[sdiy] Newbie

[Steve Ridley]

> a ribbon controller (trautonium style). 

Great, an interesting idea!

> the problem i have so far is that the construction of the bandmanual 
> is a  secret no one wants to give up. 

I don't know if Trautwein parented the original design, but
all US patents are available at the US Patent office site.
Sadly, the index only goes back to 1975, so you'll have to 
find a patent number or do some very clever searching. 

> what rating/gauge of constantan/nichrome it's made out of, 

I wonder if an electric fire element could be used?   Maybe
not long enough...

> so, that being said, if anyone has built one of these, please 
> throw me a bone, it's driving me nuts.

The Doepfer site had a lot of Trautonium info.  I think I may also 
have an article about historic electronic instruments - I'll have a 
look.  Also, Groves encyclopaedia of musical instruments has
a surprising amount of info about early electronic stuff.

BTW, anyone got a schematic for an Ondes Martenot?


Steve