Hammond Novachord - shockingly beautiful

[funkychickendance]

Dan: thanks for what you are doing. You're preserving history in an active and useful fashion, and bringing an overlooked work of genius to a wider audience. Even better, with the Hollow Sun project, you'll make thousands of music fanatics very happy.

=fn<x>

[HideawayStudio]

Dan: thanks for what you are doing. You're preserving history in an active and useful fashion, and bringing an overlooked work of genius to a wider audience. Even better, with the Hollow Sun project, you'll make thousands of music fanatics very happy.

=fn<x>

Many Thanks for all your kind comments, they have helped to spur me on over the months - especially when it all got a little scary during the point of no return. I can't really describe quite how I felt when I cut -every- single 70 year old component out of my burnt out PSU and was gazing at a totally empty metal chassis on one side and a pile of charred, sticky, waxy and black components and wires on the other one evening in horror!! Even the insulation had fallen off the wires...now that scenario really puts hair on your chest! The PSU chassis alone is a 10 tube design with several HT rails - ie. more tubes than most complete audio designs and nothing more than a few digital pictures and an old schematic to reference.

I even had to have new transformers manufactured based on what little specs I could find or estimate from the schematics. This was a total pig as there are so many output tappings.

The rebuilt PSU turned out really well (not to mention really pretty to look at whilst running) and even after 1.5 hours of play time the transformers are barely warm to the touch! Not bad for a 163 tube design with over 20 amps of heaters to drive (100 watts) and totals nearly 300 watts consumption. Even more spectacular is the 500mV pk-pk ripple on the 270 volt rail! The ripple on most tube HT rails are an order of magnitude higher than this.

[himalaya]

If you have any technical questions, no matter how complex - feel free to ask as I've spent months clambering all over this beauty!!

Technical questions ? Anyone dare ask technical questions when presented with such an awe inspiring instrument ! Only kiddin'!

The Novachord demos are truly something, and I liked your Novachord Noodles especially, Dan. There are some incredibly rich sounds there, which I would love to have available in the sample library. I think the way you have presented them with slow and emotive music adds to the experience.

Best wishes to you both for successful completion of this mammoth project !

[HideawayStudio]

If you have any technical questions, no matter how complex - feel free to ask as I've spent months clambering all over this beauty!!

Technical questions ? Anyone dare ask technical questions when presented with such an awe inspiring instrument ! Only kiddin'!

The Novachord demos are truly something, and I liked your Novachord Noodles especially, Dan. There are some incredibly rich sounds there, which I would love to have available in the sample library. I think the way you have presented them with slow and emotive music adds to the experience.

Best wishes to you both for successful completion of this mammoth project !

Many thanks - I've had several nice comments about my "Noodles" - Steve very kindly edited together some of his favourites for me. I made these recordings one afternoon only a day after I'd powered up Novachord successfully for the first time. It was one of the most bizarre recordings I've ever made - with one eye on the keyboard, one eye on a volt meter nervously watching the HT rail for signs of overload and absolutely paranoid about possibly smelling smoke!! I never have, nor probably will again, had to nervously make a recording of a vintage instrument whilst hovering over a large emergency stop button! Taking this into account it's a wonder I managed to record anything worth listening to at all

In terms of the sample project demos, Steve has only really started to scratch the surface. His main efforts have been on assembling the sample programs. As we near the release date we are hoping to post some more demos.

I've just realised you are the guy behind those wonderful SY77 patch disks - I've been a huge fan of SY77 since it's release. I have both an SY77 and TG77 in the studio, both of which I've updated with bright blue inverted LED backlit LCD modules - so clear you can now read the display on the other side of the studio

[Opax]

Listening to the 'Novachord Noodles' demo. This thing sounds so beautiful yet chilling.

I will be keeping an eye on this project.

[hollowsun]

I wonder Steve, if you can elaborate some more on the effect and the workings of this "simple but effective envelope shaper"?

Here's a very simplified representation of the the envelope 'presets' you get...



The blue area of the envelope is available using the sustain pedal - without that, you get a sharper release.

As you can see, Laurens Hammond was using a simple ADSR back in the 30s way before

However, that IS a very simple diagram. In practice, the fast attacks aren't as 'immediate' as that as you can see here in an analysis Dan made (without sustain pedal)...



As you can see, even the 'fast' attacks have a bit of a soft 'rise time'. This means that the Novachord itself has something of a 'gentle' quality to the sounds (an endearing characteristic) but with modern sample editing techniques, I/we can overcome that by editing those soft rise times out. This is what I did for the middle section of the 'Berlin' audio demo to achieve the spikey sequenced sounds.

Of course, I/we'll be presenting sounds 'as is' with their natural envelopes; the spikier sounds will be as program variations on the originals.

Cheers,


Steve

[HideawayStudio]

I wonder Steve, if you can elaborate some more on the effect and the workings of this "simple but effective envelope shaper"?

As you can see, even the 'fast' attacks have a bit of a soft 'rise time'. This means that the Novachord itself has something of a 'gentle' quality to the sounds (an endearing characteristic) but with modern sample editing techniques, I/we can overcome that by editing those soft rise times out. This is what I did for the middle section of the 'Berlin' audio demo to achieve the spikey sequenced sounds.

Of course, I/we'll be presenting sounds 'as is' with their natural envelopes; the spikier sounds will be as program variations on the originals.

It is worth adding to this that all of the caps in 346 have gone slightly high in value with age. This has a slowing effect on a number things including the attack rates. It is likely that when the Novachord was new it's envelopes were just a tad snappier and so tweaking this in the sampler is no bad thing.

The whole capacitor ageing thing makes me laugh - it's like the instrument has slowly developed the typical symptoms of old age ie. it can't move as fast or respond as quickly. It's tuning and calibration now lend itself to being stable when transposed down by one semitone. This has not only let me get the instrument into half decent relative tuning but has also improved the stability of the dividers - a trick I've discovered and possibly missed by other Novachord owners and may go some to explain why my generator chassis is working surprisingly well!! In reality this is not a problem - for sampling you can compensate - for live recordings you just tune any other instruments in the mix down one semitone to match.

[bobbybland]

Awesome read, thanks for sharing this! Too cool to think that this instrument has that unique of a background,very happy to hear it all worked out for you,and so glad these sounds will be able to be used in modern productions.What an amazing history.

[HunterKiller]

Isn't it. When I think about it, it is really astounding, a proper synth all those years ago! What is more amazing is that one would expect the first synth of this kind to sound less than interesting, with perhaps some pure sine wave tones, some silly theremin effects and the like, but, no! This thing sounds lush, complex, delicate, and otherwordly all in one patch.

Yeah I've always loved these sort of sounds, very oldskool, very 70's. Infact when the first Oldskool Zebra preset bundle come out, I got that because Michael had some sounds in there that were reminiscent of the Novachord demo's I'd already heard.

But I can't wait for the real thing, the wistful sounds are just extraordinary, they remind me what real electronic music is all about. Discovering new frontiers.

The growly bass pads, saw-ish lead pads, hollow airy choirs, synthpiano like presets that Vangelis was fond of, thick saw pads and so on... all of these are just infinitely useful.

And its sound is probably more relevant today than in the past.

Haha, yes. I was laughing at the bit, where 'people didn't know what to do with it'. Well put.
Go out and make some electronic music you planks.
That's WWII for you, changing the course of entire human history for the worse.

[Mike777]

Dan, fascinating project! Blown away by the improvs! It really is "freaking amazing"!

[HunterKiller]

I wonder Steve, if you can elaborate some more on the effect and the workings of this "simple but effective envelope shaper"?

Here's a very simplified representation of the the envelope 'presets' you get...



The blue area of the envelope is available using the sustain pedal - without that, you get a sharper release.

As you can see, Laurens Hammond was using a simple ADSR back in the 30s way before

However, that IS a very simple diagram. In practice, the fast attacks aren't as 'immediate' as that as you can see here in an analysis Dan made (without sustain pedal)...



As you can see, even the 'fast' attacks have a bit of a soft 'rise time'. This means that the Novachord itself has something of a 'gentle' quality to the sounds (an endearing characteristic) but with modern sample editing techniques, I/we can overcome that by editing those soft rise times out. This is what I did for the middle section of the 'Berlin' audio demo to achieve the spikey sequenced sounds.

Of course, I/we'll be presenting sounds 'as is' with their natural envelopes; the spikier sounds will be as program variations on the originals.

Cheers,


Steve

This is great Steve, thank you for the detailed answer.
I was wondering if these envelopes had something to do with the way an 'instrument' sounds across the keyboard. Usually as one plays lower, the tones also become progressively darker, in keeping with the manner of acoustic instruments. It's a 'trick' used to make electronic instruments sound more natural to the human ear.

I wonder Steve, if you can elaborate some more on the effect and the workings of this "simple but effective envelope shaper"?

As you can see, even the 'fast' attacks have a bit of a soft 'rise time'. This means that the Novachord itself has something of a 'gentle' quality to the sounds (an endearing characteristic) but with modern sample editing techniques, I/we can overcome that by editing those soft rise times out. This is what I did for the middle section of the 'Berlin' audio demo to achieve the spikey sequenced sounds.

Of course, I/we'll be presenting sounds 'as is' with their natural envelopes; the spikier sounds will be as program variations on the originals.

It is worth adding to this that all of the caps in 346 have gone slightly high in value with age. This has a slowing effect on a number things including the attack rates. It is likely that when the Novachord was new it's envelopes were just a tad snappier and so tweaking this in the sampler is no bad thing.

The whole capacitor ageing thing makes me laugh - it's like the instrument has slowly developed the typical symptoms of old age ie. it can't move as fast or respond as quickly. It's tuning and calibration now lend itself to being stable when transposed down by one semitone. This has not only let me get the instrument into half decent relative tuning but has also improved the stability of the dividers - a trick I've discovered and possibly missed by other Novachord owners and may go some to explain why my generator chassis is working surprisingly well!! In reality this is not a problem - for sampling you can compensate - for live recordings you just tune any other instruments in the mix down one semitone to match.

Dan I just wanna say what a freakin' terrific job you've done. You've really preserved a piece of history here, one day these instruments will be marvels of a bygone era. And welcome to KVR. You posts are mind-numbingly full of (technical) detail, just the way I like them.

[someone called simon]

yup. legendary stuff, preserving an amazing and all but forgotten gem from the past. Well done, my cap is doffed.

(and it really does sound beautiful. So strange to think of that synthesizer sound existing back then. I wonder if you plan to do any recordings from the original speakers, sans reverb, just to hear how it would have sounded to its original audience.)

[HideawayStudio]

yup. legendary stuff, preserving an amazing and all but forgotten gem from the past. Well done, my cap is doffed.

(and it really does sound beautiful. So strange to think of that synthesizer sound existing back then. I wonder if you plan to do any recordings from the original speakers, sans reverb, just to hear how it would have sounded to its original audience.)

There are some more demos of the beast in action on my LastFM area:

http://www.last.fm/music/D.A.Wilson/Novachord+346+Demo

This includes over 1/4 hour of chords which you are all more than welcome to sample and use (provided you leave a credit!), some oscillator waveforms, a demo of the multi-stage resonant bandpass filters and some totally dry mono sounds too.

Time and time again both Steve and I have found that there is something about the Novachord that really lends itself to being washed through effects. I think this is part due to the 6 channel vibrato getting caught up in delays and then spread out giving the resultant sound a wonderful degree of organic movement.

The vibrato system is electromagnetic and, as a result, doesn't keep perfect time - in fact it drifts in both period and frequency by different amounts in each channel. The channels are free running thus rendering this beautifully imperfect effect on each adjacent pair of the 12 tube oscillators.

I'm glad many of you like the sound - I'm totally in love with it - and nothing quite compares to sitting in front of one of these things and playing it through a nice effects processor. Even the smell of the Novachord is quite something - it's simply oozing character with it's beautiful wood and black engraved metal front panel full of Bakelite controls and it's amazing Bakelite and Plaskon keys which are almost as good as the day they left the factory!

Cheers,

Dan.

[taijiguy]

Phil Cirocco was supposed to come out with a sample set of his Novachord quite a while ago and has been procrastinating, so I'm looking forward to this sample set becoming available soon. He has a solo Novachord CD on sale at CD Baby that's worthwhile getting.

BTW, there's a guy on the Yahoo newmellotrongroup that has four Novachords stashed away.

[dougsyo]

Phil Cirocco was supposed to come out with a sample set of his Novachord quite a while ago and has been procrastinating, so I'm looking forward to this sample set becoming available soon. He has a solo Novachord CD on sale at CD Baby that's worthwhile getting.

BTW, there's a guy on the Yahoo newmellotrongroup that has four Novachords stashed away.

Yah, I've been waiting for Phil's as well. Since his (#1256) has been restored with new components and #346 has not, I will probably get both as they become available

Doug