ARP "WonderArp" ad, Down Beat Magazine 1973

 

ARP "WonderArp" half-page black and white advertisement from page 25 in the June 21, 1973 issue of Down Beat Magazine.

To date, I've posted three of the many many ARP ads that were popping up in Downbeat magazine during the 1970s. Each one very unique, but yet they all go together like peas in a pod.

These include a '74 Jimmy Page as well as '75 Carpenters and Pete Townshend ads. Aren't they gorgeous?

Now here's a forth, much earlier 1973 ad featuring Stevie Wonder and the ARP 2600. It's much simpler in design and although it still has the 'call to action' mail-in portion, its not that distinctive circular design with the ARP logo bullseye we see in later ads. 

More interesting that the design is what's available in those mail-in sections. In the WonderARP ad we get checkboxes for:

• send me everything you've got on all the ARP synthesizers, including free demo record
• $6.00 for the 2600 manual
• $1.00 for Odyssey manual
• $9.95 (regularly $14.95) for a 45-minute cassette course on playing the Odyssey live

In the Carpenters and Jimmy Page ads, we get three choices

• $9.95 cassette (as above)
• free demo record
• free full colour catalog. 

And finally, in the Pete Townshend ad we still get three choices, but they include a new item!

• 213 page "learning music with synthesizers" for $7.50 plus 50 cents postage and handling
• $3.00  "Who's ARP" silkscreened poster
• free ARP demo record and catalog

From a collector's point of view, this is a treasure trove of information on what's floating around out there - and I'm always on the look out (for a half-decent price).

Demo records and manuals I got... but those other items... woooooo-weeee! I want 'em all.

First, there's that cassette on learning to play the Odyssey live. Never seen it in real life... but someone's gone to the trouble of taking what I believe is the cassette tape created by Roger Powell and published by ARP in 1973 and added pics from an ARP booklet to create a video. They've plopped it up on Vimeo - you can click on what I believe is the cassette cover below to hear the cassette.

The second item of interest is that "Who's ARP" poster. I've only seen one or two pop up in online auctions, like this photo I found online. 

The third document that catches my interest and I've never been able to get my hands on is that 213-page "Learning music with synthesizers" book. And even if I had it in my collection - fat chance of me scanning it. I can't sit still long enough to scan 213 pages! Go talk to mu:zines... patience of a saint, that one... (shout out!)

Luckily for all of you, if you had done a quick search online chances are you would have found a scanned copy like I did over at thesnowfields.com (PDF). Not the best quality, but a fun read if you are into that sort of thing. :)

Here's an image of the front cover of the second edition from 1974. 

Written by David Friend, Alan R. Pearlman and Thomas D. Piggott, the book is based on programming the ARP Odyssey but, as said in the preface by Mr. Friend, "the theory and techniques can generally be applied to any synthesizer". And he's not wrong. Filled with tons of diagrams and drawings, the book is broken up into three parts - Theory, Operation and Applications. Like I said... a good read. 

Now that I've got those out of my system... back to scanning...

And I've scanned one page. That's enough for today.

ARP / Mu-tron price lists, 1980

ARP / Mu-tron price lists from January 1, 1980.

Given that I'm a HUGE fan of price lists, you'd think that I would have pushed this out the door a lot sooner, but I just never got around to it.  Even more surprising, I'm not gonna focus on the prices at all*.

* I reserve the right to change my mind

Instead, when I looked back at these scans I became more curious to the relationship between Musitronics and ARP, and quickly found that the history isn't remotely close to being as bright and rosy as I had wanted it to be. 

TO summarize... according to Wikipedia, Mu-tron, short for Musitronics, was a musical effects company founded by Mike Beigel and Aaron Newman in 1972. Beigel was an engineer who had been working on a synth project at Guild Guitar Company when the president of the company was killed in an accident. The new president wasn't as interesting in synths (what the heck?!?!) so Beigel and another former engineer new Newman from GGC, pulled the envelope filter outta that synth and called it the Mu-Tron III. 

By 1979 Musitronics had 35 employees and was churning out a number of effects units out of a retrofitted chicken coop. Eventually, they decided to sell to ARP Instruments on a royalty basis, but unfortunately ARP folded in 1980, before they could collect any money. 

Okay, I summarized a lot. 

But even if my severely summarized ditty isn't bumming you out enough already, Musitronics tried to keep going as Gizmo Incorporated, but it ended when Aaron Newman suffered a heart attack.

FACK.

I hate everything about this story. But the connect between these two companies is important history, the details of which we don't hear much about. So, here are two scans to help keep those companies connected just a little bit longer.

Okay - let's end this on a happy note - LOOK AT THOSE ARP SYNTHS.

There - much better. 

ARP Literature Order Form, 1975

ARP three-page Literature Order Form from 1975.

I know its Friday afternoon - the time that company's put out news releases they don't want anyone to see and the place that blog posts go to die. Well, tough! There are still a few weeks left in ARP's 50th anniversary and there's stuff to be posted!

To many of you peeps, an order form ain't that glam, but for a collector... dat right dar is pur gold. 

It's a checklist for what is potentially out there... waiting... for me. It's a list of search terms to plug into Google and eBay. 

The thing that is so striking about this lit form are the prices. I get they are 1975 prices, but even for 1975, many of the items are cheap as borscht.

Mmmm... borscht.  Sorry, my blood sugar is getting low. 

I'm guessing those cheap prices are so dealers will buy 'em and pass them on to potential customers. 

Just look at 'em:

2500 manual - $3.60. 

2600 manual - $3.60. 

Odyssey manual - 90 cents! 

ARP Educator's brochure. Wut?!?!? Never come across that before.  12 cents! 

Odyssey cassette course. Never seen that either I don't think. $6.00. 

Now, let's flip to page two - and specifically "Dealer Materials". Boom! Promotion Kit! Musician's Workshop Invitations! Educator's Clinic Invitation! Decals! Tie tacks!  The list goes on and on. 

Let's flip to page three. Arrrrgh! 

Dummy plug? If someone knows what these are, contact me. Wait - never mind. Googled it. 

From an August 2012 post in one of the modular forums... someone going by the name Sempervirant had this to say... 

"A dummy plug is just a plug with no cable attached. I remember seeing one in Automatic Gainsay's videos on YouTube, where he was demonstrating the ARP 2600. Most of the internal connections on the 2600 are normalized (which is why it's considered a semi-modular). If you want to break one of those internal connections, but don't actually want to patch something else in, you just insert a dummy plug to bypass the normalized connection." 

And then, later on in the discussion, Sempervirant was nice enough to find that AG video - thank you very much! Go to 5m:58s to see him use one. Sweet. 

I have an ARP 2600, and many other semi-modulars and never knew dummy plugs existed.  Just goes to show you, we never stop learning. 

Now to find out if those ARP patch cords are branded at all. I gotta know. 

Now. 

ARP "The Arp Story" brochure, 1974

 

ARP "The ARP Story" 8-page colour brochure for the Pro Soloist, Odyssey, 2600 and 2500, including two extra colour inserts for the Axxe and Explorer. 

Okay, it's been a while since I've blogged. But it's ARP's 50th anniversary and I just gotta get a few more ARP posts in over the next week or so. So, if things go as planned, you will be sick of me. But lucky you, I'll be keeping these short. 

We are talking a colour brochure for six of Arp's kick-ass instruments, gorgeously designed and positioned. The instrument shot, those sexy flowing backgrounds, thin, yet chubby font, and those unique little white computer generated swirlies that appear somewhere on each product's page.  And, then to accompany each of those product page (except the 2500) is an accompanying page that includes some info on each instrument along with... yup... my fav...  

DIAGRAMS. 

Diagram. Line drawing. Whatever you want to call 'em. 

I call it... ART. 

Straight up, Boo. (I have no idea what I just said. But the kids will get it, I'm sure). 

Now, you will notice that ARP sacrificed a back page for the 2500 so it could, rightfully, include a little bit about ARP itself.  But even this page is very much art, with its colourful duotone photographs - one that includes, of course,  Alan R. Pearlman, and the other, double f course - Pete Townsend of The Who. More on him and his connection with ARP in a future post, I'm sure

Now, if there is one thing I like in my brochures, its when they talk about other marketing material I just have to get my hands on. And ARP punches me in the face by throwing a few teasers out...

"We offer an exclusive series of instructional programs, playing guide songbooks, and cassette tape packages designed specifically for ARP synthesizers."

Gak! Time to go down another rabbit hole. But first, let me finish...

All put together, the brochure and the extra leaflets, it all becomes one of the most gorgeous retro synth brochures in existence. Not just ARP brochures - of all synth brochures. Sure, there are few others on this level. But this is top five for sure. If not top three. ARP at it's finest. 

There is nothing more I can say that is not already included on those pages. I suggest you give ARP some of your time during their 50th anniversary and read 'em.   :)

ARP Odyssey "Conduct an Arp" ad, Rolling Stone 1973

ARP Odyssey "Conduct an Arp" half page black and white advertisement from page 47 in the February 1, 1973 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine.

Sometimes I'll take an hour or two and just look through my archives, when all of a sudden something new will jump out at me. And so it is that after more than sixth months of brochure posts, it's time to fall back in love with a synth advertisement.  In this case, a lovely Arp Odyssey ad from Rolling Stone. I've never actually seen this ad in the wild anywhere else - in another publication or online as a scan. It has just somehow managed to hide in plain sight from me.

A happy surprise.

And not-so-coincidentally, The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation / ARP Archives happens to be at NAMM (booth #8600) soonly. Make sure to check them out and show your support - financially and otherwise! 

Before Contemporary Keyboard came on the scene in 1975, many Americans would find synth ads popping up in the pages of Rolling Stone - what founder Jann Wenner described as a cross between a magazine and a newspaper that wasn't "just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces". She also described it as "reflecting what we see are the changes in rock and roll and the changes related to rock and roll".

What better product to advertise in such a magazine as a synthesizer?  Synths had begun to change the landscape of rock with many musicians embracing the technology, and the Odyssey, released just a year earlier, was already creating buzz (pun intended) on stage and in studios.

A perfect match.

The ad itself it quite tall - it spans the full vertical of the page making it over 17" high. And half the width of the page, about five inches. At the top of the ad is the lovely and large, bold ad title. And right underneath that we get that first large image. Even with the big illustration, there is still lots of space, so its not surprising that there is a fair amount of content, but it is surprising how technical that content gets. After an initial introduction, readers come across this...

"Add such state-of-the-art firsts as phase-locked oscillators, digital ring modulator, sample and hold circuits, and a lot of the functions of a complete studio synthesizer, and you've got yourself a genuine space age instrument."

ARP obviously believed there were some pretty technical musicians reading the mag, and quite frankly, even those that didn't understand the lingo would probably be impressed by it. I still am. :)

And if the buzz words didn't impress you, then the very bottom of the ad might...

"ARP ... conducted by Stevie Wonder / Pete Townshend / Ike & Tina Turner / Frank Zappa / The Beach Boys / Elton John / and many others"

ARP name droppin'!  It's an effective marketing technique and if you've read any of my earlier blog posts about ARP ads, you know I think ARP was one of the best name-droppers in the biz.

But the real joy of this advertisement is obviously the illustrations that play off the "orchestra conductor" theme and content of the ad. I'm a big fan of illustrations in synth ads, so much so that I've created a blog tag so you can see some of the other lovely artwork to be found in synth marketing material.

Here we get two lovely pieces of art. The top image is that of a conductor in a auditorium with just an Odyssey on the stage, and, even better is the second image of the conductor standing beside the ARP.

Tell me that ain't gorgeous. I dare ya!

I just wish there was an artist's signature included with the ad. If you recognize the work, please send me a note!

ARP family of products "Free ARP Tour Jacket" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1980

ARP family of products including Odyssey, 2600, Pro/DGX, Quadra and Omni "Free ARP Tour Jacket" full page colour advertisement from page 43 in the June 1980 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Who doesn't love family photos. Especially when its old synthesizers. And in ARP's case, they coordinated their clothing in lovely Halloween colours - orange and black! Lookin' sharp, ARP! I love family photos so much I created a blog label just for 'em!

And who doesn't love the ARP logo? It's brilliant. Now, take the logo and slap it on the back of a jacket?!?!? Gah! I want! I want!  The only problem is that even if I had bought one of these keyboards back in 1980, according to the fine print in the ad I still wouldn't have got the jacket. The offer wasn't available in Canada. Booooo!

Okay, moving on before I get angry...

Ever since Korg announced the resurrection of the ARP Odyssey, I've been dreaming about it in my sleep. But its not just about the actual keyboard I'm thinking about all the time. If Korg actually has the opportunity to use the ARP brand in its promotion of the new Odyssey (and with ARP-original Dave Friend on board it is looking likely that they do), it will be interesting to see how exactly they incorporate it into the Korg brand.

Like if the Korg and ARP logos had a baby. Would you get a KoRP? Or maybe a kARP?  Point is, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens on the promotional front almost as much as I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one of the new Odysseys.  Or is that Odyssies? Odissi?  Whatever.  :)

About the ad - sadly, this is one of the last ARP ads to feature the Odyssey. Well, in Contemporary Keyboard anyways. ARP continued to run ads for other products for a while, but by the beginning of 1981 they had pretty much stopped advertising in the magazine. And the company would soon be no more.

This didn't go unnoticed in CK. A question concerning ARP was sent in to the magazine later that year, and was answered by then-assistant editor Dominic Milano on page 64 of the "Questions" section in the December 1981 issue of Keyboard. It includes some great history on what exactly happened to ARP and it's inventory.

"What has happened to ARP? Have they really gone out of business, and if so, what happens to people who need warranty work done?
ARP and Mutron have indeed gone bankrupt, but CBS Musical Instruments (they own Rhodes, Fender, and Steinway) has recently purchased the ARP 4- and 16-Voice pianos as well as the still-unreleased Chroma.  However, they did not purchase the rest of the ARP line and so do not want your calls about warranty repairs. Rumor has it that a company in Chicago was going to handle replacement parts and whatnot for defunct instruments, but that's only rumor so far. We'll print something more definite when we've found out what's really happening with warranty and other repairs. As to the availability of other ARP and Mutron products, there was an ARP inventory auction just before we went to press with this issue, and in that inventory were a number of finished products and parts which were sold to various music dealers and repair houses across the country (but centered mostly on the East Coast)."

 Now, if I was editor of Keyboard magazine, I would probably start thinking that the time might be right to get some of the history of ARP down in print. And that is exactly what Roger Powell, columnist, Utopia band member and former ARP employee did in the May 1982 issue of Keyboard in the "Practical Synthesis" section, in an article titled "ARP: The Early Years".

Roger joined the company in 1970 when there were less than twenty employees, and their only product was the ARP 2500. His job? Like in most small companies - a lot of things. Idea man, demonstrator and salesman.

There is so much history packed into this article, I can't begin to go through it all... but let me just give you a small taste. The article starts, as most historical articles do, at the beginning - when the company introduced its first product - a physical fitness training video.

Say what?

"[ARP] began its existence under the corporate name Tonus, Inc., in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts. The chief founder of the company whose musical products eventually were to bear his own initials, Alan R. Pearlman, was an avid exercise fan and chose the word 'tonus', which refers to a muscle's ideal state of fitness - strong, yet flexible enough to respond instantly - as the name of his new company."

Bring up that tidbit of knowledge the next time you are hanging around the water cooler at work tomorrow morning. *That* is how you get the ladies!

The article continues through the developmental history of the 2600 and Odyssey, with Powell adding some great commentary on his perceptions of the time period.

Referring to Moog, he writes:

"I remember the aura of stiff competition - we were always pushing ourselves to be more clever, to come up with some new twist that the other company hadn't thought of. Emulating any of the features found on the competitor's instruments was avoided at all cost. That is why you never saw a pitch-bend wheel on any ARP synthesizer. Likewise, Moog was very reluctant to switch to the temperature-controlled oscillator designs which ARP pioneered."

With the 2600, he comments that the 2600 was developed as a revolutionary suitcase-styled "mini-electronic music studio" that was quick to set up due to a new patching scheme that included "a combination of normalled, internally wired connections which could be altered by inserting patch cords to interrupt the normal connection".

On his comparison to the EMS Putney:

"It shared many features, to be exact, with the British EMS VCS-3 (a.k.a the "Putney" synthesizer, manufactured in the London suburb of the same name). However, I can report that the 2600 was the superior instrument, both in sound and general flexibility."

While Roger was out demonstrating and selling the 2600, back at the factory a stripped-down version originally called the 2700 was under development. Eventually released as the Odyssey, it had a unique sound and was the only real "threat to the well-established Minimoog".

He ends the article with a list of other influential ARP employees, including Jeremy Hill, a British engineer who was a rocket scientist (literally), and Phil Dodds, who played the 2500 in the now-famous scene from Close Encounters.

Roger ends the article with this little piece of historic brilliance:

"Certainly, the instruments will continue to be used to make wonderful music even if the company will never make new ones. If you have an old 2600 or Odyssey, it could become a collector's item some day."

He probably didn't think it would be Korg who would make a new one, eh?

ARP Odyssey "...and a summer full of music" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

ARP Odyssey "...and a summer full of music" full page colour advertisement from page 5 in the August 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Aaaaah... the ART of recycling ads. And ARP has it down to a science.

Take an musician name-dropping advertisement from six months previous and turn it into a promotional free-gift ad. Magic! Same layout, fonts and logo placement.

Why mess with a good thing?

Even the first sentence is the same.

"When you play an ARP Odyssey your solos sizzle"

It's a nice catch phrase. And one that works especially well for the ARP Odyssey - mostly because it's true. NOTHING beats the truth.

The ARP Odyssey has had a good run, and although the synthesizer would be around for a bit longer, this was one of the last ARP Odyssey solo ads you we see in the pages of CK. A damn shame too. Because for the most part, ARP has consistently churned out quality solo Odyssey ads.   They are surprisingly rare for such a great selling synthesizer... but consistently good.

In fact, ARP is epic for the consistency that can be found in most of their ad series - design, terminology - everything. These two ads are a good example. And so are those "Halloween-themed" ads I blogged about recently.

ARP has also been pretty damn consistent in how they approach their name - "ARP". Always capitalized. even the press and publications such as CK always used "ARP" in all caps.

Recently I got into a rather heated discussion about the capitalization of ARP. And even better, I got to play devil's advocate. I often do this when I don't know much about a subject... such as the technicalities of the English language.  :)

Technically, the name ARP was created by using the acronym of it's founder's name, Alan Robert Pearlman. And I like names that are acronyms. For example, I couldn't think of calling IBM "International Business Machines". It would just sound weird.

 "Hey, is that an International Business Machines' laptop?"

See - awkward.

But, the actual name of the company was ARP Instruments Inc.  As far as I know it was never Alan Robert Pearlman Instruments Inc. So, shouldn't the actual acronym for the company be A.I.I.?

Trying to argue this point to an ARP enthusiast is quite entertaining until you realize just how angry you are making him. Then its just becomes as awkward as saying "International Business Machines".

Again, I admit I don't know much about the technicalities of the English language. Anything more complicated than picking out a noun or an adjective in a sentence is beyond me. So, it baffles me that "ARP", consistently capitalized in the past, is sometimes in camel-case, mostly in the quotes, of the following ads.

In the first ad above, in the third set of quotes (last sentence) it says "... like all of my Arp equipment."

It's also in camel-case all of the second ad - whether in reference to a specific ARP synthesizer ( "Arp Pro/DGX synthesizer") or the name of the company ("Naturally, the sound is always first, and Arp delivers clean, clear sound..."). And you will find this camel-case in the third ad as well.

Am I missing something? Is there some kind of grammatical thing-a-ma-jiggy that I'm just not aware of?

Or did the Logo-and-Style police (as I affectionately call them at my company) take a vacation?

Mmmmmm... vacation. I've been day-dreaming about jumping on a plane and taking a quick hop to a city near by. What is Chicago like around Christmas? 

ARP Odyssey "Your keyboard solo has to be hot" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

ARP Odyssey "Your keyboard solo has to be hot" full page colour advertisement from page 61 in the February 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

If you've been reading the blog lately, you know I've been kinda on a bit of an ARP binge recently. And although my interest in all things ARP has been slowly decreasing, two things keep me from stopping.

1. We are starting to reach the final stages of ARP's lifespan. As a collector of synths and synth magazines, there is something satisfying about covering, from beginning to end, all of ARP's ads. Well - from Contemporary Keyboard anyways. There are lots of other magazines with ARP ads. But still... satisfying.

2. I've been discovering lots of new music and bands that I would normally not venture out and listen to on my own when researching all the ARP musician endorsements. Honestly, I'm very close-minded about music. 80/90s new wave, industrial and techno - in the recent past, that's been 90% of my MP3 playlist. And I think that's why I love all these new bands I've been discovering on streaming stations like SomaFM's PopTron (no affiliation, but I do donate monthly and you should too!) that have taken all that's good about 80s music and made it there own in the 10's. ARP endorsements and SomaFM are my two favorite music-finding machines. My third is a guy named Ken who posts on my wall with a lot of new music.  :)

And so, the ARP blog posts continue with another increasingly rare Odyssey ad.  The last Odyssey ad to run in CK was the Halloween/Tom Coster ad that ended four months earlier in October 1978. And the next Odyssey ad to run after this one doesn't start for a full six months in August 1979. And in between, we have this February 1979 one-time-only advertisement featuring Peter Robinson of Brand X.

Although, unless you could actually recognize Peter Robinson in the photo, or have really good eye sight, you may not know who exactly that is a picture of. Sure, they name-bomb a lot of artists in the ad-copy, including Sea Level (another band to discover), Boz Scaggs, Chick Corea, the Starship (really - "the"?) Kansas, Brand X and others. But the only time ARP gives us the name of the musician in the photo is in very small type used in the photo credit. That could be someone from "the Starship" for all I know.

Like I had said earlier, my music tastes are rather limited (or as some people call them, down right ignorant). Sure, I know the band "Brand X", but other than listening to a few songs in my shady past, I really know very little. For the record, I did know that Robin Lumley was a keyboardist in the band but that was only because I blogged about a Prophet-5 synth review he did for International Musician and Recording World.

But apparently Peter and Brand X need little introduction in this ad with such a big photo and such small type for his name. So I'm just going to jump over to Google for a second and check 'em out....

Oh...

Wait... what?

Well... Um... That's embarrassing, isn't it.

 Is everyone in on the joke but me?

Apparently Phil Collins is a member of Brand X. Yeah. *That* Phil Collins. I believe he's had a hit or twenty.

Seems I'm more musically ignorant than even I thought I was. It's laughable.

Even more funny, I didn't even recognize Phil Collins when I popped over to this Youtube video of Brand X on OGWT in 1979 and impatiently started moving the timeline around. Then when I just happened to fall on a point in the video with the singer behind the drums, it suddenly dawned on me. I then went back to the beginning of the video to watch Grizzly Adams... er... Phil Collins in the interview.

So, after writing this blog post I'm sure of two things.

1. Yup - definitely musically ignorant.

2. Yup - the Odyssey had a good run, but it is soon to end as ARP would push it aside to make room for ads featuring the the ARP family - Quadra, Quartet and electronic piano.

But its not over yet!

ARP Odyssey "You cannot duplicate the sound of the ARP Odyssey..." ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1978

ARP Odyssey "You cannot duplicate the sound of the ARP Odyssey..." black and white and orange full page advertisement from page 41 in the August 1978 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Oooooh - Halloween is approaching and I think I'm finally getting into the spirit of the season. My gothy/industrial-influenced teen-age years give me a natural affinity for skulls. Even earlier, as a child, a glowing skull is one of the few things I brought back from Disney. No mouse ears for this young pirate.

If you haven't seen the trend yet in these blog posts as of late, ARP has also been approaching full-on Halloween-ess in their ads. 

And so here we have ARP going full-on jack-o-lantern in this new Odyssey advertisement. It makes sense that this ad first appeared in the August 1978 issue of CK and then continued to run monthly through September and into spooky October as well.

I really like that the designer of the ad took the next logical next step and incorporated the new synthesizer panel colour scheme ARP first introduced on their gear last March into the actual ad itself.

And speaking of spooky, doesn't Tom Coster look just a little bit spooky in that black and white ad photo. I'm not saying I don't like that image. Its actually quite awesome because if you look closely, I'm pretty sure that's a maple leaf on Tom Coster's shirt. Go Canada!

In fact, it kinda looks like an NHL Maple Leafs jersey, no? But, if Google images is any indication, it doesn't really look like a 1978-style jersey. Not really a hockey fan anyways. But still get a kick out of the idea.

I checked his Wikipedia page and did a few quick Google searches to see if I could confirm he is/was a hockey fan, but nothing came up. But Wikipedia does tell me he was born in the hockey-town of Detroit (although raised in San Francisco).

Like the ad in Monday's ARP post, this ad has a lot of text running across the page. But this time at least a large portion of it is quotes from Tom - makes the ad more personal. And, this time the ad copy isn't running all over the imagery. Let's face it, that last ARP Omni-2 ad was a bit of a dog's breakfast.

For comparison, I've put them side by side above.

We still have a lot happening in this new Odyssey ad, but just that little bit of extra white space (er.... black space) makes it a much more visually balanced ad. The eye has places to focus on. Even the ad-title at the bottom of the page that is in such close proximity to the ad-copy looks good. And those oange accents on the name of the synth and the ARP logo also give this ad a nice kick.

So, yeah... ad itself, less spooky on the readability front. More spooky on the Halloween front.

Just the way I like it.

ARP Odyssey/Axxe "...now the most playable" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1978

ARP Odyssey and Axxe "...now the most playable" two-page colour advertisement from page 34 and 35 in the March 1978 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Halloween is getting close. It's usually around mid-October that I realize just how much I'm falling behind of all the different things I wanted to get done before the end of the year. Music. Work. Catch up with friends. The works.

And Halloween was the only theme I could think of when I took a look at those dismembered hands floating over the Odyssey and Axxe on the right half of this two-pager.  Hovering hands are one thing, but what really confuses me is the clothing choice. Those white frilly frocks chosen to accentuate the hands in the photo are a little outside their time period. Or was there a Shakespearian resurgence in the late 70s that I'm not aware of?

This ad is actually quite significant in the history of ARP. It marked the company's announcement to the world of their new black and orange colour choice for their synthesizers. Vintage Synth Explorer's ARP Odyssey and ARP Axxe pages include some great images of the different colour schemes used for both synths. A good read.

The new colour scheme promo wasn't just limited to CK either. Although that magazine seemed to have received the most advertising dollars to get this two-pager into the March, April and May 1978 issues. Plus also appeared in the June issue of CK as a full-colour 1-pager - running just the right-half of the ad.

Having that large photo take up the full left-half of the page really does help re-purpose the ad easily as a one-pager. And they did just that when ARP ran the 1-page version on the back outside cover of the May/June 1978 issue of Synapse magazine.

The 1-page version also ran as a black and white ad in the March (UK)/April (International) issue of International Musician and Recording World as part of a Chase Musicians' multi-page promo that included a big push for the ARP Avatar. Unfortunately, as is often the case when converting a colour ad to black and white, the small photos really suffered and are barely recognizable.  Boo.

The final 2-page spread of that Chase multipage promo is a one-night-only event to promote the updated synthesizers at one of Chase's stores, including an incredible 20% discount on all orders taken that night. As well as free drinks - in brackets: non-alcoholic only. LOL! May have to scan that one at a later date. It's quite spectacular.

Now, I just can't go any further without commenting on the ad's contents. Sure, its nicely designed with balance, good use of white space, yadda yadda yadda... but its the ad-copy itself that I find really really interesting.

ARP's big thing has always been "Human Engineering". A quick Google search of Retro Synth Ads for the term Human Engineering will give you a good idea just how much ARP pushed this aspect of their synths, and just how much I pointed it out. :)

And I have to say that this time ARP definitely made their synths "easier and more expressive to play" with the new black and orange "Halloween" colour scheme. Although not everyone liked the new colours, it was definitely a lot easier to locate and comprehend controls for "quick, clear readings".

There are a few other nice details in the ad-copy too. For example, ARP points out the synths' "extended keyboards" that "make them easier to play even when stacked with other keyboards". And, to subconsciously hit that point home, the centre photo of the Odyssey is lighted from above in such a way as to highlight the long keys of the keyboard. Brilliant.

And finally, the last point in the ad makes me chuckle. ARP has "redesigned" the prices for the Odyssey and Axxe. I love little bits of historical reference material like price drops.

And now I have to go find out just how much of a drop! And then, after that, get my synth advertising timeline tool updated.

I'm falling behind on that too. Gah.

The ARP Family of Synthesizer Demo Record, 1973

The ARP Family of Synthesizer Demo Record from 1973.

 Ever since I first used my USB record player to record that ARP Proportional Pitch Control sound sheet, I've been recording my old records. And now I've finally gotten around to using it again to record another older ARP demo record.

The first side of the record is all about demo'ing a few different  excerpts of music created by synth owners - with a voice over introducing each piece. The second side includes four discreet songs created with ARP synths. No voice-over here.

The ARP Family of Synthesizers - Side 1 - 1973 by Retro Synth Ads


The ARP Family of Synthesizers - Side 2 - 1973 by Retro Synth Ads
It is that first side of the record that interests me most as a marketing person. Although the music created by ARP synths do the final sell-job, it is the voice-over that steers the listener with that one-sided conversation.

And ARP is in fine form - really pushing their synthesizers in every industry - TV, film, education, on stage, on tour, and in recording studios. And they also give a big nod to all the amateur musicians across the country that were starting to buy synthesizers as prices started to drop (or at least ARP figured they would be).

ARP is also in fine form on the name-dropping. Just a tad over a minute in to side one, the announcer drops Pete Townsend's name. Bam! And the next thing you know, you are listening to a bit of Teenage Wasteland - I bet you can guess which part. :)

But it is about three and a half minutes in that really starts me smiling. ARP makes a good effort to get it's synthesizers in the schools by suggesting that their synthesizers possess "tonal resources beyond that of even a symphony orchestra". Good work.

ARP includes two musical excerpts to promote the use of synths in educational facilities. The first is a short "interesting interpretation" of a romanian folk dance by a student on an ARP Odyssey. Meh. And the second is a very short example of students creating their own compositions "using sounds of their own invention". Starts around the 5:00 minute mark. Not long enough. :D

Side two is made up of four songs by two musicians.

Roger Powell has been creating "retro-future music since 1973". He was the keyboardist for Utopia back in the day. Check out his Web site and MySpace page for his latest work.

I'm not as familiar with Dave Fredricks, and am assuming this is his Web page. Definitely got some chops  :)

My short summary of each song:

• Song 1: Dave Fredericks doing his thing. Ends strongly.
• Song 2 (starts at 2:23): Roger Powell piano-like piece. A nice long ending with a few odd things going on.
• Song 3 (starts at 3:57): Roger Powell is outta control! I kid!  Obviously a lot of effort went into this - just not my thing.
• Song 4 (starts at 5:27): Great song to end on. Dave Fredricks sounds like a new-wave Lawrence Welk. 

One of my big peeves when documenting ads and promotions is when there is no date printed anywhere - and that includes records. Unfortunately there was no date printed or etched anywhere on this record, so I decided to do a bit of search.

Obviously, one of the first places I looked for clues was in the recording. Side one contains all the jibber-jabber, so I focused my attention there and came up with these clues.

Clue 1: Four synthesizers are mentioned:

• Soloist
• 2500 - "the elegant concert grand of synthesizers"
• 2600
• Odyssey  

Wikipedia's ARP page includes a sequential listing of the introduction dates for all their synthesizers - and since no other synths are mentioned, I thought there was a good chance that it must have come out sometime between 1972 (after the Odyssey came out) and 1974 (before the String Ensemble made it's debute).

Clue 2. The first excerpt of music on side one is Pete Townsend's recognizable use of his "three ARP synthesizers" on the album "Who's Next".  The voice-over mentions that it had just been recently released - which was 1971. So, that help narrowed it down to roughly the same time period.

Scanning through the ARP ads that I've posted using my very own handy-dandy Advertising Timeline Tool (shameless plug), I quickly came across this ARP dealer ad-sheet, which includes all four of the synths mentioned on the record. This dealer sheet, like the record, is also pushing that education-angle, especially for the Odyssey. In my blog post I speculated that ad-sheet came out around 1973 or 1974.

So then I started looking at older ARP ads that I haven't posted yet - as well as started a Google Images search. I decided to contentrate on that classic Pete Townsend image of him leaning against his ARP, since I knew he was being heavily promoted by ARP at the time. The images that popped up quickly lead me to the "Thats Alright Mama blog - a blog dedicated to "custom records pressed by Rite Records of Cincinnati". And before you know it, I come screen-to-face with this.Yup. And cool - this record was pressed in Cincinnati. And best of all, the blogger includes a recording date - 1973!

Shortly thereafter I also came across this page. And this. . Doh!

Mystery solved!

The Internet is my friend.    :)

ARP "Proportional Pitch Control" introductory ad with sound sheet demo, Contemporary Keyboard 1977

ARP "Proportional Pitch Control" 2-page introductory advertisement from page 32 and 3 in Contemporary Keyboard September 1977.

Update: Added to the ARP advertising timeline tool.

This post is kinda special for me because it's the first time I've recorded a sound sheet and posted it on SoundCloud. Change is good, right? RIGHT? Exciting times!

My girlfriend bought me the USB record player I used to record the sound sheet back when I first started the blog - a great gift, and probably as a way to say "hey, I support your blogging initiative even though I don't realize at this moment that it is going to be taking up way too much of OUR time". :D

The record player remained in the box for a couple of years before I finally got around to using it. But now I'm loving it, and am going to be using it more often in the future. I have quite a few ARP demo records...

Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself.

ARP loved their demo records. Sure, other companies at the time also used them - but I kinda look at ARP as one of the leaders. Their earlier (and heavier) vinyl demo records are a little annoying because they didn't often have dates printed anywhere on them as far as I can tell, although there are obscure code etchings in the lead-out section of most of the records which probably refers back to a date in some recording engineer or vinyl record presser's ledger somewhere. All I know is that this makes it kind of a pain when I want to line up a record with a synth launch or advertising/promotions campaign.

When everyone and their pet dog switched over to those flexible Eva-Tone sound sheets, dating the pressings got a little bit easier later on, when at some point in the mid- or late-70s, Eva-Tone started to include a date code above their name. So, for example, the Eva-Tone sound sheet attached to this centerfold advertisement includes the code 67771XS. The first four numbers are apparently the production date - in this case June 7, 1977.

Side note: Friend of the blog Micke let me in on this Eva-Tone date code - thanks Micke!

This June production date is historically interesting because it helps us with the time lines for ARP's Proportional Pitch Control. We know that this September '77 ad is the introduction of PPC, but we also know PPC was functional and making live appearances as early as June '77 since it was included in this Summer NAMM ARP brochure. And now we have this recording, also from June '77. Which means the recording of the record, and thus the functionality of PPC, might have been available as early as May or April even. Excellent stuff!

This 2-page centerfold advertisement is quite impressive, with the close-up shot of the three PPC pressure pads that span the bottom portion of the two page spread. Two outer pads bend notes flat or sharp, and the middle pad provides vibrato. Cool technology added to both the Axxe and Odyssey.

The ad-copy is mostly marketing hype and doesn't really explain much about PPC. Luckily, the "PPC Demonstration Notes" call-out box next to the ad-copy does a bit of a better job of explaining how PPC works. And that call-out box also provides us a lot of interesting information about the sound sheet recording itself.

As I mentioned above, this is my first audio recording attempt (for the blog :) - and I've used SoundCloud since all the kids seem to be hanging out there now. My sound sheet came with a few scratches, which you can really hear during the quiet parts.

But give it a listen anyways - and enjoy!


ARP Proportional Pitch Control demonstration record, September 1977 by Retro Synth Ads

The sound sheet text includes:

Pure musical expression
at your fingertips.

[ARP logo] PPC

Music performed by Tom Piggott

PRODUCED BY
ARP INSTRUMENTS, INC.
45 Hartwell Avenue
Lexington, MA 02173

67771XS
EVA-TONE
SOUNDSHEETS

Interestingly, the back of the sound sheet also includes the tag line in big bold letters

ARP'S NEW PPC.
PURE MUSICAL EXPRESSION
AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Someone needs to sample that record. Stat!

End note: Interestingly, while researching this post, I found ARP NAMM promotional info in the "What's Happening" section of the May/June issue of Synapse, but, unlike the ARP NAMM brochure, the "What's Happening" blub only makes reference to the guitar synthesizers - and not PPC at all.

"ARP Instruments has announced the unveiling of two guitar synthesizers at the Atlanta NAMM convention in June. On display will be the production prototypes. There is no date yet for their commercial release, but Synapse will let you know more about them as soon as we can.

Was ARP concerned that PPC may not make it to the show, so didn't mention it? Or did Synapse just not include that tidbit of info? Hmmm...

Anyways, I've added this bit of info to the ARP NAMM brochure blog post as more proof for the appearance of the Centaur and Avatar prototypes at the show.

ARP Odyssey, Contemporary Keyboard 1977

ARP Odyssey advertisement from page 23 in Contemporary Keyboard May 1977.

Odyssey? Or ODDyssey...? <---- See what I did there :o)

At first glace, to me this looks like an ordinary ARP ad.

For example, the ad's format is quite standard - Name-> tag-line-> ad-copy-> logo-> image.

And ARP also keeps to their standard marketing strategies. The company doesn't miss the opportunity to promote their "human engineering" design philosophy - connecting it to their easy-to-read control panel, sliders and switches. And they nicely segue that topic into promoting not only all the accessories available for the Odyssey, but also into their other main advertising strategy: name-dropping. This time including Hancock, Corea, Duke, Winter and Wonder. Musicians so famous that ARP doesn't even have to include their first names.

But as I started to take a closer look at the ad, things started to go all "bajiggidy" on me. And the closer I looked, the more quirkier things became.

I figured it might be good therapy to just list them all out.

1. This is only the second Odyssey ad to appear in CK. The first ad was in the November/December 1975 issue of CK - almost a year and half earlier. Maybe ARP thought that they didn't need to advertise "the world's #1 synthesizer" very much. Not sure you can advertise too much... especially with the limited opportunities available in 1977.

2. This ad only seems to have appeared once in the magazine. As did the previous ad from Nov/Dec '75. As just mentioned, I just don't feel that this is enough exposure to get your message across. And, ARP must have felt they wanted to give this message exposure, because they also put a black and white version of this ad in the May/June 1977 issue of Synapse magazine.

3. The ad is only 2/3 of a page (two columns wide). And it is not like ARP couldn't afford a full page - the company had plenty of full-colour ads in CK on a regular basis, including one for the Pro/DGX in the back-inside cover of this issue. To my eyes, the 2/3 size just squishes everything together with little room for all the elements to breathe. Title, tag-line, ad-copy, logo, copyright, and that colour photo are all just crammed together. Give me white-space!

4. And speaking of that colour photo... it seems a little out of place in this otherwise black and white ad. Why wouldn't ARP splurge and just design a full-colour ad? It just feels off-balanced.

5. The placement of the ad on the page also adds to that off-balanced feeling. The ad is printed such that it is pushed in towards the inside of the page, and I purposely left all the extra white space on the top and right side of the ad so you could get an idea of just how squished it looks.

6. ARP strays away from that main message - "the Odyssey is #1". Out of nowhere, in the final paragraph of text (in a font that is oddly smaller than the rest of the ad-copy), ARP decides to throw in info about a five minute demo record... FOR THE OMNI. Why leave the reader thinking about a totally different instrument at the end of all that Odyssey lovin'?

Okay... breathe deeply...

Boy... after reading back all that bitterness above, I just realized that I must have woken up in a foul mood this morning. Seriously. And I don't know why, but I ended up taking it out on a poor innocent ARP advertisement.

But, looking back at the ad now, it becomes a bit more clear that maybe ARP tried a little too hard to stay on their ongoing marketing strategy in such a small space. This need for ARP to include everything but the kitchen sink in the ad probably caused 90% of the quirks.

But again, even with everything that I think is wrong with this ad, ARP could have done much worse.

ARP family of products, Contemporary Keyboard 1976

ARP Family of Products advertisement from page 24 and 25 of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine, May/June 1976.

ARP took a very interesting approach with this two-page ad.

The two previous issues of CK included an ARP 'family' advertisement that focused squarely on ARP's road-reliability, along with a good-sized helping of classic name-dropping.

Then they come out with this advertisement. Although it starts off with another big dollop of name-dropping, it soon takes a totally different sales approach than the previous ad.

ARP first points out a few facts about performance and quality. Never one to pull a punch, they take direct aim at Moog with the ever-popular slider-vs-rotary argument:

"ARP slide controls outperform hard-to-read rotary knobs".

(Moog's response: "Just try to accurately tune an all-slider instrument!")

ARP continues the attack on many of their competitors with:

"We build ARPs with expensive, industrial-grade circuitry. You won't find any chrome-plated plastic or paper based circuit boards inside an ARP."

Kapow!

With the bad-cop routine over with, ARP then goes into the soft-sell approach by providing a few educational facts, letting you know how easy it is to learn to play an ARP synthesizer and how you can grow your studio by 'adding-on, not trading in'.

And then. Finally... they hit you with the real pitch.

Buy our manuals for only a couple of bucks and see for yourself.

Like I said - it is an interesting approach and a common sales technique I've seen used in stores and at trade shows. Always try and put whatever you are selling into the hands of a potential buyer. And if you can't get the real thing in their hands, get the info into their hands.

In this case, ARP is enticing readers to buy an ARP manual BEFORE buying a synthesizer. Let's get this straight... they aren't asking you to send in for a free brochure with a bit of promotional material - they are actually getting readers to spend real cash on a manual. And once a reader has an ARP manual in their hands, it will be much easier to convince that reader to buy an ARP synthesizer.

I've bought enough synthesizers in my lifetime to know that I can justify a purchase if I've convinced myself I've done the research. And if I've spent money on that research, I can now convince myself to call that research an 'investment'. :o)

Smart thinking on ARP's part. And even smarter to sell 'learning synthesis' books that focus on their synthesizers. The more I think about it, the more I like this ad.

But you know what I like most about this advertisement?

It's like my own personal checklist of ARP stuff. Seriously - if you are into ARP paraphernalia like I am, this ad pretty much spells out some, if not most, of the great stuff that was available from ARP at the time. Even better is that the list in the advertisement is a great starting point for online searches for more information.

Take the first item in the order form: "Odyssey - Learning Music with Synthesizers". Over 200 pages of experiments and electronic music discussion based on the ARP Odyssey! One quick Google search and you are taken straight to the comprehensive Web site arpodyssey.com. That Web site provides images of the covers of both the first and second editions, and goes on to describe the book:

"Part I of this book is a theoretical introduction to the the science of synthesizers. Part II is a hands-on guide that walks you through principles learned in Part I on the actual ARP Odyssey. Part III gets into experimentation and studio techniques (admittedly of the 1970's).

Now I know exactly what to look for in my eBay search. :o)

Yup - the more I think about it, the more I like this ad.

Arp Odyssey Reference Sheet, 1972

ARP Odyssey reference sheet from 1972.

How quickly ARP learns!

Last post, I blogged about an ARP 2600 reference sheet that... well, shall we say... was an understandably ugly first step in ARP's evolution of reference sheets. But, the company quickly grew appendages and flopped onto the sandy beaches of the synthesizer world with this one.

Gone is the cramped, verbal diarrhea of the not-so-reference-y sales material that in my opinion just doesn't belong on a one-pager reference sheet. In its place, we see an overall improvement in design and white space.

Starting at the top is the big fat ARP logo we all know and love, followed by the word 'Odyssey' in a font similar enough to the logo-type usually found on early Odysseys that I can live with it. Sure, its not as 'square' as the real logo-type, but the y's are especially close enough.

Directly beneath is a nice large photo of the instrument. ARP realized that there just isn't room for a wire-frame outline, and so they provided a photo of the front panel big enough that the reader can see the general layout, and tagged all the juicy bits with reference numbers leading to descriptive text below the image.

Oh, how I do love reference material.

The only thing that really bugged me about this sheet is that ARP still hadn't learned to add in print dates. And I need that date for my titles... :o)

I easily narrowed down the date to pre-1975 - the white-faced model used in the photos was the first of three general models produced by ARP. The first between 1972-1974.

I could narrow the date down further with the tag line "THE ULTIMATE MUSICAL TRIP". This same tag line is used in the description of the Odyssey on the second page of the ARP family dealer ad sheet that I pegged as being printed in either in 1972 or 1973.

Even the smaller image used in this reference sheet is the *exact* same image used in that dealer ad sheet (size too!).

But what is this?

Looking at the larger Odyssey image I couldn't help think that there was something out of wack. Something just seems odd. Did you notice it yet? Take a close look at the logo on the right-hand side of the image, just above the keyboard. That logo-type is made up of all capital letters!

All the older Odysseys that I've seen have a logo that just has a capital 'O', with the rest of the letters in lower case. A quick Google Images search seems to confirm this. Also, vintagesynth.com's Odyssey page has photos of all three models, and the first two models definitely show the lower-case lettering that I'm familiar with.

So, chances are this is a prototype or a *very* early production Odyssey.

And pretty much the reason that I dated this reference sheet early in the Model 1's lifespan - 1972.

End note: Okay, I lied. One other thing bothers me.

The big 'POLYPHONIC!' stamp that appears in the middle of the page. The 'two-voice keyboard' is mentioned in the reference text (#18), so I'm thinking 'polyphonic' was stamped in later since it was a great buzz word at the time.

I have seen a few of these on eBay and elsewhere, and they all contain this stamp. If you know of one without the stamp, please let me know.

ARP Family Dealer Ad Sheet, 1970s

'The ARP Family of Electronic Music Synthesizers' dealer ad sheet (front and back) from the 1970s including the Soloist Mk II, Pro-Soloist, 2600, 2500, and Odyssey.

I don't have an exact date on when this dealer ad sheet was printed, but my guess is around 1972 or 1973 since the Pro-Soloist is mentioned alongside the Soloist Mk II... What? Soloist Mk II? What is this piece of kit? Why have I never heard of it!?!

Looking at the Soloist Mk II description and photo from this scan, it looks to be the evolutionary 'missing link' between the original Soloist and the Pro-Soloist.

First, a bit of info about the original Soloist and the Pro-Soloist:

• The Pro-Soloist Wikipedia page and Mark Vail's 2006 article on the Pro-Soloist have some good history of these two instruments and inform us that the original Soloist was entirely analog while the Pro-Soloist used digital read-only memory chips to program all of its internal functional modules. If I'm not mistaken, neither mentions the Soloist Mk II.
  

• Images of the two instruments from the Vintage Synth Explorer page clearly show that the Soloist had a light-coloured panel of toggle switches located underneath the keyboard while the Pro-Soloist's switches were located on a dark panel above the keyboard. Again, no mention of the Soloist Mk II.
  

Now, compare the features above to the description and picture of the Soloist Mk II included in the dealer ad sheet, and you can clearly understand how it could be the electronic love-child of the two:

• light-coloured panel like the Soloist
• toggle switches on the main panel are above the keyboard like the Pro-Soloist
• layout of switches seem to resemble the Pro-Soloist
• controls beside the keyboard have a white lever or toggle switch in the middle of the darker sliders like the Soloist
  
• 15 instrument sounds like the Soloist
• digital design like the Pro-Soloist

I found two references to the Mk II online in forum and comment posts - both by who seems to be the same person - who I now dub thee Soloist Mk II expert.
- a 2008 comment by Micke on the Vintage Synth Explorer site mentions that the production dates for the Mk II was between 1972 and 1973.
- a 2006 BlueSynths forum post by Micke (Mikael L) where he describes it as a cross between the original Soloist and Pro-Soloist.

There is also a mention of the Mk II in an ARP 2500 brochure PDF on Tim Stinchcombe's Web site. The last page of the brochure contains the same list and images of the ARP instruments in this dealer ad sheet and lists the Soloist Mk II for $995 US.

But other than those references above, I can't seem to find much on this instrument. I even failed to get Google images to bring up a photo. I'll have to add it to my list of Wikipedia updates I need to do.

End note: Aren't you proud of me for not mentioning the ARP name-dropping thing that appears on the back of the ad sheet?. Oh... I guess I just did... :o)