Harold Bode's Birthday & the Bode Ring Modulator Schematics

via The Bob Moog Foundation

"It’s the birthday of Harald Bode (1909-1987), German-born pioneer in synthesizer design and inventor of the Warbo Formant Organ (one of the earliest polyphonic synths), the Melochord, and the Bode Frequency Shifter, among many other instruments and devices.

Bode and Bob Moog began to work together in 1966, and this ring modulator is an indication of their partnership. Bode’s Ring Modulator and Frequency Shifter designs were implemented in R.A. Moog Co. products, and his vocoder was the basis for the Moog Vocoder released in the 1970s.

The schematic below was hand-drawn by Bob Moog himself. (Note the the “B.S.” in the “drawn by” square. In order to keep from having his initials in all the boxes when he drew up a certain schematic, Bob would use joke initials B.S.) Image: Bob Moog Foundation schematic for the Bode Ring Modulator. Many more Bob Moog Foundation archival schematics here: http://moogfoundation.org/schematics/"

"Warbo Formant Organ (1937), an archetype of today's polyphonic synthesizer, was a four voice key-assignment keyboard with two formant filters and dynamic envelope controller. Eventually it went into commercial production by a factory in Dachau, and it became one of the earliest polyphonic synthesizer products, along with Novachord (1939) by Hammond.

Melochord (1947–1949) developed by Bode was extensively used by Werner Meyer-Eppler in early days of the electronic studio at Bonn University. Then in 1953 a Melochord, along with Monochord by Freidrich Trautwein, was specially commissioned by the Studio for Electronic Music of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR Studio in Cologne, West German Broadcasting Corporation), and used by the Elektronische Musik group throughout the 1950s. (See #Melochord at the WDR Studio in Cologne for details)

From 1950, Bode designed electronic organs for the Apparatewerk Bayern (AWB) in Germany and the Estey Organ Company in the United States. In 1954, Bode immigrated to the United States as a chief engineer (later vice-president) of Estey Organ, and resumed his research at several companies and as a contractor of German companies.

In 1959-1960, Bode developed modular synthesizer and sound processor, and in 1961, he wrote a paper exploring the advantages of newly emerging transistor technology over older vacuum tube devices; also he served as AES session chairman on music and electronic for the fall conventions in 1962 and 1964; after then, his ideas were adopted by Robert Moog, Donald Buchla and others.

After retiring from the chief engineer of Bell Aerospace in 1974, he composed TV-advertising spots and gave live concerts. Also in 1977, Harald was invited as a chief engineer of the Norlin/Moog Music after Robert Moog left.

He died in New York, New York, United States in 1987."