Talk:Electrophone

Personal computer

The classification of electorphones should be expanded to accomodate the the use of the personal computer as instrument. The input devices of keyboard, mouse and tablet allow the conversion of multiple coordinated analog inputs to generate music in the hands of a performer. The identification of the breadth, scope and implementations of these inputs would be a basis of further definition of the electrophone catagory. (i.e. polyvelocophones: multiple velocity analog input converters; polybianariophones: multiple analog toggle input converters; Polynewtonophones: multiple analog force input converters; Monodecipolynewtonpolyvelocophones: single volume analog force input with multiple force multiple speed analog inputs) This convention could model the order of the personal computer as instrument in such a way as to classify the personal computer as a different instrument for each configuration of analog input. During the course of a song, the personal computer could be classified as different instruments as the user configures the implementation of the various analog inputs available to him within the course of performance.

I think the Electrophone category should be abolished altogether. The top-level Hornbostel-Sachs categories are based on what means are used to cause air to vibrate. A synthesizer's Voltage Control Oscillator, for example, does not cause air to vibrate. Speakers do, though. Therefore, I submit that instruments in the electrophones (synthesizers, samplers, Theremins, etc.) are correctly categorized as membranophones.

As I see it, the top-level categories describe how the sound is generated in the first place, rather than how it's amplified/output. Although a VCO doesn't by itself cause air to vibrate, the oscillator is how the sound pattern is generated - it's just in the form of an electrical signal rather than vibration of air. Consequently, the electric guitar is classed as a chordophone.

Moreover, when an electrophone is played as part of a music group, the instrument tends to be wired to the mixer, unlike the acoustic instruments where you'd use a microphone. So the instrument itself might not be generating vibrations of air at all. -- Smjg 10:53, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Or perhaps there is room for an Electrophone category. Transformers hum. Motors hum. Generators hum. And if it hums, it hums at a certain pitch and that pitch can be changed in time. So the category should be left open for a theoretical instrument of this nature.

I agree with Smjg; I think the important thing in the classification is not the transducer that couples the signal to the air, but the resonator that generates the frequency. Is it a string, a membrane, a column of air, or the instrument body as a whole? Imagine an electric violin coupled directly to a cochlear implant, thus being "heard" by the listener without any air vibrations at all. I submit that it is still a chordophone, because the musical note is generated by a vibrating string. Recording a violin and playing it over a speaker does not make it a membranophone.

If you think it's the transducer, try to classify the zeusaphone.

The interesting division of electrophones is between oscillators that naturally resonate at the audio frequency (theremins, analog synthesizers) and systems that generate pieces of a waveform digitally at frequencies beyond the hearing limit, like digital synthesizers. 71.41.210.146 11:07, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Electrophone vs Electronic musical instrument

I don't understand why this article should be separate from Electronic musical instrument. Would it be appropriate to find a way to merge the information of the two articles? synthfiend (talk) 21:38, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

@Synthfiend I was thinking the same thing so I just went and done it. Oiyarbepsy (talk) 07:29, 28 April 2021 (UTC)