Clavioline

The clavioline is an electronic keyboard instrument, a forerunner to the analog synthesizer.

It was invented by Constant Martin in 1947. It consists of a keyboard and a separate amplifier and speaker unit. The keyboard usually covered three octaves, and had a number of switches to alter the tone of the sound produced, add vibrato, and provide other effects. Several models were produced by different companies; among the more important were the Standard, Reverb, and Concert models by Gibson and Selmer in the 1950s. The 6-octave model developed by Harald Bode employed octave transposition.

In England the Jennings Organ Company's first successful product was the Univox, an early self-powered electronic keyboard based on the Selmer Clavioline. Also in Japan, Ace Tone's first product Canary S-2 (1962) was designed based on Clavioline.