Oberheim OB-X "Evolution of a classic" colour REBOOT 2-pager, Contemporary Keyboard 1980

Oberheim OB-X "Evolution of a classic" REBOOT/2.0 2-page advertisement from page 38 and 39 in the November 1980 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Oberheim interactive advertising timeline updated.

Quite fitting, this ad.

No, really... as I write this, it just happens to be Earth Day around these parts. You know how I found out? Google has a lovely image of a dirt bed on it's Canadian search page that slowly animates into a fully bloomed multi-coloured flower garden. That's how I seem to find out about holidays lately. On Google. Last minute.

Heck knows I haven't heard much about Earth Day from traditional media. That is partly my fault since traditional media is playing less and less of a role in my life. Plus, I don't have a dead-give-a-way like a kid that would probably have brought home a sculpture made from used plastic cafeteria dishes and cups around this time.

What would I have done before Google? Actually, even before Google, I would have figured out it was Earth Day by forgetting to by-pass the annual traffic jam that takes place from all the cars trying to get to the festivities that occurs in our centrally-located park.

Ironic, I know. But this is also the city that "clear-cut" parts of our indoor domed plant conservatory (bolded for emphasis) made up of totally awesome exotic plants, to make room for fake gaudy Amazon-like statues for wedding photos. Yup. You heard that right. Clear-cut. Conservatory. No kidding.

IRL, I'm actually a bit of an eco-nut. My undergrad is a joint  Botany/Zoology degree in Ecology - yah, that's what the degree was called *before* there was such a thing as Environmental Sciences (now I'm really dating myself). I'm guess I'm just down on what Earth Day has come to represent. Boo me. But I will enjoy a nice bicycle ride and a free Starbucks coffee today, thank you very much!

Okay, enough complaining by the old guy.  :D

Anyways, what does Earth Day have to do with this ad?

Well, it was pointed out to me by fellow Oberheim fan and blog reader Jean-Marc that I had posted the black and white version of this ad that ran eight months earlier in the March 1980 issue of CK. But then I skipped over this colour version of the ad and mistakenly credited this OB-SX ad as the first colour ad by Oberheim! Gah!

Thank-you Jean-Marc! This OB-X ad now looks to be Oberheim's first colour ad in CK! 

So, then the question becomes - why would Oberheim recycle this ad, but switch from black and white to colour? Usually it is the other way around - run the ad first in colour to make a big splash, and then switched-out to black and white for the remainder of the ad-run.

The extra paragraph at the end of the ad-copy probably explains:

"Now with new patches! As of September 1st, OB-X's are being shipped with a completely new set of dynamic patches. OB-X owners, send your name, address and serial number of your 'X' and we'll send you a cassette of the new patches free. Send for a free catalogue."

 How excellent of 'em! And a good reason to make a big deal with a splash of colour right before Christmas. A very nice gift for current owners.

Then, as I studied the two versions of the ad more closely, there appeared to be even more differences than I originally thought.

One of the first differences I noticed was that the large photo of the opened OB-X is shrunk down a bit and angled differently to make room for the extra paragraph of content. But then I realized - THIS IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PHOTO! The caution sticker and the slightly different ribbon positioning is a dead giveaway.

And then... wait... THAT OTHER PHOTO IS DIFFERENT TOO!  You can tell Oberheim switched it out for an instrument with updated colouring - most notable on the left-side controls. And, this smaller photo is now positioned behind the larger photo, where in the original it was actually positioned on top.

So, as is the case with the marketing of recycled objects, even though something may first appear to made of 100 per cent original materials, in reality it is often necessary to bring in new bits and pieces. In the case of this ad, the original ad-copy, catchy ad-title and awesome 2-page layout were kept. Photos and extra ad-copy added.

And that is a good enough recycling effort for this Ecology major. Time to enjoy my bike ride and a cup of joe.

I know its now a day later, but think about the Earth a little bit more.

Give a hoot. Don't pollute. NOW I'm dating myself.   :D

Oberheim OB-X "Evolution of a classic" 2-pager, Contemporary Keyboard 1980

Oberheim OB-X "Evolution of a classic" 2-page black and white advertisement from page 42 and 43 in the March 1980 issue of  Contemporary Keyboard Magazine.

Another awesome Oberheim ad. And, if you can believe it, I think this is Oberheim's FIRST two-page advertisement in CK - ever. But at least this got centerfold action. 

Looking back at Oberheim ads, "Evolution" has been one of their big themes.  Today, that word can unsuspectingly take on an uncomfortable tone and can be controversial just to include in ads - or elsewhere for that matter. We tried to use "Evolution" as the title for one of our recent annual reports and the discussion was long and heavy on whether that could work against the organization. In the end, we decided it was better to be safe than sorry, and stayed away from the word.

But back in the 70s/80s, "evolution" was still just a relatively innocent word that had a neutral or even positive scientific feeling to it, separate from anything to do with religion. No uncomfortable awkwardness around the marketing table wondering if someone in your audience may have taken their kids out of school because the teacher was going on about that myth of evolution.

Anyways, point being, this isn't the first time Oberheim made "Evolution" a theme in their marketing campaign.

They used the word to good effect back in 1977 in an ad that featured the SEM's evolution, from a tiny little box to what eventually became the dual manual Eight-Voice (even including a picture of it!!!!).

 And now they are continuing on with the theme in this two-page ad, this time starting with the Four Voice and Programmer. We don't get a cool diagram or flow chart, but the ad-copy does a good job of promoting Oberheim's continued technical progress into the OB-X and OB-1, and also throw in a mention of their Cassette Interface for storing patches/programs on tape.

Interestingly, Oberheim doesn't stop there with the ad-copy. In fact, they spend even more ad-copy real estate on another aspect that was becoming more important with polyphonic synths - durability for touring.

More technology = more that can go wrong. Great insight into the times.

I'm sure many musicians thought this was the ultimate polyphonic machine to take on the road, so Oberheim really tried to promote it's increased reliability and ease of repair.

This theme is magnified by the main photo too. The largest photo in this ad isn't a front panel shot - something that would look gorgeous in a two-page spread. Nope. The money-shot in this ad is an OB-X with its front panel lifted up, showing the ease with which you can get into the machine. In fact, this photo actually takes up more than 50% of the two pages. Bold move, Oberheim. Bold move. The best part is that you can easily shrink this photo down to that small space on the right half of the page, and the message is still there in a one-page ad format. Nice.

And, near the end of the ad-copy they take a small dig at the Prophet by including the line "Considering the musician who wishes to expand from a basic four or five voices...". Bolding is mine. Nothing like calling the Prophet "basic".

Another insight into Oberheim can be found in the first sentence in the ad. They mention that June 1979 NAMM show right at the beginning. I mentioned the NAMM show, and the CK article that followed, in the OB-X's introductory ad that I posted.  And the fact that Oberheim mentions it again in this ad must have meant that this particular show was *really good* to Oberheim. It was obviously a successful show for them and the OB-X launch, and I don't blame them for milking it for all it's worth.

Oh - back to the evolution theme for a second. The month after this ad appeared, another Oberheim ad looking at the evolution of their technology appeared in the April 1980 issue of CK that celebrated Oberheim's ten year anniversary.

That last one was a great summary of Oberheim's accomplishments too.Yum.

Good work Obie!

Oberheim OB-1A and OB-X "A family that plays together..." ad, Contemporary Keyboard, 1979

Oberheim OB-1A and OB-X "A family that plays together..." 1-page black and white advertisement from page 43 in the October 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

I actually posted this ad waaaaaay back in February 2009 (over three years ago!) but wasn't commenting on ads back then. Now, since this ad is kinda just sequentially fitting into the Oberheim ads I've been posting lately, I thought it deserved a bit of attention.

The main reason this ad deserves attention is that stylized hand-drawn Oberheim logo and logo-type in the bottom right hand corner. Blows me away. *THAT* version of the logo belongs on a t-shirt. Somebody get on that and I'll be first in line to buy one. 4 true!

The second reason this ad deserves a second look is that readers finally got to see a "final" OB-X. What I mean is (and like I pointed out in my last blog post on the OB-X) up until now most readers of CK had only seen what I called "prototype" versions in CK. These variations included different versions of the OB-X and Oberheim logos spread about in various locations on the front of the synth. But the photo in this ad finally captures the real OB-X. Delicious.

Finally,  this ad deserves more attention because I had not realized just how rare the OB-1A was. I tried to find some quick information on the differences between the original OB-1 model and the OB-1A using Google, but the top hits I got in Google Images were for a bunch of other Retrosynthads' posts (yay!), and the Web search top results brought up only a few significant links.

The main noticeable difference is, as the ad states, the "new improved chassis design and graphics", updating the synth's looks to fit in well with the newest direction of the Oberheim look - the OB-X.  As much as I'm in to the color black of the original, I really like the updated design. I haven't played on it, so can't tell if it is more user-friendly to the eye in terms of zero'ing in specific knobs and dials for tweeking sounds, but it sure looks like it would be.

The ad also states a few other updates from the original OB-1 design, including switchable 115/230 volt power and vibrato input pedal. Meh.

As for other tidbits about the OB-1A from around the Web that may give hints to differences between the two synths, two pages in particular popped out at me. The first was the Oberheim Files page on electrongate.com. I can't recall visiting this page before, but it contains a wack of great info including wiring block diagrams for both the OB-1 and OB-1A. And they do look slightly different. Now, this doesn't mean they *are* different. Just thought I would point it out.

The other page I found on the Web was (of course... :) a MATRIXSYNTH OB-1A auction post from April 2008. One of the great things about his auction posts is that he adds the photos to Flickr, where we get to see a lot more close-up photos of the synth. It's not a lot of photos, but I'll take what I can get when it comes to the OB-1A. Yum.

If you haven't noticed, I'm kinda a fan of the OB-1 and its kin. But all is not perfect. The biggest annoyance I have with this synthesizer is that although the back of the unit indicated that it was an OB-1A, it was still labelled "OB-1" on the front of the synth. I will always think of them as two different beasts, even if the differences are slight. 

Others aren't as convinced as I am that these two products should remain totally separate. For example, Oberheim Electronic's Wikipedia page labels a photo of an OB-1A as an OB-1. Even my fav, Vintage Synth Explorer, doesn't admit to its existence on their timeline or the OB-1 page. Yet.  

I know its not a big deal, but it still bugs me just a little bit.  :D  

Whether you call it an OB-1 or OB-1A, it won't change the fact that this ad only appeared twice, October 1979 and February 1980, and then this was the last readers would see from the OB-1 in ads.

I miss you already. Lots.

*cue tear running down face*

Oberheim "New OB-X" introductory ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Oberheim "New OB-X" introductory 1-page advertisement from page 29 in Contemporary Keyboard June 1979.

What the...? Do you see it too? Or... more accurately... do you *NOT* see it too?

At first I'm thinking: "Oberheim, this is messed up". No photo? Really - you are introducing a new synth, and no photo? I was almost angry at first.

My mind was racing to try and figure this one out. Why would Oberheim choose not to include a photo?

Well, one reason a photo may not have been included would be that the ad would theoretically need to be submitted a month or two before the June issue was printed, and it could very well be that the exterior look of the synthesizer wasn't quite ready yet.

But a photo *was* ready by the time the July issue printed - because even though this ad appeared in the June and July 1979 issues of CK photo-less, readers could find a photo of the instrument in Contemporary Keyboard in the July Spec Sheet section.

"Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer. The OB-X is a programmable polyphonic synthesizer available in either four-, six-, or eight-voice configuration. It can store 32 programs internally. It can also be linked with a cassette tape recorder for further storage of programs. The unit is microprocessor-controlled and its features include a 5-octave keyboard, automatic tuning, edit mode, polyphonic portamento, polyphonic sample-and-hold, a noise generator, dual modulation levers, ADSR envelope generators, two oscillators per voice, and switchable 115/230 volt power. The unit also includes an array of footpedal control inputs: vibrato, volume, filter, sustain, and program advance. Oberheim is also offering a roadie kit for maintenance on the road. Prices are: four-voice, $4,295.00; six-voice, $4995.00; eight-voice, $5,495.00. Oberheim, 1455 19th St., Santa Monica, CA 90404."

The Spec sheet is pretty much a carbon copy of the ad, except that the ad actually includes things this Spec Sheet doesn't - in particular the size and weight, and it's Note/Chord hold switch function.

Another reason it may not have included a photo is that it might help build intrigue in the instrument. Previous to this ad, Oberheim had been pushing two extremely different looking machines - the prehistoric-looking Four/Eight Voice synth, and their first programmable synth, the OB-1, and any new mysterious instrument Oberheim would launch would probably follow the evolution of one of these two paths. Intriguing! But I'm still doubting that theory.

Finally - it could be they didn't want to steal thunder from the Summer NAMM show that took place in June at the Atlanta World Congress Centre. The OB-X got fairly high billing near the beginning of the Contemporary Keyboard article that featured the findings at the show - listing off a few of the voice and programmability features as well as a price range from $4,200.00 - $5,400.00. Notice that price range is slightly different from the prices quoted in the July CK Spec Sheet promo.

But, what really makes this NAMM article interesting is that they include a photo of the OB-X. Although NAMM was in June 1979, the article didn't make it into the magazine until October 1979, but the instrument in the photo is definitely NOT the finalized version of the OB-X that I'm familiar with. This instrument had an OB-X logo in a very 'normal' font. Not that awesome Oberheim font we all know and love.

And, when I noticed this difference, I went back and took a look at the photo of the OB-X included with the Spec Sheet - and it too was different from both the NAMM version and the final version. It only included a large Oberheim logo in the top center of the front panel.

So, these are both different from what I call the "finalized" version of the OB-X, with the classic OB-X logo in the top left corner, and the Oberheim logo in the bottom right of the front panel.

I've included photos all three versions below with a bit of descriptive text to help explain these differences.

OB-X photo from Contemporary Keyboard NAMM article
Notice OB-X logo in top right in 'normal' font. Boo!

OB-X photo from the July Spec Sheet in Contemporary Keyboard
Notice no OB-X logo, just big central Oberheim name

FINAL Version from MATRIXSYNTH Flickr
Notice OB-X logo on top left in awesome Oberheim font
and Oberheim logo in bottom right of front panel

So, it does look like the early photos are prototypes of some sort.

But, there may be more than a few of these early prototype instruments out there with the early look. For example, a photo of the OB-X similar to the NAMM photo did make it into this early French ad. Maybe it was taken at NAMM, or the photo was provided to distributors for early ads...? but I'm not convinced that would be the case. Especially if Oberheim wasn't using the photo in their own ads.

No matter, in the end, Oberheim was definitely better off leaving a photo of the instrument out of this intro ad. The final version of the synth with that delicious Oberheim OB-X font in the top left of the instrument and the Oberheim logo on the lower right side of the front panel is definitely the yummiest of the bunch.

Oberheim Electronics, Inc. 10th Anniversary, Contemporary Keyboard 1980

Oberheim Electronics, Inc. 10th Anniversary advertisement from page 5 of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine April 1980.

I'm kicking myself for missing this perfect opportunity! On December 31, 2009, it would have been the 30-year anniversary of this 10-year anniversary advertisement from Oberheim.

Well, better late than never. Plus, blogging about it provided me the opportunity to find out more about the history of Oberheim Electronics from Tom Oberheim himself! Read on...

I flip through old issues of CK quite a bit, but I felt like I was reading this issue of CK for the first time when I came across this ad recently. Its placement in the magazine is perfect - page 5, directly opposite the Letters section. The design is also fantastic - the white space... the fonts.... the logo at the top immediately recognizable.

But as I read through the opening paragraph, something seemed odd. I had always thought Oberheim Electronics started in the 'early' 70s, but not as early as 1970. Even Wikipedia states the company began in 1973. And other sites have taken this '1973' date and repeated it on their sites as well.

Time to do a bit of digging.

I did a Google search to try and find a pre-1973 reference to Oberheim Electronics. The one reference that stood out was an article from 1984 by Harald Bode entitled 'History of Electronic Sound Modification" found on MATRIXSYNTH. Reference '44' on page 9 of the PDF points to a presentation made in 1970 by Tom Oberheim entitled "A 'Ring Modulator' Device for Performing Musicians' - almost the exact same wording that is used in this ad under '1970'! Interestingly, on page six of the PDF, Bode also states that "one of the successful phasers of the early times was the Maestrophaser, designed by Tom Oberheim". Certainly a reference to the phase shifter listed under 1972 in the ad.

So, Tom Oberheim was definitely designing and building gear as early as 1970 - but did the company Oberheim Electronics exist?

I decided the easiest way would be to ask Tom Oberheim himself. And, in fact, it was started in 1969.

"Oberheim Electronics was incorporated by me in California in December 1969. The company remained in my hands until May 1985 when Oberheim Electronics's bank foreclosed on the assets of the company and sold them to the ex-lawyer for Oberheim Electronics. At that time Oberheim Electronics was put into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased to exist. A new company, ECC Development continued with the assets. I briefly worked for that company. After early 1987, all my connections to the "old" Oberheim entities were severed. It is my understanding that sometime after that, ECC sold or otherwise transferred the remaining assets to Gibson, including the Oberheim name and logo. As far as I know, Gibson still owns the Oberheim name and logo."

That's some great history!

But enough about the past... If you live under a rock, you may not be aware that Tom Oberheim has reissued his Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) - the same one as mentioned in the ad under '1974'. You can find more information on the SEM on his Web site - TomOberheim.com. Definitely check it out!

Tom also had this to say about the ad itself:

"I have had a copy of the ad on my wall in my office since it came out in 1979."

I just put a copy of the ad up on my wall too... :o)

End note: Reading through the list of achievements in the ad, I instantly recalled MATRIXSYNTH's 'The first synth to...' list. Taking a look, the only achievement in the ad to make the list looks to be the first fully programmable synthesizer (although listed in a different year). Take a look and see where any of the other achievements may be added.

Oberheim OB-1A and OB-X, Contemporary Keyboard 1980

Oberheim OB-1A and OB-X synthesizers from page 33 of Contemporary Keyboard magazine February 1980.