Every one of them packs so much gear into such a little package. And the legends are all there - Korg Trident, Polysix, PS-3200, Mono/Poly, MS-10/20/50, VC-10... the list goes on and on. It all makes me so happy.
But out of all the gear spread across the three pages, one rather unassuming section of this catalog gets my full attention every time.
THIS:
I can hear you say it... "What? Bags? SOFT BAGS...?!?!?"
But if you look closer, they just aren't just bags. Some of them aren't even just Korg-branded bags. Three of them are PRODUCT BRANDED.
The funky blue bag proudly exclaims in bright yellow that it was specifically made for the LP10 electric piano. It kinda reminds me of my 80's blue and yellow Adidas gym bag I used to lug around. Or maybe that was the colour of my pants? Or shirt? Maybe both.
Anyways... back to those bags. That fire-engine red one? You can see it clearly written that it was designed to hold an X-911 guitar synthesizer.
And, although its hard to make out in the photo, the grey writing underneath the logo on that smaller brown bag at the back says "RHYTHM" - clearly made to carry their KR-55 and/or KR-33 Rhythm drum machine. You can see a photo of a KR55 snuggled right in on Polynomial's KR-55 Web page.
photo from MATRIXSYNTH!
The larger brown bag doesn't say what it was destined to carry in its belly, but I have seen it on MATRIXSYNTH - its made to fit the MS-10 perfectly. Drool.
For me, these bags are right up there with Roland's black and silver TB-303/606 vinyl carry bags. But unlike those bags, I've yet to trip over one of these Korg product bags IRL. In fact, I've only ever seen the red and blue bag in Korg catalogs.
So, if you have one of these bags, I'd love to see a better photo - preferably with an X-911 or LP-10 sitting it 'em.
Korg General Catalog, Electronic Musical Instruments, Volume 1, 1982.
This was a total surprise.
I had already pretty much finished my blog post for the Korg "...we put it all together" family of products ad from the January 1982 issue of Keyboard Magazine, when I went back to re-check something. I pulled a different copy of that January issue off the shelf, and wouldn't you know it, stapled into the centrefold of that ad was this miniature Korg catalog.
We are talking 10 juicy pages of Korg products (well, 8 pages, plus a cover and mailing label), folded down to just under 7 x 10 inches. And, unlike in the two-page ad where Korg was a little more limited by space, this catalog contains not only three pages of photos of all their current product line-up, but another three pages of all the reference info for those products - over 25 of 'em! An historical reference gold mine.
I've scanned and posted the front side of the catalog as single pages, but merged the back pages into two larger scans due to the way text and images flowed between the pages.
That front cover of the catalog is very intriguing to me. I'm always trying to figure out what the designer was thinking at the time they were creating ads and brochures - especially those with staged photos. In this case, someone decided that the front cover theme should be a humid terrarium of some sort, with the reader wiping away the droplets of water to see in to... the... er... plants and synthesizers. But wait! If the reader wiped the glass of the terrarium, that would mean it was really humid outside the terrarium. Or, maybe it was just raining outside. And the wet observer is creeping around someone's window...
Gah. Whatever. The effect is still nice. And it's always nice to stick something organic like a plant into a synthesizer ad. A nice touch.
The centrefold ad that accompanied this magazine mentions that you could send away for a full colour catalog. And since this catalog includes a mailing address page, I'm betting this was, in fact, the catalog being referred to in the ad - and included in the January issue of Keyboard as an extra. Excellent work, Korg!
Where it gets really interesting is comparing this 1982 catalog to the one Korg put out in 1984. In particular, it is interesting to see just how many products were still available. Only two new polyphonics became available in those two years - the Poly-800 and Poly-61. But in Korg's defense, they did update the Trident, as well as expand other areas of the business as can be seen in the piano/organs and rhythm/sound effects sections of that '84 catalog. Also interesting is how Korg was definitely increasing the plastic-to-wood ratio.
But the absolutely crazy-coolest thing about this catalog is the "Possible Connections" section located underneath all those lovely Korg accessories. I love diagrams, and I guess Korg was making their point: "We put it all together". And now I know my MS-20 will work with an MS-02.
Korg Family of Products advertisement including the ES-50, Delta, Sigma, M500 Micro Preset, MS-10, MS-20, MS-50 and Trident synthesizers, CX-3 and BX-3 organs, LP-10 electric piano, KR-55 and KR-33 drum machines, SE-300 and SE-500 Stage Echo effects units, and X-911 guitar synthesizer from page 42 and 43 in Keyboard Magazine January 1982. Also included some tuners - meh.
And so the Korg love continues!
It had been quite a while since Korg had summarized their keyboard and drum machine offerings in a single ad. Oh yeah... Um... Never.
They had previously smooshed a couple of different instruments together in smaller ads, but I can't recall anything like this. Readers had the relatively rare privilege of viewing this ad in the January, February and June 1982 issues.
And it was about time it showed up. Competitor ARP had turned the "product family" photo ad into an art form back in 1976. Oberheim had also featured a family photo ad back in 1976, and Roland in 1978. And Sequential Circuits Inc. was about to join the family photo party with their ad starting in February of the same year this ad showed up.
It was also about time because for the previous few years, Korg and been pushing a lot of different products in Keyboard, sometimes three or four ads in an issue. A reader could easily get overwhelmed by it all. So, by putting "it all together" into a single ad, Korg helped readers wrap their heads around everything available in a nicely laid out 2-page package, while at the same time pounding their chests a little at some of their competitors. Korg big! Korg smash!
The collection of synthesizers Korg brought together for this ad is nothing but spectacular. It's definitely not every piece of gear Korg had on offer. But it's a good summary. And including products like the MS-20 or Sigma, gear that hadn't been advertised for over a year or two, were nice gentle reminders to readers that these instruments were indeed still available in 1982. For readers today, it provides a perfect summary snapshot in time. A great historical resource.
The design of the ad is a little chaotic. "Korg" in bright neon-red may almost be too big, and to me, looks like it is pushing what was once a nicely lined-up set of instruments into the column of text. Maybe that was the intent, but it makes reading the ad-copy a little more difficult than it should be. And that poor MS-10 in the upper-middle of the ad facing the wrong direction. What's going on there? It's like it never got the memo.
But those small small criticisms aside (from the guy, almost 30 years later, with 20/20 hindsight) just makes me love this ad even more.
The most interesting reference from this ad is right at the bottom: Get a full color catalog and 20" x 28" Keith Emerson color poster for three bucks. Good to see Korg take a page out of ARP's playbook and throwing a bit of name-dropping into their ads.
Korg KR-55 drum machine advertisement from back inside cover of Contemporary Keyboard February 1981.
Researching the KPR-77 for my last blog post got me increasingly interested in Korg's earlier drum machines, so I thought I would do a bit more digging into Korg's earlier ads and see what was up.
As I looked through back issues of CK, it seemed to me like the the KR-55 was the first Korg rhythm machine to be advertised in the magazine. I found this a little surprising because Korg released a number of drum machines previously, including the Mini Pops MP120 and MP35, as well as the SR120 back in 1976. But it turns out that Korg didn't start advertising in CK magazine until 1977.
That early on, they didn't advertise much either. During 1977, Korg only advertised once for the Korg Maxi-Korg K3 in the January 1977 issue, a product that was actually launched in 1975 (must have just taken a while to get across the pond). Then Korg went silent again until July 1977 when they advertised just once again for their Ensembles.
I'm thinking the KR-55 also took a while to get to the U.S., because this ad oddly describes the KR-55 as "new". Most sites and online references such as Vintage Synth Explorer give the launch date of the KR-55 as 1979, and for a second there I thought maybe Korg was just getting a jump on advertising for the KR-55B (launched in 1982). But the characteristic colouring of the case along with the rest of the ad-copy describing the 48 rhythm patterns and all that, tells me they were definitely referring to the original.
And, the ad-copy looks like it was written early on too. Referencing "up-to-date disco" beats as a reason to buy this drum machine in 1981 probably didn't go over too well with largely US-based readers. I don't need Wikipedia's Disco page to tell me Disco's popularity peaked in the middle to late 70's. But I linked to it anyways. :D
But, in true Global-Wikipedia fashion, I did have to be reminded about the July 1979 Disco Demolition Night riot where the "angry backlash against disco music and culture" peaked.
Boo on them. Boo to the angry people. And thank-you to the rest of the world where "the genre continued to be popular elsewhere during the 1980s". You guessed it. I'm a closet disco fan. Just never wore the tight pants.
Enough about Disco... According to Gordon Reid's "History of Korg - Part 1", written for Sound on Sound in October 2002, Korg was in need of "a bit of a breather" after two years of kick-ass gear releases that included the PS/MS/VC/SQ- range of keyboards, expanders, vocoders, and sequencers. So, their 1979 product launch list could be seen as a bit of a let-down to some:
CX3 organ
Delta paraphonic strings
Lambda polyphonic ensemble
Sigma monophonic synth
KR33 and KR55
Well, it may not have been their best year, but I wouldn't say it sucked bum either.
In that article, Gordon goes on to say that "it is the CX3 organ for which 1979 should be remembered", but he does comment that the KR-55, along with its younger sibling the KR-33, were also bringing in a few sales:
"More successful [than the Sigma] were the KR33 and KR55 rhythm units, which replaced the ageing Mini Pops series. These were more sophisticated than their predecessors, generating analogue sounds that were far more realistic than the noise-based thumps and hisses offered by the earlier DoncaMatics, Mini Pops, and units from competitors."
But I have to say there was one specific fact that I found on the Web that really peaked my interest in the KR-55. The KR-55 was used by Depeche Mode on "Speak and Spell". And with "snappy" being one of the most common adjectives to describe the KR-55 sounds, I'd believe it. But, there is some debate out there, and you can find a compressed version of the argument on Jaakko Suominen's "Depeche Mode Keyboards And Other Tech Stuff" Web page.
Most notable is this quote from Dael (and close to what I remember hearing about Depeche's early bass drum sounds) in the open questions section near the bottom of the page - sorry for the quotes, it seems Dael likes to yell:
"I SPOKE TO VINCE CLARKE A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO AND HE TOLD ME THE DRUM MACHINE USED ON SPEAK AND SPELL WAS A KORG KR55 PRESET MACHINE .THE BAND USED JUST THE SNARE AND HIGH HATS SOUNDS FROM. THE BASS DRUM WAS GENERATED FROM AN ARP 2600 SYNTH WHICH WAS SYNCHED TO THE MACHINE AND AN OLD ROLAND MC4 MICROCOMPOSER SEQUENCER. SO THERE THE ANSWER IS!THE SAME MACHINE WAS USED ON MOST OF THE EARLY DANIEL MILLER PRODUCED TRACKS INCLUDING THE FAD GADGET STUFF LIKE 'RICKYS HAND AND THE FABULOUS MEMORABILIA BY SOFT CELL!! PS .BOBBY ORLANDO ALSO USED ONE ON THOSE FANTASTIC TRASHY NY DISCO RECORDS BY DIVINE AND THE FLIRTS (PASSION ' NATIVE LOVE SHAKE IT UP ETC..)"
You can get a good indication of the sound of the KR-55 by viewing this demo I found on YouTube by Anjelicas Baby, providing almost 10 minutes of KR-55 analogue goodness. You can really hear the characteristic "snap" found in the KR-55 drum sounds:
End note: I have to admit, the first thing I did when I came across this ad was read carefully through the ad-copy to see if Korg referred to the KR-55 as a "rhythmer", like they did with the KPR-77. Nerp.
Did I mention I find the word "Rhythmer" a little creepy? :D
Korg Electronic Music Instruments General Catalog from 1984.
We interrupt my ongoing fetish for everything that is "E-70 organ"-like for this special scan.
Somehow, back in the day, I chucked this Korg catalog sheet into a box with a wack of other papers, all of which then quickly became lost for the next decade or two.
Then, just a short time ago, I was digging through some old boxes with a friend to show off some Moog modular "patch" sheets that included handwritten instructions from Bob Moog, and remembered I had this.
Wow. What a great summary of Korg's electronic products - all beautifully laid out within two pages. That's one jam-packed time capsule.
What I find most fascinating is how it so clearly demonstrates the design transition the synth industry was going through in the early to mid-80s. From the dino-3200 to the futuristic Poly-800. From knobs and jacks to buttons and digital displays. Wood paneling to plastic.
And how about that PME-40x "modular" pedal board? How cool is that?!?!? To think all of this was available in 1984.
It's also nice to be able to see what wasn't available. In particular, I'm talking about one of my favorite pieces of gear - the KMS-30 MIDI syncronizer. It's the glue that ties together most of my 80's XOX gear to my 2005 computer :o)
But, alas, the KMS-30 wasn't available until later. Too bad - would have looked nice in this little catalogue.
The funky blue bag proudly exclaims in bright yellow that it was specifically made for the LP10 electric piano. It kinda reminds me of my 80's blue and yellow Adidas gym bag I used to lug around. Or maybe that was the colour of my pants? Or shirt? Maybe both.
