Linn Electronics LinnDrum "Ultimate Drum Machine" demo record, 1983

 Linn Electronics Inc  LinnDrum "Ultimate Drum Machine" demo record from 1983.

What a nice lookin' rekkid! Actually... what a nice lookin' sound sheet - all floppy and red and stuff.

This two minute and 22 second demo was part 2 of Linn Electronic's 1982/83 LinnDrum advertising campaign titled "The Ultimate Drum Machine". The campaign included an ad of the same title that appeared in Keyboard Magazine (and maybe others - haven't researched that too widely) that ran from May 1982 to March 1983. And in that ad was a promo offer to get a free demo record along with the name of the nearest dealer.

Later, it looks like a brochure was also on offer. Unfortunately, I don't have it. I could get it right now on eBay, along with another copy of the record - but for a hefty $149.99 price tag. That's just too steep for me. It does look gorgeous though.

There is one small potential problem. According to the code on my record - 830122s it looks like this record was probably pressed on January 22, 1983. That date is well after the actual date that the ad and promo offer started. So, either they did more than one pressing (do you "press" a sound sheet?!?!) of the same demo OR could it be that the demo was changed during the promo offer.

Looking around the Web quickly I couldn't find any other examples of the demo - so can't be certain. But, I'm pretty sure it would have been another pressing of the same music demo. Just a hunch.

I've uploaded a copy of the demo to SoundCloud. Now, please remember - this is one of those flexible sound sheets - so the quality is about the same as my mom would find on one of my 45s of Mighty Mouse when I was a kid. (hint: a little scratched up). But, it does provide a nice window into Linn's expectations of use of the drum machine by musicians.



I'm actually quite impressed by the number "listens" my other SoundCloud demos have received. It was kind of an experiment to get me to start using SoundCloud.

The first recording I uploaded was about nine months ago for a blog post on ARP's proportional pitch control demo soundsheet :



 And then about a month later, I uploaded a two-sided demo record for ARP's "Family of Synthesizers" for a blog post:




I'm really digging SoundCloud's HTML5 option. I'm still hoping to update my Advertising Timelines to HTML5 so they can be viewed on the iPod and iPad. 

And yes - this was my blatantly cheap attempt to drum up (pun intended) even more "listens". :D