Korg "...we put it all together" Family of Products ad, Keyboard 1982

Korg Family of Products advertisement including the ES-50, Delta, Sigma, M500 Micro Preset, MS-10, MS-20, MS-50 and Trident synthesizers, CX-3 and BX-3 organs, LP-10 electric piano, KR-55 and KR-33 drum machines, SE-300 and SE-500 Stage Echo effects units, and X-911 guitar synthesizer from page 42 and 43 in Keyboard Magazine January 1982. Also included some tuners - meh.

And so the Korg love continues!

It had been quite a while since Korg had summarized their keyboard and drum machine offerings in a single ad. Oh yeah... Um... Never.

They had previously smooshed a couple of different instruments together in smaller ads, but I can't recall anything like this. Readers had the relatively rare privilege of viewing this ad in the January, February and June 1982 issues.

And it was about time it showed up. Competitor ARP had turned the "product family" photo ad into an art form back in 1976. Oberheim had also featured a family photo ad back in 1976, and Roland in 1978. And Sequential Circuits Inc. was about to join the family photo party with their ad starting in February of the same year this ad showed up.

It was also about time because for the previous few years, Korg and been pushing a lot of different products in Keyboard, sometimes three or four ads in an issue. A reader could easily get overwhelmed by it all. So, by putting "it all together" into a single ad, Korg helped readers wrap their heads around everything available in a nicely laid out 2-page package, while at the same time pounding their chests a little at some of their competitors. Korg big! Korg smash!

The collection of synthesizers Korg brought together for this ad is nothing but spectacular. It's definitely not every piece of gear Korg had on offer. But it's a good summary. And including products like the MS-20 or Sigma, gear that hadn't been advertised for over a year or two, were nice gentle reminders to readers that these instruments were indeed still available in 1982. For readers today, it provides a perfect summary snapshot in time. A great historical resource.

The design of the ad is a little chaotic. "Korg" in bright neon-red may almost be too big, and to me, looks like it is pushing what was once a nicely lined-up set of instruments into the column of text. Maybe that was the intent, but it makes reading the ad-copy a little more difficult than it should be. And that poor MS-10 in the upper-middle of the ad facing the wrong direction. What's going on there? It's like it never got the memo.

But those small small criticisms aside (from the guy, almost 30 years later, with 20/20 hindsight) just makes me love this ad even more.

The most interesting reference from this ad is right at the bottom: Get a full color catalog and 20" x 28" Keith Emerson color poster for three bucks. Good to see Korg take a page out of ARP's playbook and throwing a bit of name-dropping into their ads.

Korg, I'm still crushing on you. <3

Korg ES-50 Lambda Polyphonic Ensemble Ad #2, Contemporary Keyboard, 1980

Korg ES-50 Polyphonic Ensemble Advertisement #2 from page 51 in Contemporary Keyboard February 1980.

Everywhere I look on the Internet, the ES-50 is almost always referred to as the " Lambda". But the only evidence of" Lambda" in this ad (and the previous ES-50 ad) is in the photo. Look hard enough and you will see a stylized Lambda symbol beside the Korg logo on the right side of the front panel. But that seems to be it.

So, I took a look at some online images of the ES-50 to see if there was any evidence of the symbol or name "Lambda" on the back on the unit. The result - nothing as far as I could tell. A recent ES-50 auction I found on MATRIXSYNTH (which, BTW, was what got me interested in researching this keyboard in the first place), included some really good images. But, again no sign of "Lambda". Name or symbol.

Left and right back images - from MATRIXSYNTH

But then I'm thinking... how about on the manufacturer's serial number label? But MATRIXSYNTH even included a close-up of that label, and again - nothing. Only the ES-50 name can be found in the "MODEL" field.

Manufacturer's label - from MATRIXSYNTH

The sparse Spec Sheet promo of the ES-50 was no help either. The ES-50 appeared in the January 1980 issue of CK (sandwiched between when the first black and white ad ran, and when the colour ad started) - and guess what? Again, no mention of "Lambda":

"The ES-50 polyphonic ensemble provides layers of multiple voicings ranging from electric piano, acoustic piano, harpsichord, brass, organ, and strings to human chorus sounds. All voices have separate articulation and are totally intermixable. Three oscillators are used and there is also a variable chorus modulator section. The unit also includes a joystick controller, stereo and mono outputs, variable speed tremolo, ADR controls, split voltage volume pedal input, and interface jacks.

[Side note: No pricing info in the Spec Sheet? Wussup with that?]

It took a bit more digging on the Web, but I finally found some official evidence that Korg called the ES-50 the "Lambda". Carbon111.com has a fantastic Lambda page that includes some great images, commentary, and reference information including some sounds. But it is Carbon111's link to a PDF of the ES-50's user manual (PDF) that finally provided the proof. That user manual often included the word "Lambda" after the ES-50 title, or when the stylized Lambda symbol appeared.

I find it at least a little amazing that the name "Lambda" could stick around with so little promotion. More power to Korg for that one!

So, why name it "Lambda" anyways (besides the fact that they already had come out with a keyboard named "Sigma")? Time to check Wikipedia.

A couple of the uses/meanings of "Lambda":

• Empty set in mathematics. Nope.
  
• Subatomic particle. Nope. But cool.
  
• A recurring symbol for the human resistance in the Valve computer game series Half-Life. Awesomely cool. But nope.
  
• The likelihood that a small body will encounter a planet or a dwarf planet leading to a deflection of a significant magnitude. Ouch. That one hurt my head.
  

• The wavelength of any wave, especially in physics, electronics engineering, and mathematics.

Bingo!

As for the ES-50 Lambda advertisement itself... after a brief advertising low-point with their Sigma advertisements, Korg, or should I say, Unicord, finally got back on track when they came out with that first black & white ES-50 advertisement.

And now, after that initial black and white advertisement ran only once on page 9 (some great real estate!), they turned the volume up a notch two months later with this colour version of the ad, which ended up running throughout the first half of 1980, and then again near the end of the year. The only downside was that this this far superior ad wasn't placed in the magazine nearly as well, usually running on a page somewhere in the 20s or 30s... except in December when it ran on the back inside cover.

I had mentioned in my last ES-50 post that it was really apparent which musician-based audience Unicord was directing that ad towards. And this advertisement zeroed in ever further.

First, colour really added some much needed "pop" to this well-framed, balanced ad - in particular bringing out the wood grain finish of to the top of the keyboard. Something I expect most ES-50 users would probably have appreciated.

Second, although the ad-copy didn't change much, if at all, the ad really played off of the simple user interface of the ES-50 by replacing the second half of the ad title to, "... and it doesn't take an engineer to play."

Third and last, in this new ad, Unicord decided to offer a $1 demo tape to those interested in its sound.

Not a bad deal, although "free" is always better. :o)

Korg ES-50 Lambda Polyphonic Ensemble, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Korg ES-50 Lambda Polyphonic Ensemble advertisement from page 9 in Contemporary Keyboard December 1979.

*Sigh*

What a relief. After reacquainting myself with the Korg Sigma advertisements in my last blog post, I was pretty sure Korg had up-and-fired their old marketing company and decided to start using one of the VP's teen-age kids to do their ads. But, as you can see with this advertisement, Korg's ad agency is back in business!

So, why such a difference between the Sigma ads and this new ES-50 ad?

If you look back at those three Sigma ads (ad 1, ad 2, ad 3), you will notice they are distinctly different, not just from the Sigma ads, but from any other Korg ads that ran around the same time period. Ads like those for the MS-10, MS-20, and VC-10 were just so much more creative. Looking closely at all the ads, you will see the answer to this riddle lies in the contact info.

In the MS-10, MS-20 and VC-10 ads, and including this advertisement - the only distribution company mentioned was Unicord. But those Sigma ads included a large number of international companies, and in the first two ads, right at the bottom of the list of those companies (but separated by a line) is: "Keio Electronic Laboratory Corp. Tokyo, Japan". Turns out Keio Electronic Laboratory Corp. is Korg.

Side note: According to Korg's Wikipedia page, Keio's "fledgling offices were located near the Keio train line in Tokyo" and Keio can be formed by combining the first letters of the last names of Korg's two founders - Tsutomu Kato and Tadashi Osanai. How great is that!

And it gets better: "In 1967, Kato was approached by Fumio Mieda, an engineer who wanted to build keyboards. Impressed with Mieda's enthusiasm, Kato asked him to build a prototype and 18 months later Mieda returned with a programmable organ. Keio sold the organ under the name KORG, created by using the first letter of each founder's name plus "RG" from their planned emphasis on products targeted for the oRGan market".

Sorry, getting a little off-track.

Anyways, I'm guessing that Keio (Korg) paid for the Sigma advertisement production and placement costs. Unlike the other ads, including this one for the ES-50, that were probably created by Unicord's own Marketing peeps (and paid for by Unicord).

And a good thing too because I really like this ad when compared to the Sigma ones.

The ad title is fun and you know immediately what musician-based audience they were targeting. "At last, a synthesizer that doesn't sound synthetic".

The ad-copy provides the reader with useful information, and the Korg logo is placed nicely on the page with the new slogan "Korg - Does it for real". Not sure if that last part will catch on though... :o)

The angle of the photo is really nice as well, with a good view of the front panel.

But, I have to say, I kinda miss not having the Canadian distribution company on the ad.

Go Roughriders! :o)