Therevox builds custom musical instruments in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The company focuses on continuous-pitch instruments and is known for building a modern

analog synthesizer An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...

inspired by the rare

Ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player o ...

. First commissioned in 2004 to build modern version of the Electro-Theremin as used by

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...

on their 1966 single "

Good Vibrations "Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record c ...

", only 12 of these instruments went to musicians and studios in North America and Europe. In 2010, Therevox was commissioned by

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Breakglass Studio Breakglass Studios is a Canadian analog recording, analogue and digital recording studio established in 2005. Co-founded by producer Dave Smith and Jace Lasek, the studio space is located in the Le Plateau-Mont-Royal area of Montreal, Quebec. S ...

to design a new instrument that would combine the Ondes Martenot's ''au ruban'' and ''touche d’intensité'' interface with a dual oscillator analog synthesizer similar to the

MiniMoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

. The design included a built-in

Spring Reverb A reverb effect, or reverb, is an audio effect applied to a sound signal to simulate reverberation. It may be created through physical means, such as echo chambers, or electronically through audio signal processing. Echo chambers The first re ...

and this prototype became the ET-4 model that has been available since 2012. Some artists to feature the ET-4 include

The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes ( ) are a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Formed in 2003 by the husband and wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, the band also includes Kevin Laing (drums), Richard White (guitar), Sheenah Ko (keyboa ...

Belle & Sebastian Belle and Sebastian are a Scottish indie pop band formed in Glasgow in 1996. Led by Stuart Murdoch, the band has released eleven albums. They are often compared with acts such as The Smiths and Nick Drake. The name "Belle and Sebastian" comes ...

Brad Mehldau Bradford Alexander Mehldau (; born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Mehldau studied music at The New School, and toured and recorded while still a student. He was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's Quar ...

Yann Tiersen Yann Tiersen (born 23 June 1970) is a French Breton musician and composer. His musical career is split between studio recordings, music collaborations and film soundtracks songwriting. His music incorporates a large variety of classical and c ...

The Decemberists The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Colin Meloy ( lead vocals, guitar, principal songwriter), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion), Nate ...

, Suuns,

The Veils The Veils are an English/New Zealand indie rock band fronted by singer and songwriter Finn Andrews. History Early years, ''The Runaway Found'' (2001–2004) Finn Andrews was born in London but spent his teenage years at high school in Auc ...

Team Me Team Me is an indie pop band from Norway. Their 2011 debut studio album '' To the Treetops!'' won the 2011 Norwegian Grammy Awards (Spellemannprisen) in the category Best Pop Group of the Year. Their second studio album ''Blind as Night'' was rele ...

Iron & Wine Samuel "Sam" Ervin Beam (born July 26, 1974), better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, is an American singer-songwriter. He has released six studio albums, several EPs and singles, as well as a few download-only releases, which include a ...

Floating Points Sam Shepherd, known professionally as Floating Points, is a British electronic music producer, DJ, and musician. He is the founder of Pluto Records, co-founder of Eglo Records and leader of a 16-piece group called Floating Points Ensemble. Bi ...

Sharon Van Etten Sharon Katharine Van Etten (born February 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter. She has released six studio albums, the latest of which is '' We've Been Going About This All Wrong'' (2022). Early life Van Etten was born in Belleville, N ...

Joan Shelley Joan Shelley (born in 1985) is an American indie folk musician from Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Career Shelley has released a number of studio recordings. Her second album, ''Ginko'', and third album, ''Farthest Field'' (with Daniel Ma ...

(played by

Jeff Tweedy Jeffrey Scot Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in high s ...

), The Gertrudes,

Chelsea Wolfe Chelsea Joy Wolfe (born November 14, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Her work has blended elements of gothic rock, doom metal, and folk music. Raised in Northern California with a country musician father, Wolfe began writin ...

Klô Pelgag Klô Pelgag is the stage name of Chloé Pelletier-Gagnon (born March 13, 1990 in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Quebec), a Canadian singer-songwriter from Quebec. Beginning her career in 2009 as a performer at various festivals and music contests in Queb ...

Wintersleep Wintersleep is a Canadian indie rock band formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2001.Heidi Ulrichsen"Wintersleep offers 'sneak peeks' of new album at Boreal" ''Sudbury Star'', June 30, 2014. The band's original lineup consisted of vocalist and gui ...

and Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit. The instrument has been a feature of

OneRepublic OneRepublic is an American pop rock band formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2002. It consists of lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Tedder, lead guitarist and violist Zach Filkins, rhythm guitarist Drew Brown, bassist and cellis ...

Native Tour The Native Tour (also known as the Native Summer Tour in North America or as the Native Fall Tour in Europe) is the third headlining concert tour by American Pop rock band OneRepublic, in support of their third studio album ''Native'' (2013). One ...

and the ET-4 has also been used on soundtracks for

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

The Handmaid's Tale (TV series) ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is an American dystopian television series created by Bruce Miller, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The series was ordered by the streaming service Hulu as a straight-to-ser ...

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, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley and

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

Nurse 3D ''Nurse 3D'' is a 2013 American erotic horror thriller film directed by Doug Aarniokoski and written by Aarniokoski and David Loughery. Inspired by the photography of Lionsgate's chief marketing officer, Tim Palen, the film stars Paz de la Huer ...

'' starring

Paz de la Huerta María de la Paz Elizabeth Sofía Adriana de la Huerta y Bruce (; born September 3, 1984), known professionally as Paz de la Huerta, is an American actress and model. She had roles in the films ''The Cider House Rules'' (1999) and ''A Walk to Re ...

and the

Salvatore Ferragamo Salvatore Ferragamo (5 June 1898 – 7 August 1960) was an Italian shoe designer and the founder of luxury goods high-end retailer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. An innovative shoe designer, Salvatore Ferragamo established a reputation in the 1930s. ...

inspired "White Shoe".

References

External links

Therevox : Custom Musical Instruments
official website
Therevox - Wood & Wires
documentary film Continuous pitch instruments Synthesizer manufacturing companies of Canada Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Canada {{musical-instrument-company-stub