Library Instrument

RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer

The first programmable electronic synthesizer, installed at Columbia-Princeton in 1957-59.

The RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer
Source
Type
Instrument
Creators
Harry F. Olson, Herbert Belar, RCA
Subjects
Sound Technology Number

Designed by RCA engineers Harry F. Olson and Herbert Belar, with contributions from Peter Mauzey and composer Vladimir Ussachevsky, the Mark II was the first programmable electronic synthesizer — a three-ton, twenty-four-oscillator vacuum-tube instrument controlled by a punched paper roll. Installed at Columbia’s Prentis Hall in 1957 and acquired by the new Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1959, it became the Center’s central instrument.