Wow, so glad I stumbled upon this lecture. Super interesting story about both the instruments development and the individuals playing it through the years. Thank you!
The Theremin was actually invented in 1920 in Russia. 1929 was the U.S. patent date when Lev Sergeivich Termn sold the patent to RCA. The Beach Boys song was "Good Vibrations" not "Smooth Vibrations," and an instrument called the stringer was used in place of a true Theremin.
1:01:15 The hammond novachord was an early American synth in the 30s. It had a rather different sound to the theremin and trautonium but a more conventional playing technique with a standard keyboard.
The Hammond Novachord is not a synthesizer at all. Although it has a few synth-like qualities such as limited control of attack and decay , six electro-mechanical LFOs as well as some passive filtering, but none of these features are voltage controllable. The Novachord is really just a very large divider organ. Versatile and innovative to be sure, but not a synthesizer. I just did a full restoration of one, bringing it back to how sounded and performed when it left the factory in 1939.
Agreed, same as many people thinking the theremin is a synthesizer; they have such limited range, like a Hammond or Lowery organ. Pre-synthesizer instruments .@@StephenMasucci
This is a very good lecture. I hope I can get in contact with Dr. Jackson before he publishes his book!
Wow, so glad I stumbled upon this lecture. Super interesting story about both the instruments development and the individuals playing it through the years. Thank you!
28:28 Moog synth were and still are subtractive, Buchla was the pioneer of additive synthesis.
additive synthesis was pioneered long before Buchla
The Theremin was actually invented in 1920 in Russia. 1929 was the U.S. patent date when Lev Sergeivich Termn sold the patent to RCA. The Beach Boys song was "Good Vibrations" not "Smooth Vibrations," and an instrument called the stringer was used in place of a true Theremin.
what is the correlation between the development of the trautonium and the Ondes Martinot?
1:01:15 The hammond novachord was an early American synth in the 30s. It had a rather different sound to the theremin and trautonium but a more conventional playing technique with a standard keyboard.
The Hammond Novachord is not a synthesizer at all. Although it has a few synth-like qualities such as limited control of attack and decay , six electro-mechanical LFOs as well as some passive filtering, but none of these features are voltage controllable. The Novachord is really just a very large divider organ. Versatile and innovative to be sure, but not a synthesizer.
I just did a full restoration of one, bringing it back to how sounded and performed when it left the factory in 1939.
Agreed, same as many people thinking the theremin is a synthesizer; they have such limited range, like a Hammond or Lowery organ. Pre-synthesizer instruments .@@StephenMasucci
Very difficult to follow the fast talking, a communication issue that really hurts communication of concept.