Lyricon

The lyricon is an electronic wind instrument, the first to be constructed.

Invented by Bill Bernardi, it was manufactured by a company called Computone Inc in Massachusetts. The lyricon enabled instrumentalists to control a synthesizer by playing a type of electronic saxophone, the synthesizer being contained in a fur-lined plastic 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, portamento, 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.

Famous lyriconists

Tom Scott played the lyricon on Steely Dan's 1977 hit single Peg, later sampled by De La Soul in Eye Know. He has also released several solo albums where he plays the lyricon.
Michał Urbaniak
Dan Michaels of The Choir.

External links

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