the first analog synthesizer

[???????]

http://www.discretesynthesizers.com/nova/intro.htm

from 1938! This is the coolest thing i've ever seen. Sorry if it's old news.

[Rodgre]

That is really incredible. I don't know if I will ever live long enough to restore something like that!

Roger

[The Real MC]

What's even scarier is the mp3s of the restored Novachord. It sounds like today's analog synth pads and strings. Waaaaaay ahead of its time in 1938.

That's a hell of a restoration, way more effort than I would put in.

[pulse_divider]

I've seen/heard it in person and it sounds amazing.
A lot of the sound from these clips is digital multieffects, though.

[???????]

really? bummer. I'd like to hear it un-effected.

[Rodgre]

I know that the delay/reverb/chorus effects sound modern and digital, but are the filters from the Novachord itself?

Roger

[???????]

the novachord has filters and VCAs built in... it's definitely a true synthesizer.

[matyas]

I saw this page/clip before, and it's definitely very cool, but I'd classify the Ondes Martenot as a synthesizer, and I think it was a little earlier. I suppose you could point out that the Ondes doesn't have CV, but it does have filters of a sort, doesn't it? I know that you can do some tone-shaping with it beyond mixing the outputs of the three amplifiers.

[alex matson]

I wonder what the whole thing cost to restore. Too bad to think that many have already been junked. I'd love to own one someday - wonder how many are left out there...Johnny Greenwood probably will own one at some point if he doesn't already. There's a great story out there of the guy who did the music on a punchcard lab computer that Radiohead's 'Idioteque' sampled.
http://www.music.princeton.edu/%7Epaul/ ... ad.ml.html

[vsr600]

Not to be a nerd or anything I think the theremin was the first synth, invented in 1919.

[apropos of nothing]

The Cahill Telharmonium was very synthesizer-like, insomuch as it electronically generated different waveforms which were piped for amplification elsewhere. That comes in about 1897.
http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machi ... harmonium/

All these items are very cool.

[I'm Painting Again]

nope. I invented the very first one in 1732..

the nov-a-chord is kewl though..

[trash180]

...I'd love to own one someday - wonder how many are left out there...

This is approximately the 515th Novachord from a total of 1069 units made. Date of manufacture for this Novachord is roughly march 1940.

Can't be many, eh? Aside from the junked ones, it sounds like they're pretty easy to fry if you don't restore them correctly.

Very cool site. Thanks for the heads up.

[The Real MC]

Well, passive components back then aren't anywhere near rugged or reliable as today. 1939-1940 era resistors won't be anywhere near their original impedance, and capacitors not only drifted far away from their original value but the dielectric will have decayed to the point it is no longer a capacitor but a dead short at worst.

Always be CAUTIOUS when firing up antique electronics from way back then.

[alex matson]

I managed to find an ad for one - it was several years old - selling for $350, and another to be hauled away for free. Anybody familiar with electronics have an estimate of the cost to restore? And are there any other examples of tube synthesizers? It seems like one could build something fantastic going that route, with microprocessor control.