Harald Bode - Accomplishments

Accomplishments

Theory, circuits and devices to the sound production and sound figuration. Development and building of monophonic and polyphonic electronic organs/synthesizers and the sound processors:

  • Warbo Formant Organ (1937) one of the first key-assignment polyphonic synthesizer with formant filters and dynamic envelope shaping, designed and built by Bode with the funding support provided by Christian Warnke. (Note: "Warbo" is acronym of Warnke-Bode)
  • Melodium (1938) monophonic touch-sensitive keyboard instrument developed with Oskar Vierling, used in the film scores and "light" music
  • Multimonica (1940, Hohner) dual manual electronic/acoustic hybrid keyboard instrument, consists of monophonic sawtooth wave oscillator (upper) and wind-brown reed harmonium (lower)
  • Melochord (1947–1949) 37-key monophonic keyboard with dynamic envelope wave shaping, volume pedal controller, and transpose switches to cover seven octaves. Later a second keyboard was added to control the timbre.

For the Apparatewerk Bayern (AWB) in Germany, Estey Organ Company in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA, and others:

  • Polychord (1950)
  • Polychord III (c. 1951, Apparatewerk Bayern)
  • Bode Organ (1951), later known as Estey Electronic Organ, based on Polychord III
  • Cembaphon (1951), an electric harpsichord using electrostatic pickup
  • Tuttivox (1953, Jörgensen Elektronic), under license by Jörgensen Elektronic in Düsseldorf one built. (portable electronic organ based on vacuum tubes)
  • Concert Clavioline (1953) 6-octave model (by transpose buttons) of Clavioline (1947) originally developed by Constant Martin. (portable monophonic keyboard based on vacuum tubes)
  • Estey Electronic Organ model S and AS-1 (1954)

During he was an executive of Wurlitzer Organ Co.:

  • A first transistor model of the Wurlitzer Electric Piano (1960)
  • Modular Synthesizer / Sound Processor (1959–1960)
  • Voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) (1960)

As the products of Bode Sound Company:

  • Bode Ring Modulator (1964)
  • Bode Frequency Shifter (1964)
  • Bode Vocoder 7702 / Moog Vocoder (1977)

Note that above three products were also licensed to Moog Music as a part of the Moog Synthesizer.

  • Bode Barberpole Phaser (1981)
  • Bode Feedback Stabilizer (1982)

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