Music Thing: The Triadex Muse
posted November 27th 2004 1:54PM
Each week, Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out these days, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment. Last Saturday, it was pocket-sized studios. This week, it's the Triadex Muse:
It's probably the rarest, strangest, best-looking vintage synth ever mass-produced. So how come I'd never heard of
the Triadex Muse until two of them turned up on eBay last week?
At a time when Moog and ARP were selling synths the size of wardrobes that looked like lab equipment and cost tens of
thousands of dollars, the Muse was the size of a typewriter. It cost $300 and looked like something Dieter Rams would
have designed for Braun in the sixties.
It had impeccable geek credentials. It was designed by two MIT professors, Marvin Minsky and Edward Fredkin. At the
time, Minsky was moonlighting on the set of ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’, teaching Stanley Kubrick about Artificial
Intelligence as he created Hal. Ten years later, Edward Fredkin would create the Fredkin Prize, to be awarded to the
creators of the first computer to win the World Chess Championship. He paid out to Deep Blue in 1997.
So what was the Muse? Well, not really a
synth. It was a digital sequencer, which played melodic-sounding bleepy music through the internal speaker, based on a
baffling set of algorithms. As you moved the sliders, the algorithms changed, and the music changed. Like the
Chiclet DSP Music Box, it was designed to replace a radio
- why listen to old music, when this neat-o box can make new music? There was an idea only a MIT professor could
love.
The Muse even had an even rarer accessory, the ‘Light Show’, which flashed coloured lights in time to the music.
Inevitably, the Muse was a commercial disaster. Only 280 units were ever manufactured. Unlike vintage analog synths, a
Muse won’t generate a fat bassline for a hip hop record, but they are very collectable. One of the Muses sold last week
on Ebay received a bid of $1,799, although $800 is a more realistic price. If you can’t afford that, try Paul Geffen’s
basic-but-interesting PC Muse Simulator.
Obligatory tale of woe...
I received a Muse for a Christmas present when I was in high school. My father worked at MIT at the time, and got it directly from Minsky. It accompanied me to college, where it would often be making music to itself in the corner of my dorm room. I loaned it to some friends who used it in a couple of live music gigs. Then, I lost track of it. About 10 years ago, I was cleaning out the basement of the family home, and found it in the bottom of a box. Unfortunately, the box had been below the water line during a basement flood.
Oh, well...
My father has one sitting on a shelf, the cord was chewed off by our parrot, but I think it works other then that, that and it has about 3 inches of dust on and inside it, I could take some pictures of it if anyone is interested? I could open it up and look inside at all the little mice houses to.
Zee
i picked up a "muse" some years ago at a garage sale for $5. I have been looking for more information about it and was wondering what it would be worth.
Deep Blue was a strong chess computer in its time, but now a common PC is much stronger!
I played with cambers muse and light box and i want one. no, i need one. if anyone has a working muse and are interested in selling please let me know
I have one fully functional and in excellent condition.
I have one fully functional and in excellent condition.
I'm looking for a Triadex Muse in good condition for a project I'm working on. If anyone has one please drop an email to me.
Thanks
Mark
RE: ABOVE MESSAGE
sorry email address is tuna@tunamusic.co.uk
thanks
Mark