The arguably subhuman staff at Trogotronic have hand-built unorthodox audio instruments since the 1980’s when, as musicians fueled by poverty and curiosity, we went to work on discarded odds and ends (since the expensive state of the art electronic instruments of the day were out of reach). After years of can-do innovation, rather than scorn our situation, we found our gear to be unique rather than second rate: more responsive than mass produced stuff stocked at “McCorporate” with an signal qualities that far surpassed the factory-made. Furthermore over the span of decades we came to appreciate that our instruments were built to last and if necessary to be repaired rather than tossed in the landfill should they malfunction or get damaged in the field. Thus our humble enterprise was born.
The First "Trogotronic" the TR Ogre
Trogotronic instruments are not designed upon the strict conventions of audio synthesis established by electrical engineers for the low voltage solid state rigs of the 1960’s. This, now, “traditional” synthesis interface dispensed with Hammond Organ high voltage tube based synthesizers’ familiar musical terminology established in the late 1930’s for electronic means. The “pocket protectors” instead substituted the opaque language of mathematics completely foreign to classical composition. Worse still, in the 60’s advent of a “modular format”, the audio generation process was broken down into tiny elements, a pricey group of which are required to be patched together to coax even the most elementary sounds to emerge. Interesting results are not easy to come by given the price of entry and the hurdles of technical terminology; and those without deep pockets and countless hours risk producing cheesy sounds that are not even in the same league as the music of Raymond Scott or the Barrons’ Forbidden Planet soundtrack of the 1950’s.
The Flying Fish
As musicians, sound designers & audio engineers first (electronic technicians second) we approach audio “synthesis” the same way: PRAGMATICALLY. Rather than getting lost in the minutia of process we focus on an interface that READILY navigates through most interesting areas of unique “Analog Audio Artifacts” the moment a Trogotronic instrument is plugged in. Our instruments encourage investigation to the transcendent singularities (otherwise known as “chaos”, “turbulence” and “fractal” phenomena) that analog systems excel in. These “regions” yield the most unique signals that electronic instruments offer. Our High Voltage Vacuum Tube units render these domains in an even more magnificent manner, displayed in spectral melodic harmonics which render the most horrifying signals somehow beautifully. Much as the neck and strings on a violin are not marred by cypher our stand-alone models’ controls are not labeled; the user is encouraged to LISTEN and FEEL the instrument, observe the signal lamps so that it may more readily serve as an extension of the mind and body rather than a calculator or indexed jukebox full of memorized sounds that begs verbal thought and comprehension.
787 "Barbarian"
Trogotronic instruments are primitive & noisy, some of the vintage models are probably a fire hazard and some have dangerous high voltages within… ALL Trogotronic instruments are guaranteed to produce COMPLETELY DEFECTIVE sounds for at least one year… ALL Trogotronic gear is built by hand to order in USA. They usually take between 2 to 14 days to build (Custom work takes longer & Vintage Hot Rods are limited by cores available to Trogotronic—although hot rod parts are always stocked, a sudden spike in orders for a given Vintage Hot Rod model could create delays in the salvaged part supplies). E-mail or call today we will do our best to entertain and answer the most complicated or trivial of queries or current topic of interest.
