Novasound Kalideophone

[John P]

Grant Richter wrote:
> 
> I found a data sheet on the Novasound Kalideophone. The vintage looks to be
> around 1976-79? This is a two oscillator synth with VCO's, VCF, VCA, LFO
> etc. The unique thing is it was built like a pedal steel guitar made out of
> wood. The top surface has little "pig pens" made by holding down a square
> sheet of conductive material with four wooden strips along the edges. Four
> electrical outputs appear at each corner of the conductive sheet. The input
> to the next module is a little wooden "puck" (called a "probe") with a
> smooth metal bottom that sits inside the "pig pen" and slides around on the
> conductive surface to select a mix of the four signals coming in at each
> corner. A very cool idea really. Each input has a two dimensional mixer
> with four sources. I'm sure it's hard to keep clean and probably noisy -
> but what a wild idea. I doubt if they ever made more than the one in the
> promotional photo - too bad.
> 
> So my question: Has anyone else ever heard of this thing? Or the Novasound
> company? Also what conductive sheet could they have used for the control
> surface?
> 
> Any comments welcome.

Yeah, I read a capsule blurb on the Kalideophone in Audio magazine back
in the 70's - I think it was the early 70's actually.  I remember
thinking, 'cool', and clipped the ad out and put it with the Arp and
Putney ads and other stuff.  If I dig around I could find the picture...

John P.