The Forgotten Synth That Launched a Ground-Breaking Technology

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The Forgotten Synth That Launched a Ground-Breaking Technology

Рет қаралды 18,672

Ай бұрын

Franklin Eventoff, an American tinkerer and musician invented the force sensing resistor in 1977. This allowed for touch control of voltage, which he used to create instruments. It found first commercial musical use in the Mattel Musical Thing, a cheap toy synth. Frustrated with the experience, Eventoff went on to create the much more refined Sonica. The Sonica is a lovingly crafted boutique instrument with an oscillator by famed Serge Tcherepnin, the creator of the Serge synthesizer. Only about 650 where made, and they are collector's items. The technology of the force sensing resistor proved hugely successful and lives on in cars, robotics and instruments like the AKAI MPC and the Otamatone.
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Пікірлер: 68

@Hainbach Ай бұрын

Music and a sound pack are available for my dear supporters on patreon.com/hainbach

@animalrockets Ай бұрын

My father found a Sonica in a small 2nd hand pawn shop in the late 90's and gave it to me as a gift. In the last 30 years, I have never met another person that has heard of Frank Eventoff, or the Sonica. It is so great to have Hainbach show off its history and to show how unique the technology really was for the time. To overcome the tone limitations, I like to mute the speaker with my palm for volume swells. Sounds great!

@DavidHilowitzMusic Ай бұрын

Fantastic video! And thank you for sharing the Sonica with me :)

@Hainbach Ай бұрын

Of course my friend! Heading to the academy again, our jams sound lovely

@gwugluud Ай бұрын

A kid on my block had a “Magical Musical Thing”, and I borrowed it from her all the time. I recorded a Kraftwerk-y kind of song with an early Boss “rhythm machine”, which was really just a very fancy metronome on my Teac 144 4-track cassette. Circa 1983, lol That “Thing” was actually quite cool. My gear collection was bare minimal then; one Radio Shack mic which was like an SM58, a small xylophone with very high-pitched metal bars, a Univox bass, an Epiphone electric and a Peavey Pacer amp. I only had them bcos of ppl I encountered who were willing to let me pay only small amounts. I used cardboard boxes and a metal space heater which had a very bizarre sound which sustained for half a minute when bashed with a drumstick, as a “drumkit”. lol this is boorishly longer than I intended, but I got seized with a “reminisce attack”, lol. Cheers from Texas. 👍

@conbriosynthesizers3428 23 күн бұрын

I used to have a Sonica, and called Frank Eventoff - maybe 25 years ago. He told me all about it and the development that lead to the Cash register switches. He said he developed it for his daughter, so her peanut butter-covered fingers wouldn't mess up the switches. At one point, Donna Summer's orchestra was fully equipped with over 20 Sonicas, and they played them all one a piece or two in her live shows, besides their normal instruments. I played mine multitracked in harmony on the Moog Cookbook records and when we appeared live on MTV Europe/Uk. At one, point, David Abell Piano store in Los Angeles here had about 7 of them still in the storage room - now gone...

@kaitlyn__L Ай бұрын

Commenting in the first 10 seconds to say: THANK YOU for using an Otamatone alongside its grandfather :)

@ciro_costa Ай бұрын

Lol. i'm developing a very simmilar idea. When i saw the thumbnail i thought i was cooked. But still safe haha.

@chriswareham Ай бұрын

That improvisation with David Hilowitz is superb. It's kind of appropriate that I discovered his channel when he posted a video about a çifteli that he found in a thrift store, as the Sonica has a very similar shape and size.

@blackxlist4150 Ай бұрын

When it's accompanying other instruments, it's got a strange "synthetic Duduk" sound that is very appealing.

@christoroppolo8742 Ай бұрын

Ah yes Serges beer money synth. Even serge did the toy synth .The thing is its super power is being more of an instrument so it still holds up. Very nice wood work and ergonomic design too . 👽

@QuaaludeCharlie 24 күн бұрын

You and David make wonderful Sound , Thank you :) QC

@pixelfrenzy Ай бұрын

So nice to see you and Dave Hillowitz together, and on each other's channels. 👍👍

@bricelory9534 Ай бұрын

What a cute opening number that actually turns really sweet and emotional as it goes. I really love the Sonica - its tone reminds me of the erhu in some circumstances.

@adeptusmechanicus7572 Ай бұрын

You should do an episode about the Steim Cracklebox (kraak) and/or Michel Waisvisz and what he meant for the Synthesizer business

@Hainbach Ай бұрын

Yeah on my to do - I have had one for a decade now.

@JoeLaRocca Ай бұрын

You so crazy Hainbach, my favorite.

@HANGINGOUTWITHAUDIOPHILES Ай бұрын

I love this thing. The oddities and pitfalls of the design are so charming and it feels like with practice it could hold an audience for a good few bars. A solo perhaps?

@Han_Moz Ай бұрын

lets ask magpie or no computer to mix this idea with the omnichord to make the world's weirdest rival to the accordion

@PocketOperatorGuy Ай бұрын

Those bleeps and bloops.... Heavenly music to my ears. You've got me hooked. Awesome video my friend.

@TheScreamingFrog916 Ай бұрын

Now I want to make a custom wooden instrument to mount my Automaton guts in 😊

@slowpunkforslowpunks2050 Ай бұрын

Hehe, I had a Magical Musical Thing when I was a kid. I loved it, so harsh.

@gwugluud Ай бұрын

I loved the one I had access to. You could make sequences with it. A great gear bit to have on hand.

@thevoidinclusive Ай бұрын

Very cool to see Jamie Lidell and you working together!

@CinematicLaboratory Ай бұрын

Respectfully, I believe that this type of gear is like dreams. They are meant to be forgotton otherwise we'd lose our wits. But they're great dreams in the right hands, like yours.

@justinmoore9282 Ай бұрын

Hi Hainbach. I'd love to hear a whole album (or EP) of chamber music with you on piano and Dave Hilowitz on the sonica. So beautiful. Just sayin'!

@bricology Ай бұрын

Hainbach and Dave Hilowitz in the same room at the same time?! The high point of my week, for sure!

@ibanezleftyclub Ай бұрын

I’m pretty sure the Continuum is still king for these types of touch instruments.

@AlisonCassidy Ай бұрын

Cool! I have Sonica #493 here in my own collection. Had to repair the Serge oscillator 😊❤

@AlisonCassidy Ай бұрын

You can pull CV/gate out of it with a little fiddling around, so it might make a good performance instrument. It’s on my bucket list.

@AlisonCassidy Ай бұрын

kzfaq.infomEwa6VXNnr8

@apossibleworld Ай бұрын

@@AlisonCassidydid you repair yourself or send it out? I have one that needs a little help, and I’m wondering who can do it (in the US)

@AlisonCassidy Ай бұрын

@@apossibleworld I repaired it myself. But TBH, I’ve a 6-8 month backlog here.

@NicholasBryantBonzaiSequoias Ай бұрын

Coincidentally.. today I received an Otamatone from Thomann and will be using it live next month, after I have learned to play it and maybe even modded it too ( to allow it to be processed by a Zoom MS-70CDR )! Instruments such as these are a great introduction to electronic music making!

@mikegeary8056 Ай бұрын

That old Serge logo needs to be on some blotter acid

@jaibhimadevi5805 Ай бұрын

Love it. BTW, if you're still indulging a taste for test equipment, the Thandar TG-101 and TG-105 seem like some good bang-for-the-buck generators 😊

@ferrifet7267 Ай бұрын

I dunno what this is yet but I'm bloody excited

@agingmillennialmainer Ай бұрын

Dave Hilowitz!

@TheOuterLimit Ай бұрын

Mr Hainbach this comment will come like an uppercut in a boxing match: You are so freaking cool and how you find all those strange ”instruments” ? I rate you as number one influencer in strange synth music and also I love how you can sync your eyes to be perfectly in the middle of the glasses😂 how is it even possible?

@Hainbach Ай бұрын

I studied musicology so I read a lot about rare instruments. Then I always searched for cheap and odd stuff because I could not afford the big tools like Jupiters, 303 etc. When the channel took off I started searching for the missing links in music production, basically continuing my studies.

@Ontologosdigger Ай бұрын

Just amazing like all time ❤❤😂😊😊

@philbarbato Ай бұрын

I had a Magical Music thing! I loved that thing. I’m sure my mom did not. 😂

@MikaelLevoniemi Ай бұрын

I think wintergatan used the improved sensor in the modulin 'instrument'

@bielanski2493 Ай бұрын

I wonder how closely related is Martin Möller's Modulin to the Sonica. I will probably have to go back to his Wintergatan video about it

@unsoundmethodology Ай бұрын

Such lovely toys! Though they remind me that I've got these two ribbon potentiometers - 30 and 50cm long - that I've been meaning to make into CV/gate outputs for my modular. Too many projects...

@Alchemetica Ай бұрын

If I had a Sonica, after exploring the instrument, my next step would be to send the output into a chain of sound modifiers, both hardware and software. OFC an anathema to all purists, I imagine.

@fedesartorio Ай бұрын

Missoni should sponsor you. Ask them!

@markseagraves5486 Ай бұрын

At time 2:32, I realized that I live vicariously through you, Hainbach…

@defdac Ай бұрын

That first tune reminded me of Raymond Scott's In The Hall Of The Mountain Queen ❤

@defdac Ай бұрын

And Dave and yours jam reminded me of Gattobus excellent Syntrx tune Mind Loop!

@themeofsuddenroundabout Ай бұрын

very rare

@Lo_Scum Ай бұрын

It doesn’t need anything!!! Go ahead and make something that meets your needs!

@Hainbach Ай бұрын

I have already done that.

@Lo_Scum Ай бұрын

@@Hainbach I’m you have improved upon somebody else’s ideas. If you’d be so kindly to and educate me on what technology you invented for said product? Good day and thanks for sharing. ✌️