Novachord 346 - The Worlds 1st Polyphonic Synth from 1939!

[d.a.wilson]

The Beast arrived two weeks ago (and it really IS a beast!) and generally it's in -amazing- condition considering it's 70 years old!

Just a quick run down on the specs for those who don't know:

Worlds 1st Polyphonic Analog Subtractive Synth, built in 1939!
1/4 ton
163 valves (tubes)
72 note polyphony
Low pass resonant filters
1 envelope / note
6 channel vibrato
12 tube Oscillators
Full divide down architecture

You can follow my restoration thread on VSE:

http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewt ... =1&t=51703

She should be making at least some sort of noise again in around 3 weeks time having already put some 200 hours of restoration effort into her

[Jan Lund Thomsen]

http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewt ... =1&t=51703

She should be making at least some sort of noise again in around 3 weeks time having already put some 200 hours of restoration effort into her

Like Makke said, you gotta record playing some C64 tunes on this beast.

[LMan]

Wow that's dedication. Like the guy on that forum said, the device probably couldn't be in better hands.

Keep us updated!

[Razmo]

Congratulations!

It's always nice to see such history, even though it's not MIDIfied

I wonder if this beast has ever been sampled? ... I mean multisampled? ... if not, you really should record some multisamples (every key!) since it would be valuable to many people I think.

Also, this means that Robert Moog is NOT the father of the synthesizer, as many go around saying... I bet someone is turning in his grave for having me write something like this ... but it's the thruth then is it not?

Anyways, I'll stick with stable modern vintage synths (damn, that sounds stupid! )...

[LMan]

Btw, Wikipedia still says "By 1976, the first true music synthesizers to offer polyphony had begun to appear".

This must be mended.

[Razmo]

The way in which this Novachord is made, it actually is a strange form of an early "stringer machine" like the Solina or Eminent 310 Unique... I bet almost all stringer machines used that octave divider technology back then... the most notable and weird about the Novachord is (to me) that it has formant filters, and is totaly made of tubes.

Another modern synth from a company that only do devices in tubes actualy claims that their synth is the only tube based synth to exist, so maybe they ought to do some history research as well ... the Wretch Machine I think it's named... cannot remember the company though.

[Smithy]

This is an absolute gem of a thread,
congratulations on purchasing one of the most important pieces of synthesis history,
and i wish you the best of luck with it.

Btw, those mp3 clips are absolutely divine.

[Razmo]

Better be careful no one gives Indiana Jones a call... "It belongs in a museum!"

[d.a.wilson]

Btw, Wikipedia still says "By 1976, the first true music synthesizers to offer polyphony had begun to appear".

This must be mended.

OK - I've added a paragraph that should make it pretty clear that the Novachord was the first polyphonic synth

My new HT transformers are due to turn up on Tuesday - it may be only a matter of days before this beast is making at least some sort of noise

[d.a.wilson]

This is an absolute gem of a thread,
congratulations on purchasing one of the most important pieces of synthesis history,
and i wish you the best of luck with it.

Btw, those mp3 clips are absolutely divine.

Many thanks for this - I've had a load of very positive comments in the last few weeks which really help to motivate me to get this 70 year old monster synth going again

[d.a.wilson]

The way in which this Novachord is made, it actually is a strange form of an early "stringer machine" like the Solina or Eminent 310 Unique... I bet almost all stringer machines used that octave divider technology back then... the most notable and weird about the Novachord is (to me) that it has formant filters, and is totaly made of tubes.

Another modern synth from a company that only do devices in tubes actualy claims that their synth is the only tube based synth to exist, so maybe they ought to do some history research as well ... the Wretch Machine I think it's named... cannot remember the company though.

Very well spotted - the Novachord is indeed basically a monster analog string synth - and boy does it do strings well!! Unlike some "stringer machines" some 30 years it's junior it is not "paraphonic" ie. it has a separate envelope per note unlike the ARP Omni and Solina. This is superb as it means you can play huge sustained string ensembles up and down the scales without any form of note starvation or retriggering.

The modern tube synth company you are thinking of is Metasonix. They do recognise the Novachord - in fact some of their designs are loosely based on it.

[Razmo]

The way in which this Novachord is made, it actually is a strange form of an early "stringer machine" like the Solina or Eminent 310 Unique... I bet almost all stringer machines used that octave divider technology back then... the most notable and weird about the Novachord is (to me) that it has formant filters, and is totaly made of tubes.

Another modern synth from a company that only do devices in tubes actualy claims that their synth is the only tube based synth to exist, so maybe they ought to do some history research as well ... the Wretch Machine I think it's named... cannot remember the company though.

Very well spotted - the Novachord is indeed basically a monster analog string synth - and boy does it do strings well!! Unlike some "stringer machines" some 30 years it's junior it is not "paraphonic" ie. it has a separate envelope per note unlike the ARP Omni and Solina. This is superb as it means you can play huge sustained string ensembles up and down the scales without any form of note starvation or retriggering.

The modern tube synth company you are thinking of is Metasonix. They do recognise the Novachord - in fact some of their designs are loosely based on it.

I believe that some other stringers have an envelope for every key as wel... the Roland RS series if I recall right... nonetheless, I'm with you... this must be the absolute ultimate stringer machine hehe... and for ONCE, it's nice to know, that there is SOMETHING Jarre does NOT own!

By the way... do you intend on MIDIfying it? ... and is it at all possible?

Guess I'll never own anything THAT much vintage, since it's not with MIDI... oh well... ok... I just bought an old Ibanez analog delay FX box that is from the 70's (Ibanez AD100), but I believe this is as far as I'll go back in time

Just think it's nice, that there are people out there that will take the time and effort to restore such an artifact, and preserve it for as long as possible... it's these kind of people who deserve to own such a wonder...

[d.a.wilson]

THE 70 YEAR OLD BEAST IS BACK IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING!!!

I am utterly gobsmacked by this 1/4 ton monster from 1939.... here is a quick demo I made only a few hours after powering it up for the first time after roughly tuning it:

http://www.last.fm/music/D.A.Wilson/_/N ... ?autostart

Never will I view a Moog from the 70's in the same light again - this beast was simply DECADES ahead of its time!! This really is a synth - it's most definitely NOT an organ.

[d.a.wilson]

The run time is up to around 4 hours now and I've updated my Novachord demo "Montage" with a couple of extra sounds I dialled up with a demo of her filter stages towards the end.

http://www.last.fm/music/D.A.Wilson/_/N ... ?autostart

I really need to address an annoying mains hum issue - it might may just be a hum loop as I've noticed it's there even when the tube heaters are running on their own without the HT rails up.

I know she's not running entirely right but somehow I'm falling in love with her idiosyncrasies - like crazy mistriggering note dividers!!

[Andreas Wallström]

What a lovely post this is! Brings joy!! The sound montage sounds amazing!!!