 | |
| Industry | Music |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1972 |
| Founder | Mike Beigel and Aaron Newman |
| Defunct | 1979, revived in 2014[1] |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Products | Electronicmusical effects |
| Website | mu-tron |
Musitronics, often shortened toMu-tron, is a manufacturer of electronicmusical effects that first became active in the 1970s. Founded by Mike Beigel and Aaron Newman, the company's products provided filtering and processing effects and were derived fromsynthesizer components. The company was known for producing high-quality products with many user-adjustable parameters, but high production costs and a failed product line, theGizmotron, initially caused its downfall.
Their best-known product was the Mu-tron IIIenvelope filter, "the world's first envelope-controlled filter", first made in 1972 and quickly becoming an essential effect for manyfunk musicians. It was placed back in production again, in a modified form, in 2014.[2]
The Musitronics Corporation ofRosemont, New Jersey was formed in 1972 by Mike Beigel[3] and Aaron Newman, an engineer who worked atGuild Guitar Company. Beigel had been working on a synthesizer project for Guild, but the project was dropped after Guild's president, Al Dronge, was killed in an accident. The new president was less interested in the synthesizer project,[4] and Beigel teamed up with a former Guild engineer, Aaron Newman, to save what he could, and formed Musitronics.[5] They extracted sections from the synthesizer to make a stand-alone audio effect out of it; the result was an envelope filter, the Mu-tron III, built in the summer of 1972,[4] which proved popular and viable enough with major music instrument retailers to build the company on.[5] Musitronic built a plant out of a former chicken coop in Rosemont, and soon employed 35 people.[4]
The company offered traditional effects such as simple phase shifters, flangers, and foot-operated wah pedals as well. With George Merriman, former partner of guitarist and guitar and effect builderDan Armstrong, Mutronics built theOctave Divider, and later made the Armstrong plug-in effects.[5]
In 1978 Musitronics was sold to synthesizer companyARP Instruments in 1979,[6] on a royalty basis, but ARP folded before the original owners of Musitronics could ever collect any money. Musitronics became Gizmo Incorporated and continued to try their hand at products, but it ended when Aaron Newman suffered a heart attack.
By 2014 Beigel returned to making effects with his new company Mu-FX, producing a "modified and miniaturized version" of the Mu-Tron III, renamed the Tru-Tron 3X.[2] A few years later, the Micro-Tron 3 was introduced. Features include an extreme reduction of size (along the lines of a tube screamer or phase 90), a second foot switch for selecting the sweep up or down and the ability to run off a standard 9v adapter. Inside the pedal, there are 3 pins which a jumper can select the tru-Tron buffer (pins 1&2) or the original mutron buffer (pins 2&3). It is widely considered far & away the most user friendly out of the 3 envelope filters the company has officially released since 1972.
The Mu-Tron III was based on a Guild prototypes called the Timbre Generator. Beigel said he chose the envelope-controlled filter over other synthesizer elements, such as ring modulation, because it sounded more musical; it was a more general effect that would lend itself to a variety of applications, and it was easy to use.[citation needed]
The Mu-Tron III became an instant success and was used by a variety of musicians for a variety of instruments, especially guitar,Clavinet, and bass.[6] Perhaps the best-known use of it is byStevie Wonder,[7] who used it on his Clavinet for the song "Higher Ground".[3][6]
In early 1995 Beigel lent his expertise toElectro-Harmonix, creating an update of his original design, the Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron, and he also designed a Bi-Filter for E-H.[6] Three other pedals, the Mini Q-Tron, Micro Q-Tron and Q-Tron+, are available from EHX as well, who now also offer the Bi-Filter, a modern version of Beigel Sound Lab's Envelope Controlled Filter, made in 1979. Michael Dregni, inVintage Guitar, noted that none of the "clones, copycats, and other attempts to bring it back...sounded quite like the real deal". But in 2014, a renewed version of the Mu-Tron III, now called the Tru-Tron 3X, was made by Beigel's new company Mu-FX.[2]
Phaser effects were common in the 1970s, but the Mu-tron Bi-Phase combined two phase shifting circuits and in its time was "the phaser-lover's 'phasor'". It used technology from the oldUni-Vibe, with lamps andphoto cells, and featuring two independent sweep generators which could be coupled, each with individual rate controls and the option to choosesquare orsine waves.[5] The unit could be connected to an optional rocking foot pedal so that the effect could be operated in the manner of awah-wah pedal.[8][9] It was used byThe Smashing Pumpkins as an integral part in achieving the "pumpkins sound" for the 1993 albumSiamese Dream: "This is one of the secrets to our secret sound. This is the Mutron Biphase. We run everything through it - everything. It's fabulous", said producerButch Vig in the video documentaryVieuphoria.[10]
The Bi-Phase was featured on an episode of the BBC showThe Repair Shop, where a 40-year old model was restored to fully working quality.[citation needed]
A simpler design than the Bi-phase, it included only rate and depth controls. The Phasor II introduced additional functionality brought over from the Bi-Phase, as a kind of scaled-down version.[5]
The Octave Divider used theoctave effect, producing tones an octave above and below the input signal. There were many clones of the originalOctavia around, but Mutronics' version, designed by George Merriman, had many more adjustable parameters.[5]
Abucket-brigade flanger which offered extensive control of effect parameters.
A dual volume andwah foot-operated rocking pedal with photo-electric controls, and a gain boost flat screw potentiometer on the side of the chassis.[5]
Between 1976 and 1978 Musitronics manufactured a series of modular, plug-in effects for Dan Armstrong amplifiers.[5] These included theGreen Ringer, an octave effect, theYellow Humper, a frequency booster designed forbass guitar, thePurple Peaker, a similar boost effect for electric guitar, and theOrange Squeezer, a signal compressor.
The Gizmo, also called the Gizmotron, was a device developed byLol Creme andKevin Godley of10cc, and manufactured by an offshoot of Musitronics called Gizmotronics. The device used motor-driven plastic wheels to produce infinitely sustained notes on a guitar. The device was problematic, and Gizmotronics entered bankruptcy before very many had been produced.
