On Mar 1, 2009, at 11:18 AM, ceccles_ca wrote:
Hugh Le Caine's Sackbut was the first voltage-controlled synthesizer.
Sackbut demo:
http://www.hughlecaine.com/sounds/sackbut.mp3
SPTR demo:
http://www.hughlecaine.com/sounds/dripsody.mp3
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop people would have loved this guy!
I just spent an hour in the basement and can't find the recordings I have with sackbut on them. Actually, I can't find ANY of my McGill recordings! That's really sort of pathetic. Most of the music was probably shite, but it would be nice to hear them again.
Anyway, the sackbut is a really cool instrument to play (although pretty odd, at first) and it was surprisingly flexible. LeCaine just couldn't find anyone interested in putting it out commercially, which is kind of sad. He was just too far ahead of the curve and rock bands hadn't found out about synthesizers yet. The really interesting thing is that it had a very intuitive control panel, far easier to understand and operate than the big Moog modular McGill had. If he could have found some investor, the electronic sackbut could have had a future.
Rick