Novachord #346 Inspection & Initial Wakeup

[Ashe37]

That's a really nice anniversary to pick to ship it!

[HideawayStudio]

That's a really nice anniversary to pick to ship it!

It was quite a thing to discover this event and even more of a delight that it was exactly 70 years ago! I wonder how long Roosevelt kept it and where on earth it is now!!

I have I've been so very anxious this weekend about what the first few would say about our sample set - I mean really nervous! When you get so close to something on a project like this it gets very personal and you can become blind to issues and shortcomings. To our delight the first reactions have been extremely positive.

I have to say Steve and I breathed a sigh of relief when we read this:

"BRAVO!
what a stunningly beautiful sample set!!!

Congratulations on the LONG-anticipated release.
Saying it was worth the wait is the understatement of the year... and it's still January!!!

Len9 - KVR"

It's still early days and there is still a heck of a lot to do as there are several more sample format versions that still need to be produced which will involve a heck of a lot of patch translation, tweaking and play testing as no two systems have the same feature sets.

[Ashe37]

I wonder if the FDR Presidential Library and Museum has it...

[hollowsun]

Dan's put up his remarkable tale of the Novachord restoration HERE. With pics!

It's quite a detailed read but terrific for some serious work avoidance - make a nice cup of tea, grab a cold beer, beverage of your choice and settle back!!!

It's quite fascinating, especially for the more techy types amongst us who (health warning!!!) might experience some slight moistening reading about HT voltage polarities and bitumen potted decoupling multi-capacitors!!

Possibly nothing that hasn't been covered here in detail but all in one nice read.

Cheers,


Steve

[HideawayStudio]

So Maybe Novachord Production Was Killed Off By Union Hostility Afterall - Evidence Uncovered....

Still fuelling my Novachord obsession I turned my thoughts back to an historical nature. I decided to follow a line of speculation from a few followers that just perhaps the Novachord was somehow killed well before it's day due to hostility from members of the musicians unions of the time.

After several fruitless searches I stumbled across a fascinating reference to a number of documents that were filed away a long time ago by The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) between 1939 and 1940. To my delight it turns out that all the folders sited in the referencing document are stored away safely at The Library of Congress in Washington in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division:

FOLDER 251 Musical Instruments Novachord.
1939 - 1940.
8 items.
Original, onionskin, and mimeographed memoranda, a letter, and telegrams
concerning the Novachord organ.
Highlights: March 14, 1939, letter from the American Federation of
Musicians on the Novachord's tendency to displace musicians and the prohibition against AFM
musicians performing with this organ except when used as a solo instrument.

Well the superb news is that I had an email from one of the very helpful reference librarians there this evening to tell me that he's made copies of all of the documents in Folder 251 and he's mailing them to me! This is the strongest evidence I've seen yet to support the theory that the Novachord wasn't simply discontinued due to WWII or reliability issues.

I can't wait to see these documents and will reveal all when they turn up.

[hollowsun]

Interesting.

However, I can't imagine that the AFoM killed it. These organisations are usually a bit toothless (the MU didn't manage to ban the Tron or synths or samplers or really restrict their use). They may have caused a little trouble but not enough to kill it.

I am suspecting that ...

- It was horrendously expensive for the vast majority of people and wasn't a commercial success

- It was a bloody nightmare (and very labour intensive) to build, test, calibrate, etc.

- People didn't know what to make of it - not an organ, not a piano, not avant-garde enough (for the avant-garde) and it DIDN'T re-create any sound imaginable (as the marketing claimed) and at three times the price of an average house, it certainly wasn't a home entertainment instrument.

WWII would have put the thing on hold but in post-war America, I imagine that Hammond (either the company or the person) decided not to revive it. It had probably lost them money before the war, they probably didn't make much (if any) money during the war and they needed to MAKE money now ... so they focused on the products that sold well - like the organs.

As proof that the MU didn't kill the Novachord, it was used in film soundtracks. Those sessions were/are so controlled by the MU that if they'd had their way, it wouldn't have been used. The fact that it was indicates to me that their efforts to ban or restrict it were fairly fruitless. You see, the problem any MU has with banning or restricting some instrument's usage is that the very act of that potentially puts one of their members out of work - they couldn't ban a Novachord from a session if it meant that the Novachord player (who would have had to have been a fully signed up MU member just to be in the studio) wouldn't be able to work in that session so the MU would be depriving a member of paid employment!!

Cheers,


Steve

[HideawayStudio]

Todays Update: Capacitor Dissection!

During my months of research on the Novachord prior to receiving her I depressed myself reading the same dire warnings as so many others about the Novachord being full of hazardous pcb oil. Phil Cirocco had really gone to town making a point of this in his restoration writeup and consequently I've found references to this all over the internet forums. I strongly suspect that in his case the components that "contaminated" the inside of his Novachord were the pretty revolting fumes produced by one of the bitumen potted multicaps in the preamp channel overheating due to internal arcing which turns out to be a very common failure mode. In fact, this is what killed my Novachord and the result, just like Phil's unit, was molten tar draining out of the casings all over the chassis and solidifying in a black goo. Quite unlike pcb oil caps these devices are not sealed and are mounted upside down - there is simply a phenolic end plate pushed into the bottom of the metal can which will not stop the tar leaking out if it becomes hot.

Before I get shot down in flames on the subject of pcbs in the Novachord please let me point out that there is very likely to be liquid pcb oil in the Novachord but not in the components it's widely reported to be in nor in anything like the number of components often stated. In fact only three out of 1200 or so capacitors in the Novachord are oil "filled" caps and even these are not 100% likely to contain pcbs. Furthermore, there are two bitumen potted caps in the preamp chassis that are often mistaken for pcb oil caps. It is, however, very advisable indeed to treat the three suspect caps as if they are swimming in pcb oil. The caps in question are the large rectangular devices with metal studs. There is one painted black mounted on the top of the PA chassis, one mounted underneath the PSU chassis that resembles a sardine tin and one large square box shaped device mounted on top of the preamp chassis. Rather ironically these devices are of very high quality construction and in the case of 346 are reading near perfect capacitance values with little sign of electrical leakage - which is what pcb oils were introduced to reduce in the first place! I have decided to retain these components in my case but I -highly advise- these are replaced in Novachords that exhibit any signs of metal corrosion as it only takes a pin prick corrosion spot and these devices may start to leak oil.

Typical Non-Polarised Capacitor Found in the Novachord:

Today I finally got round to proving my point that the vast majority of the bespoke capacitors in the Novachord are oil "impregnated" caps over oil "filled" caps. Unlike power factor correction capacitors and larger tranformers, which are often swiming in a pool of pcb oil, these devices are dry in nature and are impregnated with a substance. That is -not- to say that they don't contain trace amounts of pcbs but frankly they are just as likely to contain paraffin or any mineral oil. These caps are oil impregnated kraft paper and metal foil and then potted in wax within a metal can. Any hazard is therefore not related to the leakage of fluid due to corrosion or explosion but rather the possibility of the release of harmful vapours (including dioxins) should one overheat. This is another important reason why I removed these devices in low impedance paths with power rails.

Where the mis-identification with caps containing liquid oil appears to have originated from is that, rather unusually, the multitude of caps in the generator chassis are quite large and metal cased as opposed to the much more common and inexpensive cardboard tube construction and give the impression of some types of oil caps. Furthermore, these devices sometimes appear to be leaking some sort of brown goo in the sea of pictures of Novachord guts on the internet. This substance is in fact a wax sealing compound to prevent moisture ingress which was well known to cause such devices to increase in capacitance with age.

I clamped the capacitor in a vice and carefully cut a slot down diametrically opposite sides using a miniature grinding wheel in a well ventilated area. Using a large flat bladed screwdriver I gently levered the casing open. It was quite eerie to think that the last time anyone saw the inside of this thing was before WWII !!

Opening Up the Capacitor Casing:

This revealed a subassembly potted in hard white paraffin wax. I carefully removed the wax leaving a dense waxy tube like assembly. On careful disassembly I unraveled several turns of waxy kraft paper and eventually exposed the first of the metal foil. To my utter amazement the silver foil inside was in pristine condition considering it is 70 years old. It is still perfectly shiny and free of oxidation and the paper between it dry, perfectly clean and in tact! The foil itself has clearly never had any liquid or oil like subtance on it - in fact, it's so dry and clean that both the foil and paper became electrostatically charged simply by handling it. The kraft paper itself has clearly been impregnated in something and has quite a pungent odor. What is a little more comforting is that this odor is not present when the cap is in tact - even after storage in a sealed container.

The Metal Foil and Kraft Paper Innards in Amazing Condition:

I couldn't see any evidence of mould or moisture ingress, arcing or degradation. In fact it's clear that these devices, despite being only of simple paper/foil construction, were of very high quality. These simply could not have been domestic quality devices. The capacitors in the PSU were of much lower grade, were far more conventional in construction, and it really showed - they were in terrible condition!

Normally I wouldn't dream of retaining kraft paper/foil caps but I think these might just be an exception to the rule. That said, only time will tell!

Update: Now that it's clear that these capacitors are oil impregnated I am looking into the possibility of a local university analysing the chemical composition of the dielectric. This can either be achieved by mass spectrometry or a pyro-chromatography. This will be really good news because once and for all I will be able to report with confidence whether or not pcbs are to be found within the multitude of capacitors in the instrument

PAN Numbers:

I have read completely inaccurate stories about the term PAN Numbers, the method Hammond used to identify capacitor values, being related to the amount of oil poured into each capacitor in pans and hence setting the capacitance. This is complete nonsense - even in liquid oil filled capacitors the level is not likely to change it's capacitance (at least not in a controllable manner). In fact the capacitance is defined in a wax paper/foil constructed capacitor by the thickness of the paper, the dielectric used and the surface area of the foil. Usually the capacitor value is set by determining the length and width of the foil prior to tightly rolling it up. In fact this can be seen as since there are only 2 or 3 standard sizes of metal can used the difference in the physical size of the capacitor inside is made up for by a plug of wax poured in the end. This is likely to only produce a capacitor of the correct value to a relatively poor tolerance and hence the capacitors almost certainly had to be selected on test. I strongly suspect the term pan number might actually stand for (PArt Number) was where factory operatives tested hundreds of capacitors using LCR bridges and placed capacitors reading within predefined ranges into sorting trays. The caps would then have been collected and the appropriate PAN number stamped in purple ink on the side of the capacitor. What is interesting to see is that sometimes you will see a Novachord chassis with the pan numbers crossed out and new ones hand written in place in pencil. This is almost certainly where old caps that have gained value with age have been reused in suitable positions elsewhere in repaired instruments over the years.

[hangarjoe]

Fascinating. As always, you've given us all quite an education on a very specific subject with excellent details and photos.

I wonder if you or anyone has info about this Novachord that's on the theatreorgans.com site.

From the thearteorgans.com site

At first glance I thought it was just a beast that had been painted over in spots, but I noticed a few differences from all the other Novachords I've seen. For one, the legs are fluted, where all the others have smooth turnings. Also, the front panel seems to be silver rather than black. Is this possibly a prototype instrument? Or has someone replaced the original legs?

- Joe

[HideawayStudio]

Fascinating. As always, you've given us all quite an education on a very specific subject with excellent details and photos.

I wonder if you or anyone has info about this Novachord that's on the theatreorgans.com site.

front[1].jpg

At first glance I thought it was just a beast that had been painted over in spots, but I noticed a few differences from all the other Novachords I've seen. For one, the legs are fluted, where all the others have smooth turnings. Also, the front panel seems to be silver rather than black. Is this possibly a prototype instrument? Or has someone replaced the original legs?

- Joe

Yes.. I've seen this picture before. Having seen zillions of pictures of Novachords in various states of disrepair it seems that there were a number of subtle variants eg. some have black controls (like 346) and most have brown controls - each variant has slightly different coloured embossed text and serial number plates too. There were several wood finishes and some were painted various colours. What is not clear is if anything beyond this, like the one in the picture, was ex factory. I strongly suspect some units were "pimped" over the years by band members etc and this may be an example. Although the carved legs look quite nice, the black on on the music stand and base/pedal box don't look right and I'm tempted to say that this example is not an original - I may, however, be wrong and this was a special for a band etc. All of the units for the 1939/40 World's Fair were painted.

The vast majority of Novachords appear to be in cherry wood vaneer with brown controls.

[HideawayStudio]

Having crawled home from another exhausting day at the office I started reading a fairly lengthy email without first noticing the email address this evening and half way through it suddenly dawned on me who the sender was.... none other than Wendy Carlos in an email specifically about the Novachord!!

The email was in reference to our Novachord 346 restoration/sampling project and made very entertaining reading indeed. Wendy and her partner used to own a Novachord which they really regretted selling many years ago.

I don't think it would be fair or right to copy the email on this forum but I think I will chance quoting the following because it's quite simply the best endorsement I could ever have to support my (and Marc Doty's) insistence that this wonderful instrument IS a synth and NOT an organ!!

"Dan. This is one of the very first real synthesizers, don't let any
"width-challenged" mind convince you otherwise. Sheesh, enveloping,
filtering, multi-controls above a keyboard, expression and other
pedals -- how close does it have to get to gain some respect
for the pioneering effort involved?"

Definitely one for the Novachord 346 project file....

[Esus]

Nice to get validation from about the best source imaginable.

[HideawayStudio]

Nice to get validation from about the best source imaginable.

Yes... it certainly made my evening. This is in fact the second surprise message Steve and I have had this week. The first were some very kind words about the project from the synth programming god himself.. Eric Persing!!

[Ashe37]

Wendy Carlos? that's awesome....

[HideawayStudio]

Letters from NBC Circa 1939 RE Purchasing Two Novachords:

I received copies of a fascinating set of letters and telegrams from The National Broadcsting Company (NBC), NY circa 1939-40 all in reference to the introduction and rental of two new Novachords. This includes a number of internal telegrams re the decision to purchase and rent them out at an hourly rate. These were very kindly copied for me by one of the librarians at The Library Of Congress, Washington DC. It seems they now store a tremendous amount of such historical documents.

I will disclose more information in due course but one interesting thing that turned up in this set of documents was a direct reference to the amount NBC purchased the two new Novachords for and how much revenue they had made through rental. They purchased the two instruments for NBC for $1470 each on June 30th 1939. This is not far off Peter Forrest's "guestimate" of $1800 for a Novachord in 1939 and indeed, since they purchased two instruments, there may have been a discount anyway. It seems that in less than a year the instruments had brought in $1,288 in rent and so probably weren't too bad an investment considering they'd set the hourly rate at $5. Mind you, even $5 an hour was a lot of money in 1939!!

Well... whichever way you cut it - the Novachord was serious money in 1939!! All the more amazing that when you see the sales brouchure it's clearly pitched at families playing the instrument in their homes. All I can say is that they must have thought there were a lot of millionaires around in 1939. This was definitely a rich boy's toy!!

[HideawayStudio]

Novachord & Theremin Duet "Alto Volo" - MP3 Now Available:

A number have asked me to host a decent quality copy of our sampled Novachord and Theremin duet "Alto Volo" featuring Thereminist Thomas Grillo.

It is now available for free download on LastFM:

http://www.last.fm/music/D.A.Wilson%2B% ... ?autostart