Forums Music Sound Equipment building an ondes martenot

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  • #1054464
    barrettone
    Participant

      Does anyone here know if this would be possible? Since Maurice Martenot built them himself, I imagine it must be within the realm of possibility if one is willing to invest the time, money, and energy into it. Anyone here able to help? I imagine radio valves will be a bit hard to come by…

      #1262854
      Pat McDonald
      Participant

        Sure it’s possible – depending on your budget. 🙂

        Not just a money thing, also depends how much effort your willing to put into researching how the things were made in the first place.

        As “radio valve suppliers” returned 1.5 million hits, I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult to find people willing to sell you some of them. Almost certainly more than needed for one instrument.

        Had never heard of this before your post, but that’s my opinion on your fad. Whether or not you can make it real, depends on you.

        #1262852
        barrettone
        Participant

          @Pat McDonald 508611 wrote:

          Sure it’s possible – depending on your budget. 🙂

          Not just a money thing, also depends how much effort your willing to put into researching how the things were made in the first place.

          As “radio valve suppliers” returned 1.5 million hits, I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult to find people willing to sell you some of them. Almost certainly more than needed for one instrument.

          Had never heard of this before your post, but that’s my opinion on your fad. Whether or not you can make it real, depends on you.

          Well I mean I’m sure I could build an HDTV if I tried hard and had the funds, it was more a line of enquiry into “is it feasible to do this without getting frustrated due to time and effort” but I guess my love of the instrument’s sound outweighs any possible setbacks I may face. As long as I get a working product in the end at least…

          #1262850
          General Lighting
          Moderator

            you can get valves easily especially european series, they are still widely used in audio equipment and also what remains of Cold War defence electronics infrastructure on both sides.

            unlike the Theremin this instrument various versions still appear to be in production, the family business what made them still going with Monsieur Martenots son working with nerw manufacturers and copyrights/intellectual property closely guarded. I did find what was essentially a sales brochure in French for one but no schematics.

            Someone in the USA has built a midi controller based around the technology and a Yamaha DX7 and shared the details (you will need to convert this into metric)

            Dana Countryman’s Ondes Martenot Controller Project

            but much of the sound of the original instrument would also come from the distinctive loudspeakers.

            TBH I’d start with either building the controller and using it with newer digital kit or learning to build smaller valve oscillators/amps (beware of the HT voltage, make sure you have good blocking capacitors where needed)

            #1262851
            General Lighting
            Moderator
              #1262853
              know_hope
              Participant

                dont u just need a casio keyboard, a wedding ring and a piece of string?

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              Forums Music Sound Equipment building an ondes martenot