In his latest Automatic Gainsay video, synthesist and synth historian Marc Doty takes a look at the Hammond Novachord.
The Novachord is considered by many to be the first commercial polyphonic synthesizer, predating the mass-market polysynths of the ’70s by thirty years.
The instrument was not commercially successful, in part because of its complexity and cost, and in part because of the timing of its introduction, in 1939, at the beginning of World War II.
In his video, Doty looks at the history of the Novachord, and shares his personal experience in acquiring and owning a Novachord, back in 2000.
Check out the video and share your thoughts on the Novachord in the comments!
Its a great instrument overall. It was on a lot of soundtracks in its heyday, especially monster movies. Its partly the sound of an era. However, if you open the top, the innards are as detailed and maddening as a CS-80’s. I wonder how it held up in use. Anyone who could keep it running must have been a demigod and very well-paid.
The Cherry Audio Novachord is a lot easier to maintain.
https://cherryaudio.com/products/novachord-solovox
While the Novachord is a surprising early electronic synthesizer, the truth is that it has a fairly simple architecture despite all the effort to implemented it with non-solid-state electronics, like an early transistor organ made with tubes with added EG and filter functions but not much else going for it. Also, by the time it came out (very early 1940s?) there were already more musically complex polyphonic instruments (notably the Trautonium) that had been around for some time already and were able to accept far more expression input from the performer, for example taking on classical repertoire unlike the Novachord then or now. Finally, don’t forget, although it’s partially mechanical, the tonewheel organ (with Leslie) was far more musically useful, present, and nuanced.