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Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
Posted: October 01 2016 at 08:33
That sinewave doesn't look too pure to me, but then even 1% harmonic distortion can look pretty ropey on a 'scope. Of course when it comes to using it as an audio source for electronic music that's a desirable thing as your video sound-clip shows.
It's been 40+ years since I've used (or even seen) a H-1 as in the test and measurement business we quickly replaced them with solid state beasties based on the CA8038 and XR-2206 function generator chips that were inherently more stable and could be frequency and/or amplitude modulated easily using a second function generator. I see there is an H1E on eBay for £60 - back in the 70s we were hoiking them into the bin without even stripping out the valves first. Hey-ho.
Joined: May 23 2013
Location: UK
Status: Offline
Points: 2826
Posted: September 30 2016 at 04:33
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand guess what I just bought off eBay ? ;-)
Yep. An original 1960's Advance H-1 signal generator. Exact same model as the ones in the picture above.
This is going to be wired up to a number of Eurorack effects to create the ultimate (I hope) weird noise machine. It'll be paired with a similar vintage valve oscilloscope in a 10U rack mount, with a row of delays, flangers, ring modulators and God knows what.
Joined: May 23 2013
Location: UK
Status: Offline
Points: 2826
Posted: September 30 2016 at 04:31
Over in Room 2 of the Electronic workshop, there were a bank of Advance H-1 signal generators, a "keying unit" (and there's the famed "wobulator" just above the drawer on the right.)
Joined: May 23 2013
Location: UK
Status: Offline
Points: 2826
Posted: September 30 2016 at 04:28
Just prior to this, Delia Derbyshire had been messing about in the BBC Radiophonic workshop with nine Jason valve oscillators, 12 Advance H-1 sine/ square wave oscillators and a "beat frequency oscillator" nicknamed the "wobulator".
Amongst other things, the result was the original 1963 Dr Who theme, an electronic music classic. Delia below, 9 Jason valve oscillators to the right of the monitor.
Joined: May 23 2013
Location: UK
Status: Offline
Points: 2826
Posted: September 30 2016 at 04:27
Ladies and gentlemen of a certain age may remember that Hawkwind employed two hairy lunatics to play "audio generator" onstage in the early 70's. Del Dettmar and Dik Mik got an old audio range signal generator and passed the output through a Binson tape echo (and apparently a ring modulator). This made the audience very ill and was the near apogee of early 70's sound experimentation.
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The mighty audio generator
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Of course when it comes to using it as an audio source for electronic music that's a desirable thing as your video sound-clip shows. 
Have fun with the signal generator you bought! Can't wait to hear it. 
