Rhodes Chroma Polaris "Polaris: Feel The Power" brochure, 1984

Rhodes Chroma Polaris "Polaris: Feel The Power" eight page barn-door fold colour brochure from 1984.

There I was. 1985 I think.  I was in my favourite music store eyeing up the Chroma Polaris. I'd put the idea of buying a car on the backburner for the sole purpose of saving up the cash from my job as a dietary aide at a near-by hospital to instead purchase this synth.

At work, I can make decisions on the spot. But personal decisions have always required days, weeks or even years of mind-numbing procrastination. And this was a big one. So many different synths in the shop, but this was the one.

Finally, decision made, I called over the worker bee and pointed to the Polaris. That one!

So what did the sales guy say?

"Hey, have you checked out this Casio CZ-5000. Its digital. It has a sequencer as well. And its cool looking. And... and... "

...and wouldn't you know it. Just like that I went home with the CZ. And as much as I love my CZ-5000 (I still have it!) I had always wondered what it would be like to to own the Chroma Polaris, but over the decades I'd never managed to come across one.

Until 2018.

Local buyer.

A really great price.

In *perfect* condition. Just like this brochure.

I love this brochure almost as much as I love my Polaris - it's just full of surprises.

The cover is simple - just one big photo of a hand on a keyboard. Gutsy move to not include an actual photo of the synthesizer on the cover of your brochure. Even if you flip it over to the back, all you see is the back of the synth. Interesting.

But that's the point. Curiosity makes you instinctively want to open the brochure up.

So, fold open the brochure and you come to two inside pages, each folded over from the outer ends, revealing that they too can fold out - the "gate fold" as its often called. Surprisingly, the title spans between the two pages. And even more surprisingly... although we get a lot more detail about the features of the Chroma Polaris, there is still no sign of a photo of the synth itself.

But now... open those barn doors! Bam! There's your Chroma Polaris! Spanning not just one... not just two... and not even three pages. But FOUR PAGES.

Now *that* is taking advantage of a gate fold. Observe and commit to memory, design kiddies!

The photo is used as the centre piece of a diagram, pointing out a lot of its features. All steel chassis. High resolution sliders. Velocity sensitive weighted keyboard. But the best is the label for the "Polaris" logo itself:

"Polaris: another engineering triumph of our leading-edge synthesizer 'think tank'."

I want to be a member of a synthesizer think tank.

I'm available. Contact me.  :)

Casio KX-101 "16-pound recording studio" ad, Playboy Magazine, 1984

Casio KX-101 computerized audio system "16-pound recording studio" ad from page 159 in the May 1984 issue of Playboy Magazine.

Finally!

From the first time I stumbled across a heavily compressed, low res scan of this ad I just knew I had to have the real thing!  And surprisingly, it didn't take long for one to pop up.  It was a while ago - BSPC (Before Synth Price Craziness) - so I think I paid about $200 for mine. But it started me down the path to track other similarly unique machines down. Like the CK-200, CK-500 and others.

I always wondered where this ad came from, and I had always thought I would eventually come across it in my synth/gear magazine collection. But it had now been over 30 years since I'd been reading and collection music magazines, and almost 10 YEARS of blogging about synth ads, and still I just never recalled coming across it. What the heck?!?!

The seemingly exponentially increased occurrence of this ad on Facebook and Twitter finally peaked my curiosity enough to do a bit of active investigation. In other words I took to Google to quickly track down the origin of this advertisement. Or at least, one origin.

Playboy. 1984.  Didn't expect that.

I still needed more details - month and page, so I tried to Google for an online PDF, but all the downloads really looked sketchy. Like... REALLY SKETCHY.  So I eventually got up the nerve to order a one month online subscription to the Playboy archives. 

Page by page, I started looking through issues from 1984.

Good lord. There really is a lot of articles. And ads!

But I finally found it on page 159 of the May 1984 issue.

I have a "thing" about not using scans I find on the Web - so next was to track down a hard copy. Didn't take long, but was surprised how much I had to struggle through all that teen-age angst and guilt from my past that came flooding back in order to convince myself it was okay.

And sure enough, among the ads for cars, VHS cassette tapes, car radios, electric typewriters, film cameras, cigarettes, booze... and more booze... and more booze...

There it was!

It's a gorgeous advertisement with a large close-up photo of the KX-101 with the obligatory hands on the keys, with an inset photo of the machine in full - with the speakers attached. Ad copy does a great job of communicating to what I'd guess is a monthly non-gear-head audience. And I learned a thing or two too!  Including that fact that you can store your programmed chords, melodies and accompaniments onto cassette tape to be dumped back to the machine later. Data! Not audio (although it does audio too).

"Where miracles never cease". Damn right!

You can find lots of information online on the KX-101, including the well-maintained MATRIXSYNTH site with lots of photos and video from various Web pages and eBay auctions.

And if you want to view a comprehensive video including getting a peak at the inside of the unit, check out this YouTube video:

I'm always fascinated by old advertisements - of all types - and made me curious about what I would find. So I expanded my online browsing of the archives to other issues from the 70s and 80s. A few cool technology ads, but only a few keyboard/synth ones. Another Casio keyboard ad did pop up eventually.

I'm probably the first person to say I wasn't reading Playboy for the articles... but for the ads.

But there were some interesting articles as well. For example, it looks like the magazine had a yearly poll for readers to vote for their favourite musicians (including keyboard players).

Even more interestingly, in the April 1984 issue, Playboy gave their Technology award "to past MIT technodarling Raymond Kurzweil, for his Kurzweil 250  keyboard synthesizer, revolutionizing synth rock by not only creating a vast catalog of weird effects but actually sounding like real musical instruments when it attempts to mimic them." Nice.

And, of course, I had to track down the Wendy Carlos interview  - "a candid conversation with the "switched-on bach" composer who, for the first time, reveals her sex-change operation and secret life as a women." Great article about an amazing human being.

End note: If anyone knows of any other magazines that included this ad, please let me know!

Roland TR-909 "Different Drummer" ad, Roland Users Group 1984

Roland TR-909 "Different Drummer" colour advertisement from the outside back cover of Volume 2, Number 3 (1984) issue of  Roland Users Group Magazine.

Happy 9/09 day!

And you know what brings happiness to my 909 day? A new... er... old... TR-909 advertisement of course!

Don't worry - I'm keeping it short and sweet!

I haven't come across this TR-909 advertisement anywhere other than Roland's own users group magazine. It's part of the "Roland Makes It Happen!" series of neon-inspired ads that have included quite a few sweet pieces of gear from the time period, each paired with a different neon colour.

I've posted a few other Roland ads from the series including the Juno 106 "Synful" blue ad and the TR-707 "Digital Dynamite" yellow ad, and the TR-909 red ad makes a lovely addition to the collection.

 

click on images to view blog posts

There are others too - check out the new Roland timeline for more!

I've also posted a few of Roland's family ads that also play off the same design elements (dark backgrounds, lots of neon), both of which also include... you guessed it...

The TR-909!

 

click on images to view blog posts

I'd love to see all of these poster-sized. Like Dave Smith did for many of his Mattos-designed ads.

Like the other ads in the series, the ad copy is a little hard to read, but definitely worth it. We get Roland promoting the new MIDI standard, Roland software, the works.

In particular, I'm digging this little line:

"We start with digital recordings of real drums, then through a 3-D waveform analysis, re-create the sounds through a hybird digital/analog process." 

And no... not because of the spelling error (hyBIRD), but that they thought it was important to talk about the process they used to create the sounds found in the 909. Sprinkling a little bit of tech into the ad. Letting users see the magic behind the curtain.

The text layout aside, I gotta say I'm totally digging the design of this series of ads. Neon was big in the '80s, and its easy to see why it inspired many designers to find a way to make it work in print during this time period.

Today we see neon making a come back in the visual packaging of one style of music in particular -  Synthwave! And, not coincidentally, a lot of that synthwave is being produced with hardware that was introduced in the 80s through neon-themed advertising like those you see above.

How's that for full circle!

Don't believe me - just do a Google images search for 'synthwave'.

Heck, even if you do believe me, do the search anyways...

...just for the happiness it will bring to your 9/09 day.   :)

Moog Interface newsletter, Vol. 4 January - March 1984

Moog Interface newsletter, Vol. 4 January - March 1984

Like Deadpool at the end of the second movie, I'm kinda cleaning up my timeline... or, in this case, my blogger drafts. And here's a pretty easy one to knock off the list - so I'm keeping it short and sweet.

So far, I've posted five of these, and now this is the sixth.  You can find the others here - click on each image to be taken to their blog posts!

    

  

My Retro Synth Ads blogger tradition dictates that I create a top 10 list for these newsletters. But since I'm running short on time these days, I thought I'd take it down to five for this baby. But, by no means should you get the idea that this newsletter isn't as worthy as the rest - its just as yummy... as you'll soon see:

Top 5 reasons this newsletter is awesome:

5. Memory Moog Plus info - and lots of it! In particular, the addition of MIDI and a sequencer. Almost one-and-a-half pages devoted to these two topics. Sweet!

4. Within seconds of beginning to read the newsletter, we get references to the Eurythmics and Stevie Nicks. What's not to love about that.

3. The article "Digital Synthesis - a Perspective":  Moog's response to some of the newer digital synths coming onto the market, and a hint at things that were to come from Moog... but we'll get to that in a second...

2. Tom Rhea joins the company as Director of Marketing! In fact, he wrote the Digital Synthesis article in this newsletter referenced above in #3.

1. And finally - the most interesting to me at the moment... Steve Levine joins as Director of Research! I personally hadn't known much about him before reading this little bio, and am impressed. Most interestingly, it says that he was currently developing Moog's first FULLY DIGITAL MUSIC SYNTHESIZER.

Whaaaaaaat?

At first I thought this was referring to the Moog SL-8 - the 8-voice, stereo polyphonic synthesizer announced at '83 NAMM that I wrote about in this Moog Producer C64 sequencer post. But that synthesizer was still analog with digitally-CONTROLLED oscillators - not a fully digital synthesizer.

And it was already designed with prototype cards making the rounds at trade shows prior to when this newsletter came out in 1984.

So, does that mean out there somewhere, at the very least, are some early plans for a Moog digital synthesizer?

And if so, how far along did the design get?

And does it have a groovy digital name?

So many questions. If anyone knows anything, let me know!

UPDATE! Mu:zines tweeted back to me with reference to an article in their online archives from the November 1983 issue of Electronics & Music Maker. In the article "Industry Profile - Moog Music", President David Luce talks about the SL-8, and then drops this little nugget:

"We also have some programmes going in the direction of sampling machines. This is a big step, but one of the reasons that I feel now is the appropriate time is that if we resolve what I think are some of the fundamental problems associated with digital synthesis perse."

Wowza.  Moog Samplers. Yum.

Roland SDE 3000 and 1000 "Instant Delay" ad, Keyboard 1984

Roland SDE-3000 and SDE-1000 digital delay "Instant Delay" full page colour advertisement from page 7 in the May 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Okay - I realize effects, and especially vintage effects, and ESPECIALLY vintage digital effects are NOT my core competence. I've got a rack of them like most vintage synth addicts I know (they're cheap!), but I don't know them as deeply as, say, my Pro-One or Minimoog.  I keep telling myself that when it comes to the blog I should stick to what I know - vintage synth ads and brochures. But, just like with the performance review I'm prep'd for recently,  everyone should have "stretch" objectives. Those outside the comfort zone. So, consider effects like one of my blog's stretch objective.

There is no denying the influence effects such as delay, chorus, reverb and distortion have had on synthesizer players since they first started appearing on stage or in recordings. And today, some synth manufacturers like Dave Smith Instruments treat some of those effects as just another sound-block. Like a filter or LFO. I'm looking at you, Evolver!

But back in the day, effects hardware was hard to come by. Well, cheaply anyways. So, it makes sense that companies like Roland, Korg and others, would advertise directly to keyboard players in magazines like Keyboard when the price point of effects hit that magic sweet spot. 

Ever since Korg announced the recreation of their SDD-3000 effects unit in to a pedal format, I've been hoping it would lead other manufacturers to realize the big love out there for vintage digital effects among those still using analog mixers like myself. And that's lead me to do a bit of research to see what other big guns were part of the delay world back in the 80s.

Korg wasn't the only synthesizer manufacturer to toy with digital effects advertising in Keyboard Magazine back then. A few others got into the act soon after, including Roland with this advertisement for their SDE-3000 and baby brother SDE-1000.

Turning attention to the ad itself, if you recall it was in the mid-80s that many companies like Roland were toying with computer art in their advertisements. I blogged about it while referring to Roland's 1986 Alpha-Juno ad just a few weeks ago that featured more solid abstract artwork. It's wire-frame origins can really be seen when jumping back in time two years to this SDE ad and its more Tron-influenced artwork with glowing wire frames, digital string art and lazers.

Yum. It makes me happy. Like Roland TB-303 level of happy.

Computer effects can only go so far towards the overall design. Ad-copy and layout goes a long way too - especially when readability is involved. Like when listing out the specs of a synthesizer or effects unit in an ad. But in both of these ads, Roland makes the ad-copy part of the design at the expense of readability. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - and the creative half of me prefers it, but it does make it tougher for the reader. Looking at that SDE ad, as cool as those lasers are, the one beam is cutting right through the middle of the text. The result is four hanging hyphens and no paragraph breaks. The Alpha-Juno ad uses a similar technique - one block of text, only this time using a smaller font and even curving it.

Readability suffers a bit, but for me it's all about the art! And I'm digging it.

No matter, if you take the time to read through the SDE ad, the marketing team has done a good job of making the case to purchase these Roland effects units over some of the more complicated effects units out there (like the Korg, maybe?). Their argument is that more features equals more time to set up effects.

If you don't have the patience to read it, that's okay. Readers of Keyboard were actually introduced to many of those features when these two SDEs showed up three months earlier in the February 1984 Spec Sheet section of Keyboard.

"Roland Programmable DDLs. The SDE-1000 and SDE-3000 are programmable digital delays. The SDE-3000 can produce delays out to 4.5 seconds. Delay times are set in 0.1 and 1.0 ms increments. The unit has eight memory positions, which are user-programmable, and can be accessed via a footswitch. LED readouts display all vital system functions. The SDE-1000 offers delay times of up to 1.25 second and four memory positions. Both units are equipped with four remote switch jacks for ease of operation onstage. These are : delay on/off, hold (for repeating delay endlessly with adjustable tempo). Playmate (to set delay times remotely during performance), and preset (for switching between memory channels). The SDE-1000 is also equippted with a modulation foot control jack for footpedal control of modulation rates. Both units are also rack-mountable. Prices are: SDE-3000, $1,095.00; SDE-1000, $499.00. Roland-Corp, 7200 Dominion Circle, Los Angeles, CA 90040."

I'm definitely going to be on the look out for an SDE-3000 now.  :)

Big Briar Inc. Model 231 Touch Ribbon "Play Expressive Leads With A Touch Of Your Finger" ad, Keyboard 1984

Big Briar Inc. Model 231 Touch Ribbon "Play Expressive Leads With A Touch Of Your Finger" black and white 1/4-page advertisement from the bottom-right corner of page 24 in the April 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Here, for your enjoyment (and mine!), is another Big Briar (Bob Moog, President and owner) advertisement.  Back in January I had post two other hip and happenin' Big Briar alternative controller 1/4-pagers - the Model 331 Touch Controller and Model 500 Theremin Controller.

 

 [click the images above to view the blog posts and higher-res images]

This time around we got your classic touch ribbon controller - with two independent control voltages. One by sliding your finger along the ribbon (usually pitch) and another by varying finger pressure. Nice.

The actual touch ribbon device is hard to make out in the ad photo, but a few attempts at Google searches didn't bring up any other images of the 231. Boooo!

One of the main reasons I was really excited to post this ad was that I was going to make my first real Retro Synth Ads' video using my Moog 956 ribbon controller and my Moog Modular that just got serviced by a tech that I recently found in the city that does great analog synth work (techs are getting harder and harder to find in my neck of the woods). But, believe it or not, as I was carrying the ribbon controller between rooms, I accidentally caught the ribbon on something and snapped it right at the end connection point. Gah.

Dumb - and probably expensive - move.

Good thing I just found a great tech. I know what's next on my list to bring over there. :)

So, instead of a lovely video, I thought I would explain why I finally had to take my Moog Modular into the shop in the first place.

First, I gotta say, I've had very very very good luck with my Moog Modular over the years. The thing is older than me and has been to the doctor much much less. But, last time I set it up for some super-fun-Electribe-sampler-time, I noticed that the keyboard wasn't triggering the gate within the modular. CV was getting through. Just not the gate. 

Now, before I get into the problem-solving aspects of the modular, I should probably explain a bit about how controllers are connected to this beast of a beast.

This modular can connect up to three controllers (keyboard, ribbon, etc) through the back of the main cabinet. The three connectors are rather large 8-pin "military" Amphenol connectors that look right out of a Terminator movie. My tech guy was actually a little surprised when he saw them. He is a calm dude, but I noticed his eyes get slightly wider when he saw them.

Below is a photo of the back of the cabinet with the connectors labelled 1-3. The other two 10-pin connectors push power to other cabinets (I have one extra cabinet, and you can read more information about my particular modular including its modules in this blog post.

When you connect a keyboard or ribbon controller through the back of the machine to one of the first two connectors, you can then use the 911-902 coupling switch panel on the front of the modular to direct the particular controller's cv and gate to either the "left" or "right" VCA and "left" or "right"envelope without the need of patch or trigger cables. In the photo below, you can see the switches on the left side of the modular.

So, for example, if you have the keyboard connected into controller #2 on the back of the cabinet, you can then use the white switches to route the trigger of #2 to either the "left" or "right" envelope and use the green switches to connect the selected envelope generator to the "left" or "right" voltage controlled amplifier.  Like I said, a few less patch cords and trigger cables getting in the way.

In the photo above, on the right side of the front panel, you can also see the "pitch-trig" panel. The three sets are direct outs for the "pitch" (CV) and "trigger" outputs of the connectors at the back - so that you can have full modular control of the signals to any module using patch and trigger cables.

Okay, now that we know the background, back to the problem: gate wasn't getting from the keyboard into the triggers for 1, 2 or 3. CV was working fine.

I'd tested all the actual modules before taking it in and they were working fine on their own, so we figured the most likely culprit was the keyboard. Familiarizing ourselves with the schematic diagrams for the 950 Keyboard Controller, he opened the keyboard up first.

After a bit of testing, and a few missteps, we realized that the keyboard was actually functioning fine. A few electrical components that looked a little iffy were replaced and we closed 'er right back up.

Logically, we figured that there must be a problem with the cabinet itself, so we opened 'er up next. First from the back, and then the front-bottom. Again, familiarizing ourselves with the various schematics, he began testing all the connections to ensure that correct signals and voltages were getting through the system.

back - notice the empty upper row
that would have housed the
optional sequencer

front bottom

front bottom - totally open. Hinges on
the bottom row of panels makes
for easy access.

In the end, he couldn't find anything wrong in the cabinet either. All signals and electrical currents were traveling exactly where they were supposed to within the cabinet. And all the signals and electrical currents were traveling where they were supposed on in the keyboard.

We were scratching our heads.

And then we both kinda turned our heads towards the connector cable itself. I think we both mentally slapped ourselves in the forehead.

Sure enough, when he opened up the connector he found the wires stripped and tightly twisted around each other from my obvious continued mishandling during set up and take down over the years. Below is a photo of the connector after he cut the end of the wires off. After a quick stripping and re-soldering of the wires, everything worked like a charm.

It's always the little things eh? But at least we got to test a lot of the system and determined everything was still running smoothly.

Well, if you are still reading, I'd like to point out those two empty power connectors in of photo of the open back of the modular. That can only mean one thing...

Time to go on the hunt for more Moog modules.

:)

Korg family "The KORG MIDI system" 2-page ad, Keyboard 1984

 Korg "The KORG MIDI system" two-page colour advertisement including the Poly 800 and Poly-61M synthesizers, EX 800 expander module, RK 100 Remote MIDI keyboard, KMS 30 MIDI synchronizer, the 4 Track sequencer and Music Scoring software from the inside front cover and page 2 of the October 1984 issue of  Keyboard Magazine.

I didn't post this ad because it appeared on the inside front cover of Keyboard magazine from October 1984 through January 1985 before Korg replaced it with their DW-6000 ad in the February 1985 issue.

Nope.

I didn't post this ad because of the awesomeness that is this Korg MIDI system that includes the Poly 800 (I own the version with the reversed coloured keys!) - or the EX 800 that is so awesome that it takes up waaaaay to much space in a rack!

Nope.

I didn't post this because of the awesomeness that is the KMS 30 synchronizer (I own two! One for the studio and one that I just bought to sync machines for live gigs!)

Nope.

I didn't post this because of the reference to the DDM-110 and DDM-220 drum machines that only sync to DIN-sync in that lovely little "system diagram".

Nope.

I posted this for one reason, and one reason only. I'm still fixating on KORG's announcement of the ARP Odyssey!!!!!

If you live under a rock or haven't read my last post or two, maybe you didn't you hear... Korg is resurrecting the ARP Odyssey.

Didn't see that coming - and anyone not intimately involved with the project who said they did see it coming - well - they just didn't. Punch them in the neck for lying. Say it's from me.

As far as I'm concerned, that news blew everybody and their favorite synthesizer news outlet out of the water. And, interestingly, it was one of the first times ever that synth news hit me through *Facebook* before any of my other usual news sources.

Sure, possible take-away: I'm on Facebook too much.  :)

But seriously, when the original press release appeared on Korg's Web site on the morning of February 17, the news spread faster than a zombie apocalypse. Some of my favorite sites that eventually covered the news included:

MATRIXSYNTH
SOS Magazine
Attack Magazine
CreateDigitalMusic.com
Synthtopia
Fact Magazine
MusicRadar
KVR audio
Even Engadget!

And the list goes on and on.

As a marketing and communications "professional" (or "hack" as some [many] of my colleagues might call me), I'm intrigued when news spreads that quickly. I get a serious kick out of watching marketing and social media teams jump into action to get their message out there.  Especially when its such interesting, out-of-the-box, unexpected news such as this.

I can image Korg's marketing peeps huddling together for weeks on end prep'ing their strategic communications plan. Hovering over the corporate and communications objectives. Tweaking their key messages and tactics for hours with a fine-toothed comb.

You got to be ready when the media and general synthesizer public comes calling...

Or... um... maybe not... 

Now I thought I recalled getting the news in my Facebook news feed directly from Korg, but when I went back to check, I couldn't find a single post about the topic on either Korg US or Korg Canada's Facebook pages.  Looking at the Twitter feeds for Korg USA, Korg UK, and Korg Canada, they all seem eerily silent about this big news as well. Not even a simple link back to the news release.

Huh? Is it just me?  I question my findings basically due to my combination of lazy and not-that-good-at-searching-social-media. So, check it out for yourself.

It kinda makes sense though. The new Odyssey isn't coming out until September 2014 at the earliest (unless, of course, Korg surprises us *again*, and drops it in the middle of the summer. And, *that* wouldn't surprise me).

Point is - there isn't a lot more information to push out there yet.

In other words, the product isn't imminent.  

But leaks could happen.

Heck, after the whole Roland TB-3/TR-8 thang, I'm betting that synthesizer hardware leaks are almost as lucrative as Apple iPhone leaks.

So, as far as I'm concerned, when it comes to Korg's reissue of the the ARP Odyssey, it wasn't a matter of "if" the news would leak, but "when". Maybe they just wanted to beat the rumor mill?

And the best way to do that is to get the news release out there and then let the synth community do the heavy lifting. If you've noticed, most, if not all of those articles, link directly back to the original Korg news release. Not to prototype videos. Not to teaser articles from Korg. That dang Korg news release. There isn't much else available officially from Korg.

But Korg has plenty of time to get the package ready - the machine isn't due out for another six month.

And I'll be waiting with my wallet open.

And drooling.

And watching their communications strategy. :)

Big Briar Inc. Model 500 Theremin Controller "Space-Controlled Music" ad, Keyboard 1984

Big Briar Inc.'s Model 500 Theremin Controller "Space-Controlled Music" black and white 1/4-page advertisement from the bottom-left corner of page 60 in the May 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

"Space-controlled music"! Why does the Theremin always get thrown in to the "space" bucket?!?!

Scratch that. I know exactly why... hee hee  :)

If you recall from my last blog post, I touched upon (pun intended) Big Briar's Model 331 Touch Plate. A great alternative controller, especially for live performances. I'm trying desperately to hunt one down as we speak.

But another even more nifty alternative controller from Bob Moog's Big Briar Inc. around the same time period (and one that I would also love to get my greedy, dirty little paws on) is the Model 500 Theremin Controller.

Take the coolness and interactivity of the original Theremin, strip out the audio circuitry, and replace with two control voltage outputs for pitch and volume. Actually... not just for pitch and volume. More on that later.

A quick search of the Web found one of the earlier spec sheets for the Model 500 on Spheremusic.com's Web site for one of its auctions for Big Briar's 1982 controller pamphlet and blueprints. Click on that first big image and it will allow you to scroll through the other pages, including an image of the Model 500 page. This page has some great reference info on the 500, including the fact that it came with options for digital outputs and a line-operated power supply.

Image from the Buxton Collection.
Click to view Web page.

The actual design of the Model 500 Theremin Controller looks to have changed quite a bit between that 1982 pamphlet and the 1984 ad. From what basically looked like a block of wood to something that more closely resembled the sleekness of the Model 331 touch plate. Although I couldn't find any good quality colour photos of Model 500 during my quick Google search, I imagine it looks much like that gorgeous photo of the Model 331 found on that Buxton Collection Web site I linked to last week (see image at right).

Design aside, its those control voltage outputs I love most. Let me repeat that, and maybe yell it - CONTROL VOLTAGES!!!

So, as the ad states, you can connect this baby to your favorite synth (such as a lovely Moog Modular synth) and start controlling "pitch, volume, brightness - any parameter that can be voltage controlled".   According to the pamphlet, there was also the addition of a gate signal "that goes on as the right hand begins to approach the pitch antenna, thus making it convenient to squelch the tone when no musician is near the controller."

Squelch! Excellent!

What this all does is open up Theremin-like control to a much wider range of sound. Any waveform you can create with your synth can be theremized (so too is a word! And if it's not, that shizzle needs to be trademarked pronto).

All this brings me to another reason I'm stoked about this ad.  NAMM has just concluded, and one of the products that stood out for me and my close circle of online synth-nuts was Moog's new Theremini.

Damn! That's the spaciest-lookin' Theremin yet! That thing would look as good in my studio as it would on the set of Star Trek's control room.

And the best news is that, like the Model 500 Theremin Controller, the Theremini opens up a whole new range of sounds to the user by including "a powerful sound engine derived from Moog's award winning synthesizer, Animoog"! PLUS you get pitch-correction for us beginners, pitch CV out, and a mini-USB jack for MIDI.

MoFo! Are you kidding me? Do I have to punch you all in the neck to show you how excited I am.

*This* has just taken #1 spot on my "next piece of kit" list.

Boss HC-2 Hand Clapper / PC-2 Percussion Synthesizer "A sound innovator" brochure, 1984

Boss HC-2 Hand Clapper / PC-2 Percussion Synthesizer "A sound innovator" two-page colour brochure from February 1984.

If there is one thing I do a lot of, it's clap. I clap when drinks come to the table. I clap when my dog does a funny trick. I clap pretty much anytime I want to.  And its usually accompanied with me bobbing up and down in a chair. If that HC-2 Clapper had its own speaker, I'd definitely be using it to clap with.

I've never owned either of these. But have *always* been infatuated with them. They just look so adorable - especially in that front cover photo sitting on that particularly 80s background. And the orange on the always-adorable Boss knobs really pop.

That front cover photo is really the only thing remotely "design-y" about this brochure. The back cover is just your standard specs layout found on many of the Roland/Boss brochures from the time period. But that spec section does contain some good reference info, so I'm not gonna complain. Plus, like many of these brochures, we not only get the year it was printed, but also the month. I will never complain about that.

This brochure is part of Boss's "A sound innovator" series that included the DR-110 brochure I blogged about last Monday. But this time Boss has kept the brochure to two pages - there just isn't enough info to justify another two pages of content. But that's the point - they are simple enough to use. No need for bulky instructions.  :)

You can find quite a bit of information on line on both units. Vintage Synth Explorer has pages for both the Hand Clapper and the Percussion Synthesizer, where you will find a ratings of three and four stars respectively for each piece of gear from the site itself, and three and (a disappointingly) 2.36 stars from users. Both pages provide some great information - like the little nugget that the HC-2 was a particularly useful addition to the hand-clapperless DR-55 and TR-606 drum machines.

One thing I first noticed on this brochure, and then went back to the DR-110 brochure and found it there too, is how Boss is referenced in relation to Roland. You will find it on the back of both sheets under the logo:

Sounds like someone pointing out an animal pack in the woods. Like a group of moose. 

Anyways, I found a great little video on YouTube from someone that was selling both units in an auction. Provides a nice little demo to end the post with. So here it is... the end.

Wersi Condor DX 100 digital multi-sound keyboard "Go for more - go for multi" ad, Keyboard 1984

Wersi Condor DX 100 digital multi-sound keyboard "Go for more - go for multi" full page colour advertisement from page 83 in the August 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

It's been about six months since I last blogged about Wersi - and in particular the Alpha DX 300, the first of their new line of digital  organ/synthesizer hybrids.  Or at least that is what I kinda feel these keyboards are trying to be, based on the photos and the ad-copy.

The Condor DX 100 was the second instrument to get an advertisement in Keyboard, running monthly from August to December 1984.

Because I know so little about Wersi, I've kinda tried to ignore this whole line of keyboards. I'm just uncomfortable writing about them. But as I was flipping through the Thomson Twins/Tom Bailey-filled August 1984 issue of Keyboard, as I often do, the design of this advertisement made me stop in my tracks.

First - all that luscious blue. With full-colour ads slowly taking over the historically black-and-white back-half of the magazine, this one stands out with its punch of solid blue, along with the white text on black.

Second - the angles. When I'm short on time (or just feeling dang lazy), scanning an advertisement that's already on an angle means I don't have to be as vigilant to try to straighten it out. And then I realized that  there was good chance that the guy laying out the ad in the magazine was thinking this too, because if you look at the top right side of the ad, you can see some measurement markings - as if the ad hadn't been lined up properly.

They aren't your standard crop and bleed markings you would normally include in today's ads, but then again, I wasn't creating ads back in the early 80s, so who knows what kind of markings they used.  Plus, this ad is so far ahead of its time design-wise that I wouldn't be surprised if the designer did that on purpose.

And that brings me to my third and most important reason that the design of this ad is crazy-stupid good. I'm talking pure 80s punk rock/new wave-influenced goodness, unlike anything else appearing in the magazine at the time.

Not convinced? Hear me out.

Let's start with the black background behind the text - in particular in that title. Whether on purpose or not, I find the design of the title reminiscent of the text produced from a Dymo-style label maker. You know, the machine that would punch out white text on a black or dark coloured background.

Machines like it were big in the 80s with anal retentive office workers. But they were also commonly used by bands when creating distinctive angry-looking DYI flyers and posters.

Those flyers would also often use cut-out photos as well as text/letters from various magazines, pasting all these pieces together into what I found to be artwork masterpieces.

This style of design was so distinctive that its almost a prerequisite for any of today's alternative 80's compilation CDs to somehow reference all these design elements when creating the artwork for their covers.See example at right.  :)

To me, it looks like this design style evolved along with the music, over time slowly removing the clutter and creating cleaner lines. Kraftwerk and New Order come to mind as good examples. And it became even cleaner once desktop publishing became common place and the word "font" became a household name. Glue and photocopies were replaced with cut and paste commands and laser printers.

So, to me, the cropped-out image of the DX 100 instrument and the two boxes of ad-copy (unequal in length), together with the label-maker-like title, not-so-quietly scream new-waves 80s. It's exactly what I would expect from a Kraftwerk-influenced designer who was creating an ad for a German company from the time period.   :)

Interestingly, I'm finding this punky style is making a bit of a comeback in some surprising circles. The first, probably unrelated but still kinda cool to point out, is with  the HTML code for highlighting text .  I've seen a few good Web designers put this to great punky-label-maker-looking effect in some modern Web sites.

But, for me, the more surprising place I've spot this punk-rock DYI influence is with the evolution of design in scrapbooking. Maybe its just the punk-rock girls growing up and getting into scrapbooking. Who knows. But I see it everywhere.

Seriously - scrapbooking has become hardcore. If you don't believe me, I'll just end this blog post with this little comparison  :)