"The Triadex Muse is an early sequencer-based digital synthesizer designed by Edward Fredkin and Marvin Minsky at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 and produced in 1972. There were only 300 or so made and hence are very rare. Included with this Muse is the optional External Amplifier/Speaker accessory which is even harder to find.
Condition: The Muse and external speaker were tested - see the video. The basic functions on the Muse work fine. The volume on the External Amplifer works fine as well. Due to my lack of knowledge on how to do so, I did not test the EXT PRE, EXT IN and OUT, nor the KEYBOARD switch on the Muse back. Obviously the EXT SPKR input works fine. On the front, I didn't test the REST and EXTERNAL switch positions.
This Muse was stored in Grandpa Ed's crawl space for the last 40 years. The brushed aluminum is a bit dirty. I cleaned it with mild soap but didn't want to get too aggressive so I'm leaving the restoration to the next owner. There are scratches but nothing too bad. The wood is in good shape but again, scratches. There's a small tear in the blue speaker grill cloth. The Muse slide switches are stiff, but all are functional. They will need to be cleaned and lubed.
Label Information on the Muse back foil label. Hard to read, but I think it says... MODEL MUSE-1 40 W No. 010209-117 OK 50 Hz and on the Speaker... MODEL AS-1 40 w No. 00214-120 OK 50 Hz"
As I have my PhD in high-energy physics (having worked at CERN at various times between the late 70s and early 90s) in addition to having designed, built, and used electronic music systems of various sorts over the last 45 years, I was anticipating having access to actual Alcator data and using it in the patch that I would compose when the installation would go live in late March of 2018. My plasma physics colleagues resonated with this idea, and I was provided with several waveforms coming from various sensors on the tokamak acquired during its record-breaking run from a few years ago, when Alcator C-Mod had attained the largest recorded plasma pressure. Listening to this data as audio, I was immediately transfixed. This didn’t sound like bland digital noise, but instead felt alive – some strange kind of muted rattlesnake here, burbling life forms on a weird water planet there, perhaps other samples evoked the barely scrutable control room of an alien spaceship. These sounds, played at various rates and filtered into audible bands, were strongly otherworldly. This dictated the flavor that I’d strive for in my patched composition. Accordingly, I loaded banks of Alcator’s waveforms into an array of Eurorack samplers that I could control from processes running in my synthesizer. While most of these signals were used as direct audio, some were adopted for modulation envelopes and slow control – the tokamak cycle exhibited a variably noisy build-and-release structure as the magnetic fields were ramped up to concentrate the plasma before it went terminally unstable, which worked well here.
My patch evolved considerably during the installation, which ran from late April through late August of 2018. I worked on it weekly, and it achieved its ultimate balance between form and complexity by the beginning of July. At the end, I used every patch cord that I owned (on the order of 700) and nearly all modules in the synth, in addition to an assortment of outboard effects and commercial Eurorack modules that I coaxed to work with my system. Towards the end, when I was starting to run out of cords and hardware capacity, I resorted to kludging in simple wires and electrical components hanging in the air between modules to attain effects and sounds that I still wanted but didn’t have the modules available to make. This was the most extensive and ambitious synthesizer patch that I’ve yet composed – it pushed me to extremes of being simultaneously a composer, synthesizer musician, engineer, and scientist. Having designed, built or custom-modified nearly everything in my setup creates a special rapport for me that goes deeper than interaction with commercial synthesizer equipment – my system has its own unique capabilities and quirks that reflect my personal audio nuances and what I want to achieve with them.
At various stages during the 4-month run of this installation, I digitally recorded the patch’s stereo mix – in all, I have archived probably on the order of 60 hours of audio. The excerpts provided in this video all came from different sections of this long set of recordings. Aside from cross-fading between different excerpts, there was no manual intervention or overdubbing in these clips – the sound was made entirely from the patch running on its own after I set it on its way, with updates and augmentations I made every week or two based on ideas I got while listening to it stream online. The video also features a brief example of some of the raw plasma data sounds that I used."
And in the studio:
Synth Patch For Chaos Unit, Sitar Pedal, and NightSky'ed Keyboard (August 2021)
"In the summer of 2021, I put in a synth patch to test out my newly-arrived Sitar Pedal as well commemorate the tweaking/repair of my voltage-controlled chaos module. This was a very simple patch compared to my usual - nothing too deep or thought out, and the master sequence is a bit shallow - but it has its vibe. Plus, at 2:30 in, I added a keyboard line over what the patch was doing. This was all live - the synth patch ran autonomously and I just recorded as I played - no preparation, overdubbing, or refinement here - hence it's raw and not even close to what I'd term finished or a 'demo' - but I kinda like its intrinsic 'hopeful' feel.
The basic sequence is running through the sitar pedal, which locks on fine (it can separate the drone sounds and re-synthesized lead into separate channels). I'm running a fixed tone also through my chaos generator, which I move in a complex way into and out of stability - it locks onto subharmonics or devolves totally/partially into noise as it sweeps. This sound goes through several signal processing paths that periodically fade in, involving filters, unstable phase-locked loops, and a Boss guitar synthesizer pedal (which does wonderfully noisy gyrations as it tries to lock onto the chaos signal between stable moments).
At that time, as opposed to collecting Eurorack modules, I was slowly accumulating and modifying pedals - pedals are all about modifying an input sound in interesting ways, and which generally appeals to me (I hack them, of course, to accept voltage control in different ways).
The only keyboard sound here (aside from one chord and arpeggio at the end) is from the little cheezebox Casio 'toy' that the Minskys gave me at a Media Lab event some years ago - I abandoned my more sophisticated synths for this one in this piece, as it fits easily on your lap (that's how I played it in the excerpt here) and it sounds amazing if you feed it through one of the new complex reverb/echo/delay pedals like the NightSky or Micropitch (those pedals can put any sound into an evocative space).
The video is indeed of this patch and me playing atop it (shot while I was holding the phone in my other hand), but it's not the live segment that you hear in the piece, so pardon if things don't line up entirely, but you get the vibe.
OK - I figured I'd let this one get a bit of air in case it hits some resonance... It radiates a bit of melancholic positivity, which is something we all relate to these days."
"Meticulously overhauled by the most critical professionals around and working perfectly. The unit is in exceptional shape and is in excellent working order. You won't find a better one."
"Professionally Serviced and working just fine. This rare piece is designed to hook up the the Triadex Muse Sequencer box. Gets a lot louder than the sequencer's internal speaker, though you wouldn't want to crank it as you could damage it.
The fabric covering the speaker is stained. We imagine a professional cleaner may be able to remove this stain, but this is nothing we wanted to attempt. Comes with original box (!)."
"This unit was fully serviced and is in excellent working order, unlike most. We are detail-oriented professional perfectionists here, so buy with confidence."
"Long form live performance of the elusive Triadex Muse. The sliders will be modified from time to time during the stream. The output of the Muse is a series of dry square waves so effects were added to spice it up. Enjoy!
The Triadex Muse is a sequencer-based synthesizer, produced in 1972, and designed by Edward Fredkin and Marvin Minsky at MIT. It is an algorithmic, deterministic event generator, utilizing early digital integrated circuits to generate an audio output that can sound very musical. It produces a sequence of notes based on the settings of about a dozen different parameters, including four small sliders that control Volume, Tempo, Pitch, and Fine Pitch. Only a few hundred were ever made."
"Very rare Triadex Muse Sequencer unit, built in Newton, Mass. Even more rare is the Lightbox add-on unit. Considering their age, both units are in very good condition. There are 4 issues to mention: The ‘Tempo’ fader knob is missing. Aside from affixing another similar knob to the fader hook, one can adjust the control with a thin rod, if need be. The internal speaker is not functioning. I always ran RCA’s out to a 1/4” to seperate amplification, as the internal speaker volume was rather low output. I will supply that cable in the purchase. There are also four dots drawn on the lower corner of the Lightbox. The B8 bulb on the actual sequencer has always been dim. This is the first sequencer of it’s kind ever built..."
"Excellent example of the Triadex Muse. This vintage device is in very good cosmetic, and 100% operational condition. It comes complete with the Original 19-page Owners Manual, which thoroughly explains all functions, as well as providing many examples of melodies. Also included is the Original color sales brochure, and a typed custom patch page which features many interesting sequencer events."
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Rare SWTPC Psych Tone 1971 digital analog synthesizer sequencer triadex Muse electronic music Published on Apr 28, 2013 salvadory
Interesting note that this was the first digital sequencer synth prior to the Triadex Muse, the first digital synth.
"First of all my camera is terrible so my apoligies for audio and video-( my camera keeps shutting off even though the power is charged-)
However this is a very rare SWTPC psych tone music composer from 1971 with original magazine article- the only video on youtube as of now - my model is in very good full functioning condition and is a much sought after piece- a precursor to the famous and also rare Triadex Muse-
An interesting missing link in synthesizer development from the early age.... quirky interesting patterns and sound- design way ahead of its time in my opinion- plenty of switches and knobs to make things interesting!"
Looks like a crusty, beat-up KORG Volca in a custom case with speaker. These do come up now and then. You can find some in the archives here. You can find pics of the inside/backside below.
Note the video above is not for this specific listing. You can see it is dated 2013. I found it searching for demos on YouTube. This is the first demo of the SWTPC Psych-tone posted on the site for that matter.
"Here's a Very Uncommon, Original Triadex Muse. I had 11 of these at one point and they have just been gathering dust - time to let someone else enjoy it.
This is my last one!
See condition notes above. It seems to be fully functioning, unlike the last 2 I sold. I believe I have seen some #'d in the 500-600s and based on the ones offered for sale over the years - I'm guessing around 700 were produced, not 300, as Wiki estimates.... although many were not in perfect working order, so several were shipped back. This is being sold without a serial #. I have shipped others to collectors in the UK and Japan for restore. Also, most of these - even new in the box, had warped wood - they just weren't made from high quality materials... so the wood warped over the years..."
"Messing around with one of the 5 Triadex Muse to synthesizer adapter/converts I have made. The muse is to the left, sitting in front of its case! The converter is to its right. It contains two sections - one that converts the muse output directly to CV for use with 1V/octave synths, and one that allows a user to pick 8 different CVs (frequencies) that are selected by which note the Muse chooses. This allows harmonies, or sequences that are not limited to the 2 octave major scale of the Muse itself, or control of a VCF or VCA.
There are also CV outputs for note-only and octave-only, as well as some inversions, and gate signals, including gate, gate/rest and rest. The CV outputs can be mixed with a root-in CV, and can also be switched to work in a minor scale. The inverted outputs will not reflect the correct scale.
Jumpers on the circuit board allow for some responses to be changed. For example, the four input bits can be inverted, as can the REST output.
Theoretically, this converter can be used to convert the digital outputs of other equipment, if a suitable wiring harness was made, as it is essentially a deluxe CGS Diatonic Converter."
"Here's a Very Uncommon, Original Triadex Muse. I had 11 of these at one point and they have just been gathering dust - time to let someone else enjoy it. This one is PROOF that MORE than 300 were produced - this has serial # 462 - see photos; I believe I have seen some #'d in the 500-600s and based on the ones offered for sale over the years - I'm guessing around 700 were produced, not 300, as Wiki estimates.... although many were not in perfect working order, so several were shipped back. This is being sold as NOT 100% perfectly functioning, for parts/restoration (probably an easy fix for a competent purveyor, which I am not). I have shipped others to collectors in Japan for restore and my fully functional units sold long ago. Also, most of these - even new in the box, had warped wood - they just weren't made from high quality materials... so the wood warped over the years. Due to the museum caliber rarity/collectability, I will not accept lowball offers on this relic, but with advance notice, it can be seen where I work, in Danvers, MA, during the day."
"The Zillion is a single track algorithmic MIDI sequencer based on the principles of the Triadex Muse. The Muse used counters and a shift register to generate more than a million musical melodies.
The Zillion expands on these ideas to add more features and functionality, providing a zillion possibilities for you to discover.
There are 16 operating modes. These include Playback, Tempo, Swing, Direction, Loop, Transpose, Scale, Scale Program, Melody, Rhythm, Velocity, Theme, Shift Register, MIDI OUT, MIDI IN, and Sync."
"The Muse (synthesizer ONLY) by Triadex Inc., 1972
I am the original owner of this Muse model -1. My Dad worked with Ed Fredkin on the rollout of The Muse back in the early 70's. When he brought a set home I made sure it lived in my room - as one of 4 kids that wasn't easy. The other two components, the light show and the external amp are now in the collection of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. If you haven't been there definitely go -it's an amazing place. The last picture is of the CHM music exhibit, the day we dropped off the other components.
**(this auctions does NOT include the light show and ext amp)
I've had the Muse all these years and now feel it's time to share it with another music/tech lover. Included in the sale is the original box, packing styrofoam and 20 page booklet, 'How to make Muse music.' The Muse is in perfect working order. The only defect is the Step Key sits off-centered, but it functions correctly."
"Second generation of the Triadex Muse converter during development. A collaboration between Nathan Thompson and Ken Stone. [Ken Stone of Cat Girl Synth/CGS]
Basic test only: 3 VCOS, one following the octave slider, one following the standard output of the Muse and one controlled by the slide pots, each being selected by the 3 bit address generated by the note sliders on the muse. Slider tuning is slightly off - a hazard of all analog sequencers.
If only the original Muse had sounded like this...."
"The Triadex Muse is an early sequencer-based digital synthesizer designed by Edward Fredkin and Marvin Minsky at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 and produced in 1972. There were only 300 or so made and hence are very rare. Included with this Muse is the optional External Amplifier/Speaker accessory which is even harder to find.
