Inventor Georges Jenny Demos The Ondioline (1948)

This video, taken from a rare newsreel from 1948, features French inventor Georges Jenny demonstrating his early electronic music instrument, the Ondioline

The Ondioline is a precursor to the modern synthesizer. Capable of making a wide range of sounds, it featured a unique keyboard that lets players create a natural-sounding vibrato by moving the playing hand, side-to-side.

The instrument was notably used by synthesist Jean-Jacques Perrey, who later popularized the Moog synthesizer with his happy synth pop & ‘Mooged-out’ recordings.

6 thoughts on “Inventor Georges Jenny Demos The Ondioline (1948)

  1. BTW, what was going on with that banjo demo on the keys, there was quite a bit of “trill-finger-“”english””” going on there.

    Impressive early instrument. Seemed to have nice realtime control of dynamics (and timbre?).

    1. I believe this instrument allowed some sort of vibrato or modulation on a ribbon-like controller. The keys also wiggled to allow vibrato, as you can see when the video shows a closeup of the player’s hands.

  2. That old machine sounds better than all that software we are getting TOLD is good stuff.
    Great machine and love people getting particular about the language

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