The Persephone
, user’s manual, mesi©2006
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7
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From the Idea to the First Steps:
A choice of technology
We decided to work on a contemporary version of a fingerboard
instrument, using the latest controls today’s technology would bring but
preserving the best of analogue sound generators. The Persephone reminds
us of the first electronic instruments. It is made of noble woods with its
wenge exotic wood expression key, its birch panel and its oak wooden
sides. Beyond this vintage look, the Persephone allies sensors technology
and digital controls to a pure analogue generation of sound.
With its analogue oscillator, the Persephone can generate notes with a range
of 10 octaves, which goes from a deep and resonant cello tone to a nearly
human voice. And on the highest pitches, it can reach very high
frequencies. The oscillator waveform can be set between triangle and
sawtooth for a more or less brilliant sound.
Its ribbon virtual control surface requires the most advanced sensor
technology and allows all kinds of glissando a Theremin or Les Ondes
Martenot would allow, though the sensored ribbon is much more precise
than the tube full of graphite used as a variable resistance in the
Trautonium. A scaling potentiometer allows scaling the Persephone’s
ribbon from 1, 2, 5 to 10 octaves.
The expression key, controlled by an optical sensor can transmit the
slightest vibrations on the key with an accuracy the mechanical systems
never had. All the controls are digital.
The four play modes - A, B, C and D - offer different hierarchy of control
between the pitch, the velocity, a filter modulation and an LFO.
