The Mellotron Group

Radiohead used one on OK computer. They toured with a midicontroller based
on the Ondes martinot.
>
> --- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, Bruce Daily <pocotron@...>
> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Rick-
>>   I noted your refernce to the Ondes Martinot, and looked it up. 
>> Found lots of references, both on Google and youtube. I hadn't heard
>> of this instrument before.  Truely fascinating, a synth ahead of its
>> time.  The keyboard has lateral touch sensitivity which
>> produces vibrato like a stringed instrument.  Good voicing selections
>> and volume/attack control.  The "ring on a ribbon"  finger control is
>> like a physical theremin connection.  I'm not sure what the other
>> devices shown in the pictures are, possibly a string controller and
>> speakers.  Attatched is a pix I downloaded.
>
>>    -Bruce D.
>
> The other devices are various transducers. Each has a different timbre, as
> you can imagine. The one at the top does indeed have strings, which
> resonate at various frequencies. Below it is a regular loudspeaker, and
> the other one is a small gong.
>
> I've seen these beasts played several times since the late '70s and
> delight in it always. I don't know if they still exist (they don't have
> any web presence), but there used to be a quintet - yes, five of them! -
> called Ensemble d'Ondes de Montreal. I knew of the device earlier, from
> the Toronto Symphony recording on RCA of Messaien's Turangalila Symphony,
> but a performance by those folks was the first time I'd seen one in the
> wild.
>
> It appears there are several youtube videos of the Ondes, so I'm sure
> there must be at least one that explains something of how they work.
>
> Waving goodbye.
>
> Jim Bailey
>
>