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Pasadena Star News

September, 18 1974
How to Make Your Own Moog
By Harold N. HUBBARD

For the young man drooling for a Moog synthesizer costing thousands - which he can't afford- Tom Handforth offers instruction on how to make one for $50 and $100.
For someone who doesn't know what a Moog synthesizer is but would like to know, he suggests the same thing- sign up for his series of Wednesday evening classes which start today.. The classes will be presented from 7 to 10 pm at the Community Adult Training operated by Pasadena College at 1450 N. Lake Ave.
"Actually the synthesizer is analog computer- meaning one that I continuously varying", Handforth said. "It is used in combining and mixing sounds on several tapes simultaneously. With it we can take sounds recorded on tapes- almost any sounds- and manipulate them to create music."
Handforth said such an instrument can be invaluable to a composer, permitting him to hear at once the music he is creating.
The method, he said, is to use a multitrack tape recorder, record a line of the music, then play it back, alter it as desired to make it come out as intended, then record another line and play the two lines together.
"In this way the composer can work with sounds as a painter does with paint, adding and altering until he is satisfied with the result," Handforth said. "We can take a natural sound and by this method which we call 'musique concrete', we can create piano notes or violin notes out of it. We can change it to the sound of bells or of drums. We can create the effect of a full symphony orchestra."
Handfotth, who has degrees in science and has spent years as a professional musician seeks to make electronic music understandable and available to young people who otherwise could do little with it. There is no registration fee for those under 21. The fee for those older is $5.
"This class is related to current scene," Handforth said. "It is project-oriented, explains the gadgets-used, explains how to get the needed parts cheaply by buying pieces of junked machines, and then show the student how to use them. It is possible to make a machine for $15 that will play music, but not
with the effects of a full orchestra."
It is possible to buy for 10 cents a small board loaded with little electronic devices taken from a computer when newer devices were installed. The
musical instrument can hooked up to a keyboard ,or it may he played with dials and push buttons. The art is in the use of the controls.
Handforth has lived in San Gabriel or Temple City for 25 years. He has played in many motion pictures and played Walt Disney calliope at the Los Angeles County Fair about 15 years ago. Disney had paid $20,000 to get the old circus steam-powered instrument in working order, but his people had never been able to get it to play well.
Handforth, with a knowlegde of physics and mechanics as well as music, made some small changes, and the machine, according to Handforth, as it should. One change was as simple as gluing extensions to the keys.