Hohner’s Automatic Rhythm Player was an analogue accompaniment machine made in Trossingen for the pianist or organist who needed a rhythm section close at hand. Two banks of dance rhythms, ten percussion voices and remote start placed a complete pattern box beside the keyboard.
The machine in the record
Jimi Tenor / Wormhole Mystic.
Release information for Jimi Tenor’s Wormhole Mystic names a Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player among its vintage rhythm machines. It is album-level promotional equipment information, without a track allocation, but the machine belongs in the record’s unusually rich period palette.
Read Jimi Tenor — Wormhole Mystic release listing ↗More records in the archive
The machine keeps turning up.
Jimi Tenor / Wormhole Mystic
Jimi Tenor’s forthcoming Wormhole Mystic names the Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player as one of the vintage machines behind its initial rhythm loops.
Read Jimi Tenor — Wormhole Mystic ↗
Automatic City / Triple Ripple
The review names a Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player on “Double Ripple” and “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”.
Read It’s Psychedelic Baby review ↗
BLED / Sławek Koryzno / Terra Incognita
BLED’s Terra Incognita credits list Sławek Koryzno on Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player alongside drums, percussion and modular synthesisers.
Read BLED / Terra Incognita ↗A Hohner rhythm partner
The Hohner service guide identifies the Automatic Rhythm Player as a Matth. Hohner AG product and sets out two banks of ten named rhythms, ten percussion voices and manual or automatic tempo control. The companion Bass 2 documentation makes its intended role plain: it was an electronic rhythm instrument for a pianist or organist.Sources (2)
Made to join the room
Connections for organ or amplifier and remote start made the Automatic Rhythm Player part of a wider playing setup. A collector museum record preserves its shelf-style enclosure and external-speaker requirement, details that give the machine a clear material identity beyond its patterns.Sources (2)
A later life for its pulse
The Automatic Rhythm Player has remained a source for players and makers interested in its combinable patterns and direct analogue rhythm. Tubbutec’s opened-unit documentation records its voice-board triggers, while a recent Jimi Tenor release listing names the machine among the vintage rhythm boxes used in the album’s creation.
On record
- Jimi Tenor — Wormhole Mystic. Release information names a Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player among the vintage rhythm machines used for Wormhole Mystic. Source ↗
- Jimi Tenor — Wormhole Mystic. Jimi Tenor’s forthcoming Wormhole Mystic names the Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player as one of the vintage machines behind its initial rhythm loops. Source ↗
- Automatic City — Triple Ripple. The review names a Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player on “Double Ripple” and “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”. Source ↗
- BLED / Sławek Koryzno — Terra Incognita. BLED’s Terra Incognita credits list Sławek Koryzno on Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player alongside drums, percussion and modular synthesisers. Source ↗
Sources
- Service-Anleitung HOHNER Automatic-Rhythm-Player
- Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player museum record
- Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player surviving-unit record
- Mr Automatic — Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player sample instrument
- Hohner Bass 2 operating and service instructions
- Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player MIDI retrofit guide
- Jimi Tenor — Wormhole Mystic release listing
The visual archive
Further visual evidence.
Sources for images shown earlier (3)
- Jimi Tenor — Wormhole Mystic ↗
- BLED / Sławek Koryzno — Terra Incognita ↗
2024-10-27 · BLED / Sławek Koryzno / release artwork via Bandcamp · Official Bandcamp release-page artwork (Open Graph image) - Automatic City — Shrinking Up Fast ↗
2019-04-26T12:00:00Z · Automatic City / release artwork via Apple Music catalog artwork · Release catalogue and retained front artwork
Additional visual sources (2)
Original publications and related image sources.
- Radiomuseum Bocket — Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player ↗
Current museum/collector record · Radiomuseum Bocket · Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player collection record and associated object documentation - Planet Drum Machine — machine-named demonstration catalogue ↗
1 November 2011 release metadata · Kalamazoo Public Library catalogue / Digital Redux metadata · Downstream Hohner Automatic label