AudioLemon found this video which may be the first use of an electronic instrument in a film soundtrack – L’Idee (1932).

It features prominent use of the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument, in a score by Arthur Honegger.

This is the third video by Dana Countryman documenting the creating and use of his amazing synth DIY project – an Ondes Martenot.

The Ondes Martenot is a unique musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot and originally very similar in sound to the theremin.

via happymoogman:

In this video, I show the left-hand volume control, and give an overview of the entire system.

At the end, I play “Ave Maria” on the instrument, live in my studio.

More info at http://www.danacountryman.com

Don’t miss the previous two videos, Building An Ondes Martenot & Dana Countryman’s Ondes Martenot Ring Controller Project.

via Thomas Bloch:

Formule is one of the most virtuosistic piece written for solo ondes Martenot, composed by and played here by the French multi-instrumentalist Thomas Bloch (ondes Martenot, glassharmonica, cristal Baschet), who has played as well with Radiohead, Gorillaz and John Cage.

Video recorded live in the Barbican Center, London (October 2007).

Other names : Ones Martenot (Catalan), Ondas Martenot (Spain, Portugal), Martenot waves (English), Onde Martenot (Italy), Fale Martenota (Poland) – wrong name : Martinot

happymoogman Dana Countryman gives an overview of his awesome DIY project, his take on the Ondes Martenot:

Here is part two of my progress, building an Ondes Martenot-style controller for my modular synthesizer.

Feel free to use my ideas, but no, I will not be building one for you!

I built this around my beloved DX-7, but it only uses that keyboard for visual reference, while playing the ring controller. You could use ANY keyboard for your own reference. – Dana Countryman

See this post for the first part of Countryman’s Ondes Martenot project coverage.

The Ondes Martenot (French for “Martenot waves) is an early electronic musical instrument, invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot and originally very similar in sound to the theremin.

The sonic capabilities of the instrument were subsequently expanded by the addition of timbral controls and switchable loudspeakers. The instrument’s eerie wavering notes are oscillating frequencies produced by thermionic valves.

The video above offers an overview of the rarely heard Ondes Martenot from one of the world’s foremost masters of the instrument, Jean Laurendeau.

Resources:

• Analogue Systems‘ French Connection keyboard has many things in common with the Ondes Martenot.
• l’Ondéa is a modern take on the Ondes Martenot

Nortec’s Pepe and Ramon visit BigCityMusic, and check out one hundred and one synthesizers in two minutes. 

“This is one our many visits to Bigcitymusic, one of our favorite analogue synthesizer store around, we really thanks to Roger and all bigcitymusic family we love you guys.” – Pepe & Ramon.

You can see here at least a knob or slider from Analogue Systems modular systems, LL Electronics, Metasonix, Cwejman, Mellotron, Sherman, Jomox, Vermona, System 8500 modular, French Connection Martenot-style controller, rs-420 Octave Controller, rs95e VCO, rs370 Polyphonic Harmonic Generator, rs300 CV to MIDI and others. 

See anything else in the video? Leave a comment!

This is a video demonstrating craigtorso’s Ondestrak, a musical controller for MaxMSP inspired by the Ondes Martenot and built from a Gametrak video game controller:

The pitches are fairly imprecise here but I’m more or less riffing on the song Good Vibrations which, incidentally, features a Tannerin, an instrument conceptually similar to the Ondes Martenot. In this video I do not have the Ondestrak programmed to respond to the joysticks on either end of the ribbon controller. It is only outputting an unfiltered sine wive, varying in intensity with pressure asserted to the hinged base-board and varying in pitch with the position of the ribbon controller.

See the full instructions for building an Ondestrak on the Instructables website.

via hackaday

In this video, Dana Countryman gives an overview of his very cool DIY Ondes Martenot Ring Controller project:

I’m building a Ring Controller, in the style of a vintage Ondes Martenot, to control my modular synthesizer. Here is the first video, showing my progress, so far.

I’m controlling a synthesizers.com Q125 Signal Processor, which in turn, is controlling an oscillator on the big synth.

This is a work in progress, and I’m continuing to complete this instrument.
Another video will follow this one, when it is completed.

Countryman has toured with French electronic musician Jean-Jacques Perrey, and is helping to keep happy Moog music alive.

A demonstration of an assembled Electric Western Phantastron vacuum tube synthesizer. 

This Phantastron was built for a customer from the same components & case parts in the standard kit. The Phantastron has a 30’s vacuum tube sound, like an Ondes Martenot in the highs and a Trautonium in the low range.

Phantastron was recorded direct to camera. No effects used…

Their product line includes:

• Complete modular systems
• The Spawn patchable analog synthesizer
• Control-Voltage keyboards, including one based on the classic ondes martenot.

The main focus is on instruments developed between 1900 and the 1960’s. This is one of the most creative times in electronic music design, and a period in which experimental electronic music was born. By the early 1960’s, the Moog synthesizer defined the modern modular synthesizer, and most later synthesizers were derived from the ideas contained in early Moog’s.