Big Briar Inc. Model 500 Theremin Controller "Space-Controlled Music" ad, Keyboard 1984

Big Briar Inc.'s Model 500 Theremin Controller "Space-Controlled Music" black and white 1/4-page advertisement from the bottom-left corner of page 60 in the May 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

"Space-controlled music"! Why does the Theremin always get thrown in to the "space" bucket?!?!

Scratch that. I know exactly why... hee hee  :)

If you recall from my last blog post, I touched upon (pun intended) Big Briar's Model 331 Touch Plate. A great alternative controller, especially for live performances. I'm trying desperately to hunt one down as we speak.

But another even more nifty alternative controller from Bob Moog's Big Briar Inc. around the same time period (and one that I would also love to get my greedy, dirty little paws on) is the Model 500 Theremin Controller.

Take the coolness and interactivity of the original Theremin, strip out the audio circuitry, and replace with two control voltage outputs for pitch and volume. Actually... not just for pitch and volume. More on that later.

A quick search of the Web found one of the earlier spec sheets for the Model 500 on Spheremusic.com's Web site for one of its auctions for Big Briar's 1982 controller pamphlet and blueprints. Click on that first big image and it will allow you to scroll through the other pages, including an image of the Model 500 page. This page has some great reference info on the 500, including the fact that it came with options for digital outputs and a line-operated power supply.

Image from the Buxton Collection.
Click to view Web page.

The actual design of the Model 500 Theremin Controller looks to have changed quite a bit between that 1982 pamphlet and the 1984 ad. From what basically looked like a block of wood to something that more closely resembled the sleekness of the Model 331 touch plate. Although I couldn't find any good quality colour photos of Model 500 during my quick Google search, I imagine it looks much like that gorgeous photo of the Model 331 found on that Buxton Collection Web site I linked to last week (see image at right).

Design aside, its those control voltage outputs I love most. Let me repeat that, and maybe yell it - CONTROL VOLTAGES!!!

So, as the ad states, you can connect this baby to your favorite synth (such as a lovely Moog Modular synth) and start controlling "pitch, volume, brightness - any parameter that can be voltage controlled".   According to the pamphlet, there was also the addition of a gate signal "that goes on as the right hand begins to approach the pitch antenna, thus making it convenient to squelch the tone when no musician is near the controller."

Squelch! Excellent!

What this all does is open up Theremin-like control to a much wider range of sound. Any waveform you can create with your synth can be theremized (so too is a word! And if it's not, that shizzle needs to be trademarked pronto).

All this brings me to another reason I'm stoked about this ad.  NAMM has just concluded, and one of the products that stood out for me and my close circle of online synth-nuts was Moog's new Theremini.

Damn! That's the spaciest-lookin' Theremin yet! That thing would look as good in my studio as it would on the set of Star Trek's control room.

And the best news is that, like the Model 500 Theremin Controller, the Theremini opens up a whole new range of sounds to the user by including "a powerful sound engine derived from Moog's award winning synthesizer, Animoog"! PLUS you get pitch-correction for us beginners, pitch CV out, and a mini-USB jack for MIDI.

MoFo! Are you kidding me? Do I have to punch you all in the neck to show you how excited I am.

*This* has just taken #1 spot on my "next piece of kit" list.

Big Briar Inc. Model 331 Touch Plate "Greatest Invention Since The Wheel" ad, Keyboard 1983

Big Briar Inc.'s Model 331 Touch Plate "Greatest Invention Since The Wheel" black and white 1/4-page advertisement from page 85 in the December 1983 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

So, one of the main reasons I've been taking a break from blogging was that I was finally feeling the pull of the studio. But, after six or seven months I've finally started to feel the pull back to the blog. Creativity, in and out of the studio, is a fickle thing. I find I need a spark to help initiate that pull...

...something that gets me exited...

And this time, that excitement - the pull back to blogging - started as a seed that was planted back during the holidays while I was researching some hardware interactive design ideas for a studio  project. That, of course, led me to Google, which then led me to Microsoft Research's Bill Buxton's collection of input and interactive devices.

According to the About page:

"Bill Buxton is the author of Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. A Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, he has a 30-year involvement in research, design, and commentary around human aspects of technology. He was a researcher at Xerox PARC, and Chief Scientist of Alias Research and SGI Inc."

Well Bill, your Web site is the bee's knees and I want you to be my friend. Seriously - your Web site makes me cry - mainly because I want all those toys. I am a *big* fan of calculator/digital watches and that page alone made me pee a little. Now add Nintendo gloves, Etch-a-Sketch, Kraft System Joysticks... the list goes on.

With that in mind, you can imagine how excited I became when, under the touchpad section, I found some really nice up-close-and-personal photos of Big Briar's Model 331 Touch Plate.

And Bill's note underneath:

"This is a reminder that makers of electroacoustic instruments have been making touch sensors for years. This one was made for me by Bob Moog of Moog Synthesizer fame."

Heck yeah!

It was then that I recalled seeing this Big Briar ad while flipping through the December 1983 issue of Keyboard to find that Synthony holiday ad with the hand-drawn groovin' Santa Clause that I posted on Christmas.

This is one of the earlier Big Briar ads in Keyboard that Bob Moog created for his then not-so-new company, and it looks to have appeared only twice - in the December and January issues. Earlier ads mostly featured Synton equipment, with the name Big Briar appearing as the distributor near the bottom of the ad (see ad at right).

This ad is a great exercise in the benefits of size and colour. As gorgeous as that touch plate looks in black and white, the small footprint of the ad (1/4 page) and lack of colour really don't do the Model 311 justice. I think the wood grain and pop of blue that can be seen in Bill Buxton's photos would have really helped sell this thing. Or at least help keep it front-of-mind.

I also love the fact that Bob Moog would build these touch plates in all shapes and sizes. Really large touch plates would have made for some great live performances, just as the touch-screens of iPods and iPads, and now larger and larger touch-screen MONITORS, are now appearing more and more often on stage.

Now *that* gets me excited.

Moog Music "Happy Birthday Bob Moog (May 23)" ad/message, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Moog Music "Happy Birthday Bob Moog (May 23)" advertisement/message from page 65 in the June 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

I thought I would get an early start on Bob Moog's birthday week by posting this sweet, sweeeeeeet and fun full-page find on the Monday prior to his b-day, but I'm already seeing other early celebrations starting to pop up. Excellent!

For example, Moog Music Inc. appeared in my Facebook feed this morning with this awesome time-lapse of a mural painting on the side of the Moog factory. 

The Bob Moog Foundation's Web site also has a banner recognizing Bob's birthday suggesting you head down to the Early Girl Eatery where 20% of sales benefit the BMF. Looks yummy. And kinda makes me wish I lived near by.

And I'm sure this is only just the beginning. Throughout the week I'll be watching Moog Music, the Moog Foundation, and of course, MATRIXSYNTH, for more fun and interesting celebrations.

I was actually a little hesitant to post this advertisement.  Let me explain...

On the surface we have a nice friendly 1979 birthday message to Bob Moog from all his friends at Moog Music. Sure, no colour. Well, okay, in fact it looks a little dreary. Okay, okay - *a lot* dreary.  But yah - definitely a simple, fun and positive message.

Except that according to Wikipedia and a few other sources, Bob had left the company a year before. As much as I'm a glass-is-totally-full (half full with water, half full with air) optimist that believes that the words on the page were true feelings from those that had worked with Bob Moog and probably really missed his presence at the company, a teeny weeny tiny part of my gut was telling me that this advertisement could also have been a simple marketing attempt by Moog Music to keep Bob Moog's name personally associated with the company after he left.

The last time I posted a more personal Moog advertisement from 1977 - "A blunt and totally biased viewpoint on electronic synthesizers by Bob Moog" - I was quick to learn from Michelle Moog-Koussa (real-life Minimoog!) about some of the inner politics of Moog at the time. Boy - did I call that one wrong. Well, I didn't want to make that mistake twice.  :)

And interestingly, this rather stark ad actually appeared just prior to two of the more interesting (and favorite) Moog ads of all time - "You know what this is" from July 1979 and "When you've got the sound" from September 1979. In a lot of ways, this birthday ad/message actually fits in quite well this this bunch. 

    

So, just to be safe, I contacted Michelle to let her know I was going to post this little ditty during the Bob Moog birthday celebrations this week and she assured me it was fine.

*Phew*  :D

And, hey - who says good, fun, positive messages can't also play a role in good marketing anyways? Very similar words (and more!) have been used to describe Bob Moog himself.

So remember - stay positive this week and keep your eye out for more fun celebrations, like this one last year from Moog Music in the form of a video by Moog engineer Steve Dunnington, who overdubbed six tracks of Minimoog Voyager to create this:

Bob Moog's basic patch sheet diagram for customized P1 Modular Moog, 1976 or earlier

Bob Moog's basic patch sheet diagram for customized P1 Modular Moog from approximately 1976 or earlier.

It just hit me (again) - why sounds on synths are often called patches. Probably because the first ever sounds had to be patched together with cables. I'm sure I knew this fact in my past, but I had totally forgotten it. One of the best things about getting old is being happily surprised by facts that you had forgotten you already knew.

Patch sheets used to be big business. I ordered quite a few in my day, especially for my CZs and DXs.  You could find tons of small ads for them in Keyboard. Then came RAM and ROM cartridges, data cassettes, diskettes and patch editing software.

But here might be the grand-daddy of  all patch sheets. :)

This patch sheet was one of many that were found among the catalogs and other papers included with my Modular Moog. The patch looks to have been drawn and provided by Bob Moog for the new owner to try out after initially setting up the modular. The "Bob" on the first page lines up rather perfectly with other signatures I've seen from him online.

There was actually a pile of used an unused patch sheets included. A few of the filled-in patch sheets may have also been designed by Bob Moog with patch names like "Bubbles" and"'Copter Blades", while others are clearly dated and in another person's handwriting entirely (the previous owner no doubt) - "Clavinet (Oct 81)", "Rhodes Sound (Mar/82)", "Oboe (Jan/83)",  "Bass Dr. (Jan/85). To this day I continue to use photocopies of the unused patch sheet to create 'back-ups' of my own patches.

I've dated the patch sheet with 1976 based on the fact that this dated modular and module price sheet was also included in that pile of papers, but it could have been that the price sheet was acquired by the original owner at a later date. Plus, considering that the Moog catalog included with the machine was the 1967 short form catalog, it's possible that the machine was bought much earlier.Or, it could also be that the 1967 catalog was still relevant and in circulation years later.

I've often been asked what "model" this modular is and based on the modular information I've found on Moogarchives.com, I concluded that it was a slightly customized 1P (without the optional 960/961 sequencer - DANG!). Customizations included an extra 901B Oscillator, 902 VCA, and 911 Envelope Generator (three of each instead of the standard two). Plus this modular has a 903A Random Signal Generator that replaced the 903 White Noise module in Moog Modulars around 1969 -suggesting that this modular was built after 1969 (thanks to "CZ rider" from the Vintage Synth Explorer forums for that little nugget of info!). If you are interested in knowing what other modules came with the unit, you can see all the module #s in the patch sheet.

I originally posted these scans in the Vintage Synth Explorer forums after one member posted the simple question: "What was your first Moog?"

Normally I don't contribute much to forums - I'm more of a forum lurker type - but I just couldn't resist telling my Modular Moog story. I included the patch sheet scan because I thought it added to the story and would be of general interest to boot. The scans received some positive feedback so I thought readers of the blog might be interested in seeing them as well.

Interestingly, as part of the deal of buying the modular, I also had to take an almost complete set of Scientific American's. That's a lot of magazines. And I quickly found out that it wasn't just synth ads I was addicted to.

Mid-century cigarette and car ads are crazy awesome sauce.