E-mu Systems Inc. Vintage Keys "Classic Analog Keys" synthesizer brochure, 1993

E-mu Systems Inc. Vintage Keys "Classic Analog Keys" two page colour synthesizer brochure from 1993.

Hey... its been a while. Almost two months. Haven't been in the mood for much writing. But when the topic of the E-mu Vintage Keys came up with a group of friends recently, I remembered all those E-mu brochure scans that have been sitting in draft mode for an unusually long time - even for me. So, here's a short and sweet post to share with my friends. 

While the previous E-mu Morpheus sheet I posted last December is one of my favs in this marketing series from E-mu, I gotta say the Vintage Keys also brings a twinkle to my eye. And yes, the dude with the keytar on the front of the brochure is *definitely* part of that twinkle. 

As mentioned - the sheets for the Morpheus and Vintage Keys (along with the other four or five I have in the series) are from the same series, so it makes sense they all follow the same format. Large title and image up top. Propaganda below. And then on the back - more details. In the case of the Vintage Keys brochure, a good amount of that back page real estate is made up of the list of preset names. Because this machine is all about those presets. 

Let's face it, E-mu was ahead of its time with this module. Or maybe right on time, because most of my friends owned one (even those with original Moogs, Arps and Oberheims) and soon after the vintage synth craze really started to take off. Although I'm sure others will argue with me over that arguably arguable statement of the timing of the actual start of the vintage craze. 

The point being that this rack mount was in-arguably the cheapest way to cram the classic sounds of a Moog Modular, Minimoog and Taurus Pedals,  Fairlight, ARP 2600, Oberheim Matrix-12, Sequential Prophet 5 and many other amazing classic synths into 1 U of rack space.

Sure, 8 megs of sounds (expandable to 16!) doesn't sound like a lot by today's standards, but considering I was probably using less memory running Photoshop on Windows in 1993 in grad school, it packed a rompler of a wallop for it's time.  And did I mention 32 voices, 16 bit sound AND multi-timbral? Sweet.

There is a great review of the Vintage Keys in the May 1993 issue of Music Technology written by Peter Forrest - the always amazing Mu:zines has it online - and he admits that a lot of compromises had to be made to get that many great sounds into 8 MB, but states near the end that...

"Overall, one would have to say that Vintage Keys is an absolute must for any studio - possibly the most essential piece of equipment and the best value for money since... well, something like the SPX90, or the first DAT machines - and equally useful for any professional keyboard player, even if only as a high quality back-up for the real thing."

A great value for sure. 

During the write up, Peter also made a few other comments that I actually had never thought about until re-reading that review.

The first is that he notes that "perhaps the strangest omission is that of any Emulator sounds - or, come to think of it, of anything from the early E-mu modular systems, especially given the slight American bias to the selection."  

Interesting. 

Although I'm not surprised they didn't include E-mu modular samples (can you think of a famous E-mu modular sound?), its a good point about not including Emulator sounds. Of course, that may be because they knew that in a year or so they would be coming out with an expansion kit / Plus version that would, in fact, include some of those Emulator samples. But still, one or two wouldn't have hurt. 

The other more interesting comment - and one I should try to do a deep-dive on in the future, was this:

"The other rather puzzling thing is the question of copyright and trademarks, etc. For years, no manufacturer dared to call the clavinet imitation on their synth or sampler 'Clavinet' - presumably for fear of litigation. And yet here are E-mu apparently quite happy to name all the products exactly, and even have adverts with photos of the original keyboards plastered all over them. Maybe they agreed a royalty system with the trademark holders, or maybe there's no problem after all - I haven't been able to find out. The only concession to this possibly thorny question comes in the manual, which says "The names of the above-mentioned instruments may be trademarks of third parties"."

Dang. As soon as I read that, I immediately started to try to go through old synth and sampler presets in my head to see if/when companies started to include competitor brand names in their patch or sample names. Sure, I could buy patch sets from third party sound designers that would include names like "Moog Bass" to describe their carefully crafted Casio CZ patch.   But did Yamaha or Roland ever use "Moog" as a descriptor in any of their bass synth preset patch names? Or even more of a thorny question - if/when did one sampler's sounds make it into the factory presets of another sampler, or in a synth that used sampled waveforms? 

And if so, when did that start? That Kawai K1 Fairlight-sounding Aaaaah patch does come pretty close. Okay, not that close. But it could have if Kawai had the balls.  :) 

A deep dive for another time indeed.

Anways, back to the machine itself. For me, it's the Vintage Keys strings and choir samples that are especially nice - the actual samples that make up the patches. Like sample sound 57 - ARP Strings sampled from an ARP String Ensemble or sample sound 58 - AHHs from the Fairlight. Slap on some chorus or reverb and enjoy the ride.  

You can head on over to the E-mu Vintage Keys page on the Emu Mania website to hear the four factory demos.

Stay safe. And, in an unrelated note, if you have a few extra bucks, buy some electronic music from someone deserving. They will appreciate it. 

E-mu Systems Inc. Morpheus "Z-Plane" synthesizer brochure, 1993

E-mu Systems Inc. Morpheus "Z-Plane" synthesizer two-page colour brochure from 1993.

"From one of the few companies still committed to developing new methods of sound synthesis, the Morpheus promises much. Does it deliver?"

That's the first line in Music Technology magazine's January 1994 review of the Morpheus.  And E-mu was indeed coming up with some interesting stuff.

The same year, Alesis launched the QuadraSynth.

Kawai the K11.

Korg the X3.

Roland the JV-90 and JV-1000.

In Roland's defense, they also came out with the JD-990 - still one of the best sounding digital synths in my opinion. It just sounds fantastic. I can't explain it any better than that.

And, well, there was also the Waldorf Wave. A little... okay, a lot out of my price range.

BUT E-mu's Morpheus hit my sweet spot between three of the main factors I use to determine whether I buy a synth or not - it's fun, interesting and a great price. Of course, related to price is a fourth factor - how much money is in my wallet at the time. Luckily it had been over a year since Korg had launched the Wavestation A/D and my wallet was recovering nicely.  :)

It was just by chance that I started thinking about my currently-packed-away Morpheus when I came upon Mu:zines recent tweet announcing the addition of MT's November 1993 issue on their website which included this lovely little introduction to the z-plane synth. And then when he tweeted out the January 1994 issue, which included a full Morpheus review, I just knew I had to dig out my brochure for Morpheus, as well as a wack of other 90s brochures.

Now, I was gonna try and explain Z-Plane, but while going down that rabbit hole I came across an amazing bit of E-mu Morpheus history - the ORIGINAL Morpheus marketing product VHS tape that someone has digitized and slapped up on YouTube!

You may not recognize the face that pops up after the minute and a half intro, but you should recognize the name - Marco Alpert. He was the long time marketing manager at E-mu and played a big role in some of E-mu's rather fun and intriguing ads that I've featured on the blog, including the decision to run the Japanese Emulator ad in Keyboard Magazine for shits and giggles, and the EPIC Arthur C. Clarke "Any sufficiently advanced technology" ad.

  

There are actually five parts to the E-mu tapes, so I've included the first bit below, and you can find the others while running uncontrollably down your own rabbit hole:

The video goes on to give an introduction to the Z-Plane filter, and the four videos that follow delve even deeper into the synthesizer.

So after watching the video(s), if that all sounds great to you, AND you happen to be a Eurorack fan, you should definitely check out Rossum Electro-Music's Stereo Morphing Z-Plane Filter module. Your head will explode.

Your own sounds.

Through the Morpheus's filter.

A Morpheus filter ON STEROIDS!

From the webpage:

"Due to processor limitations back in the day, the original Morpheus was capable of real-time morphing in one dimension, but interpolation in the frequency and transform dimensions were set at note-on and remained static for the remainder of the note. But even with that limitation, Morpheus offered sonic capabilities that are unmatched to this day.
With the MORPHEUS filter module, you now have simultaneous real-time CV control of all three dimensions, for dynamic timbral effects unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. In stereo."

There is a video tab on that page that provides a great little demo.

Last, but not least, if you wanna hear a few sounds from the original, check out YouTube.

Lots there, including this one...

E-mu Systems Inc. "Drumulator Systems Options" ad, Keyboard 1983

E-mu Systems Inc. "Drumulator Systems Options" 1-page advertisement from page 57 in Keyboard Magazine November 1983.

This ad brings me back to a simpler time. A time back in the 80s when I used an Apple IIe and Passport's Master Tracks. Even on stage! Just look at that joystick too. That, unfortunately, didn't work with Master Tracks. Quick aside: Check out Passport's Wikipedia page to see it's connection with Electronic Music Labs and Star Instruments!

The ad itself has a clear purpose - to let readers know that their drum machine would not become obsolete and that E-mu was giving readers three more great reasons to buy a Drumulator - a pad programmer, software that runs on an Apple II and Apple IIe, and the ability to add custom new sounds. Nice.

As was the case with all E-mu ads, the layout and design is top-notch from top to bottom. And, as was done with the introductory ad, the drum sticks are used to make another eye-catching pattern - this time found the background at the top of the ad.

The ad-copy is also well done. Although, as an Apple fan boy of the 80s, I'm a little sad that E-mu doesn't actually mention what computer the software runs on in the text. There is a clearly labeled Apple II computer in the photo, so I guess its not that big a deal. Especially when you have such limited room.

This advertisement began it's first short three month run only one month after the introductory Drumulator ad last ran, appearing from November 1983 to January 1984. Then, after four months of silence, it suddenly appeared again for the June and July issues.

Why the sudden re-appearance after a four month dry period? E-mu had partnered with Digidrums to provide alternate sound chips. In fact, E-mu wanted to make sure that Digidrums got its fair share of publicity, so they cut down some of the original ad-copy to make room for Digidrums mention in the June/July version of the ad.

The ad-copy that was removed was in the "Pad Programmer" section:

"Each of the Programmer's pads can be assigned to any Drumulator sound and each is touch sensitive, allowing you to choose the normal or accented version of a sound by how hard you hit its pad. Programming complex dynamics was never easier."

Andthe new Digidrum ad-copy was added under the "New Sounds" section:

"And, thanks to Digidrums alternate sound chip sets, your Drumulator can now take on completely new identities, from electronic drums and heavy metal rock drums to a Latin percussion set complete with congas, timbales, agogo bells and tambourine."

Some readers may have already been aware of the Digidrums partnership before reading about them in the June/July ad. That's because the Digidrum news was part of a rather long Drumulator Systems Options announcement that appeared in the April 1984 Spec Sheet section of Keyboard. It's so long that I've separated it out a bit:

"E-mu Drumulator Updates. The Drumulator Pad Programmer allows the Drumulator digital drum machine to be played and programmed with drumsticks on four dynamically responsive pads, simplifying the process of creating rhythms with natural-sounding accents and allowing the user to improvise rhythms using sticks. Sensitivity and accent level controls allow the response of each pad to be individually tailored to the user's playing style. In addition, the unit includes four trigger outputs for controlling synthesizers, sequencers, or other drum machines. The Drumulator Graphic Rhythm Composer (GRC) is a software system for the Apple II or IIe computer that allows non-real-time programming of measures and songs with total dynamic control on a note-by-note basis.

The GRC is composed of four linked program modules. With the measure writer module, a cursor is moved around a graphic representation of a measure of music, placing notes o the desired beats and setting their volume levels. Segment writer and song writer modules are used to link measures into complete songs. The song player module is then used to actually play the song on the Drumulator.

A selection of alternate sounds is also available for the Drumulator. A user-installable chip containing a crash cymbal is available as a replacement for the standard ride cymbal. Additionally, Digidrums (100 S. Ellsworth, 9th Floor, San Mateo, CA 94401) is offering E-mu-authorized alternate sound sets for the Drumulator. Current offerings include two different electronic drum sets, a Latin percussion set, an African percussion set, and a heavy metal rock drum set. Each set includes from 8 to 12 new sounds and completely replaces the standard Drumulator sounds. A demo tape is available from E-mu dealers or directly from Digidrums. E-mu, 2815 Chanticleer, Santa Cruz, CA 95062."

And Digidrums wasn't the only one providing more value to Drumulator users. Another Spec Sheet promo appeared in the February 1985 issue of Keyboard from SD Simpson:

"Drumulator Memory Expansion Mod. The x5 by SD Simpson is a memory expansion modification for the E-mu Drumulator. It is designed for in-board installation and has been tested and approved by E-mu as a system upgrade. The circuit board gives you five separate storage banks, each equal in capacity to the Drumulator's stock capacity. The banks are accessed with a single rotary switch. All operating procedures remain the same as before. The mod can be installed by the user. Price is $275.00. SD Simpson, 11907 Brookmont, Maryland Heights, MO 63043."

I can't believe I'm saying this, but... gotta love digital technology. Easy to upgrade! :D

E-mu Systems Inc. Introductory Drumulator ad, Keyboard 1983

E-mu Systems Inc. introductory Drumulator 1-page advertisement from page 37 in Keyboard Magazine February 1983.

Okay. Call me a geek. But whenever I look at this ad, my eyes always directly travel to the background. The graph paper design honestly brings me back to the days of playing Dungeons and Dragons late at night, with large sheets of graph paper laid out on a big table. Oh, and my Drumulator would be sitting in the corner on another table. Ignored. No... seriously.

This advertisement first appeared in Keyboard magazine in February 1983 to introduce users to a spectacular new drum machine that could be had for under a grand. It continued to run most of the year, finishing off in October, with breaks in April, May and September. A pretty good run for an intro ad.

The ad itself is really well laid out in my opinion. It includes great eye-catching design, especially with that photo of the Drumulator and drumstick pattern. And details like the shadow and graph paper design beneath the Drumulator help pull it off the page and toward the reader. No 3D glasses required.

The title text and ad-copy hit the nail on the head by first focusing on it's "amazing new feature" - Affordability. And the rest of the ad-copy is professional, with just the right amount of text for a product introduction.

I'll lay-off of the whole E-mu bauhaus-font-based logo stuff for now. I get kinda school-girl giggly whenever I start writing about it. But - fair warning - there is at least one more Drumulator post to come in the future. Psst - if you want, you can get a little giggly with me in this blog post.

Interestingly, a Spec Sheet announcement never appeared in Keyboard. But that might be because the magazine published a 2-page review of the Drumulator in their Keyboard Report's section in June 1983. The review, written by Jim Aikin, starts off with the obvious cost comparisons that were being made to other digital drum machines with "real drum sounds" at the time.

"The first programmable drum machine that had real drum sounds (the LM-1 from Linn Electronics) cost almost $5,000. A year or so later this was followed by the Linndrum from Linn and the DMX from Oberheim, both of which checked in under $3,000. And now E-mu Systems is offering the Drumulator, list-priced at a mouth-watering $995.00."

Jim does caution readers that E-mu had to "cut a few corners to get the price so low", although he adds that it did include two features not found on any other drum machine - programmable tempo and programmable accent levels.

He concludes with something I think everyone has experienced when they come across a piece of kit in a music store (or on eBay) with a price that seems too good to be true:

"If you have a suspicious nature, you might expect that a drum machine this affordable would be a bit on the cheesy side. But you'd be wrong... All in all, we were very impressed by the Drumulator, and we imagine a lot of other musicians will be too."

In fact, according to the September 2002 Sound on Sound article "30 Years of E-mu", musicians were so impressed with the Drumulator that "it sold by the bucket-load, achieving nearly 10,000 sales over two years".

Okay - I kind of lied earlier. No, not about playing Dungeons and Dragons (and for the record I was the best half-elf cleric around). I lied about the Spec Sheet promo.

Kind of.

Although nothing seems to have appeared in the Spec Sheet section of Keyboard, the August 1983 issue (Thomas Dolby on the cover!) did feature a Drumulator in the Keyboard Monthly Giveaway. And the paragraph describing the instrument was laid out in a column roughly the width of a Spec Sheet write up and curiously read suspiciously like a Spec Sheet write up. Hmmmmm:

"The E-mu Drumulator is a programmable drum machine that contains the digitally recorded sounds of real drums. The recorded sounds include bass drum, snare drum, sidestick snare, three tom-toms, claves, cowbell, handclaps, ride cymbal, and open and closed hi-hat. Thirty-six rhythm segments in any time signature can be programmed, and these can be linked into eight different song chains of up to 99 segments each. Tempo and accent levels are programmable for each song. In addition to a cassette interface for off-loading the information in memory, the Drumulator has an RS-232 computer interface for external control and programming. List price is $995.00."

One comment before I finish. As you might expect, I have bucket-loads of Contemporary Keyboard, Keyboard, Electronic Musician, International Musician, Synapse, Polyphony, and many other music mags. And one thing that always surprises me is the number of contest forms that are NOT FILLED OUT. I'd say maybe one in a hundred. Prolly less than that. What were all of you thinking?!?!

Seriously. When I was young, I ruined many a music mag by cutting out, filling in, and mailing off contest forms.

Yah, even those that said they were for US readers only - which was most of them. I figured if I ever won, they would call and my cute little excited kid-voice would convince them to send whatever I won to me.

And nope. Never won.

E-mu 4060 Microprocessor Keyboard and 4070 Floppy Disc System - Part 2, Contemporary Keyboard 1980

This is part 2 in my fixation with the E-mu 4060 Microprocessor Keyboard and 4070 Floppy Disc System. I recommend reading part 1 to catch up on a little of the early history on the 4060.

Read it?

How 'bout now?

Now?

Good. Let's get going then, because once the 4060 Keyboard was developed in 1977, that was hardly the end of the story.

The 4060 continued to be updated by E-mu - and we are talking software updates to provide new functionality to the hardware! And that's just plain cool. Digital technology was probably so new to many musicians that the whole concept of software updates to expand the functionality of a piece of gear, at a fraction of the cost, must have made some of them just drop their pants.

These keyboard software updates showed up in the September 1979 Spec Sheet section of Contemporary Keyboard. The write-up is fantastic, and provides today's readers with an understand of just how primitive early digital sequencers actually were - and how much potential there was.

Spec Sheets, as you may know, are often one... big... long... paragraph. I've separated out this write up into the six software packages.

"E-mu software. Six new software programs for the 4060 microprocessor keyboard are available from E-mu.

The UP1.1 is a revised version of the basic software for the 4060 and is available free to owners of the earlier version.

Memtest is a field service aid for testing the 4060 and any attached 4065 sequencer memory boards.

Intervals is a program that allows the user to redefine the tuning of the 4060 keyboard. Two modes are available with this software modification. In the Define Interval mode, one can specify the interval between keys. In the Define Key mode, one can specify the value of each individual key, thus allowing the user to define any arbitrarily tuned scale. In both cases, control voltage can be defined to an accuracy of .015 semitone over a ten-octave range.

Program Mode is intended for the individual who wishes to write his or her own programs for the 4060. In allows you to enter programs and data using the 4060's keyboard and to display addresses and data on the 16 gate lamps. A list of useful entry points and their functions is supplied with the programs.

Sequencer Edit is a version of the standard 4060 software modified for special real-time and sequencer editing of functions. Punch Out mode allows the repair of one or more notes in the middle of a complex sequence, while a modified Store Sequence function allows continuous playing as you're building up multiple layered sequences.

Pat's UP1.3 is another enhanced version of the standard software. It was original developed for CK columnist Patrick Gleesen. This program allows both up and down sequence transposition, the storage of up to 81 individual sequences, the ability to inhibit the recall of selected sequencer channels, and the uninterrupted building of sequences in real-time.

All programs are supplied on cassette tape and are loaded using standard "from tape" procedure. programs range in price from $25 to $200. The 4060 polyphonic keyboard is $3000.00. E-mu systems, 417 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060."

But E-mu didn't stop there. They knew they had to keep up with the fast-paced evolution of hardware technology too. In particular, a certain storage technology that was increasingly replacing cassette tape storage.

FLOPPIES!

In 1979, E-mu released the 4070 Floppy Disk System, allowing users to hold six sequencer memories along with faster load times.

And so, with all the different software and hardware now available for the 4060, E-mu finally decided in 1980 that this advertisement was required to bundle it all up in to a nice little ball of concentrated digital goodness for readers.

But, the September 1980 issue of Keyboard didn't just include this ad from E-mu. The Spec Sheet section in the same issue also announced the "Floppy Disk Memory Unit" which provided even more juicy information about the 4070.

"Designed for use with the Emu 4060 microprocessor-based 16-channel polyphonic keyboard/sequencer with at least one 4065 sequencer memory, the 4070 floppy disk memory unit is designed for quick storage and recall of polyphonic sequences and special function software. The unit consists of an 8" floppy disk drive with cabinet, power supply, and interface circuitry for the 4060 keyboard. A CRT terminal interface is also included for use with forthcoming software. Each floppy disk will store six full sequencer memories for a total capacity of 36,000 notes. Disk drive, interface, cables, a replacement ROM with UP1.3 DISK, and ten floppy disks are included. Price is $3000.00. Emu Systems, Inc. 437 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060."

The ad also mentions the inclusion of a CRT terminal interface mentioned in this Spec Sheet write up, apparently for use with "forthcoming software". Unfortunately, as mentioned in the 30 Years of E-mu Sound on Sound article, further development wasn't meant to be:

"Emu continued to develop the product with new versions of the sequencer software, and an external eight-inch floppy diskette for sequence storage. They released this as the 4070 in 1979, and a VDU and ASCII keyboard were planned for 1980, but they never happened."

I would have loved to have seen what they had come up with in the E-mu labs!

Also interesting is that this ad mentions the "new" Audity polyphonic synthesizer. You can read more out the Audity at VintageSynth.com and the 30-year anniversary article on E-mu, but I point it out in reference to this ad because whenever I see pictures of the Audity, it looks like a 4060 Keyboard is always hanging out as well. And, in fact, the 4060 gets special mention in the Audity's Spec Sheet review in the December 1980 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

"The Audity can be controlled by virtually any 1-volt/octave controller, but it was designed especially for use with the E-mu's 4060 polyphonic keyboard. With the 4060's built-in 16-channel memory sequencer, the composer or arranger can create multitrack compositions nd then experiment with orchestrations in real time - creating and modifying timbres while his or her piece is actually playing."

Great cross-promoting! :D

But, the writing was on the wall for E-mu, and that anniversary article by Sound on Sound put it best when Rob Keeble writes:

"During the '70s, Emu successfully grew from being based in an apartment in Santa Clara, to being based in a house in Santa Cruz. They had pioneered many new ideas, but their own products were either out of fashion or too expensive. In mid-1980 they faced extinction, and a new business plan was urgently needed.

In response, the folksy style of the '70s was replaced by a professional approach to product and business development. In 1979 Emu Systems incorporated to become a public business, which attracted some external investment and business management. In 1980, they hired Marco Alpert as the Marketing Manager, and he came up with many new product ideas as well as some of the company's best adverts."

And we all know what came out of that... :D

E-mu 4060 Microporcessor Keyboard and 4070 Floppy Disc System - Part 1, Contemporary Keyboard 1980

E-mu Systems Inc. 4060 Keyboard 1/2-page advertisement from page 23 in Contemporary Keyboard September 1980.

Look at this! I believe this is E-mu's first ad ever to appear in Contemporary Keyboard magazine. And it is packed full with great historical reference information. It doesn't just mention historical info about the 4060 (along with a healthy dose of name-dropping), but also mentions the "new" 4070 Floppy Disc System, the E-mu Modular, and "the incredible new AUDITY 16 channel digitally controlled polyphonic synthesizer system". Excellent!

As mentioned in the ad, the 4060 Keyboard has been around since 1977, and using my supa Internetz snoopin' abilities, I've pieced together a lot of the history that led up to this advertisement - and beyond.

A September 2002 anniversary article called "30 years of E-mu", written by Rob Keeble for Sound On Sound magazine includes a brief mention on the initial development of the 4060 Keyboard. Prior to it's development, E-mu had been "pioneering the use of digital electronics in synthesizer design", but it wasn't until the introduction of the Zilog Z80 processor that E-mu started making greater strides in gear development:

"This all changed with the release of the Zilog Z80 processor in July 1976. This chip was suitable for use in a synthesizer, and Scott was able to persuade Zilog to give him a development system, which meant Emu could at last join the microprocessor revolution. It wasn't long before Scott and Dave were expert software programmers, and the Z80 became the basis for Emu products for the next 10 years.

Emu first applied the new technology to keyboard and sequencer design with the 4060 Polyphonic Keyboard and Sequencer of March 1977, which cost US$3000. The new keyboard had 16 channels of polyphonic voice control, and the standard Emu keyboard controls plus a 16-button keypad. It also offered a real-time digital sequencer with 48kB of volatile memory, which held 6000 notes — groundbreaking at the time."

The earliest introductory mention of the new 4060 keyboard that I found in my collection of old mags was from the March/April 1977 issue of Synapse magazine in the 'What's Happening" section (mistakenly referred to as the 460) .

"E-mu announces the release of the 460 Microprocessor Keyboard. A five octave keyboard programs the sixteen voice polyphonic system. Programmable parameters include pitch, duration and keyboard glide. The entire system is controlled by a calculator type keyboard..."

Once launched, the 4060 continued to be promoted as part of E-mu's modular system that had already been around for years, turning up along side the modular in the 1977 Modular brochure (PDF from the Emulator Archive Web site) auctions, and other online and offline photos.

The keyboard got a much more in-depth review in Synapse in the January/February 1978 issue when it was featured in an "Equipment" review. The introduction of the review provides some great historical pricing info:

"The advantage of this E-mu keyboard/sequencer is in having the capability of 16 independent voices, provided of course that one also has the 16 VCO's, VCA's, and envelopes. The fully developed system ($4110) with all the necessary extra memory modules (CMOS516K) ram boards with battery back-up. The keyboard above is $2500 and stores 60 key depressions) is capable of storing 6,000 key depressions."

The review gives readers a great introductory tutorial on how to record, store, and recall sequences, and ends with some information on its compatibility with other manufacturers gear.

"The E-my keyboard is available separately to be interfaced with other brands of synthesizers, though the manufacturer points out that casing for an E-mu power supply and output panel are necessary. They also express an order of preference for interface, that being: Oberheim (to whom they license some of their keyboard technology), Moog modular 921 VCO's, ARP 2600, and Minimoog... They point out, however, that the keyboard is compatible with any quality 1 volt/octave synthesizer."

But this was just the beginning for the 4060 Keyboard, and in my next blog post I promise to finish up delving into it's continued development - leading up to this ad. :D

E-mu Emulator "Imagine" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1981

E-mu Systems Inc. 1-page Emulator sampler advertisement from page 21 in Contemporary Keyboard February 1981.

The ad that started it all for the Emulator!

One hardcore Emulator fan in particular pointed out this rather glaring hole in my Emulator ad posts. And I really don't have an excuse... I just found other Emulator ads a lot more fun :p

This introductory ad only showed up in Keyboard magazine for a few months in the first quarter of 1981. And intentional or not, I can't help but think this ad's theme of "Imagine..." is sampling a little bit from John Lennon's 1971 song "Imagine". Coincidentally, John Lennon was murdered only a few months before this ad made its first appearance in CK, and Marco Alpert, E-mu marketing manager during this time period, confirmed that there is no connection. Advertising submission lead times required by magazines back then were quite a bit longer than they are today, and it was quite likely the ad was created well before John Lennon's death.

The ad-copy is really well written and provides readers with a simple summary of how to sample, edit, and play back sampled sounds. And E-mu is given extra points for relating the ad-copy directly to the photo of sample disks. References to sampling a trumpet, grand piano and barking dog - these are written on the disk labels as well.

But the most interesting thing about this ad-copy is the fact that it mentions the NAMM show. And its not like most gear ads where the "come to our NAMM booth" is slapped into the bottom or corner of the ad as an afterthought. No, this ad's main purpose is to make sure readers know that they can come see this beast at NAMM on February 6, 1981. All previous ad-copy is a lead up to let readers know they "won't have to imagine" any more.

The design of the ad is also top-notch in my opinion. Nicely laid out, large photo, and clean with lots of white space. And, I'm going to assume it was intentional that they didn't include a photo of the Emulator itself, to help peak readers' curiosity and head over to the NAMM show.

If you didn't make it to the NAMM show, you would have to wait until June 1981 to read more specs about the Emulator in the Spec Sheet section of Contemporary Keyboard.

"E-MU EMULATOR. The Emulator is a computer-based instrument that allows you to digitally record any sound, either with a mike or from a line-level source, and then play that sound at any pitch over the range of its 4-octave keyboard. The unit lets you play up to eight notes polyphonically. It has a split keyboard which allows the simultaneous control of two independent sounds. Vibrato can be added to any sound using a standard modulation wheel. A second wheel is used for real-time pitch-bending. Using a loop function, any sound can be sustained indefinitely, regardless of its original length. The system also includes a built-in disk drive which lets the user store sounds on diskettes (mini-floppy disks) for recall at a later time. The instrument comes with a library of prerecorded sounds, and a continuing series of additional sounds and special function software (including a real-time multitrack sequencer) will be made available in the future. According to the manufacturer, the unit is designed to be simple to use, requiring no special programming skill or knowledge of computers. E-mu Systems, 417 Broadway, Santa Cruz CA 95060."

What is not mentioned is pricing, which you can find online in this early 1981 Emulator price list (PDF) from emulatorarchives.com. For example, the eight voice Emulator went for $9,995.00, and the real-time sequencer would cost users an additional $995.00.

Also historically mind-blowing is the fact that the terms "sampling" and "sampler" are not mentioned at all. It seems odd to read early articles for samplers and not seeing the word anywhere. The term just hadn't started showing up in every-day conversations yet. But, it wouldn't be long, because according to Mark Vail's Vintage Synthesizers book, the "Sampler" was E-mu's internal name for the Emulator:

"The in-house product name for the Emulator I was the "Sampler". For us, that was kind of a pun between Nyquist's sampling theorem - which is an obscure piece of mathematics that underlies the whole genre - and the Whiteman Sampler, a box with a whole bunch of different flavors of chocolates in it, because this was an instrument that could have a whole bunch of different sounds".

Crazy stuff.

End note: I recall that while growing up, music store employees were quite fond of referencing the sampling of barking dogs whenever they were trying to sell me any sampler. I wonder if this E-mu ad had anything to do with starting this trend? :D

E-mu Emulator "E-mu Systems of Japan" ad, Keyboard 1983

E-mu Emulator 1-page "E-mu Systems of Japan" advertisement from page 71 in Keyboard Magazine April 1983.

You would think I dug up this ad up after I mistakenly clicked the "Buy it now" button on some Japanese synthesizer magazine auction. But you'd be wrong.

This ad popped up out of nowhere in the April 1983 issue of Keyboard and was the last readers of Keyboard would see from the Emulator front until the first Emulator II ad showed up in January 1985 (that's not to say E-mu wasn't advertising during this time period - the introductory Drumulator ad was already making appearances).

Interestingly, this advertisement used the same top image that was found in my previous Emulator "Breaking the sound barrier" ad post. If you recall, that ad only ran once as well, so it appears that E-mu only advertised the Emulator in two issues of Keyboard between March 1982 and January 1985. That is eight and six months respectively between showings.

You may also recall from my last blog post that I didn't think the reason for the brief ad appearance was to try and sustain sales of the Emulator. The ad only ran once, hardly enough to keep long term sales going, and its widely documented that Emulator sales during this time period were steady, even without constant advertising.

No, I had another theory and ended my previous post with a bit of a dramatic cliff hanger, like those with great theories tend to do.

My theory is...

(dramatic pause)

E-mu wanted to introduce readers to that new cool/modern Bauhaus-font-based Emulator logo!

You see, before these neon/checker board ads, the Emulator logos found in ads were quite different. I've included an image of the E-mu identifiers found in those previous E-mu ads below - the square images are the "Emulator" logo/logo-type found on the actual instrument photos from the ads, and the longer images beside the square images are the logo-type for E-mu Systems, Inc, found in the bottom right-hand corner of the ads.

Being a logo freak, I just had to ask Marco Alpert (visit his personal Web site/blog!), long-time marketing manager for E-mu, about the evolving Emulator/E-mu logo.

"The old logo predated my arrival. After I came on board, the E-mu logo slowly evolved, becoming more modern with the rounded font. An interim logotype appeared on the original Emulator, with the Bauhaus version debuting on the Drumulator and remaining current through the SP-12. Apart from the logotype, there wasn't an actual graphical logo again until the mid-to-late 80s."

So, even though the original Emulators never had the Bauhaus version of the logo on it, it was used in these latest Emulator ads above the Emulator. Logo evolution in action!

And what I like even more is that the Bauhaus font was also used for the new tag line as well - "applied magic for the arts". Nice!

So, was I correct in my theory? Was the brief Keyboard appearance of the "Sound barrier" ad just to introduce readers to this great new logo?

Of course not. :P

I asked Marco about my "perfect theory" (I've bolded the text that kaputs my theory):

"We ("we" being me, the late (and sorely missed) Ed Rudnick, and Kevin Monahan, (who was largely responsible for growing the sound library) went down to Winter NAMM '82 with the company in near dire shape (Dave and Scott stayed home to save money) and came back with more than 8 months of backorders. It was an amazing weekend. Since we couldn't make any more than we were selling for most of the next year, it seemed wiser to focus available cash on production and, later, development of the Drumulator than more advertising. But by the time of the Breaking the Sound Barrier ad, we had caught up and figured it was time to remind everyone of what the Emulator had evolved into and to start really pushing the value of the sound library. We went for breadth rather than depth. That's why only one placement in Keyboard. However, the ad also appeared in both Musician and Music and Sound Output (both now long gone). On the other hand, as much as I love design, I can't really say the ad had anything consciously to do with introducing the new typeface."

Dang. I was blinded by my love of an awesome logo!

So, the ad was really just to let everyone know that the Emulator was still alive and kicking, as well as to promote the sound library. I should have known.. the simplest answer is usually the right answer.

But, then what about THIS Japanese ad? Was E-mu of Japan really advertising in Keyboard Magazine? Or was this more of the classic E-mu-style of advertising along the lines of the cheeky/funny/witty "Play a turkey" and "Arthur C. Clarke" ads?

Only one way to find out. Ask Marco...:

"The Japanese version was created by our then Japanese distributor for the Japan market, but when I saw it, the idea of placing it in Keyboard without other comment just seemed too good/weird to pass up. So to that extent, yes, we were playing with your minds. Luckily, the same lack of "E-mu accountants" that let me make the Clarke ad color let me get away with this as well. (I.e., Dave and Scott were delightfully supportive of this sort of thing.)"

Aaaaaah. Too good/weird to pass up. And the others in the company supported it!

Excellent. :D

End note: Don't forget to check out Marco Alpert's Web site. Great photography, excellent rubber stamp artwork, AND a Quicktime VR clip of KMFDM working in the studio!

E-mu Emulator "Breaking the sound barrier" ad, Keyboard 1982

E-mu Emulator 1-page advertisement from page 46 in Keyboard Magazine October 1982.

What's this? Is E-mu getting all "conventional" on Keyboard mag readers? Well... maybe. I consider the two earlier Emulator ads that I've posted much more "out there" anyways.

First, the attention-grabbing, humorous black and white "Play a turkey" ad had you tilting your head sideways after initially reading the title tag-line. Of course, it all made sense once you started reading the ad-copy. The ad ran during the spring and winter of 1981, but even high profile users such as Stevie Wonder and Daryl Dragon, along with this ad, couldn't help move units into the hands of keyboard players. According to E-mu co-founder Dave Rossum in Mark Vail's Vintage Synthesizers book, "sales just hit the wall at the end of '81".

E-mu knew they had to make some changes to the Emulator if they wanted to get sales back up to a respectable level, so on the engineering front, they focused their attention on improvements such as the inclusion of envelopes and a sequencer, as well as providing a "substantial" price break. Then, Dave Rossum went out in the field making those upgrades to Emulators around the world. And then finally, E-mu was off to January '82 NAMM to show off the "Mark 2" Emulator.

Around the same period, E-mu must have figured it was also time to make improvements to the promotion of the Emulator, and came out with a new ad in January 1982. The awesomely cool "Arthur C. Clarke" color advertisement went so sci-fi-minimal on readers asses that it could be questioned by some E-mu accountants on whether shelling out the extra cash for a color ad spot was even worth the money (BTW - from my point of view, the answer is most definitely yes :o)

Surprisingly, the Sci-Fi ad ran for only two months, and then E-mu went "radio-silent" on the advertising front. At least that was the case in Keyboard magazine, where there were no Emulator ads for over half a year later. My guess - they didn't need to advertise. According to Rossum (from the book Vintage Synthesizers by Mark Vail), all those upgrades made to the Emulator were a success, and E-mu was shifting 25 units per month.

But even with high sales (hard to believe that back then 25/month was considered "high"), you gotta keep your product in front of people, or potentially face the not-so-bright future of not-so-high sales. And so this late '82 "Breaking the sounds barrier" ad appeared out of nowhere in Keyboard, bringing with it some much more conventional style and design. Trendy neon glow, ska-influenced floor tiling, even the tag-line sounds kinda trendy. In a way, the ad looks like it is trying to reach out to all the regular keyboard folks attracted to pretty things. Regular folk with $8000+ to spend on cutting edge technology.

The ad-copy is also a lot more descriptive about the Emulator's editing features - now that the Mark II featured envelopes and such. Also, the ad-copy in this ad is also all about the sounds, and more specifically, the sound library, that was growing at an alarmingly delicious rate. In fact, it was part of E-mu's new '82 marketing strategy to really promote the sample disks that came with the instruments.

And it must have worked, because people really started hearing those Emulator sounds in film and on records - as pointed out on emulatorarchive.com:

"Famous samples: the Emulator sample library was used on many famous tracks in 1981 - 83, perhaps the most unusual is the Mexican radio sample which was used in both the bar scene of BladeRunner the film, an forms the basis of the MOD track "Junk Culture".

But what's this? As far as I can tell, this ad only ran once in the October 1982 issue of Keyboard. Is that really enough to keep sales up? Did E-mu even need to rely on advertising to sell 25 units per month? Or was two thumbs up from Stevie Wonder enough?

Well, I have another theory (or fantasy, as some would call these theories of mine). This ad was put in Keyboard to do one thing...

Interuptive side note: Now, I realize I just shamelessly used the exact same dramatic effect that I used in my previous Bob Moog/Kurzweil K250 blog post. You know - leaving readers hanging at the end of a paragraph with a mysteriously incomplete thought. But, in that post, I completed the thought on the next line in dramatic bold type.

End note: This time, you'll have to wait until my next blog post... :D

E-mu Emulator, Keyboard Magazine 1982

E-mu Systems Inc. Emulator sampler advertisement from page 41 of Keyboard Magazine January 1982.

Wow, what a great ad. Simple and memorable. And, probably hit the right market segment - musicians that were into samplers at the time were probably also heavy into science fiction as well.

But it begs the question - did Sir Arthur C. Clarke actually endorse the Emulator? If so, what was the connection between Clarke and E-mu?

I had to find out, but this is one case where I took the long road.

Science fiction readers, including myself, will tell you that Clarke wrote some awesome sci-fi - heavy on the science. Movie buffs will throw out the fact that he collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. And tech-junkies will quickly remind you that he is known for contributing to the idea of the geostationary communications satellite. But none of these facts connect Clarke directly with music technology or with E-mu.

Clarke's quote in this ad is well known among sci-fi enthusiasts as the third of his Three Laws of Prediction and has been referenced or alluded to numerous times by others in literature, movies and video games. I took a look at the Wikipedia page for further investigation, but again, found no direct links to music technology or E-mu.

Clarke's Wikipedia page didn't bring up anything directly related to music technology either, but following a few links from his page did eventually lead to a few surprising musical connections.

One of those links was to John Pierce's Wikipedia page. Turns out John Pierce, also associated with the concept of the geostationary communications satellite, was a good friend and colleague of Clarke as well as a fellow science fiction author. But most importantly, he was prominent in the research of computer music.

And, according to the Bell Labs Web site, Clarke was visiting Pierce at Bell Labs in 1962 while a demonstration of a vocoder synthesizer was underway. The song used in this demo was 'A Bicycle Built for Two' (aka 'Daisy Bell') and Clarke was so fascinated by the performance that he later used it in the climactic scene of the novel and screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It gets better...

Pierce, while working at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA, pronounced 'karma'), presented an excellent speech for the Arthur C. Clarke Lecture series in Sri Lanka in 1987. During the talk, Pierce spoke on such topics as space, satellites, and computer music. He also mentions John Chowning, the director of CCRMA.

Chowning, among other things, just happens to be an electronic music pioneer, composer and the guy credited with inventing FM synthesis - you know, the technology used in many of Yamaha's synthesizers including the DX-7. The Mix Web site has a great 2005 interview with Chowning where he talks about FM synthesis, CCRMA, and other things music-related. Definitely check that out. A 2006 audio interview with Chowning is also available on Wikipedia.

Clarke was obviously connected to some electronic music heavyweights. But still, throughout all this research, there was still nothing to connect Clarke directly with E-mu.

Time to get creative. Or logical, depending on how you look at it.

According E-mu's corporate history, Marco Alpert was the marketing manager at E-mu around the time this ad came out. And, in an E-mu article in the September 2002 issue of Sound On Sound, Alpert is credited with "...many new product ideas as well as some of the company's best adverts. This guy would know the connection.

I tracked down Alpert at Antares Audio Technologies (maker of Auto-Tune and other plug-ins) where he now works as V.P. of Marketing. I left a voice-mail message and he called back almost immediately.

Finally - an answer to the question. What is the connection between Clarke and E-mu?

Marco Alpert is a fan.

"I didn't have any permission." Alpert admitted. "We were young at the time, learning as we went along. I was a big fan of science fiction like many synthesizer/tech guys at the time. Clarke was a popular author and I loved that quote. Best of all, it fit perfectly."

The long road to a perfectly simple answer.

E-mu Emulator, Contemporary Keyboard 1981

E-mu Systems Inc. Emulator sampler ad from page 9 of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine May 1981.

Although this is not E-mu's first ad for the Emulator, I thought it most fitting since today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

This version of the ad contains a photo of an early model a prototype model of an Emulator that included a lighter display panel and a Tune section with only one knob. Late the same year they replaced the photo in the ad with a later manufactured Emulator. The later model manufactured Emulator (in a totally different ad) can be seen in one of my other blog post scans. I'll give you a second or two to go take a look and compare...

Great - you're back. Did you notice one other difference? I saved it for last since the topic is kind of near and dear to my heart...

THE LOGO!

The Emulator in this ad is sporting an early E-mu logo that included a stylized thirty-second music note and the Mu symbol. You can see a better image of the logo in this Emulator price list pdf from the Emulator Archive Web site. I think this logo might make good tattoo material in the near future.

The Emulator looked great with its clean lines and stripped down user interface. And, best of all, it included a small holder for the 5 1/4 inch floppy disks that you would use to store your samples on. Musicians weren't accustomed to using disks, so having a place to hold the disks right on the instrument was definitely convenient. Unfortunately, the holder couldn't store them while transporting the instrument, and Keyboard magazine writer Dominic Milano creepily predicted the soon to be well-overheard phrase 'whoops - I forgot to bring the disks with me' in his March 1982 Keyboard Report:

"One more thing about the diskettes: Don't forget to pack them up and bring them with [you] when you're taking the Emulator out on a gig, because it won't work without them. We musicians aren't used to thinking about diskettes yet."

I can't tell you how many times I had to drive back home to get my Emax disks after arriving at a gig to set up. Grrr...

Well, time to start preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Gobble gobble.

E-mu SP-1200, Electronic Musician 1987

E-mu Systems SP-1200 Sampling Percussion System from page 17 of Electronic Musician magazine October 1987.

E-mu Emulator, Keyboard 1982

E-mu Systems Emulator sampler from page 47 of Keyboard magazine October 1982.