Talk Studio/Pi Keyboards & Audio Digi-Atom 4800 Analog-to-MIDI interface "Control the MIDI World" ad #2 - PART 2, Keyboard 1984

Talk Studio/Zypher Digi-Atom 4800 analog-to-MIDI interface 1/3-page advertisement from page 27 in Keyboard Magazine August 1984.

Been a great winter so far. Uncommonly warm. Almost creepy. But over the last few days, we finally got our first real cold snap of the season with temperatures finally hitting negative double digits (celcius!), so I'm starting to feel a little cooped up and thinking about beaches in warmer climates. But it does help motivate my blogging.

In part 1 of this Digi-Atom 4800 blog post, I provided a brief comparison between this second ad and the first one, while at the same time giving a good demonstration of my Web surfing habits when I fixated on the Digi-Atom's new distributors, Pi Keyboards & Audio. .

Even though ads for the Digi-Atom only appeared twice in Keyboard magazine, the unit also received quite a bit of unpaid advertising (earned media) during this period. In fact, it is actually quite surprising how much play this little piece of gear got in Keyboard magazine. Either Keyboard really liked this machine, or Pi had some great connections. Or both.   :)

The first of these appearances occurred three months after that first April ad came out, when Dominic Milano reviewed the 4800 in the July 1984 issue of the magazine. Dominic introduces the Keyboard Report with the little gem below, which is really telling of the pre/post MIDI transitioning environment taking place in  83/84:

"Just when you thought you were safe from the terrors of the patch cord jungle, free to escape to the bliss of single-cord interfacing with MIDI (the Musical Instrument Digital Interface), along comes a new class of MIDI products that makes your keyboard setup look like it has more in common with a bowl of spaghetti than anything even remotely resembling hi-tech keyboards. But don't despair. There's plenty of musical good to be found even with the synthesizer-meet-wet-noodles look."

He goes on to explain how this new product and others such as J.L. Cooper's I-in and I-out, will convert CVs and gates to MIDI and vice versa, keeping "those great-sounding but 'obsolete' workhorses" alive in your rig. Obsolete? Harsh! In his defense, he did put the word in quotes.   :)

The rest of the article explains the different modes of operation and ends the bulk of the review with a connection example pulled from the manual. In the conclusion, he lists the price at $1,395.00 and the importers as Shelton Leigh Palmer & Co. Nice.

It was a month later that Pi Keyboards & Audio included this ad in the August 1984 issue of Keyboard.

Then, in September, the Keyboard monthly giveaway was the Digi-Atom 4800 Interface. The contest copy only includes Talk Studio - not Zypher - in the 'thank you' list. Included is a bit of a summary of it's functions.

After a brief hiatus, a Spec Sheet write-up in the December 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine provided a little more light on the change in distributor. As well as the price drop of over $200!

"Digi-Atom Distributors. U.S. distribution for the Talk Studios/Zypher Electronics Digi-Atom 4800 analog-to-MIDI interface is now being handled by Pi Keyboards & Audio. List price for the unit in the States has been set at $1,195.00. Pi Keyboards & Audio, 13329 Pearl Rd., Cleveland, OH 44146."

I asked former CEO David Yost about Keyboard's apparent affection with the Digi-Atom, and he explained that it was, in fact, Keyboard that initiated most of the coverage. "Their editors and writers at the time were very very sharp. In fact I think it was shortly after the Keyboard coverage [started to appear] that I was looking into selling the Digi." Turns out that David's first passion was electronic music, and David figured that getting into sales and repairs was the most obvious way to get gear. He had a few large systems that needed good CV/gate converters for MIDI control and he wanted a Digi for himself.

Who's sharp now!  :)

Before going any further, I just have to point out that logo! I'm a big fan of logos, and that Pi Corp logo rocks. Seriously. Future-retro with a touch of Borg. I expect that symbol to appear on the side of Captain Picard's face when he's taken captive by the menacing aliens. The logo was designed by local Cleveland artist Phil D'Angelo - a friend of David Yost - around 1975.

So, to summarize the marketing life of the Digi-Atom in Keyboard magazine (1984):

• April: First ad - full page, colour, Talk Studio/Zypher listed on ad
• July: Keyboard Report for Digi-Atom 4800 listing Talk Studio/Zypher as manufacturers, and Shelton Leigh Palmer & Co. as importers
• August: Second ad - 1/3 page black and white with Pi Keyboards & Audio listed on ad, includes awesomely cool logo
• September: Keyboard contest - Digi-Atom 4800 give-a-way listing just Talk Studio as manufacturer
• December: Spec Sheet about change in distributor to Pi Keyboards & Audio

It's interesting to think that even with all of that earned media and a $200 price drop, the unit didn't seem to stick around in the market for too long. David Yost mentioned in an earlier email that they didn't sell too well. His exact words:  "I think we sold two units".

Now, I'm sure that's a bit of an exaggeration. At least I hope so because I would really like to score one at some point in the future. Otherwise, this guy might be my only hope (see photo - top right corner).  Either way, this is a good lesson that even the best gear, with advertising and lots of earned media, can't always be successful in the marketplace.

I'm not sure what else could have helped the Digi-Atom succeed. But I'm sure that if I did know, I would be enjoying myself on a beach somewhere right now spending my millions generated from telling others how to do it.

Ahhhhh.... beaches....  (sooo cooooold.... soooo... cooooold!)

Talk Studio/Zypher (distributed by Pi Keyboards & Audio) Digi-Atom 4800 Analog-to-MIDI interface "Control the MIDI World" ad #2, Keyboard 1984

Talk Studio/Zypher Digi-Atom 4800 analog-to-MIDI interface 1/3-page advertisement from page 27 in Keyboard Magazine August 1984.

 Its already mid-January, and although I've only had two blog posts this year, I somehow feel its been ages since I posted an actual ad. As far as I'm aware, this blog is still called 'retro synth ADS', so time to get back to the basics. And I think I'm starting with a gooder - ie: I'm already obsessing a bit.

This looks to be the first and only follow-up advertisement to Talk Studio/Zypher's original Digi-Atom 4800 ad that appeared four months earlier in the April 1984 issue of Keyboard.

 

There are a few notable differences between the two ads. The first, is that the second ad was shrunk down to a third of the size. I'm guessing at least partly due to ad budget, this size change would have a domino affect on other aspects of the ad. For example, because the ad was shrunk down to a 1/3-page, the company probably realized the photo was going to loose a lot of the resolution - so, why not save a bit more cash and use a black and white format. The only real loss is that 'pop' of the green button on the left side of the front panel. Smart thinking.

That decrease in ad size would also have made the already small descriptive text that actually explains what the heck this machine does even smaller. So, the designer decided to make good use of the white space on the bottom left side of the original ad and increased the font size. Voila! Readable again!

But for me, the biggest difference between the two ads has to do with the company names that are displayed. In that original ad, the two company names associated with the Digi-Atom 4800 are Talk Studios and zypher electronics. In contrast, both of those names are gone in this second ad, replaced with Pi Keyboards & Audio.

I decided to Google "Pi Keyboards & Audio" to find out more information about this company and was genuinely surprised, and excited, by what I found.

I found out a little bit about Pi and it's influence on the Cleveland electronic music scene through a Facebook page about the band "Ghosts in Daylight". Or, I should more correctly point out, it was a Google-cached page for the Face book page. Facebook kept telling me the actual page doesn't seem to exist any more.

"While Cleveland is now recognized as home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the city actually fostered an active electronic music scene in the late 1980s. During this time, developing MIDI technology allowed for the connection and sequencing of electronic synthesizers and samplers. A small music shop, Pi Keyboards & Audio, served as a hub for many Cleveland-area musicians interested in this technology – it was also the place where Ghosts in Daylight purchased most of their equipment and made their early connections with the local music industry."

 Another Google result led me to Cleveland-area keyboardist Keith Chelm's web site. His bio page provides a brief note that he worked at Pi Keyboards & Audio in the mid-80s, along side none other than Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Now, that's a 'hub'!

I contacted Keith Chelm to ask a bit more about the company and whether he knew any information about the Digi-Atom 4800. He didn't, but he did put me in touch with one of the owners of Pi (and apaprently drummer in Keith's weekend band!) - David Yost.

Through a few email exchanges, I learned that David was one of the owners and CEO of Pi Corp, later changed to Pi Keyboards & Audio, from 1976 - 1990. The company wasn't just a sales and repair shop, but also enjoyed an international reputation for their technical work with Weather Report, Wendy Carlos, Billy Cobham, George Duke, Tangerine Dream, Uriah Heep Jean Luc Ponty, and Devo. That list isn't too shabby!

He looks back on the early MIDI days as "busy, exciting, and rapidly changing". I asked him about the initial confusion of mixing analog and MIDI technologies in gear and he felt that most manufacturers made the switch with ease due to the foresight and prep work done by industry leaders, singling out Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits in particular.

When I asked him about the Digi-Atom in particular, David replied that he thought it was a great piece of gear and was responsible for bringing the unit to the US as a distributor - the only time Pi got involved as a distributor for a foreign product. But, he explained that the lack of sales support from Japan and the language barrier worked against the success of the Digi-Atom. And, that after the few ads failed to generate business, Pi let the relationship with Talk Studios/Zypher dissolve.

Of course, being a young Nine Inch Nails fan way back when, I just couldn't resist asking David about Trent Reznor's time at Pi. David explained that he hired Trent on the recommendation of one of the sales guys. Trent ended up moving from Pennsylvania to Cleveland for the job and worked at Pi for about two and half years. It was then that Bart Koster, owner of Right Track Studios, hired Trent... and, well, the rest is history.

This info would make an excellent addition to Trent's Wikipedia page. It currently jumps from high school directly to his time at Right Track Studios.

I found a few other little tidbits while Web surfing. According to a 1996 Harmony-Central forums post, Wes Taggart of Analogics fame also worked there as a Service Manager in the late 80's. Also found some Pi corporate filings through the opencorporates.com Web site. And, if we want to get a little more off-topic, Pi also came up in a UFO sightings report from someone who worked for the company. Gotta love the Web. :)

I have a lot more to say on the Digi-Atom in Part 2 of this blog post - coming on Thursday.

Yup... definitely obsessing.  :D

Talk Studio/Zypher Electronics Digi-Atom 4800 Analog-to-MIDI interface "Control the MIDI World" ad, Keyboard 1984

 

Talk Studio/Zypher Electronics Digi-Atom 4800 analog-to-MIDI interface 1-page advertisement from page 49 in Keyboard Magazine April 1984.

Since starting to build my Doepfer modular, I've really started getting back into MIDI-to-CV converters. If I don't feel like turning on everything in the studio, I'll hook my Tenori-On or iPad up to my Kenton PRO Solo to run the modular, or my Roland MPU-101 if I want to get a few other older synths into the party.

But, its *always* been my MIDI gear as master, controlling the analog gear. I've never really had the urge to drive my MIDI gear from an analog master - just too much trouble, or I'm lazy or something. I'm guessing it has something to do with entering the synth scene so soon before MIDI was launched. It has just made me wired that way (pun TOTALLY intended).

But just recently, I ran across this 2007 thread on the Abelton forum, and my jaw just dropped when I scrolled down a little. For a couple of reasons.

1. That BIG ASS Doepfer modular
2. The Digi-Atom in the top right of the photo, according to the owner, allows the Doepfer "to control any plugin parameter or Nuendo knob with the Doepfer LFOs or other mod generators"

Now that's awesome. And reading about the Digi-Atom 4800 made me recall this advertisement in Keyboard. And hence this blog post (and probably the next one....  :)

At the time the Digi-Atom came out in 1984, I'm sure it seemed like a good idea. Everyone had analog sequencers and keyboards and MIDI was still a baby. Articles in Keyboard and other magazines were positive about the new technology, but always seemed to slip in a "we'll have to wait and see if this MIDI thing catches on".

But there they were in music shops - fancy new MIDI keyboards that needed to be hooked up, controlled and sync'd into all of those analog set-ups musicians had paid dearly in time and cost to build into their studios. There was a definite need for some type of Swiss Army Knife interface to control all those pesky new MIDI keyboards with tried and true analog sequencer technology.

Talk Studio/Zypher Electronics, along with a few others, were ahead of the curve in this respect, but who could have predicted that the curve was about to take a 180 and drive off in the opposite direction. MIDI technology progressed so rapidly that hardware and software MIDI sequencers soon appeared on the scene and eventually took over the market. Within a year it wasn't analog controlling MIDI - but MIDI controlling analog. Now interfaces were needed to convert those MIDI signals into CV/gate and the DIGI-ATOM 4800 would quickly become obsolete to most of those youngin's coming on to the scene, and a very rare musical tool for others.

But you have to give Talk Studio creds for taking the risk, and this advertisement definitely would have been intriguing to many. Plus, I'm a sucker for spacey/futuristic imagery. Interestingly, in really small print running along the left side of the photo are a few design and photo credits.

"Design by A. Harada. Photo by T. Yokoyama"

I've seen this lots with illustrations, but very rarely for photos used in older ads.

Also, the diagram of all the ins and outs was a really good addition to the ad and would have gone a long way to illustrate to musicians exactly how and why one might need the 4800. That diagram also benefits from the fantastic ad-copy. For such a technical device, the writer does a really good job keeping it simple. The only issue is that the bottom half of the page gets a little crowded - the empty space could have been used a bit more productively.

Not surprisingly, there isn't a lot of good photos of this beast online. But, I can point you to go-to site MATRIXSYNTH, which posted a January 2009 e-bay auction with a few good close-up photos.

And could they make that "Zypher Electronics" text on the top of the unit any bigger? Kidding!

I've got a bit more info on the Digi-Atom 4800 I'd like to share in my next post. Stay tuned!