Novachord & Solovox

Two Golden Age Classics, One Low Price

The Novachord + Solovox bundle emulates two early electronic instruments that were precursors of modern synthesizers. Novachord is based on the revolutionary polyphonic instrument from 1939, while Solovox replicates a related monophonic keyboard instrument intended to provide organ-style leads. These exceedingly rare instruments set standards for tone generation and synthesis techniques that continue to influence today’s electronic instruments.

Novachord + Solovox Features

Novachord + Solovox is a bundle of two individual instruments at one low price, provided as one download and installed in both standard DAW/host plugin and standalone formats.

Novachord

• 32 polyphonic voices, synthesized not sampled
• Three Resonators: a resonant bandpass filter network operating consecutively in low (400 Hz), mid (800 Hz), high (2000 Hz) frequency ranges
• Deep Tone setting for the tone generator signal, with a one-pole (6dB per-octave slope) lowpass filter with a fixed frequency of 160 Hz
• Brilliant Tone setting for the tone generator signal, with a one-pole (6dB per-octave slope) highpass filter with a fixed frequency of 2000 Hz
• Full Tone setting controls the amplitude of the dry (no filters applied) tone generator signal
• Tones routed in parallel to all of the filters, processed and then summed together to create a composite tone
• Attack knob with seven Attack/Decay/Sustain envelope options, from Slow to Fast, with sustain-pedal controlled release (approximately3.5 seconds)
• Depth controlled vibrato with two options: Vibrato I as used in the earliest Novachord models, and Vibrato II as used in later Novachords
• Reverb effect with Room and Hall algorithms to emulate the standard Novachord amp and speaker combo
• 56 presets covering Basses, Keys, Pads, and Strings, by Director of Sound Design James Terris

Solovox

• Faithful virtual analog emulation of the monophonic ‘keyboard attachment’ instrument
• Combinable Bass/Tenor/Contralto/Soprano switches to set note range in octaves, like modern synthesizer footage settings
• First Voice and Second Voice two-pole bandpass filters with level controls and variable center frequencies of 400 Hz and 800 Hz, respectively
• Deep Tone setting for the tone generator signal, with a one-pole (6dB per-octave slope) lowpass filter with a fixed frequency of 200 Hz
• Brilliant Tone setting for the tone generator signal, with a one-pole (6dB per-octave slope) highpass filter with a fixed frequency of 2000 Hz
• Full Tone setting controls the amplitude of the dry (no filters applied) tone generator signal
• Adjustable Glide and fixed-rate Vibrato
• Mute control to filter harmonics from the oscillator voice
• Reverb effect with Room algorithm to replicate the standard Solovox amp and speaker combo
• Glowing vacuum tubes respond to the volume setting of each filte
• 50 presets covering Basses, Strings, Leads, and Woodwinds, by Director of Sound Design James Terris

Standard for Both Instruments

• Complete MIDI control and DAW automation for all controls, with easy-to-use MIDI learn and mapping (Preset and Global)
• Cherry Audio’s popular Focus zoom-in feature, as well as standard UI zoom and resize via drag
• Complete documentation available directly online from the instrument or in downloadable PDF format
• User-adjustable oversampling control

Notorious

Manufactured by the Hammond company from 1939 to 1942 and debuting at the World’s Fair, the Novachord contained 163 vacuum tubes and over 1,000 custom capacitors. Its divide-down oscillator architecture combined full 72-key polyphony with an early version of analog subtractive synthesis. The Novachord’s architecture predicted the ADSR envelope, utilized a resonant band-pass filter, and included a vibrato unit. These now-familiar methods resemble designs adopted decades later in Moog and ARP polyphonic synthesizers.

The Solovox, manufactured by Hammond between 1940 and 1950, was another classic instrument of the era. Based on the Novachord’s oscillator and divider circuits, the Solovox with 18 vacuum-tube Solovox was a small monophonic keyboard instrument attached beneath a piano keyboard and intended to augment it with organ-type lead voices. It consisted of two units: the three-octave mini keyboard, and a tone cabinet for the electronic sound generator, amplifier, and loudspeaker. Like the Clavioline and Ondioline, the Solovox produced a range of string, woodwind, and organ sounds and was widely used in light music from the 1940s and into the 1960s. Unfortunately, the introduction of compact transistor organs released in the 60s marked the end of the Solovox’s popularity.