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To quote
"Runaway"/Del Shannon: The distinctive "organ" part was done on a one-of-a-kind instrument called a Musitron. This ancient, 3-octave, monophonic, tube-driven thing was actually a modified Clavioline, built by Max Crook himself (who played the part on "Runaway"). Check out the official Del Shannon web site for information on the Musitron and more than you ever wanted to know about "Runaway". Now you may run across this very interesting web site, Space Age Pop Music , which claims that it was an Ondioline (a similar instrument), but I believe it's incorrect - there's too much information available, from Max Crook himself among others, to believe otherwise. Also check out Clavioline.com for more than you ever wanted to know about this instrument and its cousins




Twas a wee little accessory that was designed to be bolted to the bottom of a Hammon organ, underneath and in front of the keyboard manuals. Probably the first use of miniaturized keys as well, the little thing was a single note synthesizer, all tube driven. Yep, monophonic. Only had a limited number of voices, likely because at that point in time the emphasis was still on trying to emulate known wind instruments.

The Hammond Tonewheel Organ is actually and ADDITIVE synthesizer, that's what those famous drawbars are all about.

Most if not all later technology analog synths are subtractive, BTW. Start with the biggest wave you can generate and then add various types of filtering to carve it to a desired sound. Two or more of these generators could typically be used in conjunction, one could be used to modulate the other as well.


--Mac