RCA Mark II

[bottha]

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I love the sound of this synthesizer and the music made with it -- Babbitt, Davidovsky, Wuorinen, who was awarded a Pulitzer for a piece using this machine.

It had a very simple set of oscillators and a farily simple signal flow which has been described, among other places, here: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/r ... er-history (https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/rca-mkii-synthesizer-history).

I have a couple of questions:

1. Has anyone built an emulator? (I checked the Reaktor User Library)
2. Is there a tool to analyze -- perhaps given a set of possible oscillators and signal flows -- a sound and somehow describe it? That is, analyze a sound and say: sawtooth, pitch 440Hz, notch filter, etc. This seems doable to me, but I haven't given it much thought.
3. Is there a book or class you would recommend for some basics. Better yes, is there a tutor out there to go over something like this with me? I learn better one-on-one and asking questions.

Thank you.

[BertKoor]

Afaik the most revolutionary thing about this machine was its sequencer, not its sound shaping abilities which for even 1970's standards were pretty boring (being surpassed by the modulars of that time)

analyze a sound and say: sawtooth, pitch 440Hz, notch filter, etc.

Train your own brain. Play a lot with synthesizers makes you considerately better at it.

But... you're a member since 2006. What have you been doing all this time?

[BertKoor]

For the curious (like myself) here's a random song played by this instrument:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Kwq2b-DPc

Reminds me of cheap Casio keyboards.

The sounds themselves are perfectly doable with a simple synth like Synth1. Single oscillator with some basic forms and noise.