Lyricon
The lyricon is an electronic wind instrument, the first to be constructed.
Invented by Bill Bernardi, it was manufactures by a company called Computone Inc in Massachusetts. The lyricon enabled instrumentalists to control a synthesiser by playing a type of electronic saxaphone, the synthesizer being contained in a fur-lined palstic case. Using a form of additive synthesis, the player was allowed to change between types of overtones with a key switchable between fundamentals of G, Bb, C, Eb, and F and a range switch between low, medium, or high. The instrument also had a glissando, portmento, and "timbre attack" (a type of chorusing). The lyricon used a bass clarinet mouthpiece, with a sensor on the reed that detected pressure. A diaphragm moved and changed the light output from a LED, which was in turn sensed by a photocell to give dynamic control.
Two additional models of the lyricon were later engineered - the "Wind Synthesizer Driver", which had the ability to add expression from lip pressure as well as VCA and VCF control, and the "lyricon II", a 2 oscillator synthesiser with a re-modelled wind controller. All of the lyricons used the same saxophone style fingering system, with two octave keys above the left-hand thumb rest. The Wind Synthesizer Driver also had a transposition footswitch feature, where a foot pedal could be used to transpose the entire range up or down one octave. With the Lyricon II, this was done from the control panel.
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