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Artifact Spotlight - Electronic Sackbut

Artifact No.: CSTM 1975.0336
Date: 1945-1948

Source: National Research Council of Canada

Electronic Sackbut

The Electronic Sackbut was designed by Hugh Le Caine at his home studio in Ottawa, Ontario, beginning in 1945 and completed in 1948. In 1954 Le Caine began to work full time on electronic music in a new lab at the National Research Council (NRC). His Sackbut was then brought to the NRC for further development. Of four versions of the Sackbut, this is the oldest model that survives. Le Caine's Sackbut used an entirely different method of sound generation and control – voltage control – a method that later became the standard approach in electronic music. Because it pioneered this technique, the Sackbut is considered to have been the first synthesizer. This technique provides an automatic background voltage that can remain stable or change according to the needs of the user. The performer's physical actions, in changing the positions of keys or knobs, are translated into changes in the pre-existing voltage. These changes in turn are used to affect many different aspects of the sound produced by the instrument.

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