Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
Musical DNA - The Neural Synthesizer
By James Grahame
Veteran music synth designer Jürgen Michaelis has unleashed the fabulously strange €2499 Resonator Neuronium. As the name suggests (ahem), this little monster uses six interconnected analog neurons to generate music. How does it sound? Addictively odd, but comfortingly analogish. Imagine a robot ant playing the best of Tangerine Dream through your starship's hyperspace drive. It offers a huge low end but has no problem generating ripping, squealing melody lines and percussion. You definitely won't find a General MIDI soundset here. I've linked some audio samples below.
The primary programming interface is a series of six touch-sensitive rotary controllers that allow you to build complex summing and FM networks. Neurons can self-resonate, and the unit features two external audio inputs that can be used to excite the network. Neuron envelopes can be triggered by MIDI, and the output from the six nodes can be mixed down to familiar stereo outputs.
If you're a wealthy technostar, this thing should be all over your next album. You'll be in rare company -- so far Michaelis has delivered 20 units, with orders for five more.
Resonator Neuronium (Jomox.de)
