iTonto

iTONTO the App, documents the Engineering and Design of “TONTO”, The Original New Timbral Orchestra.

DISCLAIMER: iTONTO is not a functional iOS recreation of TONTO.

TONTO is one of the most important innovations in musical history. TONTO is the first synthesizer of popular music and is displayed and described in great detail within the App. This historic instrument, the invention of Grammy winning Malcolm Cecil, helped influence American cultural and musical history and is one of the most recorded instruments of all time.
The App includes detailed photos of the front and back of each panel with drill down and zoom capabilities, circuitry and schematics, personal comments, hand drawn notes in design, and stories about TONTOS history. Collaborations include Steve Wonder, Billy Preston, Gil Scott Heron, Little Feet, Doobie Brothers, George Harrison and The Isley Brothers. TONTO is on over 160 albums including 2 of Rolling Stone’s top 100 best selling albums of all time.

TONTO – The Original New Timbral Orchestra uses the principle of analog subtractive synthesis to create multi-timbral polyphonic sounds.The heart of a subtractive synthesizer is its filter. TONTO has a compliment of fourteen filters: two full MOOG 904 band-pass filters,
two Arp Low Pass filters,
four Oberhiem SEM filters;
two Cecil/Serge dual filters;
one ARP 1040 multi function filter
and one Cecil Custom low pass filter.
It also has 39 oscillators; 22 envelope generators;
18 VCA’s and many more modules,
including processors, sequencers and controllers which can be patched to create at least fourteen discrete “voices” – each with it’s own unique timbral quality and all of which are able to be controlled simultaneously. As its name implies, it is truly an integrated orchestra of new timbres.
Optimized for iPhone 6, IOS 8.0 or better.