Ondioline

The Ondioline is an electronic keyboard instrument, invented in 1941 by the Frenchman Georges Jenny, and is a forerunner of today's synthesizers.

The Ondioline was capable of creating a wide variety of sounds. Its keyboard had a unique feature: it was suspended on special springs which made it possible to introduce a natural vibrato if the player moved the keyboard (not the entire instrument) from side to side (laterally) with their playing hand. The result was an almost human-like vibrato that lent a wide range of expression to the Ondioline. The keyboard was also pressure-sensitive, and the instrument had a knee volume lever, as well.

The instrument's movable keyboard was modeled after the keyboard of another early electronic instrument from France, the Ondes Martenot. The Ondioline did not feature a ring (or ribbon) controller to control pitch, as the Ondes did. Instead, the Ondioline had a strip of wire, that when pressed, provided percussion effects, but it could not produce the Ondes's theremin-like pitch effects.