Synthesizer
Use this image
Can I reuse this image without permission? Yes
Object images on the Ingenium Collection’s portal have the following Creative Commons license:
Copyright Ingenium / CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
ATTRIBUTE THIS IMAGE
Ingenium,
2005.0096.001
Permalink:
Ingenium is releasing this image under the Creative Commons licensing framework, and encourages downloading and reuse for non-commercial purposes. Please acknowledge Ingenium and cite the artifact number.
DOWNLOAD IMAGEPURCHASE THIS IMAGE
This image is free for non-commercial use.
For commercial use, please consult our Reproduction Fees and contact us to purchase the image.
- OBJECT TYPE
- analogue/breath-controlled
- DATE
- 1972
- ARTIFACT NUMBER
- 2005.0096.001
- MANUFACTURER
- Computone Inc.
- MODEL
- Lyricon II
- LOCATION
- Norwell, Massachusetts, United States of America
More Information
General Information
- Serial #
- N/A
- Part Number
- 1
- Total Parts
- 8
- AKA
- N/A
- Patents
- N/A
- General Description
- synthetic casing with metal hardware and trim/ synthetic control panel, controls, handle/ metal and synthetic working parts/ fabric covered foam padding in lid/ fabric lining in lid
Dimensions
Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.
- Length
- 68.0 cm
- Width
- 30.0 cm
- Height
- 14.8 cm
- Thickness
- N/A
- Weight
- N/A
- Diameter
- N/A
- Volume
- N/A
Lexicon
- Group
- Communications
- Category
- Music
- Sub-Category
- N/A
Manufacturer
- AKA
- Computone
- Country
- United States of America
- State/Province
- Massachusetts
- City
- Norwell
Context
- Country
- Canada
- State/Province
- Unknown
- Period
- circa 1972 +
- Canada
-
Part of a collection of electronic equipment for musical composition, performance and recording owned and used by Canadian Paul Hoffert, composer, musician, author, researcher, entrepreneur and arts administrator. American born, he came to Canada as a child and his career has encompassed many areas of the Canadian music business, including working as a jazz pianist, CBC music director and performer, educator, manufacturer of stereo equipment, music producer, and film composer. In the late 1960s he worked for a short time as a researcher in Hugh LeCaine's electronic music lab at NRC, where he wrote a computer program for music analysis and developed a solid-body electric violin. In 1968 Hoffert and rock drummer Skip Prokop, formed the very successful jazz-rock band Lighthouse (1969-1974, 1982, 1993-present), which earned one platinum record and four gold records and received three Juno awards between 1971 and 1973 In 1977 Hoffert received a Canadian Film Award (later known as a Genie) for best original musical score for the movie "Outrageous!". He also headed the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, the Guild of Canadian Film and Television Composers,and the Ontario Council for the Art. In 1995 he was inducted into the Canadian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2009 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. - Function
-
An instrument which makes musical tones by electronic synthesis and plays these tones by means of a clarinet or saxophone-like interface. - Technical
-
The Hoffert collection consists of approximately 25 pieces of electronic equipment for musical composition, performance and recording. These range from iconic keyboard instruments of the 1970s, to a variety of digital devices from the 1980s, to computer software from the early 1990s. These were used either for stage performances, especially during his years in the jazz rock band Lighthouse, or for work in his home studio. The Lyricon II is a small, voltage-controlled analogue synthesizer that, instead of a keyboard, is controlled by a wind instrument interface. Musical notes are selected by the saxophone-like keys, while a sensor in the mouthpiece converts breath and lip pressure into voltages to control the loudness and the waveform (attack, sustain, decay and release) of the note. The synthesizer itself is housed in the plastic carrying case and consists of two oscillators and several other modules, including a voltage controlled filter and a low frequency oscillator. The Computone company went out of business in the early 1980s, but the Lyricon paved the way for a number of other wind synthesizers and wind controllers. Paul Hoffert purchased his Lyricon II at Manny's Music in New York in 1972. He used it primarily for experimentation rather than composition or performance. - Area Notes
-
Unknown
Details
- Markings
- black lettering on silver label in case lid reads 'COMPUTONE, INC/ Electronic Musical Instruments/ P.O. Box 433 Norwell, MA 02061/ Phone 617 871-2660'/ white lettering on control panel reads 'Lyricon II/ Computone Inc./ Norwell, Mass.' and 'Made in U.S.A. Pat. No. 3,767,833' with white lettering for control functions
- Missing
- unknown
- Finish
- textured black synthetic exterior and interior/ brown and black synthetic control panel/ black and silver controls/ black fabric lining in case lid
- Decoration
- N/A
CITE THIS OBJECT
If you choose to share our information about this collection object, please cite:
Computone Inc., Synthesizer, circa 1972, Artifact no. 2005.0096, Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation, http://collection.ingeniumcanada.org/en/id/2005.0096.001/
FEEDBACK
Submit a question or comment about this artifact.
More Like This



































































































