Roland family of products, Keyboard 1983

Roland family of products advertisement including SH-101, JX-3P/PG-200, System-100M, MC-4/MTR-100, Jupiter-8, Juno-6/60, Jupiter-6 and MC-202 from page 14 and 15 of Keyboard Magazine July 1983.

Finally!

The Roland 'We Design The Future' tag-line had been showing up in Roland's brochures for months now, but up to this point, their advertisements were still mostly designed around it's 'Understanding Technology Series' ads like those created for the TB-303/TR-606 or Jupiter-8. Black backgrounds, strong colours, and lots of text. Their recent Juno-6 and Juno-60 ads started to mutate away from that design, but I'd still be inclined to classify them as such.

"What?" you say? Where is the tag-line? You can see it at the bottom of the ad in the purple-coloured bar. Yes, it's small. Really small. Almost an afterthought. And unfortunately, I think this is the last advertisement to use the tag-line.

Roland decided to pull in a few other common design elements found in those brochures by using a textured background and an accent piece (in this case a tile pattern background and spheres), but I have to say I miss the brochure's slick photo with mood-lighting. A really nice family photo done in that style would have looked sweeeeeet! Instead, it looks like Roland decided to comp together an image using a few effects that I would guess got onto the wish-list for Photoshop 1.0.

This advertisement was a first for Roland in one other important way too. They mention MIDI!

And so we get to the whole point of this ad. As mentioned in a recent brochure blog post for the TB-303, TR-808, TR-606 and CR-8000/5000, Roland had been pumping out A LOT of DIN-sync technology for a while now. They had a lot invested in it. And then along comes MIDI, and Roland has to convince current owners of Roland gear that the gear they just bought is not going to be obsolete in a year. And more importantly, they have to convince future owners that they are looking out for their future as well.

The ad title text handles this perfectly.

"Roland presents its product line for 1987. The nice thing is, it's available today!"

Interestingly, they make no mention of MIDI in that title or in the opening paragraph. Its not until the reader gets to the JX-3P text that MIDI is mentioned - and a definition is included next to it - "a new system of interface developed for computer-controlled instruments".

A year from now, and ALL synthesizer ads will feature the word MIDI heavily in either the title or ad-copy. I pulled out the July 1984 issue of Keyboard just in case someone called me out on that statement, and sure enough, MIDI has pretty much taken over. Heck, Roland's own ad title in the July 1984 issue was "Enter the world of MIDI".

But jump back to July 1983, when MIDI is just getting it's feet wet, and Roland is smart to stay firmly on the fence for now. By promoting both their own protocols as well as MIDI, they let readers know that no matter when they buy from Roland, the gear will be compatible one way or another.

And it wasn't just Roland that was playing the waiting game. Many companies either hadn't included MIDI in their gear yet, or if they had, they didn't say too much about it in their ads. The July 1983 ad for Garfield Electronic's Doctor Click (the godfather of sync) didn't include MIDI yet. Neither did Octave-plateau Electronic Inc.'s Voyetra-8 ad.

There was one exception... :o)

The ad for Sequential Circuit Inc.'s Prophet-600, the first commercially available MIDI synthesizer. Their ad has a large call-out box extolling the virtues of MIDI. And no wonder - SCI was heavily involved in MIDI's development. Nice!

I'll post that ad in the near future.

End note: This has always bugged me. Why did Roland pick 1987 as the 'future'? There is a design rule-of-thumb that says never to use even numbers. So maybe the thinking was that '84, '86, '88 would be out of the question. '85 is probably too close. And '89 is too close to '90.

Hmmmm... still bugging me.

Roland Juno-6, Keyboard 1982

Roland Juno-6 synthesizer advertisement from the front-inside cover of Keyboard Magazine July 1982.

This advertisement ran in Keyboard magazine during mid-1982, pretty much as this TB-303/TR-606 ad was winding down. I especially enjoy the photo of the Juno-6 with it's subtle pre-Photoshop lens-flare effect that can be seen above the first four led lights. I also enjoy this photo because it was the beginning of a Juno-based color scheme that would be carried on to grace the front panel of my favorite Juno-series synthesizer - the Juno-106.

Whenever I think of the Juno-6, I think 'DCO' - digitally controlled oscillators.

More to the point, I think back to the 'glory days' of the Internet and the number of questions, statements, comments, quotes, feelings, outbursts, and unsubstantiated criticisms about Roland's DCOs that took place in music stores, on stage, in back alleys, on rec.music.synth, and in mailing lists like Analogue Heaven.

Apparently Roland really hyped the 'digital' in DCOs when they first released the Juno-6. Surprisingly, its not even mentioned in this advertisement. Of course, now, if you see a Juno-6 or any other DCO-based synth for sale on eBay, it will almost *always* have the word 'analogue' next to it. Just to make sure potential buyers know they aren't getting a DX-7... :o)

I did a quick Google search on Roland's DCOs so that I could explain to readers exactly what they are, and found a great technical write-up on the subject by Tom Wiltshire on electricdruid.net. His page explains Roland's Juno Series DCOs in a way that even *I* can understand. I couldn't stop reading!

Basically, the Roland DCO is "an interesting hybrid design" that "although digitally controlled and digitally stable, the oscillator produces a true analogue output".

That pretty much sums it up.

You can read more about how they work on his Web page, but I thought I would jump right to the end where Tom finishes the page with the advantages and disadvantages of DCOs:

Advantages

• All oscillators remain in tune between voices, even if the master pitch drifts. This is highly unlikely since it is a digital crystal oscillator.
• Waveforms generated are genuine analogue waveforms, with no digital stepping.

Disadvantages

• Oscillators always start a note at the same phase.
• All oscillators are phase-locked to the master clock.
• Much effort and circuitry is expended to keep the RAMP output level constant.

And he goes on explain his opinion on the DCO issue, and in the end states:

"Still, this technique provides true analogue waveforms and digital stability and tuning, without any of the aliasing issues that come with digital oscillators. This surely makes it a valid approach. Rather than use the 8253, a modern solution might be to implement a similar system using the 16-bit timers on a microcontroller like the AVRs or PIC series."

A modern solution!?!?! We need more people like Tom... :o)

One issue before this advertisement appeared in Keyboard - June 1982, Roland announced the Juno-6 in the Spec Sheet section.

"The Roland Juno-6 is a six-voice polyphonic synthesizer with a digitally controlled oscillator circuit for greater stability, an arpeggiator with rate and mode controls, and a digitally controlled key transposer. Control features in the DCO section include variable pulse, sawtooth, and square wave sub-oscillators (all of which can be combine with one another), LFO modulation, PWM modulation, a selector for manual, envelope, or pulse width modulation, and a noise generator. In the LFO section, features include rate and delay time sliders and a trigger mode selector. The VCF section includes a high pass filter and a 24dB/octave lowpass filter with cutoff frequency and resonance controls, envelope modulation amount slider with an inversion switch, and other features. A two-mode chorus generator thickens the sound to two different degrees of intensity, which may be combined to produce vibrato or, when using the stereo outputs, stereo panning. Price is $1,295.00. Roland, 1022 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035."

BTW - the June 1982 issue of Keyboard is one of my favorites. The feature article that month was 'The New Synthesizer Rock' and featured pages and pages of phone interviews with Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, Layne Rico and Scott Simon of Our Daughters Wedding, Scott Ryser and Rachel Webber of the Units, David Ball of Soft Cell, Richard Barbieri of Japan, Chas Gray and Stan Ridgeway of Wall Of Voodoo, and Peter Principle of Tuxedomoon.

Just for the heck of it, I did a Google search and (sure enough) found the article transcribed online at synthpunk.org.

Definitely check it out!

Roland Rhythm Machines TR-808, TR-606, TB-303, CR-8000, and CR-5000 brochure, 1982

Roland Rhythm Machines brochure featuring the TR-808, TR-606, TB-303, CR-8000 and CR-5000, as well as a few special guests including the Jupiter-8, Jun0-60, Juno-6 and SH-101.

Whoa!

This is one of my favorite brochures of all time! I've wanted to share it for a while - but was waiting for a larger scanner. And this piece of art deserved the wait.

But, while this brochure is definitely awesome in all its awesome geariness (I just made up that word), it is also kinda awkward. It's like watching a re-run of Meerkat Manor, knowing that the cute little happy, cuddly, family is about to be taken down by a big predator.

And by that, I mean MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface).

All the information provided in this brochure pre-dates the launch of MIDI technology by less than a year. According to Wikipedia's MIDI page, by the time this brochure came out, talks between the manufacturers were well underway, and the protocol must have been pretty much hammered down. Additionally, Wikipedia's MIDI 1.0 specs page tells us that when the specs launched in August 1983, they included MIDI clock as part of the protocol.

And MIDI clock = the future of sync

But it's like Roland didn't want to let the clueless 303, 606 and 808 know that they were about to be drop-kicked into closets for the next half-decade or so, so the brochure cheerfully and colourfully pushes Roland's own soon-to-be-outdated DIN-sync technology for syncing not only the 606 with the 303, but also with Roland's older cv/gate sequencers such as the MC-4 Microcomposer (launched around 1978) and CSQ-600 Digital Sequencer (launched around 1980).

And it's in Roland's best interest to keep up this promotion - they already had a lot of DIN-sync technology out in the wild, and had to keep pushing it right to the bitter end.

Of course, the change-over to MIDI didn't happen *that* quickly. And, as we all know, in the end the 303, 606, 808, and a multitude of other pre-MIDI gear got the last laugh. Most are now prized by musicians, DJs, and producers around the world, commanding ever-increasing prices, and spawning imitations by many other companies, including Roland.

So, it ain't all bad for this little family.

This brochure was just one of many in Roland's "We Design the Future" set of brochures that ran during the first half of the 80's. Luckily for us, Roland dated all their brochures during this time period and so we know *exactly* when these came off the printing press to see the light of day. You just need to check out the back page - bottom right corner - to know that this one was printed in Japan in November 1982.

The brochure, in a word, is simply gorgeous (okay, two words), and includes everything I've always wished for in a brochure:

• Full-colour
• Great photography highlighting the front panels
• Line drawings of the back panels showing all the in's and out's of each machine
• Technical/reference information for each piece of featured equipment
• Funky ad-copy

As mentioned above, the TB-303 kinda took on a life of it's own later in life (see it's Wikipedia page if you live under a rock), but it's great to be able to look back and see just how Roland was trying to originally position the 303 in the marketplace:

"Roland introduces the world's first computerized bass machine, the great new Bass Line TB-303. This remarkable little unit covers three full octaves. Instead of strings, you use keys to program bass patterns. Up to 64 patterns can be created for use anytime. And, like a bass synthesizer, you have full control over resonance, envelope modulation and other important factors influencing sound quality. When used with Roland's TR-606, you can play bass and drum patterns at the same time. Completely portable, the TB-303 runs on either battery or AC line voltage and comes completely equipped with its own carrying case. A headphones jack is also provided as standard."

"Instead of strings"!!! I love that!

It really gives you a good idea of where the industry, and Japan especially, was trying to go at the time. Smaller. More portable.

Interestingly, Roland's advertisements in Keyboard magazine didn't really match up with their "We Design the Future" brochures from around this time period. Roland was just winding down their "Understanding Technology" campaign that had been running in Keyboard for quite a while - like this two-page Jupiter-8 advertisement. They were also running this "Special Product Report" advertisement. And during the first six months of 1983, Roland switched over to an ad featuring their Juno-60.

Anyways, I'll touch a bit more on Roland's transition to MIDI in future blog posts. I doubt anyone is still reading anyways - not with such a yummy brochure to drool over...