"Oramics is a drawn sound technique developed by Daphne Oram in 1957. Oram's composition machine consisted of a large rectangular metal frame, providing a table-like surface traversed by ten synchronised strips of clear, sprocketed 35mm film. The musician drew shapes on the film to create a mask, which modulated the light received by photocells. Although the output from the machine was monophonic, the sounds could be added to multitrack tapes to provide more texture.
The original machine is in storage at the Science Museum in London and is expected to go on display in 2011.
This iPhone app tries to bring to life the incredible sound of the Oramics Machine. Users can draw aspects of a sound in a drawn composition on top of film reels, including the envelope, pitch, reverb, vibrato, as well control the shape of the sound by drawing a waveshape on top of a glass plate."
You'll find the full interview on Astronauta Pinguim, including mentions of Delia Derbyshire & Daphne Oram.
BTW, today is Paddy Kingsland's birthday. Happy Birthday Mr. Kingsland! :)
Pictured: Paddy Kingsland and the EMS Synthi 100 (the Delaware)
"Patrick 'Paddy' Kingsland was born in Hampshire (England) on January 30th, 1947. He took piano lessons in his youth and got his first guitar when he was 15. By this time he also built his own valve amplifier and began to play in a band in his school days. After attending Eggars Grammar School in Alton, Hampshire, Paddy joined the BBC. He was a technician there until, in 1970, he had the chance to join the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the famous department that was responsible for providing the soundtrack and sound effects to BBC radio and TV shows. Paddy worked there for 11 years and created the music for many programs, including "The Changes", "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and several episodes of 'Doctor Who'!
"In 1973, BBC Records released the album 'Fourth Dimenson'. Although it was credited to The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, "Fourth Dimension" is the first solo album released by Paddy Kingsland and includes tracks that he recorded from 1970 to 1973, using mainly the EMS synthesizers VCS3 and Synthi 100 (the Delaware)..."
You can still find the release on Amazon and eBay.
The first synth to enter the BBC? "The first synthesizer arrived in 1970 - an EMS VCS3. It was great for learning about voltage control and making sounds, but no good for playing tunes on. The Arp Odyssey which came a bit later was much better for that."
via Fabricio Carvalho aka Astronauta Pinguim on the MATRIXSYNTH Lounge. You can find interviews with other synth legends on his site or via the Interviews label below.
We lost another. Some sad news in via Atomic Shadow:
"I learned this morning of the passing of my best friend, Stephen Howell. Many of you know of his work as Hollow Sun. He was a well respected sound designer who had worked for Peter Gabriel and many others. He was a long time fixture at Akai Professional where he designed the UI for many of their top products as well as producing the sample content.
Stephen was my mentor and gave me the nudge to take my music in to a totally abstract direction. Without him there would have been no Atomic Shadow project. I plan to write a bit more about him when I can think more clearly. I am closing down yesterday's world of tomorrow, at least for now.
We only produced one piece of music together. I always tried to get him to do more of his own music, but he said that making music did not pay the bills. He was correct of course. I cut together a video to go with it at the time. Please enjoy it and share it with anyone that you know who may have known Stephen, or had their musical experience made more alive by using one of his instruments."
"A short piece featuring my vintage, tube HP sine wave generators, tape loops and ring modulators with a photographic homage to the early pioneers of electronica.... Daphne Oram in twin set, the impish Delia Derbyshire of the early BBC Radiophonic Workshop, several tweedy boffins in their music labs, Karlheinz Stockhausen and so many others. A different age when innovation and ingenuity triumphed over the many technical limitations of the age.
Abstract music soundtrack re-mixed and produced by Stephen Howell of Hollow Sun using traditional techniques in a digital age."
You can find an interview with Stephen Howell on SoundBytes here.
"I was always huge fan of early electronica and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Dr Who, Delia Derbyshire and all that as a six-year-old), Louis and Bebe Barron (who did the ‘electronic tonalities’ for the classic sci-fi movie ‘Forbidden Planet’) and loved the weird old gear they used to make/use, so Mario and I were able to design and create, using Kontakt, weird and wonderful things that flew in the face of, shall we say, more ‘conventional’ modern synths and sampler instruments..."
Indeed. Click here for all posts featuring Hollow Sun on MATRIXSYNTH. Each post is a tribute to his spirit. He will be sorely missed.
"December 2011 at the Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum) in Berlin. Stephen Howell takes recordings of the instrument. Per Platou, founder and leader of www.pnek.org, has invited him to create a sound library and helps him with the recordings. Inventor Gerd Steinke in conversation with Stephen Howell.
Photography: Jenny Barth
Sound: Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer
Director: Ina Pillat
Production: Norwegian Arts Council // Per Platou, Ina Pillat"
"A short piece featuring Hp sine wave generators, tape loops and ring modulators. re-mixed and produced by Steve Howell at Hollow Sun."
via Atomic Shadow:
"Entitled 'Mid Century Electronica' the piece made use of my dusty, tube HP sine wave generators, tape loops and ring modulators. I am very pleased that Stephen Howell of Hollow Sun agreed to produce and re-mix the track. Any day that you can collaborate with a man who has done sound design for Peter Gabriel is an outstanding day.
Here is how Mr. Howell described the piece...
'A short piece featuring vintage, tube HP sine wave generators, tape loops and ring modulators with a photographic homage to the early pioneers of electronica.... Daphne Oram in twin set, the impish Delia Derbyshire of the early BBC Radiophonic Workshop, several tweedy boffins in their music labs, Karlheinz Stockhausen and so many others. A different age when innovation and ingenuity triumphed over the many technical limitations of the age.
Abstract music soundtrack re-mixed and produced by Stephen Howell of Hollow Sun using traditional techniques in a digital age.'
Stephen has made some really unique Kontakt instruments using samples from my vintage equipment. Check the Music Laboratory Machines section at his web site.
TriOsc, Oscillosine, and Broken all started out as samples from the Atomic Shadow lab."
See http://atomicshadow.bandcamp.com for the latest two releases by Atomic Shadow. A future album titled "Twelve Full Moons" is due shortly after the first of next year.
"Testing the Oramics Machine iPhone App which will be released very soon! Also look forward to the Interactive Exhibit as part of the special exhibition on Daphne Oram in the Science Museum of London during the Fall."
"Silhoutte Eins Optical Synthesizer at Superbooth 2022
Objects placed on the light table create the source audio waveforms in real time.
The user interface consists of an on-monitor plexiglas hardware controller which addresses 4 software pages.
20 potentiometers and 21 buttons give you quick access to the functions.
All values are shown directly behind and around the controlling potentiometer or button.
SOS says ... this is not unlike Daphne Oram's famous Oramics machine reinterpreted for the 21st Century.
"It's all analog for sure , from 1938!! Don Buchla was 1 year old at the time. Bob Moog was 4 !! Daphne Oram was only 13. It uses two heterodyned tubes oscillating around 80k hz and uses a monster variable capacitor to generate the differential frequency much akin to that used in a tube based theremin, and then to an internal tube amplifier
Best part of this device is it sweeps continuously from 40k hz to about 9k. Most bench oscillators have stepped narrower ranges Here's some vids. "
"Used Clough Brengle Beat Frequency Oscillator Model 79C
Estimated from 1937 in good working order. see videos
This an all tube analog oscillator capable of sweeping form 30 hz to 9k hz CONTINUOUSLY .
All orIginal to my knowledge. MassiVe transformers, this thing weighs in at 20 pounds (which will make shipping a bit pricey) Has new grounded power cord
The Hyve Touch Synthesizer will be included in the Future section of the show, and visitors will get to play it!"
We have Skot to thank for bringing the event to our attention!
Exhibits will also include (apologies for the translations via Google):
Pictured: Daphne Oram
"Jean-Yves Leloup and NoDesign, the commissioners Electrosound, chose a unique perspective to talk about, with the red wire machines and technological innovation. They plunge us into an immersive, interactive experience scanning a wide spectrum of musical productions, from 1945 to today, pioneers and scientists from 1950 to 1970 (Pierre Schaeffer, Robert Moog, Peter Zinoviev, Brian Eno, Jean-Michel Jarre ...) to the current and popular triumph electro. Electrosound, the lab at the dancefloor going back in time, over the 20th century that saw the electricity and electronics invest the musical field, until emergence of a major cultural movement, which is called 'electro', 'house' or 'techno'."
"Electrosound, the lab at the dancefloor, is an exhibition aimed at a wide audience, the curious beginner to the connoisseur. It is divided into six chapters decrypting the major stages of this musical revolution. Around a timeline, she meets machines and period instruments (synthesizers, drum machines, and other strange machines), popular objects of broadcasting and listening to music, archives (from the GRM, EMS studios and many international sources) and artistic photographs by Jean-Jacques or Jacob Ader Khrist, showing changes since search studios 1950s until the DJ culture."
via synthetic in the comments of this post: "Neil Diamond's "The Jazz Singer" was on cable a few days ago and the synth player was rockin' an ARP Quadra. I think I saw a String Ensemble in there too. The last concert scene, "Fahhh, we've been travelin' faaahhh..."
SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS is the remarkable untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today. Theremins, synthesizers and feedback machines abound in this glorious ode to the women who helped shape, not just electronic music but the contemporary soundscape as we know it.
Avant-garde composer Laurie Anderson narration accompanies fascinating archival footage to trace the history of the technological experimentation of sound, the deconstruction of its parts and the manipulation into something altogether other. While traversing a range of musical approaches and personalities, from academia to outsider art to television commercials, we meet Clara Rockmore, Bebe Barron, Suzanne Ciani, Laurie Spiegel, Daphne Oram, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire and Eliane Radigue, fascinating and enigmatic musical geniuses and their peculiar way of hearing the world.
"I first met Dennis whilst I was in the WORM studio on an artist residency in 2017. The WORM studio is like a geological trip through electronic music's history but I was about to travel even further back. Strange ghostly tones emanated from the old vocal booth next door, it was this space that Dennis had filled with mid 20th century audio test equipment, going back to the roots of audio electronic experiments before commercially available instruments from Moog or Roland, before keyboards, back to Stockhausen, Else Marie Pade, Daphne Oram, Raymond Scott and the like. Why now? is this the logical conclusion of Mark Fisher's cultural hauntology? do we end up back at the source? the sound of past futures? For Dennis it seemed more a way to dodge the hipsters, and invite collaboration.
Dennis and I had a friend in common Steve Grimley-Taylor, a lover of all things electronic and sound related (founder of Thonk.co.uk). When I expressed the idea of making a film about Dennis, Richard Foster from WORM kindly agreed to let us. This is a short film about Dennis, his journey and his installation.
Steve Guy Hellier 2018"
Vintage oscillators, filters, and other lab equipment. Some classic synths come in after the six minute mark.
This one in via Scott, via Bleep: "Bleep's guide to Electronic Music is a 55 track compilation charting the historical emergence of electronic music by looking at landmark tracks from the 1930s up to present day.
Our aim with this selection of music is to show the length and breadth of the medium, providing a snapshot of the genres forms and styles, and the development of the artform. Whilst there are omissions and compromises that we have had to make, we hope that we achieve our aims and we do some justice to the variety of music that we love.
This compilation developed out of a project to create a Facebook timeline charting the development of electronic music from the late 19th Century until now."
The collection begins with Olivier Messiaen's Oraison from 1937 performed on Ondes Martenot & Theremin (you can find the original full track previously posted here and a beautiful cover on Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum from the late Richard Lainhart here):
"Originally composed by Olivier Messiaen, this beautiful and contemplative piece of music is a monumental moment in electronic music. Argued to be the first piece of purely electronic music written expressly for live performance on the Ondes Martenot, an instrument closely related to the Theremin."
The collection ends with James Blake's CMYK"
"At just 21 years old, London producer, James Blake releases on newly relaunched R&S Records.
At its core 'CMYK' is forged from a myriad of 90's R&B samples (Aaliyah, Kelis) their voices mangled, barely recognisable and thrown into a red-eyed fire of DSP and hours spent in the waveforms."
"An LFO / quad envelope generator with a completely customizable waveform, based on Bézier curves.
During a discussion with Marie Ann Hedonia, we got to talking about what would be the ultimate feature in an LFO module.
The killer feature that came out is the ability to draw a completely custom waveform, instead of tweaking around with sines, squares and triangles. Daphne Oram had this idea years ago, and we thought it was time to implement this great concept in an LFO in Eurorack format.
Marie’s LFO is a module where you can draw your own waveform by using Bézier curves (think about Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape’s paths)
You have the ability to select points and control points, and move them around to exactly define the output voltage evolution over time. Needless to say, the curve shape can be adjusted in real time 🙂
Synchronization
The module has three synchronization modes.
No synchro : it runs freely and you can modulate its frequency with a knob or CV input MIDI : it detects the MIDI clock frequency, and you can divide or multiply the tempo by power of two (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x…) TRIG : it detects the input trigger’s frequency and you can also apply clock division on it. Outputs
Marie’s LFO offers 4 offset-able outputs. Each output runs on the same curve, but you can adjust their offsets.
The audio mode allows you to generate signal based on your curves, but in audio frequencies. Controlled by MIDI input (and sooner or later 1v/octave).
Noise generation
Because purity is no fun, Marie’s LFO also contains a configurable (in amplitude and density) OpenSimplex noise generator that can be applied to your curve in real time. The noise generator is controllable with CV inputs as well.
Saving your work
The module allows you to save your work (curve path) and configuration(frequency, sync mode, outputs offsets) in 32 memory slots, so you won’t have to restart from scratch every time !
"This Friday sees the launch of a new simonsound produced radio series looking at the history of electronic music as a worldwide phenomenon. The 10 part series called ‘The Tone Generation’ is presented by electronic musician and film-maker Ian Helliwell. Starting in Europe and finishing in the Southern Hemisphere Ian will be playing vintage tracks - some celebrated, many obscure and overlooked, to give an overview of electronic music. Part one starts with Great Britain and features music from a number of BBC Radiophonic composers including Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire." More info on Simon Sound, via Music Thing.
This one in via Daniel Wilson: the album "draws attention to one of the strangest sound-making devices ever made - the under-researched Delawarr Multi-Oscillator (c.1962), which was designed to convert thoughts into clusters of frequencies. My research into this oddity has culminated in this release."
Video Description:
"Advert for the new release: Radionics Radio - 'An Album of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies' on Sub Rosa (due August 5th 2016).
Radionics Radio is an electroacoustic and musical exposition of alternative tuning systems derived from frequencies submitted via the Radionics Radio app. All the sounds strictly originate from respective thought-frequency submissions and octaves thereof.
Further background info on this research-based project can be viewed here: [embedded below]
From press release:
'Daniel Wilson's Radionics Radio draws upon the fringe-science of radionics, with its invisible forces and psychic resonances, to spawn electroacoustic and electronic compositions employing very alternative tuning systems. Radionics' idea that thoughts can be represented as frequencies is vigorously explored on this new release through microtonal compositions which range from mutating drones to electronic sambas, with nods to Raymond Scott and Daphne Oram along the way.'
Radionics Radio was made possible through Sound and Music's Embedded programme and Resonance 104.4FM.
"Radionics Radio is a project by Resonance FM's Sound and Music Embedded Composer in Residence Daniel Wilson. It draws on the radionic idea that thoughts can be intuitively linked to clusters of frequencies. From this, it is possible to explore unusual alternative tuning systems supposedly embodying certain thoughts. The Radionics Radio EP will be released by Sub Rosa in the summer of 2016."
"Thanks for listening! Come on a musical voyage with us where we'll send you a new song every day, a cosmic story, and a chance to earn space treasure:
Relax and tune into our live weekly improvised Drone Sessions. This fifteenth session involves a drone featuring two independent Buchla style complex and modulation oscillators starting in tune a couple octaves apart. As the oscillator frequencies drift apart by way of manual control, beating ensues. Listening to droning oscillators can serve as mindfulness sounds as there is no sudden changes in sound. Just smooth drifts in pitch and the resulting beat frequencies. Drones can also serve as an ambient track to have on while doing tasks that require intense focus. Drones are also great for a Sci-fi film soundtrack. The slow yet progressive nature of a drone performance can help one focus on tasks without distraction. The fact that we are manipulating these oscillators live and in collaboration helps the drone meander ever so smoothly in an evolving fashion as we are always reacting to one another's subtle movements. These movements are improvised so there is an unrehearsed and reactive ebb and flow to the tones generated. Engage in the practice deep listening with us.
The electronic music instruments used in this performance of modular drone music are the Buchla Music Easel, and a small system involving a Buchla clone model 259 Programmable Complex Waveform Generator, Buchla 292h Dual Lowpass Gate, and 281h Dual Function Generator in the Buchla LEM Powered 3 Boat.
Here we show you how to disable your erase head for sound on sound recording using pretty much any cassette recorder.
The horizontal 4 track cassette machines were easy to do this with but the technique can be applied to most.
This tutorial demonstrates the process of using a small piece of tin foil to disable the erase head of your cassette tape recorder to allow gapless Sound on Sound recording of tape loops.
The cassette 4 track pictured is the Tascam Porta02 mkII."
Cosmic Tape Music Club - Exploring Pauline Oliveros
Premiered Apr 6, 2020 The Galaxy Electric
"This week’s conversation centers around the life & work of Pauline Oliveros.
She is best known for coining the term “Deep Listening,” and being a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center. Her curiosity about sound started at the age of 2 and blossomed at age 21 when she got her first tape machine.
With friends and collaborators like Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Morton Subotnick, she has left an indelible mark in the world of tape music, sonic experimentation, and listening as a spiritual practice."
Cosmic Tape Music Club - Exploring Karlheinz Stockhausen
Premiered Mar 30, 2020 The Galaxy Electric
"For a strict academic German composer, he was one seriously cosmic dude! As he became more prolific in his career, he started telling people he was raised on a distant planet called Sirius…and talking all about music as a cosmic tone that humans were simply interpreting. Oh, and did we mention he was on the cover of Sgt. Peppers? Yeah, the Beatles were super into his out-there ideas!"
Two day event via Cube Cinema, Saturday April the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd.
"Day one of a weekend of special events, performances, screenings and more - dedicated to the output and legacy of the one and only BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
With their often primitive hand built devices, tape loops and early synth explorations, the workshop brought the sound of electronic weirdness out of the realms of academia and into the home, re-adjusting the ears and minds of an entire generation in the process. As interest in their oddly British, and often somewhat crackpot approach to electronic experimentation grows, and as many of their key instigators finally begin to gain the worldwide recognition their pioneering efforts deserve, we spend a special one-off weekend looking back on some of the characters, stories, sounds and inventions that shaped an era.
On day one (Saturday), we’re delighted to welcome very special guests - Radiophonic boffins, David Cain and Dick Mills - who will be presenting a history of the workshop, discussing their work, and presenting a wealth of material unheard for decades.
"Scottish-Canadian animator Norman McLaren developed a technique of painting onto the optical soundtrack area of the film negatives of his animations.
The shapes would then make drones and buzzes when played through a special type of projector. He used the technique to create experimental soundtracks to his animations.
It's similar to Daphne Oram's technique of turning shapes into sound – though hers, which she called Oramics, was more complex, with dedicated machines that read shapes on the entire area of the 35mm film, rather than just the little strip that contains the soundtrack.
You can see the results in the third video above, an extract from McLaren's film 'Dots', which employs the technique.
McLaren – born in Scotland in 1914 – worked for the British Post Office's film unit until around 1939, when he moved to New York, then to Canada in 1941, where he produced animations for the National Film Board, before setting up an animation studio at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Ontario College of Art.
There he produced around 70 films, much of it highly experimental and strange. He died in 1987 aged 72."
"This optoelectronic hurdy-gurdy was commission by the Acces(s) Festival, Pau France in October 2012.
TONEWHEELS is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions, such as the Light-Tone Organ (Edwin Emil Welte, 1936 Germany), the ANS Synthesizer (Evgeny Murzin, 1958 USSR), and the Oramics system (Daphne Oram, 1959 UK). Transparent tonewheels with repeating patterns are spun over light-sensitive electronic circuitry similar to that used in 16 & 35mm motion picture projectors to produce sound.
The TONEWHEELS Hurdy-Gurdy presented at Acces(s) is not an "interactive" artwork in the common sense. While it does not reward the impatient museum visitor with flashing lights and noises at the simple touch of the button, it does invite participation in the process of technological music creation. Although it first appears to be a very traditional instrument known to many folk-music cultures, it functions in a very different way which can only be discovered by playing it.
The artist would like to thank Tobias Traub of Oroborus Customs e.K. and Carlo Crovato for their invaluable assistance in creating this instrument. Circuits designed by Jessica Rylan and Eric Archer are also used within the system.
More information on this project can be found at http://macumbista.net/?p=3020"
I went to Times Square with some electronics I built that convert light waves into sound waves. I used photodiodes, which are actually tiny solar batteries. When light shines into them, they generate voltage. Many electronic lights are actually flickering off and on faster than the eye can see. In the place of a normal microphone, the photodiodes let us hear this flickering as pitch.
I built these sensors into a preamplifier circuit and mounted it to the camera base, so that you can simultaneously look and listen to whatever light you’re filming. What you see is what you hear, with no special effects or processing.
I don’t usually like being in a place like this, but the “sound camera” has a transformative power; like a skateboard, which turns the parking lot from urban wasteland to paradise.
all editing, filming, circuits, everything by me, daniel fishkin.
Key Grip: Wilder Alison
thanks to: Bob Bielecki, Stephen Vitiello, Eric Archer, Sparkfun Electronics, John DuQuette, Yabla Inc., Derek Holzer, Daphne Oram, Jeff Stark, and everyone I caught on film."
The original machine is in storage at the Science Museum in London and is expected to go on display in 2011. 
and 
