[sdiy] Radiohead's Synth Controller

[Dr Strangelove]

Hi All,

      This weekend I drove to the audio playground in Orlando Florida.  
Joseph Rivers, the curator, had acquired a new piece which was very 
interesting.  It was a French Connection controller made by analogue 
systems.  The One RadioHead had played was a prototype and this was the 
first production unit.  Radiohead had opted to keep their prototype and this 
was bought by the synth museum for their collection.  There has been some 
questions about this controller so I'll shed as much light as possible on 
what's going on.
      I got to play the controller feeding CV and Gate to an AS modular.  
There is a little ring you put your finger in and slide a string across two 
pully's.  When your finger is located where a note on the keyboard is then 
the string will be on that note, its sort of hard to get EXACT notes, though 
the machine IS calibrated very well to the keyboard.  It's just that if you 
are on the top or bottom edge of a key than you'll be a tad bit sharp or 
flat.  I was trying to play some melodies, it's certainly easier than a 
theriman.  Also, there are little dents in the board below the keyboard to 
mark notes.  The controller also can be used as a normal keyboard.  
Personally, I can play a fretless bass, I almost feel like the thing would 
be easier to use if it had NO ring on your finger and you just pushed a 
string down to make contact with a resistive strip, listening to where the 
notes were.  The little ring that went on the finger sometimes slipped off.
       As well as having a joystick controller which is pretty nice, The 
controller has a big wooden button on the side panel.  The wooden button 
puts out a voltage which increses as you push down on it.  Most of the 
increse happens in the last few millimeters of the button's travel though.  
There is a total travel of maybe 1/2" so I wish it was more of a linear 
response.  Overall I thought the button was very expressive, however, and 
could make nice swells and tremelos.  The owner of Analogue Systems was on 
the telephone and he said for a classic Ondes Martenot sound to route the 
sine wave through a VCA and control the VCA amplitude by pressing the big 
wood button.

         -=<Jonathan Pratt>=-
       (Phdinfunk at hotmail.com)



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