Talk:Persephone (instrument)

This passage is incorrect regarding the trautonium:

"Its ribbon virtual control surface allows all kind of glissando a Theremin or an Ondes Martenot would allow, though the sensored ribbon is much more precise than the tube full of graphite[dubious – discuss] used as a variable resistance in the Trautonium"

The trautonium ribbon was a "spirally twisted length of nickel-chrome resistance wire -- this is the grid bias resistor of the thyratron" (Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Volume 2; p.149, 1954)

The trautonium's oscillator, driven by a Thyratron Tube, has its pitch set by pressing this biasing resistor against a metal plate (ibid).

Graphite, a material used in modern membrane switches (used in ribbon controllers) was not employed in the ribbon of any trautonium known to this author.

12.52.197.102 (talk) 22:28, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Lorin Edwin Parker Professor, Audio / Electronic Music Art Institute of California, Los Angeles