Coupigny Modular (INA-GRM, Pierre Schaeffer, Parmegiani)

[masstronaut]

Not sure how much there is to say about this but it's damn cool anyway and I don't think it's been discussed here.

The Coupigny synthesiser is a one of a kind built by engineer François Coupigny for the Groupe de Recherches Musicales at the Institut national de l'audiovisuel around 1966. It was integrated into the Studio 54 console. This was used on numerous recordings by composers at the facility through the 60s and 70s, possibly later. Apparently it went 'missing' for a time in storage but has recently been reinstalled and is back in use. The synth has five oscillators and a pin matrix patching system.



The Coupigny.



Pierre Schaeffer at the Studio 54 console where the synth would have been installed.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... fI61RhcqVQ

A bit here from Matmos who used it on a recent album.

http://www.brainwashed.com/common/htdoc ... ite=matmos

[masstronaut]

Actually I count seven oscillators.

[Mooger5]

Great find! Real lab-equipment look and ultra-cool (to me anyway) Dymo labels!
From what I can translate, the three oscs to the right are BF = Low Freq, so they´re LFOs. The four oscs to the left are "universal". The righmost module is an Amplitude Modulator. Bottom row there´s a Modulateur en Anneau = ring modulator. I can´t read very well the other modules (Accessory)?
No VCF yet I guess, as 1966 was the year when Dr Moog filed the patent. Also means that patch matrix preceeds the EMS ones. Probably common industrial use at the time?
The other photo must be more recent, as there are some Moog modules on top of the console (901 Oscillators among them).

Thanks for sharing

Edit-There´s a "Filtre Universel" on the bottom-left. Probably manual sweep only and selectable bands (low/mid/high)...

[masstronaut]

I think there were certain aspects/limitations of the design that were imposed by Schaeffer as director of the Institut so that the use of the synthesiser, something he was slightly dubious of initially I think, would keep in line with the definition and concepts of musique concrete. It was intended to produce sounds for further manipulation on tape, and according to this dogma sounds and pitches weren't to be too easily replicable. So stuff like voltage control was frowned upon and envelopes were produced using more traditional musique concrete methods. That's as I understand it anyway.

[Mooger5]

Makes sense. Probably the most important module was the ring mod, so the oscs would act as carriers and the tapes as modulators. Or the other way around.

The voltage-control concept, that allowed for greater interactions between modules, must have helped turning electro-acoustic into fully-electronic music. I saw one of Bob´s last interviews (online) btw. Upon asked about the tuning problems of the old modulars, he said in the early days nobody cared much about pitch drift, as the synthesizers were mostly used for creating atonal music in the academic circles.
I guess it was the popular aspect of the synthesizer´s capabilities in imitating other instruments, and the subsequent Moogsploitation albums that demanded for more stable oscillators. There´s a funny thread in a DIY forum where the OP asks why do people there go to great lengths with matching components and temperature-compensated resistors if all the music they play is all mad noises...

[Mooger5]

A quick correction: in this photo the Moog modules which I said were oscillators actually are the 904 VCF family. There´s the LP, the HP and the Fillter Coupler. The LP next to the HP do resemble the old 901 osc though, but there´s no mistake. Probably it´s the larger module on the left, who knows...



Man I´m increasingly fascinated by these old beasts. I´m waiting for a couple of synth-on-a-chip CEM3394s and some SSM2056 EGs to build a little modular box but then I´m afraid I won´t stop. With COTK just a few metres away from my workplace it´d be like being neighbours to a drug dealer