Roland TR-909 "Different Drummer" ad, Roland Users Group 1984

Roland TR-909 "Different Drummer" colour advertisement from the outside back cover of Volume 2, Number 3 (1984) issue of  Roland Users Group Magazine.

Happy 9/09 day!

And you know what brings happiness to my 909 day? A new... er... old... TR-909 advertisement of course!

Don't worry - I'm keeping it short and sweet!

I haven't come across this TR-909 advertisement anywhere other than Roland's own users group magazine. It's part of the "Roland Makes It Happen!" series of neon-inspired ads that have included quite a few sweet pieces of gear from the time period, each paired with a different neon colour.

I've posted a few other Roland ads from the series including the Juno 106 "Synful" blue ad and the TR-707 "Digital Dynamite" yellow ad, and the TR-909 red ad makes a lovely addition to the collection.

 

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There are others too - check out the new Roland timeline for more!

I've also posted a few of Roland's family ads that also play off the same design elements (dark backgrounds, lots of neon), both of which also include... you guessed it...

The TR-909!

 

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I'd love to see all of these poster-sized. Like Dave Smith did for many of his Mattos-designed ads.

Like the other ads in the series, the ad copy is a little hard to read, but definitely worth it. We get Roland promoting the new MIDI standard, Roland software, the works.

In particular, I'm digging this little line:

"We start with digital recordings of real drums, then through a 3-D waveform analysis, re-create the sounds through a hybird digital/analog process." 

And no... not because of the spelling error (hyBIRD), but that they thought it was important to talk about the process they used to create the sounds found in the 909. Sprinkling a little bit of tech into the ad. Letting users see the magic behind the curtain.

The text layout aside, I gotta say I'm totally digging the design of this series of ads. Neon was big in the '80s, and its easy to see why it inspired many designers to find a way to make it work in print during this time period.

Today we see neon making a come back in the visual packaging of one style of music in particular -  Synthwave! And, not coincidentally, a lot of that synthwave is being produced with hardware that was introduced in the 80s through neon-themed advertising like those you see above.

How's that for full circle!

Don't believe me - just do a Google images search for 'synthwave'.

Heck, even if you do believe me, do the search anyways...

...just for the happiness it will bring to your 9/09 day.   :)

Roland "Enter the world of MIDI" three-page fold-out, Keyboard 1984

                                         

Roland "Enter the world of MIDI" three-page fold-out featuring the TR909 drum machine, Jupiter-6, Juno-106, and JX-3P synthesizers, MSQ-700 sequencer, MD-8 MIDI/DCB interface, MPU-101 computer interface, MM-4 MIDI through box, and GR-700 guitar synthesizer, attached between pages 18 and 19 in the July 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

1984 was a good year. Two words - Sixteen Candles.

Another reason is that Roland officially announced it *hearts* MIDI with this promotion fold-out piece.

Really what else is there to say?

Okay - a lot actually.  :)

What a nice surprise to open up the July 1984 issue of Keyboard and find this tucked nicely between pages 18 and 19. Its a pull-out, but stuck so tightly in there that its more of a fold-out. So that's what I called it. Sure, Roland had a few ads before this featuring MIDI gear, but I think this really was Roland's defining moment - proprietary DCB is out and the MIDI standard is definitely in. So long, suckas!

I hope the scan makes sense. Basically, when you flipped to page 18, rather than viewing page 19 on the  opposite page, you would be presented with that first lovely front page with the inviting welcome message "Enter the World of MIDI". Flip the page and you really do enter that strange new world, greeted with  two and a half pages of inner-promo-goodness. Then, if you flipped that over, you could view the back-side page and a half fold-out.

This is Roland announcing to the world that it has embraced MIDI. And indeed it has. Just look at that list of gear Roland has pumped out since MIDI was introduced to the word - TR-909, Juno-106, Jupiter-6, JX-3P, MSQ-700, MD-8, GR-700, MM-4 and MPU-101. And, lets not forget a few walk-on appearances by none other than the grand-daddy of 'em all - the Jupiter-8, but also a Juno-60 and even an Apple II computer (and PC - both using special Roland software).

And if putting all that gear together in one place isn't enough, Roland tied it all together with a gorgeous bow by including an infographic - before the word "infographic" even existed.

Just look at the design. Gorgeous black background with a pre-Photoshop neon glow. It's so soothing. I want to just bathe in the glowing light.

And best of all - Roland includes not one, but two diagrams. I loooooove diagrams. The first includes imagery of each group of instruments, and the second is more of a classic diagram illustrating Roland gear used in a basic set-up, multi-keyboard set-up, guitar set-up and home computer set-up.

To make it easy on us readers, Roland colour-coded everything and included a legend on page three under the heading "Choose your weapon!".

• MIDI keyboard - blue
• MIDI guitars - purple
• MIDI drums - green
• MIDI computers - orange
• MIDI keyboard interfaces - red

 Another nice touch.

 Roland - it doesn't get much better than this.

Roland TR-909 drum machine four page brochure, 1984

Roland TR-909 drum machine four page brochure from March1984.

Last post of August - end of the summer. Wanted to post something kinda special - at least to me any ways.

My TR-909 is special to me. And this TR-909 brochure isn't far behind. In my scale of all things "special", these two items fall somewhere between a good steak and my dog. Yup. That special.  :D

And I don't think I'm the only one that puts their 909 just behind their dog in specialness. I'm a firm believer that you can tell just how special something is by how good the Wikipedia page is. Not how long or detailed. Just how 'good'. And the TR-909 page is short, but pretty darn good.

Sure, Wikipedia tells me it still needs a few more citations, but that page is full of facts. And I love facts. Like first MIDI-equipped drum machine. And 10,000 units made.

Facts.

Love 'em.

The brochure itself is just as awesome.  It's part of Roland's "We Design the Future" set of brochure that started printing around 1982 or so, the most recent of which I posted was the MSQ-100 and MSQ-700 digital keyboard recorder brochures.

The link to the MSQ-700 blog post includes links to other brochures in the series including the SH-101, and Roland's "Rhythm machines" - TB-303, TR-606 and TR-909. 

The 909 brochure shares many of the themes with the others in the series. The front cover is split in half, sporting a lovely photo of the machine on the bottom. The theme colours used in the other brochures are also present - light pinks and greens. But we get a real treat when we open it up to reveal that page 2 and 3 share an awesome black background colour. It works so well with the light-coloured 909 that it looks simply dashing!

These inside pages contain all those great facts I love so much, lined up down the left hand side next to a really large photo of the front panel. And, as is tradition with these brochures, Roland provides a number of typical use scenarios showing how the machine can be wired up with other great Roland products. Since the 909 has both a reliable SYNC jack as well as newly-introduced and not-yet-proven MIDI jacks, Roland plays it safe by including syncing scenarios using both technologies - bringing along for the ride an MSQ-700, MC-202 (! - another one of the favourites in my studio), and a JX-3P/Jupiter 6.

Well played Roland... well played.

The only beef with these middle pages is the cropped image of the 909 in the top right corner, on top of an image of a 909. Not sure we really need that profile shot.  Just makes the page look a little messy.

The back page has to be the most disappointing of any Roland back pages I've come across recently. The specs are fine, but the fact that Roland only promotes two other instruments - one of them being the lowly HP-400 Electric Piano - is a little bit of a downer to end such a gorgeous piece of art.

But them the breaks.

Like I said - its the end of August. And best of all, its 7:30 in the evening and it's still +34 degrees C out.  Booya! Time to go enjoy.... an air conditioned movie theatre.

Finally seeing Batman. I know. About time.