervescence (1972)
17. Tom Dissevelt - Syncopation (1958)
18. Raymond Scott - IBM Probe (1963)
19. Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples Of The Moon (1967)
20. Hugh Le Caine - demonstration of synthesizing strings on the Electronic Sackbut (1953)
21. Ilhan Mimaroglu - Agony (1965)
22. Raymond Scott - Futurama (1964)
23. Tom Dissevelt - Pacific Dawn (1963)
24. Louis And Bebe Barron - Once Around Altair (Forbidden Planet Soundtrack) (1956)
25. Herbert Eimert And Robert Beyer - Klangstudie II (1952)
26. Erkki Kurenniemi - Improvisaatio (1969)
27. John Pfeiffer - Orders (1968)
28. Frank Coe/Forrest J. Ackerman - Tone Tales From Tomarrow (1964)
via Jez

The First Synth to....

Update: The new home for this list is now here. You can add to the list there or comment here and I will update both lists. Note that the complete list however will be there as I do not plan on updating this list with updates made there. That would be too much work and would compete with me being able to put up new posts here. Can't let that happen. : ) Related but separate from that list also see https://120years.net. That said...

If you are going to add to the list in the comments, use the same format.

Year - Manufacturer - Model - First at
1837 - C.G. Page (Salem. Mass) - first to produce electronically generated sound (not necessarily associated with a musical instrument). After inventing the Volta in 1800 (an early battery), in 1837 Page was doing experiments with coils and realized when certain coils were attached to a batter they omitted a ringing sound. While he initially thought the ring came from the electrical current was interrupted (battery disconnected), what was actually taking place was the induction through the coils was causing them to vibrate. via Peter Grenader
1885 - Person and Ernst Lorenz -'Elektrisches Musikinstrument' - the first musical instrument designed to produce electrically generated sound. It used electronic vibrations to drive an electromagnet that were connected to resonating boards, which translated these vibrations to sound. via Peter Grenader
1897 - Taddaeus Cahills - Telharmonium - electromechanical instrument.
1936 - Oskar Sala - Mixturtrautonium - first synth using Subharmonic synthesis
1939 - Homer Dudley invents the Parallel Bandpass Vocoder (VODER) - A manually key operated speech synthesizer
1940 - Homer Dudley invents the The Voder speech synthesizer - A device which used the human voice and an artificial voice to produce a composite
Both were researched as a way to transmit speech over copper wires (id est, telephone lines)
1948 - Hugh LeCaine - Electronic Sackbut - First voltage-controlled synthesizer
1948 - Dr. Raymond Scott - Wall of Sound - First polyphonic Sequencing Worstation (electromechanical) and the Electronum - first sequencer.
1950 - CSIR - Mk 1 - The first known use of a digital computer for the purpose playing music
1956 - Louie and Bebe Barron - Produced the first all-electronic musical score for a major motion picture - MGM's 'Forbidden Planet'
1957 - Max V. Mathews at Bell Labs - MUSIC - the first digital synthesizer. Technically, it was a computer program, though it set the stage for every digital synthesizer that proceeded it. See Laurie Spiegel with one here.
1963/64 - Buchla - model 100 modular - 1st "modern" modular synth
1967 - Moog - Moog modular synthesizer I, II & III - 1st commercial modular synth.
1969 - EMS - Synthi VCS-3 - first non-modular mini-synth
1970 - MOOG - Minimoog - 1st Mono Synth with keys (non-modular)
1971 - Tonus/Arp - Soloist - 1st preset mono synth
1971 - John Chowning - developed FM synthesis using the MUSIC-IV language (source), a direct descendent of Mathew's MUSIC program. FM synthesis was later licensed by Yamaha, and used in popular synths such as the DX-7.
1972 - Triadex Muse - first digital synth
""is the first digital musical instrument and was produced in 1972. It was
designed by Edward Fredkin and Marvin Minsky at MIT. It is an algorithmic
music generator: it uses digital logic circuits to produce a sequence of
notes based on the settings of various parameters. It has four small sliders
in that control Volume, Tempo, Pitch, and Fine Pitch. It is not known how
many were made, but they are considered extremely rare.
The Muse is the subject of U. S. Patent 3610801"
1973 - Coupland Digital Music Synthesizer - First Digital (Triadex beat it?) Update via Peter Grenader: "No time to read through all these posts to see if it's come up yet, but the Coupland was vaporwear...it never existed. I met Mark Vail, who's now a friend, by writing him a letter informing him that his story about the Coupland in his Vintage Synthesizers book (GREAT book) which mentioned it's only recorded showing was at the AES show in LA in 1978 was a farce. I was there - at their booth and their suite in the Hilton where the instrument was said to be. I was there on the first day, I was there on the last day. The only thing they had was a small model - about six inches across, sitting on a table. The booth was amazing - this radial orb multiple people could sit in, with a cover that came over each person which played what I remembered was a very impressive demo which swirled around four speakers inside the box. I, and everyone else, were blown away. They kept saying...'it will be here tomorrow, it'll be here tomorrow'...so I showed up the last day just to see it, figuring by the then it would have arrived...it didn't. I did see the frst Synthclavier at that show however. Their suite was across the hall from the Coupland folk. That completely kicked the crap out of everything else shown that year."
1973 - Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer - NED - Synclavier prototype - first digital synth
1974 - Roland - SH-3A - first commercial additive synth
1974 - RMI - Harmonic Synthesizer - first commercial additive synth
1975 - Buchla 502 - six voice polyphonic with minicomputer and ability to save patches to tape drive. Development on the 500 series began in 1969.
1975 - Oberheim FVS - four voice polyphonic with Polyphonic Synthesizer Programmer. Not sure if the Buchla 502 or FVS was released first.
1976 - PPG - PPG 1003 sonic carrier - 1st programmable mono/duo synth with patch memory (this, along with the model 1020, might have been the 1st synths to use DCO's as well)
1977 - Yamaha - CS50/CS60/CS80 - first single enclosure polyphonic keyboard synthesizers with the CS80 to be the first synth with poly aftertouch
1977 (late) - Oberheim - OB-1 - 1st commercial programmable mono synth with patch memory
1978 (late) - PPG - Wavecomputer 360 - 1st wavetable synth
1978 - Sequential Circuits - microprocessor control the SCI prophet 10 (briefly) and the P-5 --- again based on existing E-mu tech stuff
1979 - NED - Synclavier - First FM
1979 - Fairlight CMI - First Sampler, First Workstation
1980 - Performance Music Systems - Syntar - First self contained keytar
1982 - Sequential Circuits - Prophet 600 / First Midi Synthesizer (though some argue the Prophet 5 rev 3.2 is pre-MIDI MIDI)
1983 - Yamaha - DX7 - Digital takes over, FM goes mainstream
1983 - OSC - OSCar - First real-time additive with analog filters
1984 - Sequential Circuits - SixTrak - first multitimbral
1985 - Casio - CZ-101 - First battery-powered all digital mini-synth
1987 - Kawai K5 and Technos Axcel - first additive synths
1989 - E-Mu Systems - Proteus - First dedicated ROMpler
1992 - Seer Systems - first host-based software synthesizer in 1992
1994 - Yamaha - VL1 - first physical modelling synth
1995 - Clavia - Nord Lead - 1st Virtual Analog
1996 - Rubberduck - still not the first softsynth but came before Seer Systems Reality.
1996 - Steinberg - VST - Ok not a synth but enabled a lot to be written as plug-ins and used simultaneously
1997 - Seer Systems - Reality - First Modular Soft Synth
2002 - Hartmann Neuron - first neuronal synth
2912 - KalQuestoTron - the first genetically engineered synth. Each cell is an oscillator, filter, and neural sequencer. Can be delivered via injection to always play 'hold music' in your head.

I thought it might be fun to have a "first synth to..." post. There's been a lot of buzz over Sonic State's Top 20 Synths of All Time with good reason. What exactly is a "top synth?" Is it it's influence on the music scene? It's rarity and lust appeal? The number of synths sold? According to Sonic State their list was the result of Sonic State reader's voting for their favorite synths. Blame the voters if you don't like what you see. Based on what has come up on the list so far, the E-Mu Proteus and Roland JV-1080 for example as well as the Roland Jupiter 8 not even making the top ten, I'm guessing a bit of it has to do with the vote and... possibly the most influential/ground breaking synths for their time. The JV1080 and Proteus? Not super sexy in this day and age, but what they offered in their time? Who knows. It's obviously subjective. But there is something that isn't. The most influential synths of all time not because they were super sexy or utilitarian, but because they offered something that was not previously available.

I thought what might be interesting to create a list of the first synths to feature a particular technology or feature. For example what was the fist synth to bring FM to the table? Was it the DX7 or a predecessor? What was the first digital synth and when? The first additive synth? I have a good idea and could probably look it all up, but that wouldn't be any fun, so.... You tell me. I am going to make this an open post that will live over time. You get to participate by putting an entry in the comments. I will update the list and when I do I will change the time stamp of the post to keep it current. That said, for the archives, this post went up with a time stamp of 4/11/07 7:20 PM PST. I'll start the list (btw, do correct me on the MOOG, what model should we be talking about here? The A, B, C or D or all of them?).

Year - Manufacturer - Model - First at
1970 - MOOG - Minimoog - 1st Mono Synth with keys (non-modular)
1978 - Sequential Circuits - Prophet 5 - 1st Programmable Polyphonic Analog
... List continues above.

Update 3/34/12: Also see the first synthesizers to offer patch storage here.

The Polyphone & Hugh Le Caine

"The Polyphone (860004), an analogue polyphonic synthesizer, was built by Le Caine's National Research Council (NRC) lab in 1970, at the same time that the last two Sackbuts were being completed, and ten years before polyphonic synthesizers became commercially successful. Each key of its touch-sensitive keyboard had its own pitch control and wave form control. Essentially it was a bank of 37 key-operated oscillators, able to produce 37 separately defined tones.

Above the keyboard were several control devices that were typical of synthesizers at the time: low frequency oscillators, envelope generators, and filters, all of which could influence aspects of the overall sound produced by the instrument. Below the instrument was a pressure-sensitive pedal keyboard that controlled other aspects of the overall sound. The instrument provided extremely comprehensive resources and was potentially a very powerful tool; however, it was difficult to learn to play, a problem it shared with most synthesizers."

Title link takes you The Polyphone page on the Canada Science and Technology Museum website. Make sure to check out some of the other interesting bits while there.

For more on Hugh Le Caine check out Hugh Le Caine.com. The following was pulled from the biography:

"Canadian scientist and composer Hugh Le Caine (1914-1977) has been called one of the "heroes" of electronic music. He was brought up in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) in northwestern Ontario. At an early age he began building musical instruments and experimenting with electronic devices. In his youth he imagined "beautiful sounds" that he believed could be realized through new electronic inventions."

"At home he continued to pursue his interest in electronic music and sound generation. He established a personal studio in 1945, where he began to work independently on the design of electronic musical instruments such as the Electronic Sackbut, a sophisticated monophonic performance instrument now recognized as the first voltage-controlled synthesizer. Le Caine later developed voltage-control systems for a wide variety of applications."

"Perhaps the most important aspect of Le Caine's designs for his instruments was the "playability" that he took care to build into them. His fixation with "beautiful sound" led him repeatedly to design electronic instruments capable of producing a nuance-filled expression typical of the orchestral tradition. He had an acute sense of what performers needed if they were to be able to create the performance gestures that he believed formed the essence of music.

Touch sensitivity was an essential ingredient in this, and was used in keyboards, mixers, and other components, applied mechanically, electronically, and through light sensitivity. Le Caine's designs were so advanced in this respect that some of the features that he developed found their way into commercial designs only in the late 1980s."
Image of Le Caine with the Sackbut.

via Frederic.

Update via slabman in the comments: "He did some pretty amazing stuff with the technology of the day - some of it still unmatched. For example, the Sackbut has a touch sensitive 2D timbral mixer control that balances various overtones & waveforms. Made the sound very controllable & dynamic, but also made the instrument more difficult to master. It's interesting to think of how there's a kind of Bell curve of synthesizer technology: one one end you have the laboratory instrument type approach (Buchla, Serge); at the other end, you have people inventing new instruments like the Sackbut & Theremin. Commercial gear mostly occupies the bump in the middle of the curve. It would be great to see some more activity at that 'new instrument' end."

OHM+ The Early Gurus of Electronic Music

Reed posted a link to this in the comments section of this post on Laurie Spiegal. You can can order it from The Relaxation Company, or if you prefer Amazon, click here.

"Special Edition 3CD + DVD

New Collector's edition of this historic collection!

Leaps in technology: oscillators, generators, vacuum tubes, amplifiers, transistors, magnetic tape, integrated circuits, and the microchip—inspired new instruments: the telharmonium, theremin, ondes martenot,electronic sackbut, clavivox, electronium, moog synthesizer, and computers—and artists everywhere hungry for new modes of expression.

This collection is a humble but bold attempt to give form to the wonderful, multi-directional, inevitable birth of electronic music.

Three CDs—42 original music tracks from 1948–1980

112 Page Book—extensive artist interviews, commentaries, and archival photographs

Special Edition DVD—over two hours of rare performances, interviews,animations, and experimental video."