MATRIXSYNTH: A Pre-Synthesizer-Era Synthesizer - The Mixtur Trautonium


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A Pre-Synthesizer-Era Synthesizer - The Mixtur Trautonium


flickr By jochenWolters

"More than thirty years before Bob Moog conceived of the synthesizer as we know it today, Friedrich Trautwein developed his Trautonium, a highly complex, monophonic electronic musical instrument.

The pitch is "selected" via a string that is pressed against a metal bar and, in essence, works like a ribbon controller.

Although you may not be familiar with this fascinating "pre-synth", chances are that you've already heard some of the sounds it is capable of producing: The bird sounds in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 movie, "The Birds", were created by Trautonium virtuoso, Oscar Sala.

Jürgen Hiller has been building and repairing Trautoniums for more than twenty years. The one you see above is being custom-built for a customer and includes an unusual percussive module labeled "Schlagwerk" (German for "drum mechanism")."

See the Trautonium label below for more.

Update via Tomoroh Hidari on Facebook: "I had the pleasure to work on a replica of a mixtur trautonium built for the Technisches Museum Vienna, together with a friend. it's an amazing instrument! here's a (free download) album we did on it (and laptops) in '08: http://alien.mur.at/ujvary/jetztzeit.html"

No comments:

Post a Comment

To reduce spam, comments for posts older than one week are not displayed until approved, usually same day. Do not insult people. For items for sale, do not ask if it is still available. Check the auction link and search for the item. Auctions are from various sellers and expire over time. Posts remain for the pics and historical purposes. This site is meant to be a daily snapshot of some of what was out there in the world of synths.

PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE HOME


Patch n Tweak
Switched On Make Synthesizer Evolution Vintage Synthesizers Creating Sound Fundlementals of Synthesizer Programming Kraftwerk

© Matrixsynth - All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within fair use.
MATRIXSYNTH is supported by affiliate links that use cookies to track clickthroughs and sales. See the privacy policy for details.
MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH