Tonto - Technology

Tonto was essentially a Moog modular with various modules (Serge with Moog-like panels, Oberheim, Arp 2500/2600, Blacett, etc.) designed and constructed by Malcom Cecil. Only one was produced, and it is currently owned by Malcolm Cecil himself.

Rex Probe describes how some of the mutation took place:

As it turned out, I first met my STS engineering associate, Kevin Braheny, while he was working as Malcolm Cecil's engineer on the TONTO machine then located at the L.A. Record Plant during the winter of 1973-74... He and I first met while doing an over-dub session at the Electric Lady, NYC... The bass player on the the 'live' take was so stoned out that he couldn't play in time or tune... So Malcolm and I used the TONTO system, which I was then a tech on, to emulate the bass player's tone and punch-in on the mutated parts. This was in fall 1971, I think... Anyway - Malcolm was always in the back of that monster with a trimmer adjustment tool trying like hell to get the damn thing to track. 'It's not easy being a MOOG.' There must have been 30 or more oscillators in that beast - no easy calibration job. The power supplies alone were in a 25" high rack that must have weighed a good 300 lbs. - big linears.

So, I introduced Malcolm [Cecil] and Kevin [Braheny] to [the] Serge [modular system] and that's how the design of the New Timbral Oscillator got started - as an upgrade for all the TONTO Moog oscillators. I worked with Serge on making the Moog-like face plates with Serge's NTOs as the electronics.

Tonto was used in the movie "Phantom of the Paradise" (1974), and also appears prominently on Stevie Wonder's multi-platinum album, "Songs in the Key of Life".

Images and text courtesy of Kevin Lightner and the VSM.

[Read Nicholas Kent's Dialog on TONTO]

[Part of a Malcolm Cecil Interview in Gank Magazine from Autumn 1999]

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