via Soniccouture (videos here)"It is a little known fact, but the worlds first commercially available synthesizer was designed by the Hammond Organ Company in 1938 and put into full production from 1938 to 1942. The Novachord is a gargantuan, entirely tube based, 72 note polyphonic synthesizer with oscillators, filters, VCAs, envelope generators and even frequency dividers.
The first instrument was delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Jan. 30, 1940 as a birthday present, but despite this auspicious start, the 500 lb instrument struggled commercially...
We sampled every one of the 72 notes on this beast - 50 times over. As well as full patches, we also separately sampled each Novachord 'tone' - the stops, or filter channels - so that we could model a 'Virtual Novachord' in Kontakt.
This comprehensive core sample library is used to maximum effect in creating two separate instrument concepts - The Dual layer NovaSynth and the 1939 / 2039 NovaSynth."
via Gregtronic. According to Greg, this sample set is from Phil Cirocco's Novachord while Hollow Sun's is from another Novachord in the UK.
Also see the Novachord label below for more. Note Hollow Sun also has a sample set and there is a Novachord instrument for Kontakt.
The Hollow Sun Novachord is in original working order. None of the caps were replaced with modern components as is the case with the Cirocco instrument.
ReplyDeletethe hollow sun novachord only partly works. many keys are inactive. therefore their library has been stretched across the keyrange.
ReplyDeleteit's not an authentic sound at all.
The comment made by jim is frankly a little unfair. Only the bottom 18/72 notes of the instrument in question were inactive during the recording sessions. All of the remaining notes and functionality was present - all the more incredible for a 72 year old polyphonic instrument in original condition.
ReplyDelete