Here's pretty much everything I could find on the wonderful Ekvodin.
The Ekvodin is an electric musical instrument invented by Andrey Volodin in 1937. The instrument was unique for its time with its timbre control functionality and the synthesis of the generated sound.
In Soviet magazines and advertisements of those years, they wrote: “Musicians all over the planet have a unique opportunity to breathe new life into their emotional art. Ekvodin is a musical instrument that is perfect for an orchestra, and for an ensemble, and for solo parts with piano accompaniment. The keyboard of this instrument literally sings and is able to fill every home with enchanting melodies. Any modern composer will be pleasantly surprised to find that Ekvodin is capable of producing the widest range of musical timbres of extraordinary clarity and purity of sound. Performers, conductors and teachers will be completely satisfied with the outstanding expressive possibilities. Ekvodin opens up a truly cosmic musical perspective for everyone. Designed and manufactured in the USSR. "
Ekvodin was intended for concert use as a solo instrument with piano accompaniment.
The instrument had six and a half octaves and a wide variety of timbres. which could imitate the sound of almost any instrument of a symphony orchestra. The transition from one timbre to another was carried out using a key switch.
In the Soviet Union, there was an experimental group consisting of five "Equodins", which in its musical capabilities corresponded to an orchestra of 27 ordinary instruments. It was the first analog electronic music synthesizer to feature a pressure-sensitive dynamic keyboard with the ability to play vibrato with your finger on the keyboard like a violin. In addition, there were about 660 presets with excellent imitation of all acoustic musical instruments of a symphony orchestra, including drums, modulation pedal.
In 1958, a monophonic version of Ekvodin was released, which made it possible to create up to 330 different timbre combinations. The instrument possessed such unique effects for its time as sound control using the force of blows on the keys, finger vibrato on the keyboard (aftertouch), and automatic vibrato. In addition to the usual keyboard, it had a neck with a sliding contact, which made it possible to smoothly change the pitch. The instrument was also equipped with two foot pedals (to control the volume and character of the tone) and knee levers to control the attack and decay of the sound.
In 1969, a two-part version of Ekvodin was released, with the ability to independently set the timbre for each voice and layered timbres. Moreover, in each individual voice, you can create up to 126 timbre combinations.
This instrument was presented at the exhibition of electro-musical instruments (EMI) of domestic and foreign production, held within the framework of the Second All-Union Conference on Electromagnetic Instruments in June 1971. Andrey Volodin himself spoke at this conference, with a report "Evolution of EMP technology", which presented a comprehensive analysis of the difficult path that EMPs have traveled, from the moment of their creation to the present. It was at such conferences that he collaborated and discussed the problems of music with other inventors such as Konstantin Kovalsky, Lev Termen, Evgeny Murzin.
Ekvodin has sounded more than once in films ("The Legend of the Siberian Land", "I Walk Through Moscow", etc.), giving the impression of "space" music. In addition to the instrument itself, Ekvodin's working kit also included an acoustic system. The working set weighed about 70 kilograms (the weight of the tool itself is 39 kilograms). Unfortunately, Ekvodin was denied mass production. The Soviet state was not interested in electronic music. A complete stop of funding for the laboratory occurred in the 60s. At that time, only ten instruments were manufactured.
About the author.
Andrei Alexandrovich Volodin was born in 1914 in Moscow into a family of artists. In 1940 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Communications Engineers with a specialization in electroacoustics and radio broadcasting. While still a student, he began working at a film factory in the field of sound recording and in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow State Conservatory for musical acoustics under the guidance of prof. NA Garbuzov, intensively enriching his knowledge of musical - theoretical disciplines.After graduating from the institute, he was engaged in the development of electronic musical instruments. His inventions were used in concert practice and sound recording, were exhibited at many foreign exhibitions, and were patented in the USA, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan.
He was awarded the Big Gold Medal at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958 for the “Ekvodin” electric musical instrument. A. A. Volodin had more than 40 copyright certificates and patents for inventions. In addition to practical and inventive work A.A. Volodin during these years
studied the theory of electric music and musical acoustics. On these problems, he published a monograph and numerous articles in the magazines "Radio", "Radio technology", "Questions of radio electronics" and others.
Solving the problem of synthesizing sounds in electronic musical instruments, A.A. Volodin came to the conclusion that sound synthesis is possible only with the complex development and combination of the achievements of musicology, physics and psychology for a holistic representation in the final sound. This prompted him to study musical sounds from the point of view of their psychological structure and aesthetic content. The perception of musical sounds became the central problem of his research. Studying the issues of perception of sound synthesis from the psychological side, he became the chief specialist in musical psychology, the author of many works on the theory of electromusics, and a doctor of psychological sciences.
In 1975, A.A. Volodin began working at the Moscow State Conservatory, where he organized the Problem Laboratory of Music Theory and Music Education. A. A. Volodin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and a number of medals, such as the title of Labor Veteran, for a set of works on special equipment.
A man of deep and original mind, broad and versatile knowledge, Andrei Alexandrovich Volodin was full of creative ideas. His premature death represents a great loss for science.
Andrey Alexandrovich Volodin (September 26, 1914, Moscow - February 12, 1981, ibid.) - Russian acoustic engineer, psychologist, inventor, teacher. Doctor of Psychology (1973).
Volodin's career is closely connected with the Moscow Conservatory, where he worked in 1938-40. laboratory assistant at the Acoustic Laboratory, and from 1975 until the end of his life he taught a new course - musical psychology. Among the students E. V. Nazaikinsky.
In the 60s - 70s Volodin worked as a leading engineer at the Moscow Radio Plant (MRZ), was the head of the design bureau. Volodin owns more than 40 patents for inventions in the field of the radio industry. One of these inventions was the Sokol transistor radio.
In 1935 Volodin designed a monophonic electric musical instrument and gave it the name "Ekvodin". Unlike the theremin, the way of playing the equodine was “contact”. In the first models of the instrument, flexible (almost vocal) intonation was provided by a horizontal neck, by controlling which the performer could produce sounds of arbitrary pitch. To orient the performer along the neck, a control ruler was placed like a monochord - with markings in tempered semitones. In the post-war modifications of equodine, the emphasis shifted from the "bowed" way of playing to the "keyboard" - it was the keyboard that guaranteed instant and accurate switching from one sound to another. So, already the equodine modification "B-8" (1949) was essentially a keyboard analog synthesizer with 12 timbres, including those that imitated the sound of clarinet, bassoon, violin, English horn. Microtonic "live" changes in pitch and vibrato were also realized from the keyboard (in the words of the author, "finger vibration" [1]). Glissando was carried out using a special pedal. In 1949 Volodin successfully demonstrated this instrument at an expanded meeting of the Acoustic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences [2].
In 1958, Ekvodin "V-9" was presented at the World Exhibition in Brussels, where he was awarded a gold medal, and a gold medal of the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements in Moscow. In 1966, one of the Equodin modifications received a medal at the World Exhibition in Osaka (Japan). An important feature of the Equodin keyboard was the vibration sensitivity system ... The instrument could reproduce various timbres, correspondingly imitating the sound of various instruments (percussion, bow, wind).
For about 30 years (most actively in the late 50s and early 60s), Ekvodin was used in concert practice, on the radio and in the drama theater, in the cinema. In the 1950s. it sounded in the ensemble of electric musical instruments by I.M. Varovich, in the 1960s - in the ensemble of V. Meshcherin, similar in type. Composers M. Weinberg, N. Kryukov, A. Petrov used equodine in their film music, for example, in the films The Last Inch (1958), Unsent Letter (1959), Amphibian Man (1961), Judgment of the Mad "(1962). At the same time, equodin was never launched into mass production.
The electro-musical instrument "Ekvodin V-9" has been produced since the autumn of 1958. It is the first domestic monophonic multi-timbral electric musical instrument intended for use in various instrumental ensembles. In the EMP scheme, 32 radio tubes are used. Rated output power 10 watts. EMP made it possible to create up to 330 different timbre combinations. The instrument had such unique effects for its time as sound control using the force of the blows on the keys, finger vibrato on the keyboard (aftertouch) and automatic vibrato. Enumeration of timbres was carried out using a keyboard switch. In addition to the usual keyboard, the EMP had a fingerboard with a sliding contact, which allows you to smoothly change the pitch. The B-9 was also equipped with two foot pedals (to control sound volume and tone) and knee levers to control the attack and decay of the sound.
Author: The Rabbit
Source: https://rabbitears.rip/unknown-ekvodin-demonstration-record/
The history of electronic music in the Soviet Union stretches all the way back to the very beginning of the USSR as a state, with the pioneering eerie sounds of Lev Termen's "Терменбокс", or the theremin, as it is better known outside the CIS sphere, invented in 1920 as part of research into sensor equipment during the Russian Civil War. The early years of the Soviet Union were a great time for the development of unique ways of creating music, culminating in instruments that have not been explored since; not just the theremin itself but also the one-of-a-kind pictorial ANS synthesizer, famously used by Eduard Artemyev for otherworldly if not outright creepy soundscapes for movies like Solaris. It is during this time, around 1930, that a then-young Andrey Volodin developed the "Ekvodin".
The Ekvodin
The Ekvodin is almost a historical footnote now, but at the time it was a source of great pride for the Soviet state, eventually being developed into commercial models and winning gold medals at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. Reports differ on how successful it was - some sources say only 12 were ever made, while others say it was relatively successful with a large number of models. All I can say for sure is that there were at least four models of Ekvodin (V-4, V-5, V-7, V-8 and V-9), and that the most common model appeared to be the two-octave single- and two-voiced versions, which are similar to the V-9 ("В-9") in structure. While Volodin went on to study psychoacoustics and teach at the Moscow State Conservatory, as well as developing plans for a polyphonic Ekvodin, it was only his first forays into single- and dual-voiced synthesizers that were ever built.
An Ekvodin V-9, likely the model used on this record
The Ekvodin is a truly groundbreaking instrument, with a velocity-sensitive keyboard for vibrato (wiggle the key side to side) and pedals for volume, and generated the sound through a number of configurable pre-set filters and octave dividers that can combine for up to 660 settings. The single-voice version weighs 35kg and the dual-voice (as above) weighs 65kg, making them reasonable to cart around, though still quite heavy. The Ekvodin is advertised as being able to imitate the full range of symphonic instruments, from woodwinds to brass to strings and even some folk instruments like the duduk. This is quite the claim, but as you listen to this demonstration record you can see that, in fact, it does a pretty good job of it. While some instruments sound outright silly, like the balalaika, most of the examples chosen are remarkably convincing, like the violoncello or the bassoon. I find that the Ekvodin has a very wide range of expression and is able to produce all sorts of natural timbres, likely a result of years of tuning and psychoacoustic research from Volodin.
Diagram of the Ekvodin V-9. As you can see, the keyboard sends a signal to be passed through various filters, which is made louder or quieter by pedals under the instrument, and wiggling the keys produces vibrato
The Ekvodin is relatively unknown when mentioned by itself, but it was used extensively by perhaps one of the most well-known musicians of the Soviet Union, Vyacheslav Mescherin. While only recently has his name become more well-known, his music produces almost Pavlov-like reactions for anyone who lived through the 50s and onward in the Soviet Union, as it was absolutely everywhere - conference rooms, the radio, the factory, even the famous cartoon Ну, погоди! had some of its soundtrack composed and performed by Vyacheslav Mescherin's Electromusical Instrument Orchestra - with the Ekvodin leading the melody.
The RecordWhich brings us to this record - packaged plain, with no label other than "Informational Record for the Electromusical Instrument Ekvodin", on the All-Union Recording Studio label (Всесоюзная Студия Грамзаписи), which in 1964 became Melodiya's main studio, as part of the new singular record label for the entire Union. This mysterious 10" vinyl disc is as the label describes, a thorough walkthrough of the Ekvodin's capabilities demonstrated by skilled and uncredited performers, both the single- and dual-voice types.
Track breakdown
Side A starts off with a lovely waltz by Viktor Sams - who I have been able to find no information about; please drop me a line if you know anything! - before transitioning into a whirlwind tour of how the Ekvodin can produce the sounds of the symphony: the bows, the woodwinds, brass, and a remarkably good slide guitar, most done with piano accompaniment. In most of these cases the Ekvodin performs admirably, and you can see just how amazing the instrument really is, to have been designed so long ago - and before transistors! - and yet produce such wonderful natural sounds. Then, the performers proceed to demonstrate various folk instruments. The balalaika is a little silly, but the duduk is rather close to its natural, haunting sound. Side A closes out with a demonstration of vocal timbre (which just sounds like a more full-bodied theremin), and plays Ravel's Bolero to show the two-octave range of the instrument, before closing out with bells, which sound about how you know bells would sound over AM radio. In other words - Ekvodin broadcast before FM would certainly fool many listeners!
Side B shows the instrument on its own, as an Ekvodin quartet performs songs from the ancient and traditional (Кукует кукушечка ) to modern Soviet compositions (Полюшко-Поле). These pieces really show off the vast timbral range of the Ekvodin, and I think it makes you appreciate it all the more. The peak of the performances is Flight of the Bumblebee, showing off the responsiveness of the keyboard, in particular the vibrato function - and the virtuosity of the Ekvodin player since, as you know, the keys need to be wiggled for vibrato!
Overall, the record has made me not only appreciate the amazing work done by Andrey Volodin over 80 years ago (!) in an age where we still struggle with synthesized instruments sounding "fake", but also to find the Ekvodin in Mescherin's recordings. I always saw the Ekvodin in the performances his orchestra recorded, looking like an unreasonably tall toy piano, but now knowing the full range of its sound, you really become able to pick it out anywhere. Who knows - perhaps after listening to this you'll find it somewhere in an old Soviet record yourself!
Track List and Rip
The notion of "tracks" is a little misleading as this record is one long, continuous groove on each side. That said, there are clear subdivisions and sections to each side, and I have listed below what I understand are the divisions. I am still getting the hang of Russian orthography, so please correct me if I've mis-spelled anything!
Side A:
A1. Introduction - Waltz, composed by Viktor Sams. Two Ekvodins (one single-voiced, one dual-voiced), accompanied by piano.
A2. Basic explanation of Ekvodin and timbre variation. (Note, the rest of side A is single two-voice Ekvodin either solo or accompanied by piano)
A3. Demonstration of "violoncello" timbre.
A4. Interpretation of one of Dvořák's dances (narrator does not specify further) by two-voiced Ekvodin.
A5. Demonstration of "clarinet" timbre
. A6. Demonstration of "oboe" timbre.
A7. Demonstration of "bassoon" timbre
. A8. Demonstration of "piccolo" timbre (duet between Ekvodins).
. A9. Demonstration of "double bassoon" timbre.
A10. Demonstration of "trumpet" timbre.
A11. Demonstration of "muted trumpet" timbre
. A12. Demonstration of "french horn" timbre
. A13. Demonstration of various strings.
A14. Demonstration of "guitar" timbre. (Sounds like a slide guitar, a pretty accurate one at that!)
A15. Demonstration of "duduk" timbre. (more accurate than you'd think)
A16. Demonstration of "zurna" timbre.
A17. Demonstration of "balalaika" timbre.
A18. Demonstration of "vocal" timbre.
A19. Ravel's "Bolero", used to demonstrate two-octave range of Ekvodin. A20. Demonstration of "bell" timbre.
Side B:
B1. Russian folk song, Кукует кукушечка.
B2-B3: Suite, composer Mikhail Kadomtsev (I think this might be Игорь Михайлович Кадомцев, but the dates don't work out. If anyone knows who this is, let me know). B2. Prelude. B3. Toccata.
B4. Oriental Melody, fragment. Author unknown, sounds like "Kuiy"
B5. Daquin, Le Coucou (Кукушка)
B6. Anatoly Lyadov - Musical Snuffbox (Музыкальная табакерка), fragment.
B7. Ilya Sergeevich Glazunov - Spanish Serenade (Илья Серге́евич Глазунов - Испанская серенада), fragment
B8. Rimsky-Korsakoff - Flight of the Bumblebee (Ри́мский-Ко́рсаков - Полет Шмеля)
B9. Lev Knipper - Oh Fields, My Fields (Лев Книпперь - Полюшко-Поле) (Translation per how I've seen releases of the Alexandrov Ensemble handle the translation)
Get the record HERE
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