The Clavivox was a keyboard sound synthesizer and sequencer developed by American composer Raymond Scott beginning in 1950.[1] He was granted a US patent for it on Feb. 3, 1959. (U.S. Patent 2,871,745)
Scott had earlier built a theremin as a toy for his daughter Carrie. In his first Clavivox prototype, he used a theremin module built by a young Bob Moog (who was more than 25 years younger than Scott). The unit allowed the use of portamento over a 3-octave range. Scott then added amplitude envelopes, vibrato and other effects to the Clavivox.
Later Clavivox models used light shining through photographic film onto photocells as a source of control voltage to control pitch and timbre.
"A lot of the sound-producing circuitry of the Clavivox resembled very closely the first analog synthesizer my company made in the mid-'60s," Moog explained years later. "Some of the sounds are not the same, but they're close."
See also
- ANS synthesizer
- Sound synthesis
References
- ^ Crab, Simon (2013-09-22). "The 'Clavivox' Raymond Scott, USA, 1952". 120 Years of Electronic Music. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
External links