Source: magazine « Technique – youth » , No. 3 for 1960. Author: B. Orlov (engineer). I supplemented the article with a small note about emiriton from the same magazine, but from No. 1 for 1946.

“Electromusical instruments, due to their wide range of heights, strength and richness of timbres, expand the creative capabilities of not only the composer, but also the performing musician. And such qualities as expressive, beautiful sound, combined with melodiousness, richness of timbres and accessibility of performance techniques ensure their mass distribution and turn them into a serious factor in the penetration of high musical culture into everyday life.”(From the statements of People's Artist of the USSR Academician B.V. Asafiev)

A little history

Do the rich and varied expressive capabilities of the modern orchestra surprise us? No, they seem so natural now. After all, musical instruments and playing techniques have been improved over the centuries. We rarely think about the fact that the composer of the 17th century did not have half the resources that the composer of our days has. Meanwhile, until relatively recently, music was performed only with extreme shades of sound intensity: either quietly or loudly. Composers did not yet know what possibilities a gradual strengthening or weakening of sonority concealed. And when, in the middle of the 18th century, the Italian composer and conductor Iomelli first resorted to these effects, the impression was stunning: as the strength of the sound increased, the listeners, holding their breath, unanimously rose from their seats...

Wind instruments remained very imperfect. And instruments such as trombone, tuba, celesta, saxophone had not yet been invented. With their appearance around the middle of the last century, the composition of the symphony orchestra was formed, which has largely survived to this day.

Since then, work on the design of new instruments has come to a standstill. Further enrichment of the orchestra's sound palette occurred only through the improvement of instruments and the growth of performing skills.

However, the designs of classical musical instruments have many shortcomings: in many respects they are still far from perfect. In the arsenal of orchestral colors, a modern composer sometimes does not find everything necessary to realize his creative ideas. Each group of instruments - brass, wood, strings, percussion - is to some extent constrained and limited in its capabilities, just as painting would be limited if the artist’s paints were characterized only by strokes of a certain shape.

Melodious and expressive bowed instruments are weak-sounding, while loud brass instruments are inactive. The entire range of sounds in height is divided into a number of rather narrow sections assigned to individual instruments of the orchestra.

The orchestra's sound palette is intermittent, its state reminiscent of Mendeleev's periodic system of elements at a time when the gaps in its ranks were still far from being filled.

Is timbre the color of sound? This property, by which we easily recognize instruments, even if they are not visible to us, does not remain unchanged in each of them. When playing in different registers, the timbres of the trumpet, trombone, and bassoon change, as if the shades of the artist’s paints changed as he moved the brush across the canvas. Is it possible to imagine a painting with bright colors only in the middle part of the canvas, whitish at the top, and muted or dirty at the bottom? How much energy must a composer expend in order to master the disorderly and insidious colors of the orchestra!

There are no fewer obstacles on the path to mastery for the performer. Only many years of persistent and persistent training, usually beginning in childhood, give him complete and all-conquering power over the instrument. This is required by the very principle of sound production: mechanical vibration of strings or a column of air in a pipe. It is quite clear that in the age of automation and electronics, the development of musical instruments could no longer follow the old mechanical path.

The first steps of electromusic

Great technical discoveries: the telegraph, telephone, radio - gave the creators of new musical instruments - this material body of music - completely new means. We now call them radio-electronic. An area of ​​fascinating creative collaboration between radio engineers, acousticians and musicians has emerged. The work in this area turned out to be fruitful: one after another, various instrument designs began to appear.

At first they were very complex, imperfect and frustratingly cumbersome. Thus, one of the first electric organs weighed 200 tons. Of course, it remained only a laboratory experiment. The instrument of his compatriot Lee de Forest, the inventor of the three-electrode lamp, was also not brought to practical implementation.

The first electric musical instrument to become widely known throughout the world was. Recalling the first steps of the new instrument, he says:

– To me, a physicist and radio engineer who also received a musical education at the Leningrad Conservatory, it seemed that the use of a radio tube in music, which in the twenties was as much news as a nuclear reactor is now, opens up tempting prospects. When creating my instrument, I wanted to make the sound obey the performer directly, without an intermediate mechanical medium - just like an orchestra obeys the conductor. In this instrument, the sound is produced in an unusual way, by free movement of the hand in the space around a small metal stick - an antenna. I first demonstrated it in 1921 at the VIII Electrotechnical Congress. Then I performed on the theremin (that’s what I proposed to call new tool one of the music critics) several works by Saint-Saënas and folk music.

The theremin uses two high-frequency oscillators. When you move your hand near the antenna rod, the capacitance of the oscillatory circuit changes, and therefore the frequency of one of the generators. The sound frequency required to perform music is obtained as the difference high frequencies, excited by generators.

Following the theremin, a whole range of power instruments appeared. This Ilston composer I.G. Ilsarov, similar in structure and method of sound extraction to the theremin, sonar neck instrument by engineer N.S. Ananyev, violen by V.A. Gurova, keyboard instruments: equodine designs by A.A. Volodin, companola by I. D. Simonov and others.

In the post-war years, new designs of electric musical instruments were created, which can already be considered serious rivals to the instruments. regular type. Among them emiriton A.A. Ivanov and A.V. Rimsky-Korsakov, “V-9” by A.A. Volodin, the original polyphonic instrument of the Riga radio amateur L. Vingris. But the miniature electronic pianos by composer Ilsarov are especially interesting. They contain only six vacuum tubes (without an amplifier), but can operate with two tubes.

How are they built?

What do they represent? electric musical instruments?

Despite the large differences in designs, the circuits of such instruments are created according to a general principle. The heart of the instrument is a tone generator, similar to a radio transmitter. In most cases, it operates on vacuum tubes and excites electrical oscillations of very complex shapes.

Why is it necessary to generate precisely such electrical oscillations? The fact is that the composition of musical sounds is far from simple. They consist of air vibrations with different frequencies and intensities. There are several components in the total fluctuation. One of them has the most low frequency. It is called the fundamental tone, the rest are called overtones. For periodic vibrations, such as musical sounds, the frequencies of the overtones are multiples of the frequency of the fundamental tone, that is, they exceed it by an integer number of times. These are the so-called harmonics. In the sound spectrum of an instrument, the timbre largely depends on them. For example, 11 harmonics are involved in creating the timbre of a clarinet. A sound that is very poor in them seems dull and inexpressive, and when there are no harmonics at all, it produces the simplest impression on the ear and is therefore called a simple, or pure, tone.

The complex electrical oscillations excited by the tone generator contain large number harmonics Therefore, an electric musical instrument can easily produce a wide variety of timbres, which can be close to the timbres of conventional instruments, or can be completely new. The instrument keys are equipped with contacts that are included in the generator circuits electrical resistance of various sizes. This allows you to obtain sounds in all registers of the musical scale, from the lowest to the highest.

In the next block of the electric musical instrument, the nature of sound emergence and attenuation is regulated. These processes greatly influence the timbre and can completely transform it. Further electric current is sent to the so-called enzyme chains, where some harmonics are amplified. In conventional instruments, such amplification is provided by the body, which serves as an acoustic resonator and emphasizes the sound of individual frequencies in the sound spectrum. The electric current is then sent to an amplifier equipped with a volume pedal control. This allows you to change the sound strength within the widest possible range, gradually increasing or decreasing it if desired. The sound source is a dynamic loudspeaker.

Synthetic sound

In addition to the design of new performing instruments, there is another interesting area of ​​electromusic - the creation of electronic devices designed for the work of composers. The principle on which they are based is very simple. Any musical sound can be represented as a certain set of pure tones. On the contrary, having a sufficiently large number of them, you can get sounds of any height, volume, or timbre. Working with such a device, the composer becomes, as it were, a sound selector. By combining them in various combinations, he creates hitherto unseen sound fruits - hybrids, the production of which is technically unattainable for an ordinary orchestra. Since such a device uses the idea of ​​connection, synthesis of simple sounds to produce complex ones, it is called a synthesizer.

Research in this area began in our country back in the 30s. Inventors have worked a lot here. They used the possibilities of cinema: after all, on film, sound is recorded in the form of a wavy line that is clearly visible to the eye. By combining recordings of various pure tones into one hand-drawn sound graph, they were able to produce sounds with distinctive and interesting timbres. However, this method is not widely used, since drawing sound is a very painstaking and difficult task.

Work in this area was continued by Candidate of Technical Sciences E.A. Murzin, who recently completed many years of work on creating an electronic music synthesizer. The designer named it in honor of the remarkable Russian composer Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin, in whose museum the device is now installed.

The ANS provides the composer with 576 pure tones, covering 8 octaves of the musical scale. The control device allows you to combine these tones in any combination. They are generated by an optical-mechanical method. The device consists of four identical blocks, one of which is highlighted on a colored tab.

Working with this amazing machine, the composer records music not with notes, but with special frequency marks. He makes marks on opaque glass - a “score”. At the same time, the composer does not need to wait for the orchestra to learn and perform his work. He can listen to written music already in the process of composing it, immediately making the necessary corrections.

The synthesis of timbres is very diverse, quickly performed by a set of knobs on the control device. This allows you to create fundamentally new sounds on the ANS that cannot be obtained on conventional instruments.

On the ANS you can obtain complex sounds that differ from each other in height not only by 1/12 of an octave, as on a piano, but by any distance up to 1/72 of its part, when they become almost indistinguishable to the ear.

To obtain individual shades, noises and overtones, the composer can work with the “score” like an artist, retouching and painting over gaps. He always sees in front of him visual image– a light code that corresponds to a written musical phrase. This helps his work. It can also adjust the volume of each of the instrument's 16 registers (based on the number of photocells), overall volume, and performance tempo. The composer does this at the second stage of his work, as if turning into a conductor. Here he uses two more special handles. Having finally adjusted the shades of sound with them, he records the music on magnetic tape.

The tab shows a diagram of the ANS musical synthesizer, designed by E.A. Murzin. The main thing here is the optical-mechanical generator of pure sound tones. It consists of four identical blocks. Each block contains the following parts: 1 – light source; 2 – condenser for collecting light into a flat beam; 3 – a rotating disk covered with rows of dark stripes, smoothly turning into transparent spaces; 4 – gearbox connecting the disk to the electric motor; 5 – flywheel.

Under the influence of the rotation of the disk, the beam of light becomes intermittent, “modulated”. The states “light” and “darkness” smoothly alternate with each other. The speed of these alternations increases uniformly from the center and edge of the disk.

Mirror 6 directs a modulated flow of light through lens 7 onto flat glass - “score” 8, coated on top with non-drying black paint. If the paint is removed in some places, then the modulated light will fall into the cylindrical lenses 9 and prisms 10, and then into the photocells 11 (there are 16 in total). The amplification of the resulting alternating current produces sound in the speaker.

All four generator blocks produce one continuous strip of modulated light on the glass. The gear ratios of the gearboxes are selected so as to obtain an alternation of light and shadow along this strip with the same law of frequency change as in the scale of sounds of a piano keyboard. For the composer's convenience, the keyboard image is printed along the light strip. The encoder - a device for removing paint from the glass surface - the “score”, moves in the same direction. With its cutters you can make gaps in the glass of the required width and length, which determines the volume and duration of the sound. In total, the encoder has 16 cutters. They allow you to combine the main tone along with any of its 15 harmonics in one sound, giving it the desired timbre. By turning a small handwheel, the composer can move the glass - the “score” - and immediately listen to the written musical phrases.

The ANS synthesizer has already received recognition and high praise from many composers and acousticians. "The widespread development of mechanical recording in modern life, wrote composer I.G. Boldyrev, “gives every reason to believe that it is possible to use the ANS apparatus in artistic practice in the field of cinema, radio, television and recording - in all those cases where the effects conceived by the composer can be more easily and accurately reproduced on this device than on conventional instruments.”

Working with the new tool has already shown its rich capabilities. To fully master it, the composer needs to work a lot, mastering an unusual sound production system. But he will be rewarded handsomely - because the ANS synthesizer provides him with expressive capabilities that are many times greater than those of a conventional orchestra.

Let's try to look into the future of electronic music. Many musical miracles await us there. One of them is small tools made from semiconductors. Lightweight and comfortable, their sound quality is not inferior to ordinary ones. A simple keyboard will make them accessible to the non-professional amateur. Such tools can be very inexpensive. And these will no longer be experimental samples. Anyone who wants to purchase such an instrument will be able to freely buy it in the store.

Today's technology makes it possible to realize ideas that musicians of the past could only dream of. This includes light music, music with smooth changes in timbres, and spatial sound effects. And instruments like the theremin will allow you to create “dancing music.” After all, a ballet dancer can “compose” the music that accompanies this dance not only with the movement of his hand, but with the entire dance. And many more musical miracles will be possible with radio electronics. It’s even difficult to predict them now.

Emiriton

Emiriton is a single-voice electric musical instrument with a range of 6 1/2 octaves. This tool is not automatic; You have to learn to play it, just like the piano or violin. On the emiriton you can achieve a wide variety of sounds: imitate the violin, cello, clarinet, oboe, saxophone and many wind instruments. Moreover, even such sounds specific in timbre, such as drumming, the roar of an airplane, birdsong and the vowels of the human voice, are reproduced by emiriton.

You can perform any complex pieces of music on it.

The emiriton was designed by A. A. Ivanov and A. V. Rimsky-Korsakov.

Externally, the instrument resembles a harmonium without keys. Instead, there is an electric bar. This is a long rheostat over which an elastic contact tape is stretched.

The emiriton body houses a tube oscillator, tone control, filter and amplifier. The tube generator operates according to a circuit that produces various harmonic oscillations. By pressing the bar in the right place, the performer turns on some part of the rheostat into the generator circuit and thereby sets a certain voltage on the lamp grid. Each voltage has its own oscillation frequency.

Changing the color of sound - timbre - is achieved with a special device that changes the shape of the vibrations. Having passed through it, the vibrations enter the electric precipitator. The filter helps to emphasize the desired frequency of the musical range, that is, to obtain the so-called sound formants.

The performer controls this instrument using appropriate handles and a small keyboard located near the neck. The sound volume is controlled by a foot pedal. From the electric filter, vibrations pass through an amplifier to a loudspeaker located at the bottom of the instrument body.

Rich in various timbres, the emiriton can produce sound of any volume. This is its great advantage compared to conventional musical instruments, the sound volume of which is very limited.

Today we will make a diagram of the so-called “Musical Instrument”. We will do it on a timer NE555, since not everyone is familiar with microcontrollers, and not everyone has the opportunity to purchase them, but the cost of this microcircuit ( KR1006VI1) only 10 cents.

To make an electronic musical instrument we will need:

1. NE555 chip – 1 pc.

2. Resistors: 6.8 kOhm - 2 pcs. 4.7 kOhm - 2 pcs., 3.3 kOhm - 2 pcs., 2.2 kOhm - 2 pcs., 5.6 kOhm - 1 pc. We will use SMD, of course it is possible in a DIP package, but I made the printed circuit board for SMD.

3. Ceramic capacitors: 10 (103) nanofarads – 1 piece, 100 (104) nanofarads – 1 piece too.

4. Electrolytic capacitor 22 picofarads from 16 V.

5. Speaker 8 Ohm.

6. Regular buttons 8 pcs.

Now let's start manufacturing the device - download the printed circuit board. First of all, we solder the panel and ceramic capacitors; if there are no panels, we solder the microcircuit directly.

I. NECHAYEV, Kursk
Radio, 2002, No. 5

The operating principle of the toy is based on changing the frequency of an RC generator, which uses a photoresistor as a frequency-setting element. When its illumination changes, the frequency of the generator “floats”, and therefore the tone of the sound in the headphones or dynamic head connected to it. This way you can “select” the desired melody.

The “traffic lights” have already been discussed on the pages of the “Radio” magazine. But unlike them, the two proposed designs are equipped with touch-sensitive volume controls.

In Fig. Figure 1 shows a diagram of a toy assembled on a logic chip and transistor.

Diagram of the musical toy "Traffic light"

On elements DD1.1, DD1.2 a master oscillator of rectangular pulses is made, the frequency of which is determined by the total resistance of the photoresistor R1 and resistor R2, as well as the capacitance of capacitor C1. As the illumination of the photoresistor increases, its resistance decreases and the frequency of the generator increases.

Buffer stages are assembled on elements DD1.3, DD1.4, and on transistor VT1 there is a power amplifier loaded onto BF1 headphones (or a dynamic head with a resistance of at least 50 Ohms).

Generator pulses from the output of element DD1.3 (Fig. 2, a) are supplied to the input of element DD1.4 through a differentiating chain consisting of capacitor C2, resistors R3, R4 and sensors E1, E2. If the resistance between them is high, capacitor C2 will not have time to charge during the pulse, and the shape of the pulses at the input of this element will be almost the same (curve 1 in Fig. 2b). At the output of the element, short voltage pulses are formed (curve 1 in Fig. 2c), opening the transistor. The same impulses are sent to phones, but the sound volume is minimal.

When the resistance between the sensors decreases, when they are “blocked” with a finger, capacitor C2 manages to be partially charged and the voltage shape at the input of element DD1.4 changes (curve 2 in Fig. 2b). This leads to the fact that the duration of the pulse at its output increases (curve in Fig. 2, c), and the sound volume increases. A further decrease in the resistance between the sensors leads to an increase in the pulse duration at the output of the DD1.4 element (curve 3 in Fig. 2c), and hence the volume.

In addition to those indicated in the diagram, the device can use the K564LE5, K561LA7, K564LA7 microcircuit, KD521A, KD503A, KD103A diode. Polar capacitors ≈ K50-6, K50-35 or similar imported ones, non-polar ≈ KLS, K10-17. Photoresistor ≈ SF2-5, SF2-6, FSK-K1. Phones BF1 ≈ TON-2 or other high-impedance (more than 500 Ohms), when using low-impedance phones or a dynamic head, you must install a KT972 transistor with any letter index.

Most parts of the device are mounted on printed circuit board(Fig. 3) made of one-sided foil fiberglass. The board is placed in a light-proof plastic case, in which a hole with dimensions of approximately 10x30 mm must be cut. A photoresistor is placed opposite the hole at a distance of 20...30 mm. The sensors are a plate of one-sided foil-coated fiberglass laminate measuring approximately 20x30 mm, the metallization on which is cut with a gap of about 0.5...1 mm in the middle along the wide side. The resulting two metallized areas are connected to the corresponding parts of the device. The disadvantage of this simple design is that the volume control range depends on the frequency of the master oscillator. It was possible to avoid it in a more complex “traffic light” (Fig. 4), made on a microcircuit containing two op-amps.

An RC rectangular pulse generator is assembled on the DA1.1 op-amp, the frequency of which depends on the resistance of the photoresistor R10. A power amplifier is assembled on the DA1.2 op amp, to the output of which you can directly connect high-impedance headphones (say, TON-2). To connect a dynamic head with a resistance of about 50 Ohms (for example, 0.5GDSh-9), the device should be modified in accordance with Fig. 5.

The device is powered by a unipolar voltage, so for normal operation of the microcircuit, an artificial “midpoint” of resistors R8, R9 and capacitors SZ, C4 is used.

The sound volume is adjusted using sensors E1, E2 ≈ when the resistance between them decreases, a signal is sent to the input of the power amplifier higher level and the sound volume increases. The sensitivity of the touch volume control can be set by adjusting resistor R5.

In this device, in addition to the microcircuit, it is permissible to use the same parts as in the previous design, a tuned resistor ≈ SPZ-19. Most of the parts, including sensors, are placed on a printed circuit board (Fig. 6) made of double-sided foil fiberglass.

To enlarge, click on the image (opens in a new window)

The board is also the front panel of the device, in which a window is cut out to illuminate the photoresistor. On the side opposite to the placement of parts, sensors are located (shown by dashed lines). The board will be the cover of a light-proof plastic case. Light from any source should fall on the window. Closing the window with your hand or fingers to a greater or lesser extent changes the frequency of the signal, and touching the sensors with your finger changes the volume of the sound. The harder you press the sensors, the louder the sound.

LITERATURE
1. Dotsenke Yu. Traffic light. - Radio, 1984, No. 11, p. 49.
2. Nechaev I. Electric musical instrument “Svetofon”. - Radio, 1990, p. 60, 61.

Most often you have come across musical and electric musical instruments with a keyboard (less often with a push-button) keyboard. The proposed tool has no keys or buttons. Its keyboard is made up of two metal plates (Fig. 55) located on the front panel of a small box. By “closing” the plates with one or more fingers, the desired tonality is achieved, and the melody being played sounds from the box.

The diagram of an unusual electric musical instrument is shown in Fig. 56. Transistors VT1, VT2 and other parts are connected to each other so that they form an asymmetrical multivibrator. Feedback, necessary for the occurrence of oscillations, is carried out from the collector of transistor VT2 to the base of VT1 through capacitor C1. But based on transistor VT1 there is no constant bias voltage (relative to the emitter), so the transistor is closed and the multivibrator does not work.

The device will remain in this state until the sensors E1 and E2 are touched with a finger. Then between them the resistance of the skin of the finger will be turned on. A bias voltage will be applied to the base and the multivibrator will turn on. A sound will be heard in the dynamic head BA1.

The pitch of the sound depends on the resistance between the sensors, and this, in turn, is determined by the area of ​​the skin applied to the sensors. In addition, each person’s skin has its own conductivity, which means resistance, which can differ tens or hundreds of times from the resistance of another person’s skin. Taking this into account, a variable resistor R1 is installed in the multivibrator - they compensate for this difference and set for each performer the same initial resistance between the sensor E2 and the base of the transistor VT1. In other words, each performer can “tune” the instrument to suit his own hands. \

Transistor VT1 operating in the first stage is high-frequency, silicon, structures p-p-p. It cannot be replaced with a low-frequency transistor of the same structure (for example, MP37, MP38), since the multivibrator will start working with it immediately after connecting the power source with switch SA1, even if the sensors are not touched. Therefore, you need to install the transistor indicated in the diagram or, as a last resort, replace it with KT316A.

Instead of the MP42B transistor, MP39B, MP41, MP42A, GT402A are suitable. The last transistor is the most powerful of those listed; with it the sound will be louder. Dynamic head - any, with a power of up to 1 W and a voice coil DC resistance of up to 10 0 m. Good results are obtained, for example, with a 0.25GD-19 head, for which the board and casing of a musical instrument are designed.

Variable resistor - SP-I, constant resistor - MLT-0.25, capacitor - MBM, switch - toggle switch TV2-1, power source - battery 3336.

Place the tool parts on a board (Fig. 57) made of insulating material.

The tool box body (Fig. 58) can be made from any insulating material, for example 4 mm thick plywood. The bottom cover is removable so that you can change the battery (it is attached to the cover with a metal bracket).

Slots are cut in the front panel opposite the dynamic head diffuser. The inside of the cracks are covered with loose fabric. Under a variable resistor and off

holes are drilled in the front panel - the protruding parts of the specified parts are passed through them and secured on top with nuts. No other board mounting is needed.

The sensors are strips approximately 10 mm wide, cut from copper, brass or tin from a tin can. They can be attached to the front panel at a distance of 2. . .4 mm apart. The ends of the strips, bent from the inside of the case, are connected by conductors to the corresponding parts of the board. The outer surface of the planks is cleaned to a shine with sandpaper.

After checking the installation and reliability of soldering, turn on the power switch to the multivibra-Fig. 58. Design of the electric motor, install the variable resistor motor

musical instrument _ ____- „____________.

to the extreme left position according to the diagram (in other words, to the position of minimum resistance) and press your finger simultaneously against both touch plates. A relatively low-pitched sound should appear in the dynamic head. Without releasing your finger, move the variable resistor slider to the other extreme position - the tone of the sound will increase.

If there is no sound, short-circuit the sensors and make it appear by selecting resistor R2 or R3. Resistor R2 is selected if the sound is barely audible. If it is completely absent, you must first close resistor R3 and make sure that the multivibrator is working, and then select resistor R3 (with lower resistance).

Once you have finished checking and adjusting the instrument, you can play it. By placing your finger on the sensors, set the variable resistor to the desired sound tone. By pressing your finger harder against the sensors or applying several fingers to them at once, change the tone of the sound and play a simple melody. With a little practice, you can confidently play this unusual musical instrument.

To change the boundaries of the instrument's audio range, you need to select capacitor C1. When its capacity increases, the pitch decreases, and when it decreases, it increases.

The instrument consumes current from the power source only when the sensors are touched; the rest of the time the transistors are closed. Therefore, battery energy is consumed sparingly. It usually has to be replaced after 40... . 50 hours of tool operation.