EXTREMELY RARE LYRICON I ANALOG ELECTRONIC WIND SYNTHESIZER

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"Extremely rare LYRICON I (only about 200 ever manufactured) Computone Lyricon 1 wind synthesizer fully restored by David O’Brien (whom the instrument’s inventor, Bill Bernardi, passed on his knowledge and stock of parts when he passed) to original factory specs in 2017. Jazz musician Tom Scott used to play one.

What is a Lyricon? The Lyricon is an analog electronic wind synthesizer. The Lyricon was invented by Bill Bernardi and Roger Noble of Computone Inc, in Massachussett's in the early 1970’s. Three models were built: The original Lyricon I (additive synthesis, one oscillator split into different overtones), the Lyricon Driver (to be connected to an external analog synthesizer through Control Voltages), and the Lyricon II (with two oscillators, filter and LFO). No MIDI functionality was added, because MIDI didn’t exist yet. Later MIDIfication modules were developed by JL Cooper and STEIM, but never worked very well. Of the Lyricon I, about 200 units were hand made, and about 2000 units of the Driver and the Lyricon II were manufactured by Computone.

-Why is the Lyricon such an expressive instrument? The Lyricon reacts to wind pressure (the harder you blow, the louder the sound), lip pressure (for pitch bend and vibrato) and of course to changes in pitch by fingering. The body is modeled after the fingerings of the saxophone, with a few clarinet-like keys, and two octave keys (additional octave up and down switches are available through a foot pedal). Some people call it the synthesizer that is closest to the human body, because of these three control parameters (most keyboards only have two), and because of the fact that it works with (continuous) control voltages, rather than MIDI. The MIDI protocol works in small steps (zeros and ones), resulting in less fluent controls for wind and lip.

-How is it different from the EWI or WX7? Don’t confuse the Lyricon with either the EWI (made by Akai) or the Yamaha WX5 or WX7. These are MIDI-based electronic wind instruments, invented after the Lyricon, capable of doing very different things (such as sounding like a string orchestra or drum machine). The MIDI-based Yamaha WX7 was modeled after the design of the Lyricon, which is one of the reasons the Lyricon lost in the small market of wind synthesizers in the 1980’s. Unlike the WX7 and other midi controllers, all Lyricon models incorporate the mechanical key action of an acoustic instrument.The Lyricon I (patented) introduces to electronic music the prime dimension….expression. It is the only totally expressive electronic wind instrument ever conceived or developed. The Lyricon I is totally electronic, employing the most advanced techniques in solid state design. In one superbly crafted instrument, the Lyricon I blends the nuances of expression characteristic of acoustic instruments with the vibrant dynamics of the synthesizer.

The Lyricon I is truly a new musical instrument… capable of sounds and expression unobtainable with any other musical instrument. By adding harmonics, (similar to the drawbars of an organ) sophisticated ans subtle timbres can be realized… all controllable by a familiar combination of wind and lip pressure. Some of the unusual features of the Lyricon I are: a six octave range, continuously-tunable pitch control, perfect intonation, lightning-swift key action, an instant ‘transposing” control, and many more."