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'The Social Network' Soundtrack Gets Oscar Nod... Could It Be The 'Swarmatron?'

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A swarmatron, a synthesizer that plays a chord of 8 notes, arranged around a single note, close together. (Dewanatron.com)
A swarmatron, a synthesizer that plays a chord of eight notes, arranged around a single note, close together. (Dewanatron.com)

"The Social Network," about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, is up for a handful of Oscars this weekend.  The movie's Nine Inch Nails soundtrack also got an Oscar nod for the soundtrack, in part thanks to an unusual handmade synthesizer called the Swarmatron.

The instrument produces eight tones tuned approximately to one note, each tone slightly different.

We speak with the two cousins who invented the Swarmatron, Leon and Brian Dewan.



This segment aired on February 25, 2011.

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