Moog Song Producer sequencer "MIDI In, Out & Thru Just Won't Do" ad #2, Keyboard 1985

Moog Song Producer sequencer "MIDI In, Out & Thru Just Won't Do" 1/4-page black and white advertisement from the top right corner of page 101 in the December 1985 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a recent photo or two of my own Moog Song Producer hardware and software. Over the last little while, I've made it a point to ignore the realities of life while learning the intricacies of this unique machine. It's taken a bit longer than anticipated - the software is a bit of a complicated beast and the fantastically detailed manual is both a godsend and a hindrance in many ways. I'm not afraid to say my tech ego has taken a bit of a beating.

But I am making progress and hope to have a detailed video or two available at some point to give readers a bit more of an understanding on how the Producer worked.

Until then, let's deja vu our way though this second Moog Producer advertisement. I last blogged about the Moog Song Producer in December when I posted the first product ad that appeared in the November 1985 issue Keyboard Magazine. The copy and layout in this slightly chubbier December 1985 version is pretty much the same as in the OG. But, sadly, this last Moog Producer ad appears to be the last Moog ad to appear in Keyboard Magazine before the 1987 sale of the company and a corresponding change in strategy to primarily focus on contract manufacturing, although they did continue servicing Moog Music products.

I mentioned the pricing in my first blog post, but as I read through this version of the ad, the $395.00 price tag jumped out at me a bit more. For comparison, Passport's interface with MIDI IN, OUT and DRUM SYNC went for $99.00, and  Sequential 242's interface with MIDI IN and OUT, Clock IN and Start/Stop went for $129.00. Even when you add in the software (another $100-$150) there is still quite a gap in pricing with the Song Producer.

So, was the extra money worth it?

I'd say yes!

We are talking four MIDI OUTS. Plus MIDI IN and THRU. Clock IN and OUT. Two foot switch inputs. AND those eight drum trigger outs.

Clockwise from left - box, manual with floppy disk on top

Song Producer hardware with connection cable/cartridge attached, 

warranty card, introductory guide, quality control slip, technical 

service info leaflet (including schematics), service location poster

But it wasn't just the hardware that made the Song Producer special. I've included a photo of everything that came with my fully boxed unit, which I believe is what was originally included in the box. This included the 250+ page manual in a quality black three ring binder, the program disk, warranty card, introductory guide, quality control slip, technical service info leaflet (including schematics) and service location poster.

Now compare that to what came with the Passport interface - a small manual, the disk and sometimes a MIDI cable. That's it!

Moog has always done "quality" right.

Anyways, back to some history... although these two small ads appeared at the end of 1985, avid Keyboard readers would have actually learned about the existence of the Song Producer hardware and software more than a year and a half earlier.

The first hint was in Keyboard Magazine's Winter NAMM '84 article that appeared in the April 1984 issue. The reference in that article is small, but gives us a wack of historical info regarding changes to Moog Music at the time.

"With a new name from a recent management buyout, Moog Electronics (formerly Moog Music) showed a prototype sequencer for the Commodore 64...".

As mentioned in my previous blog post on the previous Moog Song Producer ad, the management buyout change mentioned in that little sentence occurred during the slow pivot to put more emphasis on contract manufacturing.

After their appearance at Winter NAMM, Moog Electronics continued the development of the Song Producer and showed up at Summer NAMM as well.  Keyboard Magazine provided readers even more information on Song Producer, including price, in their September 1984 article on the trade show:

"Moog Electronics brought out a Commodore 64-based system called the Song Producer. Along with the sequencing program, the system comes with MIDI star network hardware (one input, four outputs, one thru-put), which eliminates the kinds of time delays you get by hooking up more than three or four MIDI instruments together via the thru-puts. On top of that, the system has a live performance software module that allows you to make any MIDI keyboard a split/layered keyboard with eight definable split/layer points by using a buss system which is designed to get around the whole problem of MIDI channel assignment and the current incompatibilities between various instruments regarding channel assignments. A rather useful device, and it carries a list price of only $395.00, hardware (but no the computer) included."

Those two references were just a small glimpse into what readers would learn about Song Producer. Because it was then in the September 1985 issue of Keyboard that the infamous (kinda) Song Producer Keyboard review appeared.

But that will have to wait...  :)

Moog Song Producer, Keyboard 1985

Moog Song Producer 1/6-page black and white advertisement from page 108 in the November 1985 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

"Pivot" - you hear that word a lot now'er days.

For example, Your FarmVille-app wanna-be isn't panning out? Pivot to become an online Organic Farm location service.

In the case of Moog Music, it looks like one such pivot started around 1983 when the company was sold to management. But in order to see it more clearly, we need to back up a bit.

What looks to be prior to the sale, Moog had shown up at 1983's Summer NAMM with Keith Emerson's Modular System, a few MIDI-equipped Memorymoogs and, according to the September 1983 issue of Keyboard Magazine...

SL-8 photo from Keyboard Magazine
September 1983

"Hidden away up in a hotel suite was a prototype of the SL-8, an eight-voice synthesizer that generates its colors digitally. The keyboard can be split and layered. Projected list price was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2,495.00. No final plans have been made as to when it will come out."

Without getting too far off my original point, I kinda went down a rabbit hole looking for info on the SL-8 and came upon a great little story.

A September 2015 Reddit post of a photo of the SL-8 submitted by "theofferings" (who looks to be David Harrison, the Technical Director of the Audities Foundation most likely) included some info about the synth's appearance at that NAMM 1983 show mentioned in Keyboard Magazine:

"The story goes, Moog brought this to NAMM 83 as an 8 voice polyphonic synth, a follow up to the Memory Moog (which btw has the fattest Osc's I might have ever heard). They brought the cards for the SL8 to NAMM in a "cardboard box" and this was placed below the SL8 for performance during NAMM. After NAMM the cardboard box containing the cards was lost or misplaced and all the remains is the body."

Another reader followed up with some information from "a friend" about this SL-8 prototype appearing later on at a London trade show in 1984, including how the synth got it's name and why it may not have made it into production.

"I'm very familiar with the SL-8, I was the person who got it working in London at the Music trade show in 1984. The boards were in a card cage underneath the prototype behind a curtain with big ribbon cables running up inside to the control panels. When it arrived in London from Buffalo it was DOA. I took the ferry over from our service center in Rotterdam to the UK and fixed it on the opening morning of the show. We took over 700 orders for it that weekend ($1995 Retail). When I got back to the plant, Marge Beltz (Our accounting genius) killed it. Ray Dennison and I are old friends and he ended up leaving Moog over that decision after spending a year of his life designing it. It was the first polyphonic Moog with a 16 bit Micro. The name comes from Split/Layered 8 Voice synth (SL-8). It had really gritty digitally controlled analog oscillators with a harmonic multiplier knob. " 

Great stuff!

But anyways, back to the point... what was the point again...?

Oh yeah! The "pivot".

It looks to be around the time of the buyout - and a name change from Moog Music to Moog Electronics - that the company began its pivot. For example, according to the Moog Archives web site, Moog had begun to put a new emphasis on contract manufacturing, such as in the production of the SSK Concertmate synthesizer for Tandy Corp (Radio Shack). And the company also began producing non-music related products, like the Telesys 3, later know as the Operator (view the advertisement on the Moog Archives site), and the Phone Controller (photos from the awesome MATRIXSYNTH). Hence why they couldn't keep on using the word "Music" in their company name, I'd guess.

But that doesn't mean they weren't gonna keep a few eggs in their own Moog products basket. The company continued to sell the Memorymoog  for a while, with advertisements running until the summer of 1984, and as we just read on Reddit, they were still showing off the SL-8 prototype into 1984.

And there was one other musical product that seemed to survive the pivot - The Moog Song Producer hardware and software set-up for the Commodore 64.

Now, I'm a big fan of the C-64 and hang out in the Facebook groups devoted to the computer. So, I can tell you that when someone posts *this* photo (see right) of the Moog Song Producer, a lot of discussion ensues. 5 (thank you again, MATRIXSYNTH).

Most MIDI cartridges for the C-64 look and act very similar. They all have MIDI in and and out or two, and a few will get a little bit more exciting with a clock and/or tape sync in/out. A few like the Sequential Circuits Model 64 and C-Lab Supertrack-ROM will even have the sequencing software on the cartridge to save you from having to load a program on from a floppy drive.

BUT, the Moog Song Producer was a different beast altogether. It was a large rectangular box almost as wide as a C-64 itself. And, as this ad will tell you, it included *a lot* more than just a MIDI in and one or two MIDI outs.

Hardware:
- 4 MIDI OUTS channelize OMNI synths and speed throughput.
- 8 gate outputs drive non-MIDI drums.
- Footswitch inputs free your hands.
- Clock IN/OUT and clock Disable IN/OUT provided for non-MIDI clock(s) control.

Wowza. 

The software wasn't just a simple sequencer either:

Software:
- MIDI COMMAND splits/layers/transposes and controls MIDI PROGREAM Numbers for 4 instruments independently.
- SONGSTEPPER composition program displays realtime  entry and stepmode. Keyboard skills not required. Compose drums and music using one system.
- SYNC COMMAND has 9 synchronous clocks with Master Tempo to get your gear together.
- Dr. T's Music software now available for the Song Producer interface.

Best of all, we also get some retail prices!

$395 U.S. for the software and hardware. And $15 for the 250 page manual owners manual that includes 12 color photos of the software screens. Now, I'm not a big fan of paying for an owners manual, but this one was 250 pages, and it was written by Tom Rhea. So, I'll let that go. 

The ad itself isn't much to look at - but after doing some digging I found there's a lot more to say about Moog's Song Producer.

But I've rambled on enough.

So I'm gonna save that for the next Song Producer advert blog post.