Electronic Drums book with LinnDrum and DMX sound sheet, Amsco Publishing 1985

After my last blog post on the LinnDrum, I received not one, but two emails asking for information about the Electronic Drums book I referenced as an offline resource. Yes, I know - this book is not really an ad. But I think you will agree the addition of the excellent sound sheet in the book almost makes it promotional material for Linn, Oberheim and Simmons. But don't give the machines full credit - the author/musician playing the gear on the sound sheet gets a lot of it.

If you haven't guessed by the opening paragraph, I'm a big fan of the synthesizer and drum machine reference books that came out in the 80's. Books like Synthesizer Technique and Synthesizer Basics that were compiled by the editors of Keyboard Magazine (and part of the Keyboard Synthesizer Library series) are great reads.

Another publisher also capitalizing (in a good way!) on the popularity of electronic gear in the mid-80s was Amsco Publications - and they seem to still be around today! The company released more than a few great books, including The Complete Guide to Synthesizers, Sequencers & Drum Machines by Dean Friendman, and this book - Electronic Drums  - by Frank Vilardi and Steve Tarshis.

And like I said... I *love* these handy little reference guides. Old, yes. But a lot of good information packed into them. 

The book itself is 85 pages, and includes a rockin' two-sided sound sheet. The sub-title of the book pretty much explains what the book is about - "Everything you need to know about electronic drum kits and drum computers".

Yup. 

The author profile at the back of the book provides a bit of background information about the author Frank Vilardi. He's described as a free-lance drummer working in New York City "working in recording studios doing records, films, TV and radio jingles". He was also involved in touring and teaching electronic drum workshops. That's a pretty full plate.

There is no information on the other author, Steve Tarshis, in the book - but luckily more information on both authors are just a few quick Google searches away.  Frank Vilardi's Web site looks to have last been edited around September 2008 and tells me he is still living in New York City and was touring with the Bacon Brothers around that time period.  Albumcredits.com has him listed as working with artists like Kaya, Rod Stewart and Rosanne Cash well into 2011 and 2012. Impressive stuff

Steve Tarshis also has a Web site and includes an also-impressive bio working as a musical director, a musician for several Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals, instructor, lecturer and instructor. Coolest of all is that his news page has him currently listed as the Director of New York area kid's rock camp called Camp Jam at Hofstra University from Summer 2010 to present. "No canoes - lots of rock". Hee hee!

As mentioned above, Frank and Steve have put together a wonderful piece of reference material for the time period - that being before you could find everything you wanted to know about absolutely everything on the Web. As a non-drummer growing up, the first two sections were of most interest and use to me. Although as a young electronic musician I probably should have spent A LOT more time on section three.   :)

I've included a short summary of each section below. 

Section 1 is titled Electronic Drums and provides two-to-five page summaries on the features of a number of electronic drum kits including Simmons SDS 5, Pearl Fightman, Simmons SDS 8, Tama Techstar, Simmons SDS 7, E-Drum by E-mu and Simons SDS-1.

Section 2 is titled Digital Drum Computers and provides summaries on the features of a number of drum machines including LinnDrum, Oberheim DMX and DX, E-mu Drumulator, Roland TR-909, Roland TR-707, Yamaha RX11 and RX15 and finally the Linn 9000.

Section 3, probably of more interest to drummers and those without any drum machine knowledge, is a section called Programming a Song, and the whole second side of the demo sound sheet that comes with the book is devoted to this section.

Section 4, the last section, is called Triggering and Sampling and provides just a page or two on the some of the devices that have started to appear for this purpose.

The book also includes a description for both sides of the sound sheet, which I've included below. It was programmed and played by Frank Vilardi except for 4, listed as being programmed by Rick Kerr. Recorded by Rick Kerr at Planet Sound, New York City.

Side 1: 

1. Starts with LinnDrum. Percussion sounds only heat continues throughout.
   Joined by acoustic drums.
   Acoustic drums are dropped out.
   Simmons bass and snare drum that are being triggered from acoustic drums continue.
   Acoustic drums reappear to join Simmons and Linn.
2. Begins with Acoustic drums and triggered Simmons (bass and snare).
   Linn drum is added. The swing or shffle function is being used here to create the reggae feeling.
3. Starts with Linn drum playing a tipical "dance" type of beat.
   The first tom fill is the Linn. All subsequent fills being overdubbed on the Simmons SDS 7. The kits are being changed every two fills to demonstrate some of the sound possibilities. 
4. This example was programmed entirely on DMX, using all factory sounds. there are two separate programs of the drum machine running in sync to each other. This technique, along with some non-standard tunings are studio equipment can be used to create some very interesting effects.

Side 2: This side demostrates the programming of the song demonstrated in the book. Done on Linn Drum.

5. Count off - Program 77, Measures a & b.
6. Intro - Program 11, Measures 1-4.
7. Verse - Program 12, Measures 5-10.
8. End of verse - Program 13, Measures 11 & 12.
9. Chorus - Program 14, Measures 13-18.
10. Seventh bar of chorus - Program 15, Measure 19.
11.  Eighth bar of chorus - Program 16, Measure 20.
12. Bridge - Program 17, Measures 21-25.
13. Fill at end of bridge - Program 18, Measure 26.
14. Entire song.

I've seen a couple of copies of the book pop up on eBay and Amazon used books. If you dig these types of books, definitely pick up a copy if you can find it at a decent price.

And wouldn't you know it... before I posted this, I snatched another nicely priced copy on e-Bay - including the sound sheet!

Thank you Frank and Steve and Amsco for creating this book! Pure awesomeness.

Oberheim holiday-themed family of products ad, Keyboard 1985

Oberheim holiday-themed family of products advertisement from the back-inside cover of Keyboard Magazine, December 1985.

I had mentioned at the end of a recent Keyboard magazine holiday gift subscription blog post, that these season-themed ads were "few and far between". But here is one good example.

Oberheim had pretty much taken over the back-inside cover of Keyboard Magazine starting in January 1984, and kept that advertising hot-spot well into 1988. Month after month, most of those ads had a very distinctive design- and this illustrated ad definitely didn't follow that style. In fact, that is one of the reasons it stands out so well.

Flipping through the December 1985 issue of Keyboard, I soon realized that it looked like this Oberheim advertisement was the only ad that referenced the holiday season. Keyboard Magazine itself had it's usual give-the-gift-of-Keyboard subscription-type ads and forms, but no other manufacturer or service seemed to try and jump on Santa's bandwagon sleigh.

But Oberheim goes full-on, splurging on a colourful illustrated back-inside cover ad that only seemed to have been used once that year. And they do it with a bit of humor too. Under the tag-line "Sounds of the Seasons", You've got cute Santa hands playing a... er... helicopter sounds?!?!

As the kids would say - LMFAO.

And, of course, cutest of all... the modified Oberheim logo with a Santa hat in the bottom left hand corner. Now, most branding experts will try and tell you to never mess with your logo. But, usually those Branding experts are referring to a full-on long-term logo/branding change (a la GAP fiasco). Short term changes such as the one above are harmless as far as I'm concerned. Especially if done with humor. Just look at the constantly changing Google logo on it's search home page. I doubt that has hurt their brand at all. Think of Oberheim as the Google of the synthesizer world at this point. So big that they didn't even have to include photos of their products in this ad. Everyone reading Keyboard knew what a Matrix 12 looked like. :o)

And with all those great Oberheim products available during the 1985 Christmas season, this is one family that I wouldn't mind visiting with during the holidays.

Oberheim DMX drum machine, Keyboard 1982

Oberheim DMX drum machine advertisement from page 43 of Keyboard Magazine April 1982.

The DMX drum machine first started appearing in ads starting in mid-1981. The first was an ad that was designed to feature both it and the DSX sequencer, but could also be easily split apart to create two individual ads for each product. And Oberheim did just that a month or two later with the introduction of the DSX-only sequencer Xtra Hands ad.

But, as far as I can tell, a DMX-only drum machine ad based on the same background/theme never materialized. It wasn't until three-quarters of a year later in early 1982 that this DMX-only ad started to run. It continued to run sporadically through the summer of 1982, taking turns to appear in Keyboard magazine with Oberheim's "The System" ad - an ad that featured the DMX as well as all the other members of the Oberheim family at the time.

So, it makes sense that the Oberheim "System" ad and this DMX ad actually share quite a bit of design elements. In particular, the yellow-line design element, the grayish background colour (ugh - not a fan), and the relatively heavy ad-copy. In my opinion, those design elements don't really inspire the reader too much, and the rest of the ad elements don't add much to the mix either.

For one, there isn't really a lot of balance to the ad - it almost looks like there is a right-hand column of text missing under the photos. And the colour photo images of the front and back panels are nice, but probably could have been larger and better placed had space been used more effectively. At least the ad-copy is interesting and provides quite a bit of reference information to the reader.

But, I gotta say, there is a one-page LinnDrum ad appearing in the same issue that is black and white, features a very small photo, and includes only bullets of text. But I find I'm drawn to it more than this ad.

I do like the title of the ad. It's a nice play on words about the technology used to create those fantastic drum sounds: UN-REAL DRUMS.

But if there was one thing in particular I had to point out that bugged me about this ad when I first started looking at it, it's got to be that it doesn't mention 'The System'. My theory on 'The System' has always been that Oberheim was really trying to get in front of the possibility of the universal MIDI specs coming onto the scene in the near future. So, by repackaging their own proprietary tech as 'The System', they get a real head-start on MIDI. And since the DMX ad was running at the same time as that System ad, along with similar design elements, it would have made sense to also push 'The System' in any DMX ad.

The ad does mention that the "drum machine will sync to it's companion DSX Digital Polyphonic Sequencer...". That's a start. But it's the rest of the sentence that gives away Oberheim's marketing approach. The sentence ends with "...and to audio or videotape, as well as most other sequencers".

Ahhhhh. It all becomes more clear. Here's my logic:

The DSX sequencer would do nothing for you if you bought it on it's own. It needed to have other gear connected to it to be of any use - either through that 37-pin computer connector, the CV/gates or the clock in/outs. This makes it much more "connected" with the "The System" than it's DMX brother.

But a musician could easily use the DMX drum machine on its own. You can lay down tracks by itself, or, as this ad states - "sync to most other sequencers". Users could easily buy the drum machine on it's own, with no immediate need to pick up it's sister sequencer or synthesizer. So it makes sense to position the DMX in it's individual ad this way. And then in "System" ads, position as an integrated piece.

Best of both worlds!

End note: For some reason, in my mind sequencers are girls, and drum machines are boys - it will probably take years of therapy and three or four blog posts to figure that one out...

Oberheim DSX sequencer and DMX drum machine, Keyboard 1981

Oberheim DSX Digital Polyphonic Sequencer and DMX Programmable Digital Drum Machine advertisement from page 46 and 47 of Keyboard Magazine November 1981.

This two-pager ad started running in mid-1981, and as I mentioned in my previous blog post, contains one of the earlier mentions of the tech behind what would eventually be marketed as 'The System'. But at this time, Oberheim was obviously excited to sell these two as a pair, keeping the OB-Xa strictly in the background. Although Oberheim didn't let their excitement get in the way of their ingenuity - they built this advertisement in such a way that it could easily be split in half, effectively creating two individual advertisements, if space or ad budget became limited.

The two pieces even appeared together in the Spec Sheet section of the August 1981 issue of Keyboard:

"Oberheim Sequencer and Drum Machine. The DSX is a polyphonic digital sequencer with a 3,000-note memory that can be expanded to 6,000 notes. Its features include editing, overdubbing, 16-voice capability, and the ability to merge sequencers in any order. Direct interface is possible with the Oberheim OB-X,OB-SX, and OB-Xa synthesizers and the DMX drum machine. The unit also has eight independently controlled voltage outputs and eight gate outputs, each with user-selectable positive- or negative-going outputs. Real-time programming, a single-step mode, and synchronization to tape for multi-tracking are additional capabilities. the DMX drum machine uses real drum sounds that are stored in digital memory. You can program song structure, time signature, sequence length, dynamics, and tempo in either real-time or single-step mode. The unit has 24 voices, including soft, medium, and loud bass drum; soft medium, and loud snare; open, closed, and accent hi-hat; six different tom-tom sounds; three cymbals; handclaps; rim shot; regular and accent tambourine; and shaker. The DMX also has separate outputs for each voice in addition to stereo outputs. It has inputs to allow external modulation of pitch and volume, and comes with 50 pre-programmed rhythm sequences. An external sync function makes it possible to sync the unit with tape, the DSX, and Oberheim synthesizers. Both the DSX and the DMX feature 16-digit alphanumeric displays, battery back-up for memory retention when power is off, and built-in cassette interface for off-line storage of sequences. Proces are: DSX: $1,700.00; DMX, $3,000. Oberheim Electronics, 2250 S. Barrington, Los Angeles, CA 90064"

The Spec Sheet write-up is interesting from a historical perspective for a couple of reasons. The first is because it does mention that fact that you can directly interface the DSX with other Oberheim gear ('The System'!). But, almost as interesting is that the Spec Sheet mentions the 16-digit alphanumeric displays of both units.

The 16-digit displays are also mentioned in this advertisement! And they are important enough that Oberheim devotes the resources and space required to provide a photo of both the DSX and DMX displays, with copy promoting the fact that each photo is of the "actual readout".

Funny thing to promote, I thought. And then I started thinking about it. Until now, I've never really thought too much about the evolution of displays on gear. Like most people probably, I've kinda taken them for granted. There there when you needed them.

User-interface design on really old synthesizers mostly dealt with the placement of the physical switches, levers and dial positions - one control for each function. And how those controls were laid out across the front panel to help work-flow (usually following the path of the audio from left to right - VCO section -> VCF section -> VCA section). I hope that's making sense...

Then, as the word "digital" and "memory" started creeping into gear design, small displays started to appear to help users with things like the storage and retrieval of sound patches. As the software side of things progressed further, there was theoretically a decreased need for as many physical buttons, knobs and dials. You could assign one knob to control a lot of different functions - all programmed through the OS with the current function of the knob showing in the digital display. And so the need for good user-interface design started to affect both hardware and software side.

I started flipping through a few issues around the time this advertisement appeared, and sure enough, when I looked at other manufacturer's gear, it turns out a 16-digit display is a PRETTY SWEET DEAL.

The Roland Jupiter 8: 4-digit display.

Linn LM-1: two 2-digit displays.

Prophet-5: 2-digit display.

The Octave-plateau Voyager One probably came closest with their three 2-digit displays and five 1-digit displays. But they were still really limited to the amount of information it could offer. No real words could be displayed very well.

Now, I know what you are thinking - 'cause I was thinking it too. The DMX and DSX were NOT simple synthesizers. They were machines that had a lot more programming ability, so obviously Oberheim *had* to provide a larger display. Well, the Synclavier II, another advertised piece of kit around this time period, slammed a whole computer into it's guts and included a 16 track digital sequencer - and it looks like it only had a 4-digit display (never seen one in RL though).

Oberheim's display was really the next best thing to a full-on computer screen at the time.

In a way, Oberheim's 16-digit display was really the C-3PO of the DSX. I'm Luke Skywalker, and the OS of the DSX is R2D2. And that16-digit display is doing a dang fine job of translating all those 1's and 0's of the DSX OS into something a human can understand.

Did I really just compare Oberheim's OS to Star Wars?!?!

Good grief!

Oberheim family of products - The System, Keyboard 1982

Oberheim family of products aka 'The System', including the OB-Xa and OB-SX synthesizers, the DSX digital sequencer and the DMX digital drum machine from page 7 of Keyboard Magazine June 1982.

My recent blog posts have been about "The System" - but those posts were all about the Oberheim 1983 System which included the OB-8 synthesizer.

Here is an ad featuring the older version of "The Oberheim Performance System" circa 1982. *THIS* is the system I dream about at night. I drool every time I look at it.

I not only drool because of the gear-nerd that I am, but also because the marketing guy in me knows a good thing when he sees it. This ad documents the point in time that Oberheim's marketing department finally started to push the concept that "the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts".

Oberheim knew these pieces looked good together. Oberheim knew they sounded great together. They just needed to be tied together into one... cool... slick... package...

And The System is born!

I also dig these earlier Oberheim ads because they feature these particular pieces of gear. And knowing when the OB-Xa, DMX and DSX started showing up in ads helps give us a good idea of just how long the tech *behind* the Oberheim system had been around before MIDI made it's commercial breakthrough.

Before doing research, I was thinking ---> This ad started showing up in June 1982? The first MIDI synth came along shortly after in 1983. Bah!

True. But as it turns out the the actual technology behind "The System" was available long before this first ad.

I started looking back at old issues of Keyboard to see just how far back the technology went, and, even more interesting to me, how Oberheim positioned these pieces before "The System" as a whole made an appearance.

I found one of the earlier direct mentions of the multi-pin connector back in the June 1981 Keyboard review for the OB-Xa. The interface is mentioned very briefly in the description of the rear panel, where Dominic Milano writes that the owner's manual explains it "is for interfacing the instrument with future Oberheim products".

Not only is "The System" not mentioned yet, but there isn't even a brief mention of the DSX or DMX, which is strange because....

Just a month later in the July 1981 issue, Oberheim began running a two-page advertisement for the DSX Digital Polyphonic Sequencer and DMX Programmable Digital Drum Machine. The photo in the ad has the two featured products up front, and shaded out in the background is the OB-Xa synthesizer. This is the first sighting I've found of the three pieces together.

There is a lot of ad-copy in this two-pager, including one brief bullet point on the DSX's side mentioning that the DSX sequencer "interfaces directly with the OB-X, OB-SX and OB-Xa and the new DMX".

The ad-copy still doesn't mention "The System", but it does end the ad by mentioning how great the three separate pieces of gear work with each other

"The OB-Xa, DSX and DMX are amazing by themselves, but together... watch out!"

The next month in the August 1981 issue, the DMX and DSX show up in the Spec Sheet section of Keyboard. Again, there is only a brief mention that with the DSX, "direct interface is possible with the Oberheim OB-X, OB-SX, and OB-Xa synthesizers and DMX drum machine". (I'll save the full text of the Spec Sheet for another day - another ad :o)

But, still no direct mention of "The System". Come on, Oberheim marketing guys - MIDI is getting closer and closer to launch!

And in the January and February 1982 issues, Oberheim runs another two-page ad featuring the the updated OB-Xa with 120 programs. Again - only a brief mention that "The OB-Xa is interfaceable with Oberheim's DMX Digital Drum machine and DSX Digital Polyphonic Sequencer".

Is 'interfaceable' even a word? I guess I've used worse...

But, gah! It's been almost a year since Oberheim started putting these three pieces together in ads, and the Marketing Department still hasn't turned it into "System" gold!

And then, a few months later... BAM!

In the June 1982 issue of Keyboard ("The New Synthesizer Rock" issue with Michael MacNeil of Simple Minds playing an Oberheim OB-Xa on the cover - sweeeeet!), we finally have this first "The System" ad on page 7, directly across from the "Letters to the Editor" section. Great real estate!

And what a beauty it is. These three pieces of gear look great together, all wrapped up snuggly in their "System" marketing package. Seriously.

So, although it took until June 1982 to finally call this 'The System' in advertisements, Oberheim obviously had the system in mind since at least June 1981. And if you take into account that I probably didn't catch the first documented instance of the tech, and the fact that the development of the OB-Xa started much earlier... then Oberheim probably beat out MIDI by more that two years.

Nice work, Oberheim.

Oberheim 'The System' rebate advertisement, Keyboard 1984

Oberheim 'The System' rebate advertisement, including OB-8 synthesizer, DSX sequencer, DMX drum machine, and Model 700 amplifier from page 22 of Keyboard Magazine January 1984.

What a great ad. What a great font with "REBATE" spanning to width of the page!

At a time when most of the big synthesizer companies were churning out full-colour ditties with fantastic photography, Oberheim gets reader's attention with a full-on black and white all-text ad. Including '$500 cash' in big bold letters doesn't hurt either.

My last blog post featured Oberheim's first 'The System' advertisement. It started running in keyboard in late 1983 through to early 1984 - and this rebate advertisement started running along with it for a few issues during the holidays. Oberheim even had the two ads appearing across from each other in the February issue (last page and back-inside cover page). This stark, clean rebate ad on one side, and that gorgeous photography of 'The System' on the other.

And, you gotta admit, Oberheim gear *is* gorgeous. Along with being relatively easy to learn and use ('clear and logical' was how Jim Aikin described it - more on Jim's views below...). And every Oberheim synthesizer I've come across has been built like a tank.

As stated in this advertisement, "...as we all know, the best tools are never cheap".

So, $500 off a full Oberheim system is a nice little holiday treat. Considering that together, the OB-8, DSX and DMX cost a little over $9,000 at the time, that's a good five or six per cent discount.

I have to keep reminding myself that I can't think of this $500-off deal in today's terms, where five or six percent wouldn't even make it into that coupon book your little sister is selling for her school fund-raiser. Back then, synthesizer price-points were much higher and there were far fewer bedroom musicians around expecting a great deal every time they walked into their local music store. Plus, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say if you were buying $9,000 worth of gear back in 1984, you were probably doing okay as a musician, or were seriously thinking you were going to be doing okay in the near future. So, $500 off is icing on an already really delicious cake.

Jim Aikin reviewed all three pieces of the Oberheim system - the OB-8, DSX, and DMX - in the April 1983 issue of Keyboard, interestingly, months and months before any of 'The System' advertisements started to appear.

Right at the beginning of the article, Jim makes a great observation, comparing this new breed of synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers to individual modules of a modular synthesizer of old:

"A number of manufacturers are getting into the business of building whole lines of "modules" that are designed to be electronically compatible, and that are hooked together with patch cords. The difference is that the "modules" are no longer simple things like oscillators or filters; they 're complete musical instruments and accessories, each with its own complex internal structure. "

I know I sound like a parrot, but let's remember, back before MIDI, it was hard to get everything to work together nicely (hence the existence of the Doctor Click :o)

And this historical reality is also reflected in Jim's review:

"You might be able to cobble together similar units by three different manufacturers and get them to talk to one another, but there might be a lot of headaches involved in getting them all operating smoothly and predictably. The people at Oberheim have gone to a lot of trouble to eliminate the headaches... the advantages of having an integrated setup should be obvious."

And apparently the $9000 price tag was worth it at the time. You can't get half-way through the intro without realizing that Jim was very impressed with the system, and in the conclusion of the article states as much:

"The System is in many ways a remarkable set of equipment. It's materially more advanced in design than the kind of hardware we were dealing with only a couple of years ago, and the musical potential is correspondingly great."

But, here's the thing. Well, two things.

1. The article doesn't mention MIDI. Not even once. Companies have already agreed on the MIDI specs and the Prophet-600 advertisements have been out for a couple of months already. I guess I have to keep reminding myself that MIDI still wasn't a 'sure thing' at this point, and history has shown that there has been a a lot of good 'universal' technology that had missed the boat and not taken up by the masses. Maybe Jim was just trying to keep the article from getting even more complicated than it already was.

2. Could that rebate offer be partly due to the pressure Oberheim must have been feeling as MIDI inched it's way forward? As pointed out in the previous blog post, certain individuals at Oberheim were apparently a little on the anti-MIDI side earlier in MIDI's development phase. They had spent a lot of money and time coming up with their own proprietary technology.

I better stop before the conspiracist in me starts rambling.

And, for the record, I *heart* Oberheim.

Oberheim family of products, Keyboard 1986

Oberheim family of products, including Matrix-12 synthesizer, DMX-MIDI, DX-Stretch, Matrix-6 synthesizer, Prommer, Xpander synthesizer, XK, and Matrix6R synthesizer from back cover of Keyboard magazine March 1986.