Steinberg Cubit "Visual Song Processing" advertisement, Keyboard 1989 / Cubase "Buy it! Boot it! Love it! " advertisement, Electronic Musician 1990

Steinberg Cubit "Visual Song Processing"full page colour ad from page 65 in the May 1989 issue of Keyboard Magazine and Steinberg Cubase "Buy it! Boot it! Love it! Or your money back!" half page black and white ad from page 112 in the March 1990 issue of Electronic Musician Magazine.

I don't do it often, but today I have two scans. And for good reason!

I had actually scanned each one separately a while back and written little bits to form into future blog posts, but then this morning I noticed a tweet from Steinberg announcing it was Cubase's 30th anniversary. And I thought... heck - that's a bandwagon worth jumping on! So I went back, checked, and sure enough... this Cubit advertisement first showed up in the May 1989 issue of Keyboard Magazine

(Aside: That May 1989 issue of Keyboard Magazine isn't just exciting because of this initial Cubit ad. Its also the now-legendary CYBERPUNK issue.)

It wasn't just on this side of the pond that Stenberg was rolling out its successor to Twenty Four  III (aka PRO24) sequencing software - Cubit was being rolled out in Europe in magazines such as Music Technology  and Micro Music with large three page advertisements as well. Check out Mu:zines for those ads!

But the Cubit advertisements lasted for only a few months before Steinberg shut them down. The reason? According to Cubase's Wikipedia page, a trademark issue was forcing Steinberg to change the name.

And better for it too!

Well, it didn't take long for that name change to happen. How do I know? Well, for one, the Cubase ad includes quotes from three different 1989 magazine reviews - and those aren't the only reviews that came out soon after the Cubase name change. 

Music Technology magazine out of the UK was one of the first with their review. It was actually a two-part review that ran in the August and September 1989 issues running in at over 8000 words. And the reviewer Nigel Lord still didn't manage to cover all of Cubase's features.

In his verdict, he writes: 

"Quite honestly, this is the most impressive piece of music software I have yet encountered for the ST. And I certainly cannot conceive of it being possible to develop a more sophisticated sequencing package for that machine. As with most genuinely worthwhile designs, the transition from well-crafted tool to creative instrument is quite seamless - the features which give it a claim to both these titles being universally well thought-out and meticulously presented. Not only that, but it's a delight to use and one of that increasingly rare breed of technologically advanced designs which positively encourage the user to experiment and get to grips with it."

Not bad. Not bad at all. 

Sound on Sound's review also came out in their August 1989 issue. And I gotta say after reading David Hughes' verdict, we are starting to see a pattern...

"I like this program a lot. Cubase is a natural successor to Pro24 and I would strongly recommend Cubase to any existing Pro24 owners, who should remember that they can save quite a substantial amount of money if they take part in the part-exchange scheme that Steinberg are offering. I would also recommend this program to those musicians looking for a fully professional system with the potential for expansion. Cubase has this in abundance. I've used the review package for over a month now and Steinberg will find it difficult to prise it out of my hands. I feel that I've written some of my best music with Cubase, and consequently don't want to lose a single note of it. I enjoyed the sheer depth of this product. You simply won't exhaust the possibilities in a single night. It will take a great deal longer than that, I promise you."

Keyboard Magazine's October 1989 review by Jim Aikin was a little more low-key, but still very positive. In addition to the quote used in the Cubase ad I scanned, we get a little bit of software sequencer history along with Jim's conclusion:

"The impact made last year by C-Lab's Notator has forced other Atari sequencer developers to put some muscle in their hustle. With Cubase, Steinberg proves that they're up to the challenge; it's fully competitive with anything that Notator has to offer, except in the area of notation printout - and let's face it, that's not Notator's strong point either (me: Ouch!). Dr. T's KCS Level II still leads the pack in terms of sheer editing power, but its user interface is starting to look a bit long in the tooth, though there have been some strong enhancements in version 2.1..."

Interestingly, the ads for Cubase took a while to get into magazines. I'm not sure if this is because Steinberg had spent their 1989 marketing budgets on the earlier advertisements, or maybe they were just waiting for the Mac version slated to come out in early 1990 to be closer to production? 

No matter, because according to Steinberg's earlier Twenty Four software advertisement, there was already a base of 30,000 users. And many of those 30,000 users would have read those early positive reviews or started to see the software pop up in music shops.  

And the proof is in the pudding - or whatever that saying is.  30 years later Cubase is still going strong. 

Akai MPC60, S1000 and S1000PB "Hitmakers: Don Henley and Akai" ad, Keyboard 1989

MPC60, S1000, S1000PB "Hitmakers: Don Henley and Akai" colour advertisement from page 23 in the December 1989 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Artist endorsement ads are as old as the wheel and both are still around because they are good at what they do. Just ask ARP. Or Korg. Or Roland. Or....   :)

And in 1989, Akai did good when they nabbed Don Henley for this long running advertisement. His album "The End of the Innocence" was Grammy nominated for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Album of the Year... and WON for Rock Male Vocalist. Not too shabby.

Although this second Keyboard Magazine ad for the MPC60 didn't appear in the mag for well over a year after Akai's first introductory ad in the February and March 1988 issues, the MPC still managed to pop up every now and then.

For example, right after that first ad ran, the MPC60 appeared the following month in an April 1988 NAMM article.

"The Akai booth was really dancing, with Roger Linn demonstrating the MPC60 ($4,995.95), featuring MIDI sequencing and drum machine sampling. Detailed in-depth in our Summer 1987 NAMM coverage (Keyboard, Nov. '87), the MPC60 (formerly known as the ADR15 Drum Machine/Sequencer) is now available."

And if you read the blog post about that first ad, you'll recall that the MPC60 was also highlighted in Keyboard's November '87 NAMM show article as well. That's right - it received some great double exposure for showing at two different NAMMs.

In November 1988, the MPC60 finally made it into the Review section of Keyboard Magazine. The extensive write-up weighs in at over five pages and covers a lot of ground that included an introduction that wears Keyboard reviewer Freff's uneasiness on his sleeve. Remember - this was really the beginning of what could possibly a whole new market.

"We should admit our own conflicting reactions up front. Our very first thought, upon examining the MPC60, was why? Why even design, let alone try and sell, a three-in-one unit like the MPC60 when the marketplace is awash in inexpensive drum machines, samplers and sequencers (both software- and hardware-based)"

Doesn't sound like its going to go well, eh? That's what I thought, until later into the intro we read...

"Our second reaction, upon using the MPC60 for several days, was Oh, of course - that's why. It is an unquestionably professional piece of gear in its attention to conception, design, and execution. It looks good and feels even better: It is, in fact, a tactile pleasure to play and to program. These are qualities that have been given short shift by manufacturers in recent years, and we're happy to see that the trend might be reversing."

There ya go... I know I feel much better. You?

I'm sure many people at the time popped into the local music store and had similar first impressions upon seeing it, and that same second reaction after playing.  :)

And finally, the MPC60 popped up again in the March 1989 issue of Keyboard. Twice.

The first appearance was that Akai Michael Jackson advertisement that I blogged about just a bit ago.

And the second time was when the magazine tried its darnedest to come up with a way to comparatively test over a dozen different samplers. Although it didn't make the cut for the dozen or so samplers that they did test, there is a great section called "Features Chart" that does include the MPC among 30+ other samplers.

Better than nothing.

Especially since its descendants have outlasted most of pack.

Akai "Michael Jackson Band - Great musicians use great equipment" ad, Electronic Musician 1989

Akai "Michael Jackson Band - Great musicians use great equipment" full page colour advertisement from page 59 in the March 1989 issue of Electronic Musician.

Coincidences are great. I started blogging about the Akai MPC60 back in November and had planned to push out this next ad on Friday. And then Akai suddenly announces their latest extension of the MPC line - the Akai Force. Reverb is a nice Pre-NAMM starting point to learn more about it.

BBoy Tech Report also has a nice intro on the machine. And, just by coincidence, the BBoy site also has a connection to this advertisement. But more on that in a second.

I gotta hand it to Electronic Musician - sometimes they pulled in some great advertising that never made it into Keyboard Magazine. This appears to be one of those ads. And the ad looks to have appeared only once as far as I can tell - in this EM March 1989 issue - making it even rarer.

This artist-endorsement ad compresses one heck of a lot of talent into one 8x11 inch page...

On the left is Ricky Lawson, drummer and Grammy winner, who played and recorded with some of the hottest hit makers including Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Eric Clapton, Quincy Jones and Anita Baker. He passed away in December 2013 and there's a nice little write-up on the Modern Drummer Web site. Check out his Wikipedia page it's a who's-who of amazing artists.

On the right, leaning on the 7000, is keyboardist Greg Phillinganes. His Wikipedia page is as jammed packed as Ricky's with some amazing references including touring and recording with the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Karen Carpenter, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Richard Marx, Paul McCartney, Al Jarreau, Quincy Jones, and Stevie Nicks.

And last but not least, on the far right is Rory Kaplan. Google him and one of top links to come up is his LinkIn page, listing his current position as Executive Producer/Artist Relations with Auro Technologies. And looking back at his post-musician career includes four years in the role of Artist Relations with Intel and Microsoft. Rory is in desperate need of a Wikipedia page. Just saying.

Now - back to coincidences. One of my favourite parts of researching and writing this blog is when I find connections between advertisements and interviews or other historical events. And this ad has a great connection.

If you recall my blog post for Keyboard's first MPC60 advertisement, I linked to a 2013 bboytechreport interview with Akai marketing manager at the time, Mike McRoberts. In that interview, Mike looked back at some of his most memorable moments with Akai and one of them includes this 'lil nugget:

"...at the January 1988 NAMM Show in Anaheim, I was approached by three members of Michael Jackson’s band touring for the BAD album. They explained their touring schedule, which basically was one week in each city. They had some free time every week and asked if they could do a clinic in each city for Akai. I couldn’t say “No” to that, since this was the biggest tour on earth at the time. So, every week I flew to a different city and Ricky Lawson, drummer, Greg Philliganes and Rory Kaplan, keyboard players did a clinic. I was the master of ceremonies, and these guys came up with the whole clinic format."

Nice!

We now take YouTube for granted, but I can only imagine how cool it would have been to have attended one of those clinics.

More MPC stuff to come!