the oramics machine. Daphne Oram/BBC radiophonic workshop. Way intersting

[pucho812]

http://boingboing.net/2011/03/22/daphne-orams-audiovi.html

 

[mrclunk]

I think its viewable in the science museum now, been meaning to check it out.
http://youtu.be/i5z5OQbxjOs

 

[zayance]

way cool.....

 

[Emperor-TK]

Is she the mother of the father of British EQ?

 

[MagnetoSound]

Am I the only one who finds both Daphne and Delia incredibly sexy?

 

[ArR]

I think its viewable in the science museum now, been meaning to check it out.
http://youtu.be/i5z5OQbxjOs

I went a couple of weeks ago, wonderful stuff !!! along with some other great things.
They have a touch screen virtual Oramics machine which is great for giving you a feel for how the real thing worked.

I'm sure (some time ago) I heard an interviev with someone who knew Daphne, they said she could identify almost any vinyl classical recording (with the label covered up) by looking at the grooves. Quite some party trick 

 

[riggler]

Am I the only one who finds both Daphne and Delia incredibly sexy?

Attractive? Downright HOT!

 

[pucho812]

nice photo

 

[Andy Peters]

Is she the mother of the father of British EQ?

OK, you owe me a new keyboard and a cup of coffee.

 

[V9977]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=_FiL-zwzn6I

 

[leadbreath]

i'm the lucky owner of a radiophonic workshop "magnetic reproducer" basically a crude sampler using tape loops.
sounds good when i can get it to work!! :-\

 

[V9977]

I found this due to this thread:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKPGzX5kZd0&feature=related

 

[The Kid]

Just discovered both Daphne and Delia on my roundabout trip into Beatles/Pink Floyd stuff.  Fascinating stuff.  Tried to find more info on the actual construction of the machine, came across this:

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/graham-wrench-story-daphne-orams-optical-synthesizer

I absolutely LOVE this part:  "Scraping off their covering of paint turned them into photo‑transistors, so I made my own." (because) "I needed to use light‑sensitive photo‑transistors but they were far too expensive, at almost a pound each."

Where there's a will, there's a way!

 

[ruffrecords]

Scraping the paint off an OC71 or OC72 to make a photo-transistor was common practice back in the 60s. I am pretty certain it was mentioned in Practical Wireless. I remember doing it myself. Not long after, these same transistors were filled with an opaque filler which meant you could no longer do this.

Cheers

Ian

 

[The Kid]

Interesting; was that due mostly to the cost, or just availability? 


Found video interview, I'm actually surprised (but glad) some of this is still up, since this was from 2011:

https://vimeo.com/23147786

 

[ruffrecords]

Interesting; was that due mostly to the cost, or just availability? 

Mostly cost. An OCP71 (the official opto version of the OC71) cost 22/6 (or £1.125 in today's speak) whereas a regular OC71 could be had for about 2/6 (£0.125).

Cheers

Ian

 

[JohnRoberts]

I recall back in the early 70s I was working in a lab using then experimental BBD analog shift registers made by Phillips. One batch of prototype ICs arrives in open top metal cans. We didn't think anything of it until getting strange bench results due to the bench light corrupting the BBD samples.

JR

 

[The Kid]

Mostly cost. An OCP71 (the official opto version of the OC71) cost 22/6 (or £1.125 in today's speak) whereas a regular OC71 could be had for about 2/6 (£0.125).

Cheers

Ian

That would definitely bring the cost down, especially when you need 50 of them in a project! 

I recall back in the early 70s I was working in a lab using then experimental BBD analog shift registers made by Phillips. One batch of prototype ICs arrives in open top metal cans. We didn't think anything of it until getting strange bench results due to the bench light corrupting the BBD samples.

JR

I wondered about that; I was gonna ask in my last post if that's why they put the opaque filler in, to keep them from being affected.  That would make sense, and at the same time, keep people from using them outside their design constraints. 

Back to Daphne, I wonder what it was that caused her to collapse, and why she ended the relationship with Mr. Wrench?  I'm sure we'll never have the answer to that, but wow.  And the low frequency bladder thing, good grief.  Once you start reading about some of this stuff, it's amazing the paths you end up on.  8)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ08diPUv6A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDadgfW3B4A