The Hanert Synthesiser or 'Electric Orchestra' was designed and
built by John Hanert c1945 for the Hammond Organ Company and was
described as an 'Apparatus for Automatic Production of Music'.
The Synthesiser was an instrument for composition and synthesis
of electronic music similar to the later RCA Synthesiser and other
coded performance machines. Instead of using punch paper tape
like the
RCA Synthesiser the Hanert Synthesiser had a moving mechanical scanning head
that moved over a sixty foot long table covered in eleven inch
by twelve inch paper cards. The paper cards held the characteristics
of the sound (pitch,duration,timbre and volume) stored in the
form of graphite marks that were 'read' by direct electrical contact
of the scanning head.
The sound generating part of the instrument occupied a whole
room and consisted of a bank of vacuum tube oscillators, a random
frequency generator (to produce 'white noise' characteristics
for percussive sounds) and wave shaping circuits. Speeding up
and slowing down of the music(accelerando/decelerando) could be
controlled by altering the speed and direction of the scanning
head.
Hanert's unique system allowed a great deal of flexibility in
composition and synthesis, marks could be added to the cards simply
by using a graphite pencil and the cards could be arranged in
any order allowing variations and multiple combinations in the
composition. Hanert commented:
"The composer ultimately usually has but slight control over the
instrumentation employed by the orchestra and it is only after
tedious and time consuming steps have been taken and the orchestra
has ultimately rendered the composition the composer can actually
audition his composition......its is seldom that a recording represents
the closeness to perfection which is anticipated by the composer
and the cunductor.......
In the method and apparatus of this invention the composer, arranger
or conductor has at his command means for controlling the quality
of each note, its intensity, envelope and the degree of accent,
duration and tempo without necessarily affecting any other note
or tone of the composition. he has under his control, within the
limitations imposed by the apparatus as a whole, facilities for
producing, under his sole control, any of a substantially infinite
variety of renditions of a composition."
T.L.Rhea:"The Evolution of Electronic Musical Instruments in the
United States" (diss., George Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn, 1972)