"Only at Cornell would one have the opportunity not only to work with and restore a lost, obscure piece of musical history, but to be part of the process that allows it to actually be heard for the first time."
That's how Cornell University music professor Travis Johns describes his team's eight-month project to restore a 65-year-old synthesizer.
The Cornell Daily Sun reports the instrument was designed by musical and mathematical theorist David Rothenberg, who was hired by the Air Force in the 1960s to work on pattern recognition, a key component of artificial intelligence.
He then hired synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog to build the instrument, which was funded in part by a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
The Air Force hired Rothenberg for work related to pattern recognition, a critical component of artificial intelligence today.
The military hired Rothenberg for work related to pattern recognition, a critical component of artificial intelligence today.
He then hired Moog to build the instrument, which comprised a keyboard and an analog synthesizer with a bank of oscillators.
Rothenberg gave away the bank of oscillators to a synthesizer museum, but he kept the keyboard in hopes of getting someone else to work on it.
That never happened.
In March 2022, Rothenberg's widow donated the Read the Entire Article
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