Trautonium II

[Curtin, Steven D (Steven)]

> One question remains: how could we emulate the manual.  How could we do
> this with MIDI? Is it possible that MIDI of 1999 can not give the same
> performance then a 1935 Trautonium ?
> 
> I fear so.
> 
> 
> m.c.
> 
IMHO the answer is probably no for emulating the manual with MIDI, since
MIDI only gives you 128 discrete pitches and the manual is a
continuous-pitch device.  You don't have to use MIDI of course.  A
high-frequency oscillator followed by some digital counters should do the
trick nicely.  You could then convert the output square waves to sawtooth
(or other waves) using analog waveshaping.  Some of my DIY work with PLDs
and FPGAs is aiming towards doing this very thing.

If you're not using MIDI there is the issue of how to store, edit and play
back the control gesture from the manual, other than just recording the
output of the device.  The GROOVE system developed at Bell Labs by Max
Mathews and F.R. Moore in 1972 had some good ideas for doing this.

Steve C

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Steven Curtin  
Lucent Technologies Microelectronics
ph: (732)957-2996   fax: (732)957-6878
http://www.emf.org/subscribers/curtin/
sdcurtin at lucent.com
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