Viscount (musical instrument manufacturer)

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Viscount International SpA
Company typePublic
Founded13 June 1969
FounderMarcello Galanti
HeadquartersMondaino, Italy
ProductsMusical Instruments
Websitewww.viscount.it

Viscount International SpA (Viscount) is a musical instrument manufacturer based in

Oberheim brand for several years, to market vintage organs, synthesizers
and guitar effects. Currently, Viscount's manufacturing and R&D activity is based in Italy. The company has been continuously owned by the Galanti family since its inception.

History

Twentieth century

The company history begins in the late 19th century when Antonio Galanti, musician and craftsman, founded a small

Eko, Farfisa, FBT, the production included a wide variety of instruments through the years - such as electric guitars, home organs, accordions, synthesizers[4]
and loudspeakers.

Today

In 1999, Marcello Galanti died, leaving his business to his son Mauro and daughter Loriana, who renewed the product catalogue and expanded their R&D personnel including a new R&D Lab based in

DSP and a remote control system. In 2008 Viscount gave birth to a new brand, Physis, for the production of a new generation of classic organs, based on a new sound synthesis technology, physical modeling, patented in Italy and other countries.[6]
This synthesis technology, although common for the emulation of other musical instruments (such as guitars and brass instruments) is at the time of writing the only known implementation for the emulation of organ pipes.

Products

Discontinued products

Most notable instruments among the first half of the 20th century are:

  • Dominator accordion series
  • Super Classic accordions
  • Galanti Electro Music guitars (such as the Grand-Prix series)

More recently, notable discontinued products are:

Recent products

The company started producing

Vox and Fujiha
. In the 2000s the company launched new products and brands and developed new technologies, some of which are covered by patents. Some of these products are:

  • the Unico line of physical modeling organs, using Physis technology
  • VERSE digital loudspeakers
  • Alpha digital mixers, an attempt to bring digital mixers to the low-end market
  • Current products
  • VERSE D:SUB speaker
    VERSE D:SUB speaker
  • Voice Systems Bee T-Five speaker
    Voice Systems Bee T-Five speaker
  • A screenshot from the D:SP Editor for VERSE speakers
    A screenshot from the D:SP Editor for VERSE speakers

Physis

Physis refers to the physical modeling technology developed by Viscount. Two series of organs have been produced with Physis technology at the time of this writing: Unico and Unico CL. The latter being a stripped-down version of the former. Unico organs are based only on physical modeling synthesis, hence they no longer use sampling technology, currently the most common synthesis technology for musical instruments. Unico organs also feature a Linux-powered core controller, hence it is capable of managing USB devices such as USB sticks, and several DSPs for the sound synthesis. With these new products, Viscount seems to have gained back some popularity in the US, after a demo tour featuring Cameron Carpenter as a player.

VERSE

VERSE is a trademark used by Viscount to market a series of loudspeakers meant for sound reinforcement in big halls, theaters, live stages and so on. All VERSE speakers are equipped with an onboard

RS-485 meant to create a daisy-chain network
to control and set up the speakers. A PC editor software, called D:SP, is needed in order to control the speakers and adjust their parameters. Current VERSE products are:

  • D:SIDER and D:SUB speakers, equipped with a DSP unit and a digital amplifier.
  • INSIDER MkII and SUB speakers, equipped with a digital amplifier.

Voice Systems

Voice Systems was the first of the aforementioned brands to be created, in 2000, and sells products for the low-end market, specifically: small live gigs, light sound reinforcement systems for speeches or small venues. Under this brand many unique products were or are sold: tiny mixers, such as Micropad, quarter-rack reverb units, 8-channel digital mixers, compact all-in-one systems (e.g. Factotum).

Notable users of Viscount products

See also

References

  1. ^ "Viscount International: The Art of Sound". Viscount.it. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
  2. ^ a b "Viscount International: The Art of Sound". Viscount.it. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
  3. ^ "Patent Images". Patimg2.uspto.gov. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
  4. ^ "Italian Synthesizers Siel, Elka, Crumar, Jen, GRS, EKO, Kiwi, Solton and now GRP also | Synthesizer Database, Sequencer & Drummachines, News & Forum Community". Sequencer.de. 2012-08-31. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
  5. ^ "Business News & Strategy For Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur.com". entrepreneur.com. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  6. ^ "United States Patent: 7442869". Patft.uspto.gov. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
  7. ^ Hendrix, Steve, "," washingtonpost.com, October 5, 2017.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Viscount International.
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