Comments on: Early Electronic Music Technology: Part One

By: phillip holmes

phillip holmes — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 03:44:40 +0000

The Stockhausen piece is spectacular. The effort required is mind-numbing (the same can be said for “Snowflakes Are Dancing”.

Great blog!

By: Frans van den Berge

Frans van den Berge — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 12:52:41 +0000

Hi,

I own a tone generator from EdiSwan (Cooperation of Mr Edison and Mr Swan). Wich later became General Electric. This tone generator (full tube) is still working today and was a unit wich was from Philips Natlab. I can only imagine what that unit must have costed in it’s days. The unit can be found to be named in lots of early scientific studies.

By: rrusston

rrusston — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 02:56:04 +0000

Those old transformers have no place in new builds, not if someone else is paying for it. They fail a lot. If you have a tax ID you can buy guitar amp spares halfway reasonable.

By: Brian Kehew

Brian Kehew — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:25:10 +0000

In reply to chris.

Hi – thanks! We did a second book of Beatles 1967 studio photos, and have spent about 4 years putting together another of a huge photo archive, coming soon!

Doing something more technical again (like RTB was) is more involved and I’m trying to get a few started. Ideally a book on the Capitol Records Tower is primary – but they have not approved it yet. And some more coming on historical synthesizer stuff eventually. Meanwhile, studio work and smaller projects for now…

By: Out-Of-Print-Book Report: History Of Music Machines (Smithsonian) | Preservation Sound

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 12:57:49 +0000

[…] images of Electronic Music Studios. Above we have the Columbia-Princeton Studio circa 1959 (see my previous post) and below some rare images of the circa ’65 studios at the Catholic University of […]

By: chris

chris — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:37:32 +0000

In reply to Brian Kehew.

Thanks for writing in Brian. IF any of y’all have not checked out Brian’s book (http://www.recordingthebeatles.com/), I heartily suggest that you do – it sets a new standard for recording-equipment-research (and it’s incredibly well-designed as well). When are we going to get another book from ya Brian?

By: Brian Kehew

Brian Kehew — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:05:22 +0000

What you’re missing is the power of the modular synthesizers over these individual units: modulating one EICO osc with another is not so easy, as is jumping up unusual intervals. Nor are creating envelope shapes in the pre-modular era, nearly no one did without audio faders. Moving the filters of the Krohn-Hite is a manual task, and impossible to do in the audio range, which is easy with modular synths.

I agree the music sounds different, and people made use of what they had, but it took forever to do one small set of sounds. Nothing much about the modular synths was “simplified” – it was just controlled much easier – it was designed for control and to interface easily – a huge step forward without much compromise. I enjoy your references and photos here, great stuff!

By: Pocket cinema: Robert Moog and the story of the Moog Synthesizer | Body Pixel

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:12:07 +0000

[…] Photo above: Robert Moog, taken from djproaudioinc.com Photo bellow: Moog, taken from Preservation Sound […]

By: admin

admin — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:28:52 +0000

In reply to jsn.

thanks man. yeah the EICOs work well. Hey BTW – to anyone reading these comments – check out this Jason’s site. i especially recommend the Phantom Power design that he recommends for vacuum tube-based power supplies- i have used it many times with great results. http://boozhoundlabs.com/phantom-power/

By: jsn

jsn — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:17:01 +0000

Hey neat, I happen to have and use one of those Eico tone generators. Thanks for the awesome blog.