Hammond Novachord at Sweetwater - Daniel Fisher
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ค. 2024
- Daniel Fisher, Sweetwater’s full-time synth fanatic, gives an in-depth tour of the Hammond Novachord, which is widely regarded as the father of the modern polyphonic synthesizer. It debuted at the 1939 World’ Fair and featured 72-note polyphony, oscillators, filters, envelopes, and frequency modulation, which were used to craft its organic and otherworldly sounds.
After a close look at all of the Novachord’s parameters and internal components, Daniel gives an impromptu performance while sweeping through all of the parameters’ values. Then, as an example of what it would sound like in modern times, Fisher plays the Novachord through an Eventide H9 Multi-Effects Processor.
Only five fully restored Novachords are known to exist today.
Joseph Fill and his son, Justin, poured more than 2,000 hours of work restoring this 1941 Hammond Novachord. They replaced countless components, rewired all the connections, and then cleaned and polished the internal and external surfaces by hand.
Please feel free to contact Joe Fill if you wish to inquire about purchasing this beautifully restored piece of musical instrument history: hangarjoe@sbcglobal.net
More info about the Eventide H9 multi-effects processor can be found at: www.sweetwater.com/store/detai...
0:00 - Intro
0:21 - Hammond Novachord Overview
0:51 - Novachord Refurbishing
1:18 - Novachord Performance (no FX)
6:55 - A Look Inside the Novachord
7:46 - Lifting Up the Inside Chassis
8:35 - Novachord Mechanical Vibrato
9:11 - Power Amp Tubes
9:22 - Novachord Into an Eventide H9 FX
9:35 - Novachord Performances (with FX)
32:17 - Thanks for Watching! - เพลง
My dad has such a passion for this instrument. Our hope is that music can be made and shared on it. This video is excellent! Thank you!
Hey Justin?
Just by going by numbers; S/N: 1776; which is the one you and your Dad have been restoring; probably made somewhere around late 1941/early 1942.
Might want to update the ebay ad, just for reference
You and your pop have done such a beautiful job on this. When I first heard Cherry Audio was doing one of these I wasn't interested but thanks to this video and the impressive work you have done on this unit I am in. Cherry's virtual plugin will be the closest I get to one but in my mind I'll be playing this beauty.
Oh yeah - amazing how they solved the math problem of intonation with the mechanical vibrato.
@@motomuso Very kind words! Cherry Audio actually used recordings from our novachord to model their synth :)
It simultaneously sounds vintage and futuristic. Fascinating.
hard to believe they had sounds like this in the 30s, must have really blown some minds
My grandfather was a technical advisor at RCA when the Synthesizer 1 was developed. When I asked him about it, he would say, "part of the challenge was getting the damn thing to work without exhausting the world's supply of vacuum tubes." You don't think about how bulky and impractical circuits used to be until you see them at this scale. He would later go on to help develop some of the first commercially produced integrated circuits. It's always impressed me how much musical experimentation has influenced engineering.
I worked on a couple of Novachords years back. I worked as a Hammond tech back then and was friends with Allan Young who was one of the engineers for Hammond and who invented the reverb tank. He had a gold plated reverb tank on an award plaque in his music room. The Novachord was actually easier to service than a Hammond H100 or a Hammond Concord. I also worked with a man who restored several Novachords. The thing I didn't do was to play one like you are playing it. I wish I would have. Allan told me that the Novachord tone generator was originally planed to be attached to one of their tone wheel consoles. I think the better plan was to leave it as a stand alone instrument as they did. The master oscillators in the Novachord do not generate square waves. They created a sawtooth wave (same as the model J solovox) so the dividers had to be tuned synchronous dividers. The capacitors were factory selected so when rebuilding one today you have to series or parallel capacitors using an oscilloscope to get the right waveform or the divider will not divide correctly. The rebuilders of this instrument did an excellent job. I loved this video.
These days, in 2024, you can probably at least use laser-trimmed capacitors to get an exact match (assuming you know what value you need to get).
72 note polyphony. That's ridiculously awesome.
This is insanely impressive for 1939.
Astounding instrument! 30 years before its time. A polyphonic synth before even transistors. A Polymoog 40 years before but with valves. A technology leap as if a jet fighter had arrived over the Western Front in 1918.
even when it's overdriving the mixer and distorting it still sounds... mellow. I get the creepy vibe but at the same time it's so incredibly rich. it's like an eldritch horror trying to give me a hug, and I can't help but pet it and talk to it like a toddler.
I always wondered what gave so many old radio shows "that sound". Great video
I love how the "piano" sounds die out gracefully, incredible envelopes for the time.
I would love to see more videos of Daniel Fisher playing obscure as well as classic keyboard and electronic instruments.
Hi Mario. The easiest way to see all 100+ of my TH-cam videos in one list is to search on "Daniel Fisher Sweetwater". Thanks for watching! -_Daniel_
You have taken excellent command of this Treasure of a Hammond Instrument. The Inventor was
way ahead of his time.
Magical sound, impossible to reproduce and to compare with anything else!
I saw a news article about Dame Vera Lynn passing away, her most famous recording was “We’ll Meet Again”. First recording was with Arthur Young on the Novachord. Never heard of that before....so thank you so much for this TH-cam video. What an amazing instrument and restoration!!
Beautiful - what an instrument. Fantastic demonstration.
I only recently learned about this instrument and had no idea how it sounds.
This is just beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing this!
That is astonishing. The restoration is immaculate. What a sound.
What an incredible piece of creative engineering. Can't imagine how long time it must have taken to get a working prototype of this. And think about how excited they must have been about it.
Imagine hauling this thing on the road for your next gig.
All the old tube organs, except the tonewheels used high note oscillators and synced dividers. Tube mu was critical to get them to sync. I was a repairman for 37 years. Allens used indivual oscillators, real monsters to tune.
So did Rodgers and Conn.
Today was the first time I heard about this instrument, even though I've been into electronic music for years. This is the best, most interesting instrument demo I've seen on here. Really loved the hardware walk through, as well as "two sides" of it - by playing it both the way they did during its era, but even more hearing what it sounds like through the last few features of modern synths that it didn't have. Hearing Jarre and Oldfield inspo here and there, and suddenly it sounds like its 30-50 years newer than it actually is. Thanks for the perfect introduction video to this insane piece of hw and history.
HAND ROLLED CAPACITORS! Wow, that thing is a work of art, a real testament to craftsmanship and beauty. Great Video!
Right because rolling them by foot would just be weird lol
Looks like it's full of orange-drops now.
I can definitely see this making vintage game soundtracks
I used to love working on generators like this. I'm glad to see this one restored and playing.
What a wonderful video. The restoration has been so well done. I am 76 so not very likely to get back to the USA but would love to visit Sweetwater as the videos on modern instrument have been so informative. Many thanks for this one.
you want a rare freakin musical instrument. this is it. amazing restore. by the way you have heard this on so many movies from the 40's to when the orig moogs came out. many albums in the fifties used this. havent seen one in ages.
Haha loved the little Genesis quote at 4:05
I wonder of an alternative universe where Tony Banks had one of these monsters!
This is one of the best-sounding and best-looking things I've ever witnessed =|
I had never heard of this instrument till yesterday. Quite extraordinary to be able to listen to its capabilities. Sonically the most beautiful thing I have heard, and played so well. Did I hear a nod to the Tomita's interpretation of Snowflakes are dancing at around 22.00 ?
I admire the Novachord's ingenuity, but I've always found the sound creepy. Hammond's earlier, electromagnetic organ---still so widely admired today---is capable of warmer sounds alongside the great range of imitative and new voices that suit it so well to jazz. A year or two earlier than than the Hammond organ's appearance came the Trautonium, which was capable of anything you asked of it. The restorers and conservers of this Novachord deserve all our praise and gratitude for bringing back to life a rare instrument, but with its cost, weight, complexity, delicate valve circuits and thin, eerie sound it could hardly have been expected to be a commercial success.
True marriage of the genuine analog and digital platforms... That Hammond Novachord is pure tonal bliss... Pure analog tone is something else really. Loved it. Eargasm. Nice playing as well!
Beautiful demonstration of a rare and wonderful instrument. Bravo, Mr. Fisher!
This is incredible. Thank you.
Awesome presentation thank you for doing it!
I’m very pleased.
Now picture this run through a pair of EMT 140 plate reverbs, a Binson Echorec, and a Bode Frequency Shifter (the valve-based one, of course)...
Unbelievable. The chip and transistor radio still had to be invented, and then there is this instrument in 1939!
Learned about it from SonicCouture. First found The Attic and then the Novachord vst. Great stuff.
Then I learned about Vera Lynn. One of her famous songs was recorded with a Novachord.
Brilliant demo! Love it :-)
wonderful video! Thank you. I recently heard it in "The Road to Zanzibar" with Hope and Crosby, during the safari chant sequence. It makes brief appearances, giving unique color and contrast to the other instruments.
Man, You should totally go on a World Tour with this!
@27:47 I thought I was hearing "Dance on a volcano" from Genesis.😁
This one sounds like it should! This appears to be a later model as there are a few more controls than I have previously seen. The restoration was done well? (I must have been!) I am a E.E. (and HAM) and musician. My hobby has been restoring old circuits. I have been doing this for about 45 - 50 years. -Can you imagine Les Paul and I chatting? I lived close to Les for many years. Despite his superior guitar playing, we always had a LOT to talk about!. But the Hammond Novachord was NEVER a subject!
Alas, I only recently learned of the Novachord from a shellac side in my collection called "Novachord Boogie" by Slim Gaillard. I was blown away. Why did Hammond this produce this for only a few years? It is WAAAY ahead of its time. I suspect ASCAP or BMI threatened a law suit?; -as what happened to the Mellotron!
Did your service tech have to wind his own coils? The original insulation would have been nitro-based, and thus would have degraded in all circuits. Plus, the original caps would have leaking like a sieve. I hope you did not pay a lot for the current faddish "Super Hi-Fi" paper/wax caps, as modern foil caps provide the exact same values and thus the same sound as the original caps. A micro Farrad is a micro Farrad. They will be much smaller and thus easier to solder into the circuit and cause much less EMI interference. As for the valves , -I wonder about those. I suspect odd valves as I see in photos, the plate wire coming from the top. I suspect dual or even quad preamp valves with an extra grid (or three)., thus the need to employ a lead from the top of the valve. The earliest computer valves might have been used as they could fit the requirements if the impedance could be matched. However, where in tarnation you could find replacements is a difficult question. Antique Electronic Supply in AZ, is the best first stop, but even they have exhausted the supply of most NOS parts. Even an NOS part that is this old is often worthless as insulation degrades the same as if it was in a circuit. BUT...preamp valves ,-even from this era often survive intact because they are never driven to high temperature. Your only worry are the leads to the pins or if the vacuum has depleted (gaseous). They can often be re-soldered, but, I always suggest NOT pulling valves until you know how and have the rubber tools and de-oxit spray to aid in this work. I pray you did not need to put in new valve sockets! If so, a Dremmel is best for removing rivets. However, Hammond looks to have made the chassis quite accessible and it is obviously built on the Hammond B organ platform. Hence, the keyboard and power supply parts are likely available or adaptable. Compared to any classic McIntosh gear (a rat's nest), this chassis looks like classic RCA broadcast gear, only simpler. Hammond did a fine layout job.
I wish I could afford this!! I would buy it in a second. I assume it is about the price of a 1940 D-45?! (there are probably less than 92 examples!) I will have to live with a '39 D-28 as that is MORE than G-d intended for me to have!
PS: I'd love to chat with the engineer who restored this. Is that possible? Can I simply call Sweetwater?
Hi BixLives32. The production of the Hammond Novachord was stopped because its parts were crucial to the WWII war effort. Sadly, production was not resumed after the war. Thanks for watching!
That's some piece of WORK WOW!!!!
My god that is a work of art
Looking forward to see this instrument in a keyboard form soon in the future! ;)
beautiful instrument.
Sweetwater has got to do a video on the Ondes Martinot. A synth that predates the Novachord!
Work of art.
Amazing. My mate at Synths of Antarctica sent me over here.
Does the NovaChord have built-in speakers? Oh! It does!
Tremendous video! What a treat!
Soft Machine, Genesis... Kinda reminds me of Steve Hackett's Please Don't Touch
Fascinating instrument. Very interesting to see this in contrast with the Ekvodin from the Soviet Union, which started development around 1930 but I don't know if they had any completed ones until the 1958 World's Fair. This one offers you very precise tone control, while the Ekvodin as far as I can read tends to be more locked in to a very long series of presets in order to imitate various instruments with varying degrees of success. Yet, the underlying technology is quite similar, and it's amazing to see that people were giving such deep thought to such technology all the way back in the 30s, but it took quite a while before it could be packaged in a way that would be affordable to more than a handful of people around the world.
I had a chance to look over one that arrived at our music store warehouse. It sat in the lobby of our restored organ theatre for sale, of course no one bit it. I fired it up with mouse ate speakers and what a smell! Not mice but old electronics. No smoke and all of one note in all octaves worked. The tubes are a low current version that seems to be unavailable now. I ended up crating it for a trip to Italy.
I helped a friend restore one of these. He referred to it as a "gumption trap" - very apt. So many resistors and capacitors, which all have to be in tight spec, all bad.
I find that the Polymoog 203a and the Novachord share some similarity in tone, especially when working within the resonators of the polymoog. A friend of mine by the name of Dan Wilson restored one of these quite a while back and these were really a major engineering work of art. Thanks for sharing your take on it Daniel, great video.
All the best,
Jareth
Hi Jareth, some of the similarities you're hearing come from the fact that both of these polyphonic synthesizers use "divide down" technology, which means that only the top octave uses oscillators. All of the other octaves use circuits that halve the frequency, with an additional halving for each of the lower octaves. Thanks for watching!
Thats very true but there is also something about the filtering that seem to give the two similarities as well especially when you getting into the resonators, it makes me wonder if Dave Luce may have been influenced by this instrument. Your welcome, it was a great video, nicely presented as well.
All the best,
Garth
It's a Novachord being played on the famous Brother Bones recording of Sweet Georgia Brown (Harlem Globetrotters version).
Imagine Garth Hudson playing one.
Wow❤ cool thank you
I have sold one here in Sweden!
Undergoeing restauration now!
How is the restoration going, Patrik?
ken gruz Its about 50% ready.
gridsleep How did you know 🤔
Is it done yet?
@@audiodood No not yet.
Caught ya sneakin in a snip of The Lamb intro!
One way to revive the popularity of this instrument is to have some mega pop star feature it in a hit song on stage.
Such a shame Keith Emerson isn't around to play this on stage in his usual gentle way.
Amazing, amazing, amazing! 21:23
in that case you really should try casiotone + strymon bigsky combination
Holy FUCK does this guy have a project? Idk how much of this is his original noodling (because I heard the beginning of Lamb Lies Down cheekily tossed in there lol) but if he's coming up with original little jams here I'd love to hear original releases from him. Would love to know thanks
Besides that this video has completely sold me on the power and potential of this instrument and I will 100% be getting that VST that got made emulating it and incorporating it into my music. Thanks for filming this yall!
Gorgeous
I don't know if he's playing video game themes, but boy that sounds like an 80s video game console. It would be crazy if the Nintendo song writers were doing an homage to the sound and feel of a Novachord.
Amazing to go from tone wheel technology to analog technology. Hammond was ahead of it's time to create a synthesizer. I remember early Thomas organs from the 1950s, had knobs to control the voices before the went to master oscillators tone generators, providing actual stop tablets in the early 1960s, and yes, all doide vacuum tube oscillators. In the mid 1960s, all organ manufactures went to solid state technology with completely transitorized oscillator generators and aplifiers. It was in the late 1950s, when such organ manufactures started using transistor technology to create tone generators, but the amps were still diode vacuum tubes. Gulbranson was the world's first to be 100% completely transistors, and solid state.
Fantastic sounds! Didn't they use this instrument in The Day the Earth Stood Still movie?
Client : How much polyphonic notes ?
Hammond : YES
Amazing
lovely
its very interesting to hear synth sounds coming from a classic "piano looking" body.
I owned one of these back in the early 1970's housed at RPM Recording studios in Johannesburg. I don't know what happened to it. Sad.
Actually, the Telharmonium was the first synthesizer and it was polyphonic. Hammond used the Telharmonium principles of sound production to create the Hammond tonewheels.
A fellow named Earl Gordon played Hammond and Novachord at an Indianapolis roller rink. The late Earl Gordon has been a theatre organist, so he probably had imagination.
I think Novachord was used in the middle of the cartoon Who Killed Who from 1943 (MGM). The rest of the score sounds like a tonewheel organ. However, I haven't been able to confirm this online.
Briliaant!
Wonder how many movie soundtracks that has been on.
poly and paraphonic depending which aspects we're looking at. :-). But fantastic instruments!
,💪Excelente Trabajo!...
¡Gracias! -_Daniel_
So cool for 1941
It's so sad that production and possible improvement of this instrument ceased after 1942
I've head the distinctive sound of the Novachord in 40's and 50's movies. Is there a list somewhere of movies that had Novachord in the soundtrack?
@@dq405 Excellent list of great films, but was it ever used on rock/pop/jazz albums?
@@creamydistortion: I really don't know!
...to imagine what this sounded like in 1939. I probably sounded like alien spaceships landing.
This probably the only synthesizer made out of hardwood.
Yes, such an amazing instrument!
Though in 1980 the Yamaha GS1, the predecessor to the DX7 (you can hear the GS1 on Toto's "Africa" among others), had a wooden casing and looked like a grand piano.
I can't imagine how otherworldly this must have sounded in a world where people were used to music such as the Andrews Sisters and The Inkspots.
The first astral travellers
I have watched several videos about these. Until they started being used in 1950s Sci-Fi films it seemed the players stayed away from the wildest sounds and uses it to do things like accompany Vera Lynn.
Imagine hearing this in 1939.
This greatly tickles my inner child who grew up with circuits that glow in the dark, yet never heard of it.
Pretty amazing to hear that kind of sound being produced by thermionic emission. Is it safe to imagine that the even-harmonic coloration of 168 lamps gives it a noticeably "warmer" personality than your Moog 55? Do the lights in the house go dim from the inrush current when all those cold filaments (never mind that cartoon anvil of a B+ supply transformer) get flipped on?
Wow. At 17:30. Amazing.
A very interesting instrument. Of course I did hear about the Hammond organ, but not about this first synthesizer. I think that through his unique sound and the possibility of many sound colours, the music of Claude Debussy would get an interesting charakter too. Did someone actually play Debussy on a Novachord?
Villa Lobos included a Novachord in his seventh symphony.
please do a full sound track for HAXEN
PLEASE say this is being captured for a future vsti or kontakt instrument 🙏
Imagine how much this costs in 1940 and what it costs today if you can find one?
1939 - 1942 (1069 made).
I can not believe !! how old is it and how modern does it sound
I bet ROYGBIV by Boards of Canada would sound pretty good on one of those.
I noticed the description mentions frequency modulation, what's the relationship historically between what this machine does and what was developed in the 60's by John Chowning?
Hi Kris. The Novachord used slow-frequency modulation to create vibrato, but it did not use audio-rate frequency modulation in the way that made John Chowning famous. -_Daniel_
i am restoring one here in GREECE its almost finished , on the description you say it debuted in 1939 , but mine is a 1938 one.
Possibly manufactured/in production in 1938 and in the stores/available to the public in 1939?
possibly because i have schematics from a later one and there are major differences
Jarre called, he wants his vibe back
I wonder how difficult it was to find replacement diode vacuum tubes?
Perfect to metal slug songs