Datatonism: Emulating Historical Instruments as a Pedagogic Exercise

This paper describes a university course project focusing on the digital emulation of a historical electronic sound instrument, the Dataton System 3000. Students were asked to emulate the synthesis possibilities and user interfaces of individual Dataton modules using Pure Data, based on both documentation and physical inspection of the instrument itself. The course represents one segment of a four year research project into the design of contemporary instruments informed by the history of electronic music in Sweden during the 1960’s and 70’s. We found that the modular structure of both the Dataton and Pure Data supported a collaborative environment for the students to explore digital signal processing and music instrument design. Our report further demonstrates how the emulation of electronic instruments provides avenues of creative expression and critical thinking among the students, while making a positive contribution to our larger research goals.