The Swarmatron is an analogue synthesizer developed by

Dewanatron Dewanatron is a family of experimental electronic instruments. Cousins Brian Dewan and Leon Dewan collaborate on the creation and performance of these instruments. The instruments have been performed and exhibited at thPierogi 2000gallery in Broo ...

, consisting of cousins Brian and Leon Dewan. Hand-made by the Dewans, it has eight oscillators controlled by a single ribbon controller. The oscillators are linked through a 'swarm' control, giving it a distinctive sound that flows in and out of

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or pe ...

, comparable to the noise a swarm of bees produces. Dewanatron sell their Swarmatron through Big City Music of Los Angeles. As of March 2016, only 83 have been produced.

About

The distinctive feature of the Swarmatron is its use of eight individual oscillators controlled monophonically, switchable between

sine In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is opp ...

and sawtooth waves. These oscillators produce an equidistant chord, where their spacing is under the player's immediate control. The oscillators may be switched on and off individually by a row of switches. A

fingerboard synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

like the Trautonium or

Tannerin The Electro-Theremin is an electronic musical instrument developed by trombonist Paul Tanner and amateur inventor Bob Whitsell in the late 1950s to produce a sound to mimic that of the theremin. The instrument features a tone and portamento sim ...

, a finger is placed or slid from side to side along a ribbon controller to control the pitch. This allows for easy Glissandi, which can be used to achieve smooth rises and falls in the pitch of the instrument. Careful finger placement may be used to play discrete notes similar to the operation of an unfretted or bowed string instrument such as a

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

. Due to its adjustable nature, ribbon controller is unlabeled, although some players compensate for this by marking note positions. An additional ribbon controller is used to control the spacing of the oscillators when in 'Swarm' mode. A large central knob on a rotary control may also be used to control the 'swarm'. Using adjustment of the range control, a non-equidistant swarmed chord is able to be produced. The oscillators may also be preset to common chord intervals of

major third In classical music, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major third () is a third spanning four semitones. Forte, Allen (1979). ''Tonal Harmony in Concept and P ...

s, minor thirds, and more. The ribbon controllers can also adjust a low

low-pass filter A low-pass filter is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a selected cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. The exact frequency response of the filter depends on the filt ...

. Using the first ribbon allows for pitch tracking.In this mode, swarming is controlled by the central knob. An

ADSR envelope ADSR may refer to: *ADSR envelope (attack decay sustain release), a common type of music envelope * Accelerator-driven sub-critical reactor, a nuclear reactor using a particle accelerator to generate a fission reaction in a sub-critical assembly of ...

control is also present. There are no facilities for

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, an ...

. However, there are three analogue 0-10V Control Voltage inputs for pitch, filter cutoff and swarm. With the use of a standard MIDI to CV converter, the instrument may be controlled from a sequencer or other MIDI controller. Previous Dewanatron instruments such as the Melody Gins and Dual Primate Console have also used the same principle of multiple, interacting oscillators. The Swarmatron's retro styling of a dark wood case with hammer-finish green paint also resembles these previous instruments, all showing a distinctly

retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the " nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...

influence. Front panels labels are deliberately minimal, with the controls being labelled with single letters rather than words.

Notable uses

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, whi ...

and Atticus Ross used a Swarmatron in their

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...

winning

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for the 2010 film ''

The Social Network ''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book '' The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networking ...

'', with the DVD including a bonus feature of Reznor discussing the instrument. Additionally, Reznor and Ross's band How to Destroy Angels used it on their eponymous first album

Derived instruments

In 2014, music software company reFuse Software released "The Swarm" for free, a

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calcula ...

'drone synth' standalone application for

MacOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

, inspired by the Swarmatron and Reznor and Ross's soundtrack. It emulates the features of the Swarmatron as a MIDI instrument.

References

{{Experimental musical instruments Electronic musical instruments Continuous pitch instruments