Dewtron
Dewtron was the trademark of Design Engineering (Wokingham) Ltd. or D. E. W. Ltd.[1]. A British company incorporated by Brian H. Baily on 5th February 1964.[2] From 1965 the company advertised a range of DIY electronic music products, in various magazines and newspapers until it ceased trading sometime between 1980 and 1982. The adverts always give an address of Ringwood Road, Ferndown, Dorset, never Wokingham.[3][4][5]
Products
- Apollo - 49 note mono synth with matrix of swiches for patching.[3][6]
- Fuzzorama - fuzz box[7]
- Gipsy - 37 note 2 VCO mono synth[3]
- Hawaiian glide unit for Farfisa Compact organs.[3]
- Mister Bassman - 13 note pedal board, with either string or organ tone.[3]
- Modumatrix - a matrix of switches for patching.[3]
- Reverb[8]
- Rythm modules[8]
- Waa-waa - [7]
Synthesiser modules
"Projext X stands for any design of synthesiser that you, the constructor wishes to build."[9] The kits were a selection of potted lumps of resin concealing the circuitry, with protruding colour coded wires.[10] To make a synthesiser or signal processor the user wired these up to a power supply and controls, in a case of their choice. The circuits are linear Hz/V rather than the now more common exponential V/octave response.[4] In the 1970s up to thirty modules were available, some of which were:[3]
- 3 and 4 octave keyboard
- Joystick
- Patchboard sockets and plugs
- AF-1 fader
- ES-1 self-triggered envelope shaper
- ES-2 externally-triggered envelope shaper
- OFT-1 offset voltage module for parallel VCVO tracking
- PG-1 percussion, as in Hammond percussion
- PH-1 voltage controlled phaser
- PP-A power supply
- PV-1 pitch to voltage
- REV-1 spring reverb
- RM-2 ring modulator
- SA-1 selective amplifier, a bandpass filter for auto wah-wah
- SHE-1 sample and hold, and envelope
- SLO-OSC
- VCA-1 amplifier
- VCF
- VCO-1 saw and square, bottom note 1 Volt rising 200 mV/octave, not reliably in tune
- VCO-2 triangle, sine, square available simultaneously, resin encapsulated, available in matched groups for consistent tuning
- VSLO-OSC
- WN-1 white noise gnerator
References
- ^ The Electrical Review, Volume 176, Issues 10–18, 1965, p.94, lists a trade mark application: "Dewtron [...] portable radio receivers for improving reception of sound: transistors, valves, amplifiers and electrically controlled circuits situated in factories or buildings for use in the automatic control of industrial, commercial and other operations. Design Engineering (Wokingham) Ltd., 81 Rose Street, Wokingham, Berkshire."
- ^ Companies House
- ^ a b c d e f g The A-Z of analogue synthesisers part one: A-M by Peter Forrest, Susurreal Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0952437724, pp. 83-85
- ^ a b Defunct Musical Instrument Manufacturers - D & E
- ^ The Dewtron "Ring-O-Lett" ring modulator, Talking To Myself blog, 23 Jun 2012
- ^ Studio Sound, Dec. 1973, p. 96
- ^ a b D.E.W. Ltd. advert, Everyday Electronics, Mar 1973, p. 167
- ^ a b Practical Wireless, March, 1969
- ^ Dewtron advertisement
- ^ Re: Behringer: practices, ethics, morals and legitimacy., Mod Wiggler Forum, Jul 2021
Further reading
- Product Review: DEW, Electronotes 14, 1972, page 8
External links
- Taurus Taurus Taurus by David Etheridge, Making Music, Jun 1987
- Linear or log law by B. H. Baily, Dewtron Design Engineering, Readout, Practical Electonics, Jul 1973, p. 622 and The topical synthesiser by D. Shaw, Readout, Practical Electonics, Aug 1973, p. 710
- Dewtron - synths from outer space, Mod Wiggler Forum, Mar 2016
- Re: History of Synth DIY: Opinions requested post by whoop_john, Mod Wiggler Forum, 12 Jun 2021
- Surprise!!! More Dewtron, Talking To Myself blog, 23 Jun 2012 - includes scans of the instructions for Dewtron Rong-O-Lett, RM2 ring modulator
- Defunct Musical Instrument Manufacturers - D & E
YouTube
- How to tame a Ring Modulator: the Moog MF-102 by murderousmaths - demonstrates a twin Dewtron ring-mod from about 13:00
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