In this video, Cynthia Millar offers an introduction to the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument that has earned a place in the orchestral repertoire.
The Ondes Martenot was created by French inventor Maurice Martenot in 1928. It’s a monophonic instrument and offers a range of expressive control that’s just now beginning to become common on synthesizers. It offers continuous control over volume and pitch, allowing it to be played very expressively.
The instrument’s capabilities so impressed composers of the early 20th century that it’s featured more than 100 classical works, and was later featured in dozens of film and television soundtracks.
Millar also demonstrates how diffuseurs that are commonly used with the Ondes Martenot. Diffuseurs are designed not to be traditional loudspeakers, but to be resonators that impart their own acoustic properties to the instrument’s sound.
The video points out some differences in the MS-5, and some audio differences may be obvious to viewers. But the review ultimately suggests that the Behringer MS-5 build quality is ‘OK’ and that, no matter how close it is to the original, it’s an interesting analog synthesizer.
Does the Behringer MS-5 deliver an affordable copy of the Roland SH-5? Watch the video and share your thoughts in the comments!
This video, via Reverb, offers a behind-the-scenes tour of Korg Berlin with CEO Tatsuya ‘Tats’ Takahashi.
Takahashi is probably best known for his work as Chief Engineer of Analog Synthesizers at Korg, Takahashi helped create the Monotrons, Volcas, Korg’s ARP and MS-20 reissues, the Minilogue and more.
For the last four years, though, Takahashi has been leading Korg Berlin, which they have described as a sort of ‘engineering playground’ for electronic instrument design.
Korg Berlin has previewed a new acoustic synthesizer, the Phase8, that they say they expect to debut next year.
