I have tried to make a translation using my limited German abilities :-) (0:28) The trautonium is the first electronic instrument that was ever invented. There is a string on the instrument and under the string there is a metal rail And when I press the string onto the rail an electronic circuit is created and a tone can be heard. (0:44) I press it down now...... and keeping the string pressed down I can naturally make a glide by sliding my finger along the string. The tone is higher and can also be deeper. (0:57) It was naturally completely unprecedented back then, that someone had made a completely new kind of sound with a timbre that never had been heard before and with every kind of possibility for expression. The instrument can play softer as well as louder than other instruments. It can play higher notes as well as lower. (1:19) The most important thing about the tone generation is the sub-harmonic generator..... these numbers. I can add up to three notes to the already generated tone and these notes are taken from the overtone series though they are not equal tempered, they are natural tempered which means that all the overtones are a bit sharp. (1:54) The man who started it all was Paul Hindemith who between 1925 and 1930 was a professor at Berlin University. He was researching the possibilities to make new electronic sounds. He was working together with an inventor called Trautwein, whom the instrument is named after. For a while it was mass produced under the name "Volkstrautonium" (trautonium for the people) and Hindemith composed many pieces for trautonium including concerts for three trautoniums and for solo performances. (2:40) It's unfortunately also a tragic story as Hindemith was forced to leave Germany and the trautonium was more or less forgotten. The company Telefunken had invested a lot of money in the production of trautoniums but nobody wanted to buy them and then off course came the war. (3:04) One performer took up the challenge to play and further develope the instrument and that was Oscar Sala who was a student of Hindemith. He showed me a bit on how to play it and he was the reason I became fascinated by the trautonium. A big problem was though, that you cannot just go on Amazon and buy one. It is an instrument for the few as it is very special. And even today it is not possible to make a synthesizer sound like a trautonium.
Es war definitiv nicht das erste elektronische Instrument. Aber für 1929 und vor allem in seiner Komplexität, ist dieses Instrument damalig fast ein halbes Jahrhundert im Vorsprung gewesen. Und ich bin froh, daß es heute wieder gebaut wird.
The first electronic instrument was the Theremin in 1919, by Leo Theremin. Synthesizer is a different story. That fully depends on what you call a synthesizer
@@MelloCello7 Depends what you mean by audio production... If you like the sound of Das Trautonium you can either spend a great deal of money on the real deal, or spend a lesser amount on a Subharmonicon, or build one for free in software using VCV rack. This is a good thing, because you don't have to be rich. If you mean why aren't people making original instruments? Well, they are... Here's an example. If you want to control such a device using your hands or whatever there are a fantastic array of innovative controllers, such as the Roli Seaboard. Or maybe you meant something else? If so, pls explain further. ua-cam.com/video/0Mtm7_sPAEI/v-deo.html
@@skelly790 I mean, I looked up the subharmonicon, and I cannot find a video that in any way resembles what I see in this performance rendered on an instrument made in the 1930's What I meant, is that *most* production lack the raw performance approach to date that this ancient thing has. Everything is filtered through 127+ degrees of control, or worse, relentlessly quantized and sequenced. Not that midi is a bad thing, I get it. it makes things easier, easier to control and communicate with each other. but it is no replacement for true performance control. Infinitely variable, subject to the slightest variance and change in articulation that makes every performance incredibly vivid, nuanced, and unique. The nuance that makes every instrument worth dedicating a life time towards. This raw, physically based approach is not replicated in its entirety to satisfaction by the roli seaboard, or any other controller I know of (Hakkum Continuum comes close though)
@@skelly790 Modern production instead has gone the route of carefully parameterized, and totally controlled sequence of events. There may be a few rare exceptions to this observation, but for the most part, like many things, its a far cry from what they had going on in the past.
Hitchcocks used trauntunium in his film the birds to create birds flying sound. in the past it was so chalengeous to become wellknown! Today synthesiser is being used.
The Theremin is an electric instrument, but it does not qualify as a synthesizer. The criteria for this are quite complicated, and I'm unsure if the first Trautonium counted as a synthesizer either. The instrument shown here is a Mixtur-Trautonium, which I am confident has all the features needed to count as a synthesizer. However, the Mixtur-Trautonium was gradually developed over a long time period, so I couldn't find out when it acquired all the necessary features. In 1938 Hammond made the Novachord, which is a synthesizer based on the criteria and technical documents I've read. So to find out if the Mixtur-Trautonium was the first synthesizer I'd need to know when certain components were made. I wish I could retrace my "research", but searching with a web browser is terrible and most of the articles are buying guides for analog synthesizers or offer only vague definitions. In short, the Theremin was certainly not the first synthesizer, but the Trautonium might not be the first either. The Novachord from 1938 is either the first or second synthesizer.
AFAIK both the theremin and trautonium have no envelope generators (and so may not be considered "synthesizer" in modern sense), but (much like playing a violin) the player himself is the envelope by controling pitch and volume in realtime. AFAIK also the Telharmonium (world first electric organ - was full church organ size) played envelopes by hand.
The original Trautonium was invented by Friedrich Trautwein in 1929/1930. Oskar Sala, who was Trautwein's assistent and composition student at that time, worked together with Trautwein on that instrument, expanded it, modified it and Sala himself later expanded this instrument to the even bigger Mixtur Trautonium. Which looked like the one in the Video here.
@@julianreverse It's the same circuitry as the original Mixtur-Trautonium. You can find videos on youtube of people playing the vintage Trautoniums, including Oskar Sala himself.
@@Breakbeat90s Danke für die Antwort, aber es ging mir ja nicht um die Nachbildung des Klanges, sondern um die Erzeugung an sich. Aber vielleicht habe ich auch was falsch verstanden.
Danke für den Beitrag: Endlich weiß ich, woher die Sonde aus dem Film Star Trek: Zurück in die Gegenwart kommt. Sie wurde von uns Deutschen geschickt. 😂 Hier mal der Zeitstempel für die Star-Trek-Sonde ua-cam.com/video/ZO9M4zi4uGw/v-deo.html&start=7 und zum Vergleich nochmal genau die Stelle aus diesem Video mit der entsprechenden Aufnahme: ua-cam.com/video/Mzc3d_qcNYs/v-deo.html Edit: Und natürlich danke an Google. Wäre Oskar Sala heute nicht auf der Titelseite der Suchmaschine, wüsste ich nicht, was das Trautonium ist.
Es kommt wahrscheinlich darauf an was man darunter versteht. Auch das Automobil wurde x mal erfunden, das Telefon, die Dampfmaschine und vieles andere.
Das Telharmonium war mehr elektrisch als elektronisch, da es eigentlich nur aus motorbetriebenen Generatoren für unterschiedlichen Tonfrequenzen bestand. Ich fand's ganz gut, dass er konkret "elektronisch" sagte, das kommt schon hin.
o weh, das ist fast ein bißchen peinlich. 1) der "SUB-harmonische generator" fügt töne der UNTER-tonreihe hinzu, nicht der obertonreihe. 2) richtig, diese töne sind nicht in "unserer" heute üblichen stimmung enthalten. heute üblich ist aber nicht eine "wohltemperierte" stimmung, sondern eine gleichschwebend temperierte. 3) "die terzen sind alle ein bißchen scharf" (in der obertonreihe) -> hört mal genau hin ! die obertonreihe (wie auch in der untertonreihe des trautoniums) enthält REINE terzen und quinten. die sollen schärfer klingen als die gleichschwebend temperierten terzen und quinten ? ?
I have tried to make a translation using my limited German abilities :-) (0:28) The trautonium is the first electronic instrument that was ever invented.
There is a string on the instrument and under the string there is a metal rail And when I press the string onto the rail an electronic circuit is created and a tone can be heard.
(0:44) I press it down now...... and keeping the string pressed down I can naturally make a glide by sliding my finger along the string. The tone is higher and can also be deeper.
(0:57) It was naturally completely unprecedented back then, that someone had made a completely new kind of sound with a timbre that never had been heard before and with every kind of possibility for expression. The instrument can play softer as well as louder than other instruments. It can play higher notes as well as lower.
(1:19) The most important thing about the tone generation is the sub-harmonic generator..... these numbers. I can add up to three notes to the already generated tone and these notes are taken from the overtone series though they are not equal tempered, they are natural tempered which means that all the overtones are a bit sharp.
(1:54) The man who started it all was Paul Hindemith who between 1925 and 1930 was a professor at Berlin University. He was researching the possibilities to make new electronic sounds. He was working together with an inventor called Trautwein, whom the instrument is named after. For a while it was mass produced under the name "Volkstrautonium" (trautonium for the people) and Hindemith composed many pieces for trautonium including concerts for three trautoniums and for solo performances.
(2:40) It's unfortunately also a tragic story as Hindemith was forced to leave Germany and the trautonium was more or less forgotten. The company Telefunken had invested a lot of money in the production of trautoniums but nobody wanted to buy them and then off course came the war.
(3:04) One performer took up the challenge to play and further develope the instrument and that was Oscar Sala who was a student of Hindemith. He showed me a bit on how to play it and he was the reason I became fascinated by the trautonium. A big problem was though, that you cannot just go on Amazon and buy one. It is an instrument for the few as it is very special. And even today it is not possible to make a synthesizer sound like a trautonium.
Thank you! Grazie! ;o)
If anyone's curious, the intro piece is "Langsames stück und Rondo, für Trautonium" by Paul Hindemith!
Es war definitiv nicht das erste elektronische Instrument. Aber für 1929 und vor allem in seiner Komplexität, ist dieses Instrument damalig fast ein halbes Jahrhundert im Vorsprung gewesen. Und ich bin froh, daß es heute wieder gebaut wird.
Das Theremin ist schon mal älter.
Das Theremin ist ein elektrisches Instrument, dieses hier ist das erste elektronische instrument@@nwie9mm261
The first electronic instrument was the Theremin in 1919, by Leo Theremin. Synthesizer is a different story. That fully depends on what you call a synthesizer
this is incredible, why in the world did audio production stop going in this direction???
It hasn't. You can buy a Moog Subharmonicon right now if you like. Probably like to add a formant filter, but Doepfer make those.
@@skelly790 but like, that isn't the same thing at all, from what I understand.
Make me understand, I want to have hope
@@MelloCello7 Depends what you mean by audio production... If you like the sound of Das Trautonium you can either spend a great deal of money on the real deal, or spend a lesser amount on a Subharmonicon, or build one for free in software using VCV rack. This is a good thing, because you don't have to be rich.
If you mean why aren't people making original instruments? Well, they are... Here's an example. If you want to control such a device using your hands or whatever there are a fantastic array of innovative controllers, such as the Roli Seaboard.
Or maybe you meant something else? If so, pls explain further.
ua-cam.com/video/0Mtm7_sPAEI/v-deo.html
@@skelly790 I mean, I looked up the subharmonicon, and I cannot find a video that in any way resembles what I see in this performance rendered on an instrument made in the 1930's
What I meant, is that *most* production lack the raw performance approach to date that this ancient thing has.
Everything is filtered through 127+ degrees of control, or worse, relentlessly quantized and sequenced.
Not that midi is a bad thing, I get it. it makes things easier, easier to control and communicate with each other. but it is no replacement for true performance control.
Infinitely variable, subject to the slightest variance and change in articulation that makes every performance incredibly vivid, nuanced, and unique. The nuance that makes every instrument worth dedicating a life time towards.
This raw, physically based approach is not replicated in its entirety to satisfaction by the roli seaboard, or any other controller I know of (Hakkum Continuum comes close though)
@@skelly790 Modern production instead has gone the route of carefully parameterized, and totally controlled sequence of events. There may be a few rare exceptions to this observation, but for the most part, like many things, its a far cry from what they had going on in the past.
There’s not many good trautonium vids on UA-cam. It’s such an interesting instrument
The instrument
seen in the video was built in 2009!
Impressive
Nice
That melody was so obviously Hindemith!
OMG🤤
And I was in love with korg volcas??
Hitchcocks used trauntunium in his film the birds to create birds flying sound. in the past it was so chalengeous to become wellknown! Today synthesiser is being used.
hooman J Oskar Sala used the Trautonium to make the bird sounds in Hitchcock‘s movie ;)
Sehr GUT :)
Mach doch einen sample library! Es ist echt cool...thx for sharing :)
Didn't the theremin predate the Trautonium ?
The theremin was released around 1928. It was not until 1933 that the Trautonium came out.
@@TheScandinavianBros The Theremin was invented in 1920
The Theremin is an electric instrument, but it does not qualify as a synthesizer. The criteria for this are quite complicated, and I'm unsure if the first Trautonium counted as a synthesizer either. The instrument shown here is a Mixtur-Trautonium, which I am confident has all the features needed to count as a synthesizer. However, the Mixtur-Trautonium was gradually developed over a long time period, so I couldn't find out when it acquired all the necessary features. In 1938 Hammond made the Novachord, which is a synthesizer based on the criteria and technical documents I've read. So to find out if the Mixtur-Trautonium was the first synthesizer I'd need to know when certain components were made. I wish I could retrace my "research", but searching with a web browser is terrible and most of the articles are buying guides for analog synthesizers or offer only vague definitions.
In short, the Theremin was certainly not the first synthesizer, but the Trautonium might not be the first either. The Novachord from 1938 is either the first or second synthesizer.
AFAIK both the theremin and trautonium have no envelope generators (and so may not be considered "synthesizer" in modern sense), but (much like playing a violin) the player himself is the envelope by controling pitch and volume in realtime. AFAIK also the Telharmonium (world first electric organ - was full church organ size) played envelopes by hand.
When did this incredible instrument first come out?
Back in the 1920ies...
Amazing!!!
The original Trautonium was invented by Friedrich Trautwein in 1929/1930. Oskar Sala, who was Trautwein's assistent and composition student at that time, worked together with Trautwein on that instrument, expanded it, modified it and Sala himself later expanded this instrument to the even bigger Mixtur Trautonium. Which looked like the one in the Video here.
The instrument
seen in the video was built in 2009!
@@julianreverse It's the same circuitry as the original Mixtur-Trautonium. You can find videos on youtube of people playing the vintage Trautoniums, including Oskar Sala himself.
3:20 ? es ist was für "schweinschmecker"? hmmm...
lol
XD
when u manna make a polyphonic ondes martenot xd
I don't know what he's saying but that thing there sure is cool.
3:23 Ist das Trautonium nicht auch als Synthesizer zu betrachten?
ja aber diese synthesemethode lässt sich nicht mit gängigen synthesizern nachmachen
@@Breakbeat90s Danke für die Antwort, aber es ging mir ja nicht um die Nachbildung des Klanges, sondern um die Erzeugung an sich. Aber vielleicht habe ich auch was falsch verstanden.
Danke für den Beitrag: Endlich weiß ich, woher die Sonde aus dem Film Star Trek: Zurück in die Gegenwart kommt. Sie wurde von uns Deutschen geschickt. 😂
Hier mal der Zeitstempel für die Star-Trek-Sonde
ua-cam.com/video/ZO9M4zi4uGw/v-deo.html&start=7
und zum Vergleich nochmal genau die Stelle aus diesem Video mit der entsprechenden Aufnahme:
ua-cam.com/video/Mzc3d_qcNYs/v-deo.html
Edit: Und natürlich danke an Google. Wäre Oskar Sala heute nicht auf der Titelseite der Suchmaschine, wüsste ich nicht, was das Trautonium ist.
1:10
Damit wurden auch die Vogelgeräusche bei Alfred Hitchkcocks die Vögel erzeugt.
"musical" a sounds syntetizer.
äähm, stimmt doch gar nicht. das erste elektronische das erfunden wurde war das telharmonium und später kam dann auch erst mal noch das theremin
Es kommt wahrscheinlich darauf an was man darunter versteht. Auch das Automobil wurde x mal erfunden, das Telefon, die Dampfmaschine und vieles andere.
@@ludwigsmodilla9524 Das Theremin gilt überall anerkannt als das erste elektronische Musikinstrument, mittlerweile feierte es 100 Jahre.
Das Telharmonium war mehr elektrisch als elektronisch, da es eigentlich nur aus motorbetriebenen Generatoren für unterschiedlichen Tonfrequenzen bestand. Ich fand's ganz gut, dass er konkret "elektronisch" sagte, das kommt schon hin.
#SchweinSchmecker
Natürlich kann man das auf einem Synthesizer nachmachen.
Wer ist auch wegen den Kack und Sachgeschichten hier?
o weh, das ist fast ein bißchen peinlich.
1) der "SUB-harmonische generator" fügt töne der UNTER-tonreihe hinzu, nicht der obertonreihe.
2) richtig, diese töne sind nicht in "unserer" heute üblichen stimmung enthalten. heute üblich ist aber nicht eine "wohltemperierte" stimmung, sondern eine gleichschwebend temperierte.
3) "die terzen sind alle ein bißchen scharf" (in der obertonreihe) -> hört mal genau hin !
die obertonreihe (wie auch in der untertonreihe des trautoniums) enthält REINE terzen und quinten.
die sollen schärfer klingen als die gleichschwebend temperierten terzen und quinten ? ?
I have to share this with musical genius named Gotye / Wally de Backer. :-)
na ja. das stimmt leider nicht. Telharmonium kam 30 Jahre früher