We'll meet again performed on a Hammond Novachord built in 1939
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- Опубліковано 13 сер 2016
- Bert van den Brink performs on this unique instrument from 1939 revised by Sjaak van Oosterhout. This instrument can be considered the ancester of the modern synthesizer. This instrument once more proves the genious of Laurence Hammond.
When Vera Lynn recorded we'll meet again in 1939 accompanied on the Novachord it must have felt like science fiction.
Hammond Novachord
www.musifix.nl
www.bertvandenbrink.com
Vera Lynn
Bert van den Brink
'
I always thought that the recordings of these on old radio recordings were "warbly" because of the records they used to record the performances. It's interesting that they just sound like this. It's great!
My exact thoughts hearing this!
Same. I didn't know it was the actual instrument
Theatre organs from that time sound like that too. They liked a lot of vibrato back then!
Same, I guess they liked this sound
We STILL love it in 2024!
I played one in the 1940's but couldn't figure out what it was all about. I sat there for hours and got nowhere. But then I was only sixteen. Nice to hear this player.
God bless you!
I would love to hear some stories from your childhood.
Too innovative for your time. 😊
I guess that even facing a moog at the end of the 60 , beginning of the 70, it was more a puzzle that an instrument of music for many peoples.
I’m currently 16, and I wish I could play one of these!
I am curious what a person with your life experience must think of youtube.
i've been told there's only 4 or 5 working units left out there. they are incredibly rare and hard to keep up and running. it still has an amazing sound.
Yes a company wanting to do à software version gad à hatd time for finding one working.
Probably the tubes. Pain in the __s.
@@markothwriter In brief, yes. But also the original lack of fuses anywhere, the power supply, and ancient capacitors. If you're curious, there's a couple websites that have documented people's effort to restore their Novachord.
Again, that's 163 tubes, about a thousand degrading capacitors that probably are weird values, fire hazard transformers, AND ZERO FUSES.
@@jonndaFuses aren't essential to the function when it's in good condition, so they probably figured the extra cost would just sink the viability of the whole instrument.😂
@@jimmycricket5366 Yeah, no one was thinking about the instrument being useable almost a century after it was made. One disadvantage of tubes, and using a lot of them, is heat. Heat degrades a lot of stuff this baby is made of. They were aware of that enough to tell people not to run it with certain cover panels on, and you'll notice that on this one they probably took the whole top case off to help keep the temperature down.
So anyways, the thing was a fire hazard after awhile. They were wild days before people realized fuses can not only help prevent and reduce electric shock, but help prevent the whole device from catastrophic failure. It wasn't just Hammond. Old amps often didn't have fuses either. Heck, the Power Grids didn't have fuses at one point until S&C Electric invented them IIRC.
I worked on one around 2002-ish for Mark Mothersbaugh. Lots and lots of very specific capacitor values and resistors to make up the oscillators and frequency dividers. I think it’s about 96 tubes also. The rattling sound is from brass bars that oscillate to make the tremolo. You have to kick start them with a lever with felt on it.
Neat! Thanks for sharing.
holy shit. cool.
Jurassic Park is real! ❤😊
Mr. Mothersbaugh the very composer of The Sims 2 soundtracks. What a huge honour!
It's kick started!!? Mental! I love this thing, absolutely awesome piece of history.
“Containing 163 vacuum tubes and over 1,000 custom capacitors,[7] the Novachord weighed nearly 500 pounds and was roughly the size of two spinet pianos. The divide-down oscillator architecture, based on vacuum-tube monostable circuits, permitted all 72 notes to be played polyphonically by deriving several octaves of notes from twelve L-C tuned top-octave oscillators. Only one tetrode per lower note was needed.”
As they said in "The usual suspects"
In English, please ?
:-)
I bet Keith Emerson wanted one of these and couldn't find one
As they said in "The usual suspects"
In English, please ?
:-)
I bet Keith Emerson wanted one of these and couldn't find one
As they said in "The usual suspects"
In English, please ?
:-)
I bet Keith Emerson wanted one of these and couldn't find one
As they said in "The usual suspects"
In English, please ?
:-)
I bet Keith Emerson wanted one of these and couldn't find one
As they said in "The usual suspects"
In English, please ?
:-)
I bet Keith Emerson wanted one of these and couldn't find one
brilliant
Fancy seeing you here, haha!
But I agree, such a beautiful sound!
No way it’s the marble machine man!
Its him
@brodster7042 hello fellow furry
what is the checkmark by your name
Boy, do I remember that sound from my childhood. Back in the days when organists were frequently hired to provide ambient music in public spaces. Takes me right back.
Are you 120 years old?
@@totallyfake2852 actually beautiful things tend to die a slow and agonizing death rather than be replaced all at once
Probably like 80s
@@NotViperfnin the 80's there were a lot of (still famous) solid state synths
Distract the people from nuclear armageddon!
Really miss those major 6th chords in modern music. The piece played had plenty of them in multiple inversions and they sounded glorious. My mom would have loved this! 🎹 💚
barry harris brought me here.. the novochord is beautiful
The happy interval.
6th is the king of chords IMO
@@grenciamars4876 It’s a great big welcome mat for whatever comes next.
What a great observation about this absolutely fascinating video. So glad this turned up in my feed today!
I remember hearing a unique keyboard sound in Pinocchio, always wanted to know what it was, and discovered that it was called a Novachord. What a beautiful sound.
One of these appeared in the lobby of our restored theater and organ. For sale! Then it appeared in our warehouse and I got more than a look at it. Mice ate the paper cones of the speakers. Under the hood I smelled old electronics like never before or again. Carefully I fired it up and got sound. The amp chassis is the same as the old Hammond tall boy tone cabinets. No electrolytics to worry about, oil filled. Only one note worked in all octaves but most were dead. The tubes are obsolete. I had to crate it up for a trip to Italy.
Thank you for sharing! I hope one day we might find out more details about where it went and where it lives today.
About 15 years ago I walked into my local Radio Shack and asked if they had vacuum tubes. The guy gave me a funny look and said no. I asked if he knew where I could get some. He advised me to buy a DeLorean.
@@DarkElfDiva There is a factory in Zaporohizia (Ukraine) that started to manufacture vacuum-tubes again.
@@MaskinJunior Well, I know SOMEONE must still be making vacuum tubes, because they are still used in some amps for electric guitars.
Wow. Hard to believe this instrument is almost 100 years old. Incredible sound!
85
@@rogerioale767 Well, aren't we pedantic, ha-ha.
The commenter did write "almost 100" and 85 years being far closer to 100 than it is to 1 year old, I would say that safely falls within the definition of "almost." 🙂
@@pauld6967 15 years, in my opinion, is a considerable amount of time, to be almost.
@@droopy_eyes So, you want to be even "lazier" and round down 85%?
Alright, for the sake of discussion, in order to meet _your_ interpretation of "almost," how close to 100 years does it have to be?
@@droopy_eyes I take it then that you just wanted to disagree for the sake of disagreeing since you apparently didn't, and still don't, have a value in mind for what is within the limits of the term "almost."
So be it. Have a good night & remainder of the weekend.
This video always gives me shivers, what an incredible instrument. Really makes me nostalgic for a time period I was nowhere near living in.
Completely agree.
@@donnysarian Good to know!
It’s just possible that you were living in these times last time around. My wife and I always get the shivers when we hear Glen Miller’s music. Don’t know why, but it’s very strange, and it seems so familiar. “Nutter on line two”. Maybe, maybe not…
shiver me timbers
Your old past life self, don’t worry I guess, you’ll meet again, don’t know where don’t know when.
Funny how 80's this sounds at 80+ years old. I love it, a testament to how ahead of time the 30's and 40's were.
Bert van den Brink is not only a great musician, but also a great instrumentalist - he can make anything musical, as long as it has a keyboard
made more remarkable given that he is blind
It looks like if you touch anything other than the keys then you'd die.
If the chassis went live you'd be dead! ⚡☠️
Dear sir, I am astounded by this new musical invention. It's futuristic tones will doubtless define the sound of the 40s. Yours sincerely, and so on and so forth.
It's highly likely that its futuristic tones influenced the sound of the 40s, but tso did swing orchestras.
@@xdashlydia Yeah, when writing my flippant comment, I had the dominance of big band swing in mind. Having said that, looking at other comments here, I'm informed that this instrument resonates with many as the music played during intermissions or in the background at events.
@@originaluddite Also background music for certain radio programmes.
The house lights would dim when this was switched on-all those valves heating up. Great sound, must have been so unique back then-I was only a year old. I play this on my modern Yamaha and never tire of it-so many ways and variations on a modern keyboard. Thanks for sharing this.
For people in the U.S. especially, "Valves" is a UK (and perhaps other places) term for "tubes" (vacuum tubes). It is actually more descriptive because the function is like a "valve" to electrons. "Tube" is just the package.
@@trainliker100 Valves in AU too.
INTERESANTE...
UNA PREGUNTA, CÓMO SE LLAMA LA MELODÍA..?
GRACIAS Y QUE BUENO QUE TENGAN ESE GUSTO POR ESTE TIPO DE MÚSICA, YO ME GUSTA TAMBIÉN.
SALUDOS DESDE LA CONCORDIA, CHIAPAS MÉXICO 🇲🇽 🇲🇽
EXCELENTE NOCHE!
@@jorgemanuelruizlopez6304 Spanish: La canción se llama "We'll Meet Again" escrita por Ross Parker y Hughie Charles en 1939. Fue una de las canciones más populares durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El título por sí solo probablemente explica por qué fue tan popular entre los soldados y sus familias al verlos ir a la guerra. Engish: The song is called "We'll Meet Again" written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles in 1939. It was one of the most popular songs during World War II. The title alone probably explains why it was so popular with soldiers and their families seeing them go off to war.
@@jorgemanuelruizlopez6304 "We'll Meet Again" written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles in 1939
Wow. That instrument has so much "soul" to it! It is gorgeous.
"This instrument once more proves the genius of Laurence Hammond."
Well actually Laurens Hammond surrounded himself with people at the factory on Diversey Avenue who were not only genius but possibly a little insane too!
They say there is a very fine line between insanity and genius.
Hammond was a genius.
A genius would know that it's a good idea to work with other geniuses, and it definitely worked for Hammond and his organ company!
Ooh quite MAD , this Hammond 😮
I’ll stick with my B3 😊
A magical instrument played superbly, really shows off the unique sound perfectly. This was so ahead of its time. The technology is amazing.
Love those old fashioned melodic and harmonic idioms, they're beautiful
I thought I had seen or knew about every keyboard instrument ever built…but this one totally escaped my attention. Thanks so much much for sharing this video…now I am aware of this instrument too!
I always thought that the somewhat "muffled" sound was because of the lackluster recording equipment used at the time... kind of neat that it just sounds that way
It's 2024 an I still have never heard a sound right between a piano and an electric organ. Like it very much!
This song reminds me of my Great Gran. She left England for South Africa with her first born, my Nanna, shortly after WWII. I wish I'd thought to record the chats we had, as there is so much I've forgotten. She'd often sing songs and I'd accompany her with my guitar, just following her voice, as i didn't know the songs well enough. Tea and cake, games of dominoes, and hearing about her life was always the best.
Bravo, this man has a real 1940's feel to his playing which I enjoy very much. I mean, I just heard the original Vera Lynn version, (o.k. 1939,) and this has a similar feel, but was there much else like it back then? Can I truly claim it has a 1940's style? I just listened again to the original, that Arthur Young was years ahead of his time. OR WAS HE, I'm not entirely au fait with that musical milieu. Bravo Bert.
Excelent demonstration with the right style of music. Congratulstions for this artist! Very interesting and genuine instrument!
Very nice. Cool instrument, awesome musician = stellar performance!
Beautiful. The lovely tube technology. The excellent hand crafted panels. It is all very beautiful and built to the highest degree of technology at that time.
Seeing this video inspired me to teach myself how to play this song on the piano to play at my grandfather’s funeral. Thank you for sharing a fantastic piece of music played on a fantastic instrument.
Absolutely lovely! BRAVO to mr. Van Den Brink on such delicate performance!!
And that vibrato with the volume crescendo oooh my god...
Fascinating....never knew this instrument existed 85 years ago.
amazing
I always wanted to find out what was that sound on Vera Lynn's recording
beautiful
Absolutely amazing instrument, way ahead of its time. I had no idea that's what was used on the recording of the song and great to see it being played.
Lawrence Welk had a Hammond in his show and I always loved to hear it played such beautiful music with it.
Just seeing those vacuum tubes and knowing how hard to near impossible it can be to get new/newold ones for other purposes makes seeing this running a treat.
This is a 7 year old video, but is new to me. Lovely sound and a wonderful player. I hope Keyscape or someone can get a great quality digital version of this if they don't already. This just screams 40's. Love it.
Who would have thought that Vera Lynn was the true pioneer of synth pop?
The sound of it brings so much nostalgia!
This is some of the best playing ive ever heard/seen WOW its like the magic of old movies. Thanks for sharing
Great playing, legendary instrument. Loved the video.
Excellent musicianship. Absolutely outstanding.
A truly unique instrument nicely presented. Stellar!
I could listen to this all day
I'm an electronic technician with 45 years of experience, and despite the fact that this instrument look like a challenge to make it works, I would love to have one to bring back to life.
It reminds me of the old Disney films from the 30's. Very nostalgic sound.
Reminds me if the ice rink at our mall in the 80's. They hired church organ ladies during the week. They had a list of songs but the sound was the same.
I just saw him in a video playing with someone really famous and I can’t place it. Ahhhh. This guys the real deal. Love the way he plays.
Moore videos of this instrument please ! Never seen it before. And I love the old tonewheel organs.
Hammond is great.This is old and fully working. Great job! The best whishes from Sweden.
What a unique sound. Now I need to find a sample library of it :-)
This is absolutely amazing......legendary keyboard....I only know of this one in existence
The attack and then decay when you hit a chord is crazy !!!
What an artist! He's insanely good!
Sounds like it would be used for one of those old radio shows.
It's a nostalgic and very comfortable sound.
Sometimes I want to listen
The one wrong note I thought I heard turned out to be nostalgically beautiful when my musical mind caught up and realised that what sounded like clutter turned out to be gold as the remaining notes unfolded before my ears!
His depth of understanding of these overlapping chords, that have so many notes in them that they can be called many things, is extraordinary.
The instrument is a treasure, but the greatest treasure in the video is the fellow sitting playing it.
It is available as a vst so at least it's been preserved for the future in a way
Imagine it: That thing time traveled here from over 85 years ago bringing with it all its analog glory, just to be ruined by UA-cam's audio compression.
Trust me, with a Novachord you're not missing much.
We used to listen this on a VHS and analog TV. This is by far the best recording of a novachord I've ever heard.
youtube's audio compression is fine
The chords he played in the intro 0:02 I totally could see and hear a black and white scene with a narration in the background.
This sounds like the kinda thing you'd hear in the backrooms, but when you try and reach it it just keeps getting more and more distant yet louder and louder.
I never really thought about how crazy it was hearing this in 40’s records until just now, but I have definitely heard not a small amount of this instrument!!! I guess I sort of subconsciously assumed it was just an acoustic organ I was hearing 🤔
Exactly! I thought the sound was some product of the recording process ...
Great in the winter time. Heat the whole house up with that nostalgic dusty vacuum tube smell. 😁
Wow why an instrument, incredible half organ half piano. Unique. Thanks for sharing this experience.🎹👍
I love how rinkey dink sounds like these have become an aesthetic. Everything has a neat place in music now.
I'm 66 yrs old and this organ sound is from my childhood. I was and still am irritated by it's sound.
This is really hard to listen to even with some one who knows how to play keyboards.
I’m with you. Same with an accordion
Do you go out of your way to find, watch, and comment on videos that annoy you? 😅
lol!! I bet I would too if I heard it all the time but hearing it for the first time...not so bad!
Lol I thought this was going to be a wholesome comment but then it turned hilarious lolol
I wonder how many more views this will get with the release of the Cherry Audio Novachord plugin.
Still cool to hear an original being played masterfully. :)
This might just be the perfect instrument for this song. I genuinely can't think of anything that would suit it more
thank you, good artist for playing that heartwarming, evocative rendition!...I saw Dame Vera Lynn at her V E Day fiftieth anniversary appearance in Hyde Park...I know my mom, who sang, was envious as I described the event and the effect on us there, as that Lady was singing this song
Okay, so I want this gentleman to be my live-in butler and just play the novachord when he’s not answering the front door or dusting. In house harpsichord and tuxedo set included with this limited time offer.
Yes, I’ve been watching too much Addams Family.
I'd go for that!
@@jerrykautz6572😂❤
Geweldig, echt uniek, een groot musicus vandaag de dag op dit bijzondere instrument, in volledig werkende toestand! Petje af ook voor Sjaak!
"Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This as you may recognize is a maintenance service elevator still in operation, waiting for you. We invite you if you dare to step aboard because in tonight's episode you are the star and this elevator travels directly to...the Twilight Zone."
I could sit and listen to him play all evening. You just don't hear improvisation like that anymore.
I agree. He clearly has great understanding of chords and theory, but his approach is very playful and inventive. I was quite stunned but this keyboardist, and will explore him more.
Wow! That's a great instrument! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Interesting instrument, it sounds like something I would hear at a roller rink.
I was thinking the same thing.
Well, KEN GRIFFIN played a vibrato Hammond for skating - so that makes sense.
OMG (oh, my Goddess), you nailed it!
Call it Crucified!
Even live this thing sounds like I'm listening to it through an old radio.
It's really cool hearing this piece being played on something that was made at the beginning of WW2.
One thing amazes here, based completely on an assumption. The fact that this is being played in a shop indicates that perhaps the performer not only has an amazing ability to play, but also has the technical knowledge to maintain or repair a unit like this.
@@OtisSpunkmeyer_I was complimenting this guy on being very accomplished in two seemingly unrelated fields, those being musical performance and relatively high level technical work on electronics. I myself am skilled in several areas, one of them is called “not being a massive douchebag” which is obviously something you haven’t quite mastered yet.
The only question i have is: How did people come up with a machine like this capable of playing music like that?
It is magnificent.
I think we human beings in today's world would struggle even to copy such a machine, let alone build one from scratch.
Luckily we made it to the moon in 69.
But i got the feeling we did not become more intelligent, smarter.
We went from great stuff to dumb stuff.
Wonderful.
"What a wonderful world, oooo yeah"
stuff like this was invented one part at a time, and they just kept adding features. Probably took a few years to pull that together.
yeah, but it still is amazing@@rupe53
It’s maths, semi conductors and mechanics ;-) now we do the same in a computer and we don’t have to hard wire it. Yet in the real thing, the whole assembly act like a soundboard, the components introduce small variations, as temperature change the sound changes etc
And last but not least, you can put your pint of beer on the real thing to sip as you play :)
Wow, that's amazing. What beautiful tones. Bert's such a great player too. Nice to see him having fun.
I recall that British band leader Lew Stone adopted one of these in the late 1930s.
And now we return to Shadow, sponsored by Blue Coal. Pennsylvania's finest anthracite coal.
Holly shit, the first polyphonic synthesizer!
Ondes Martenot was around in 1928. It was also based on vacuum tunes but the controls were a bit more esoteric, though it did have a 72-key keyboard.
@@mikechampagne-manresagroup9288 The Martenot was not polyphonic.
@clarkem4119 I know that so I'm confused because it surely looks like I'm implying that it is (not was; they are still being made today). I'm wondering if there was another post I was replying to that has been deleted or if I just replied to the wrong post to begin with. Considering I'm doing this on a cellphone, I suppose just about anything is possible. It's all good regardless.
@@mikechampagne-manresagroup9288 You replied to a post that said the Novachord was the first polyphonic synth, saying that the Martenot was earlier.
Feels like something straight out of we happy few
Vera Lynn was quite lovely and her songs were beautiful
Bert van den Brink is a blind pianist!
Plays hundreds times better than many others
That intro reminds me of "If i didn't care"
Now that takes me back. Excellent.
Now I konw what music Instrument they are using in their old Disney films from the 1930/1940 THANK YOU and cool that you guys are repaird this Organ!
...if you knew how to set the adjustments you'd have your own time travelling space ship !
damn I didn’t know you could play in technicolor
No matter how crazy cool the tech was back in the day a musician had to play the dam thing to make the magic. Well, I suppose there were player pianos and other early sequencers but they were not the dominant method of creating and performing music the way computers are now. Playing vs. programming I guess is the point I’m making. Bert, you play really well, so musically! Thank you for this.
Vera Lynn. "we'll met again, don't know where, don't know when. But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day."
1940s Synth-pop!
Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
Remember how she said that we would meet again some sunny day?
Vera! Vera! What has become of you? Does anybody else in here feel the way I do?
Pink Floyd
I used to have one of these as a kid of maybe 19 in St. Louis. It wasn't working and my intent was to go through 200 (?😅) vacuum tubes and replace the ones that weren't working. It came with 2 x humongous 6 ft. speaker cabinets. After I was married, I got a job in Kansas City and transported the setup there into a second story flat with us. Had to remove the block of insides and cut off the legs to do so. It sat in the living room with the insides unit upright to the rest without me doing anything further with it. Then I bought a Hammond C3 (church model - surround wooden case) and got my cousin to help me get it up to the flat, too. When I joined a band, the C3 came down again and lived at bandmate's house. Eventually, band broke up, gave the C3 to my parents and stored the Novachord in their garage, with the vacuum tubes unit upright on the base again. No wonder wife went off with someone else. I gave up the lit and moved to Australia! 😊
well meet again type sound, i love this so much!
edit: this was commented like 3 seconds in and I did not read the title lol xD
amazing job
Absolutely beautiful
5 years of people telling me i was wrong later, im sorry
Not as odd as you think... I personally know of three that have been completely recapped; #1256, #1776 and there's one in Arizona somewhere that have been completely recapped
RICKROLLBLENDER okay, cool
Sine Nomine they voicing circuits have metal can capacitors that are filled with wax and have poor aging characteristics and would need to be refurbished.
Sine Nomine I think you know close to NOTHING about electronics to make the assumption that a valve based circuit doesn't have capacitors.
Sounds like The Caretaker’s An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
I love to hear you play these vintage organs. (It makes me want to get a pair of roller skates and go skating!) (And I don't even roller skate!!) 😀
that man is just feeling the music