S q u e e z y t u n e s

Early Dulcitone

This dulcitone sold for £205 on Ebay recently. It seems to be a very early model signified by it's name plate of 'Thomas Machell, Inventor & Patentee', rather than the more common 'Thomas Machell & Sons'. I guess this was made before his sons got involved in the business. It's also seems to be a table top version, not having any legs.

Don't forget dulcitone fans that dulcitone samples are now available from http://www.virb.com/dulcitone1884

clipped from cgi.ebay.co.uk clipped from cgi.ebay.co.uk

Dulcitone Samples Available

Fans of dulcitones can rejoice as there is now a sample set available for just £15.

The size is 70megs, with 3 velocity layers and some fancy programming ( Kontakt, Ableton and Combinator formats ) but without the slightly iffy forks and sticking keyboard.

Available in Kontakt2 (with scripting) , Ableton Sampler, EXS24, Soundfont, Shortcircuit, SFZ and NN-XT/Reason Combinator , Giga and Halion formats.

I will definitely be getting a copy of this as it could come in handy for the album that 'Mike Summers and the Doons' are meant to be recording soon.

Link: Dulcitone samples available here 

clipped from www.virb.com

The Dulcitone that Got Away

I quite fancy owning a dulcitone. So when one came up on Ebay that was in lovely condition, fully working and with a starting price of just 1 penny I decided to keep quiet and watch it and maybe sneak in a bid towards the end.

Unfortunately so did the rest of the world. These things, in less good condition, generally go for about £150. This one just kept going up and up though, eventually finishing at £560 !

It just goes to show that with vintage instruments condition is everything.

I don't suppose anybody knows of a sample library featuring a dulcitone do they ?

Dulcitone

The Dulcitone was invented by Thomas Machell of Glasgow in the late 1800s. The keyboard activates felt covered hammers which strike tuning forks (as opposed to piano). I've never actually heard one so can't describe how it sounds. If any one knows of any sound samples anywhere then please let us know.

Here are a couple of Dulcitones that sold on Ebay this year.

This one sold for £98.

And this one sold for £82. Interestingly this one also has a sustain pedal and the legs fold underneath allowing you to play it on a table top.