Swarmatron

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The Swarmatron is an

swarm of bees produces.[1]

Dewanatron sell their Swarmatron through Big City Music of Los Angeles. As of March 2016, only 83 had been produced.[4]

About

The distinctive feature of the Swarmatron is its use of eight individual oscillators controlled

sine and sawtooth waves. These oscillators produce an equidistant chord, where their spacing is under the player's immediate control.[5]
The oscillators may be switched on and off individually by a row of switches.

A

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. Due to its adjustable nature, ribbon controller is unlabeled, although some players compensate for this by marking note positions.[6]

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'.[6] 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 thirds, minor thirds, and more.

The ribbon controllers can also adjust a low

ADSR envelope control is also present.[5]

There are no facilities for

control voltage inputs for pitch, filter cutoff and swarm.[5]
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[7] and Dual Primate Console[8] 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 influence. Front panels labels are deliberately minimal, with the controls being labelled with single letters rather than words.[5]

Notable uses

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross used a Swarmatron in their Academy Award winning soundtrack for the 2010 film The Social Network, with the DVD including a bonus feature of Reznor discussing the instrument.[2] Additionally, Reznor and Ross's band How to Destroy Angels used it on their eponymous first album.[6] John Cale used the instrument on the track "Time Stands Still" on his Mercy album in 2023.

Derived instruments

In 2014, music software company reFuse Software released "The Swarm" for free, a 32-bit 'drone synth' standalone application for MacOS and Windows, inspired by the Swarmatron and Reznor and Ross's soundtrack.[9][10] It emulates the features of the Swarmatron as a MIDI instrument.

References

  1. ^ In this mode, swarming is controlled by the central knob.
  1. ^ a b "About Dewanatron". Dewanatron.
  2. ^ a b Nick Paumgarten (2011). "Swarm". The New Yorker.
  3. ^ "Swarmatron demonstration" (MP3). Dewanatron.
  4. ^ "Dewanatron - Swarmatron". Big City Music.
  5. ^ a b c d e Paul Nagle (June 2011). "Dewanatron Swarmatron". Sound on Sound: 40–44.
  6. ^ a b c "Mariqueen Maandig of How to Destroy Angels performing on a Swarmatron".
  7. ^ "Melody Gins". Dewanatron.
  8. ^ "The Dual Primate Console". Dewanatron.
  9. ^ "Free Mac Synthesizer, The Swarm, Inspired By Trent Reznor's Swarmatron Synth". Synthtopia. 4 March 2011.
  10. ^ "The Swarm". reFuse Software.
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