Sequential Circuits "Happy Holiday Season" ad, Keyboard 1984

Sequential "Happy Holiday Season" quarter page advertisement from page 85 in Keyboard Magazine December 1984.

I've been yapping recently about how rare company 'holiday-themed' ads are. My last blog post was about an Oberheim holiday ad that still managed to keep their products front and centre, but this ad from Sequential is even more special to me. Because it doesn't even mention a product. And because I get to see Sequential's cool logo/font.

To be fair, during this time period, I believe Sequential had a number of product advertisements constantly running in Keyboard, but it is still quite startling for me to see a manufacturer's ad that doesn't mention their products at all.

Sure, it is only a quarter of a page in size, and in black and white, and in the back half of Keyboard. But heck, I appreciate the fact that Sequential put in the time, effort, and $s to create this classy message for Keyboard readers.

And I'm also appreciating the holiday time I'm taking right now. Although, for the record, I am at work. Gah!

I'd like to extend my own best wishes for a happy holiday season.

Happy new year everyone!

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.

Subscription forms and associated material, Keyboard 1986

Subscription form/envelope from page 161 in Keyboard Magazine November 1986.

Folding instructions? Tape?

Yes, I know I'm milking this subscription form thing. But I really do find it interesting. Especially when you look back at subscription forms from 1975 and from 1976, and then jump a decade into the future and see just how much the style and design have changed, probably mostly due to advances in printing technology. And, what a difference a decade makes.

So, as I was saying... folding instructions?! You know you trust the capabilities of your readership when you including folding/taping instructions in your magazine subscription form. And, even crazier, the 'tear' design of the page rotates the folding lines off on an angle, making folding the page a tad confusing.

But, Keyboard was obviously aware of this potential issue, so on the back of the page, the business reply address label is deliberately printed on an angle as well so folding on the angled lines actually works for the most part. Nice save.

My only other concern is that I would think that the more work you make a potential subscriber do (fold and tape), the less chance they will take the time to do it. But then again, I'm lazy (or, as I prefer to call it, "efficient").

Looking at the design, I can't help but instantly be transported back to the 80s. The 'teared page' layout brings back the days of ripped jeans and turned-up collars, and the front cover images used on the page immediately had me humming "Don't You Forget About Me" by Simple Minds.

So, after figuring out the whole folding issue and then recalling how great the 80s were, I then realized, "Hey, this is the November issue? Why isn't this subscription form holiday-themed and why doesn't it include a gift subscription form like in the the decade before?

Well, actually, turns out these can be found in the mag. I just somehow missed it the first time I was flipping through it. The gift subscription form/envelope is attached between pages 82 and 83. And, on page 83 is the accompanying full-page subscription promo ad.

Just look at that pile of magazines with the Martha-Stewart-esque bow wrapped around 'em. And reading the ad-copy, I realized that the coolest thing is that along with the subscription form/envelope attachment, as seen below...

... Keyboard also includes a gift card/envelope attachment (see below) to send directly to the friend you generously gave the subscription to. That way they don't have to wait the 6-8 weeks to realize you weren't a cheap bastard. And thinking back, I actually recall receiving this envelope in the mail from MY MOM when she renewed my subscription one year, even when we lived in the same house. Seriously. How awesome is my mom!

Well, I'm seriously thinking about taking next week off. Recharge the brain, work on music, and all that fun stuff. And, I may be able to put the final touches on my latest project and get that launched. But, like I said earlier, I'm lazy efficient, so it may be a while longer before that stuff sees the light of day.

But I got at least another four days to figure all that out... Happy holidays everyone. :o)

Subscription forms and associated material, Contemporary Keyboard 1976

(more images below!)

Subscription forms in Contemporary Keyboard November/December 1976.

What a difference a year makes...

It seems like only yesterday that Contemporary Keyboard magazine subscription promos were all about "inspiration" and Michelangelo-like imagery. One year later, and CK decided to get a little more... er... contemporary... with their own advertisements. Because, really, that's what they are - advertisements for CK. In CK.

The magazine was still young and CK was still in that initial stage of increasing subscribership. And in the holiday season of 1976, they decided to take two different approaches - both mainly geared towards giving a subscription of CK as a gift.

As you flip through the magazine, the first subscription form stapled in between pages is geared directly towards a particular audience - music teachers. See the scanned images above. I have to say, that photo looks a little staged :o)

Interestingly, CK kept the "inspire" theme going from the original subscription forms I blogged about in my last post. Also, CK made sure not to exclude any teachers, by adding the line, "Give them the experience of classical masters and rock stars alike".

The form itself has room for two gift subscriptions that includes a space for a special CK greeting card content (excellent!), as well as space for the reader to start or renew their own subscription. That's three forms in one - good use of space.

I'm not sure if they had already received some marketing data indicating a high percentage of teachers as part of the their readership, or if it was just a hunch by someone working in the office. But, targeting a specific audience can backfire against any other groups that might also be interested in subscribing.

So, it's a good thing that further into the magazine readers come across this more generalized holiday gift promo.

Just look at that photo. That awesome Minimoog. That awesome hair. That awesome Odyessy Axxe. That awesome hair. And... that awesome hair. I'd "take a little bit" of that (the synths, not the hair. Ok... some of that hair...).

This full page advertisement provides for a lot more room for ad-copy, and it's a total hard-sell, pushing the magazine towards all audiences. Fellow band members, young musicians, favorite teacher, and electronics buff. Plus, they also give you a deal if you order more than one subscription - only $9 an issue. Excellent!

CK also announces that CK will start being published monthly starting January 1977. Up until then the magazine was being published every two months.

Attached to this full page ad is the envelope/form itself.

Again, we have room for multiple gift forms, and again a form for the gifter as well. Four in all. Because this full page ad and form was directed more towards a general audience, rather than just teachers, I would have liked to have seen the ratio of incoming forms. It would have provided some good data about the readership or whether the more directed form worked well. I'll probably just flip through some later issues at some point. If it worked, I'm sure I'll see more directed promos in future issues.

Interestingly, I took a quick look and holiday- themed ads are few and far between. One of the ones I can remember was SCI's holiday accessories/merchandise ad from 1982. But even it didn't really mention the holidays. Gah!

I'll dig through some more issues and try and find some.

Subscription form and associated material, Contemporary Keyboard 1975

More images below!

Subscription form attached between the front inside cover and page 3 in Contemporary Keyboard November/December 1975.

"I remember when I was a kid..."

Well, it is getting near the end of the year, and I thought I would scan something a little bit different. And this blast from the past shows me just how much I take the Internet for granted.

Now'r days, if you want to subscribe to a magazine, you just head over to their Web site, hit that big subscribe button, and charge the sucker to your credit card. I've done it with Keyboard Magazine, Computer Music and many others. But it wasn't always that easy.

Back in the day when Contemporary Keyboard was first getting started, they needed to get subscriptions up... and fast. But without the Internet around, they had to resort to (*gasp*) snail mail. So like most, if not all magazines, they included a subscription form.

This two-sided subscription form was attached between the front inside cover and page three of the mag. On the front was a nice big promo including details about the mag and the cost - six bucks for six issues (can't beat that!). And, to make sure it was visible, it was printed in a really bright red colour with some crazy imagery.

On the back was the actual form, with pricing and address info. You could even save a few bucks by subscribing in multiples of six's.

But, the problem was that this subscription form was only about 4 x 6.5 inches (10 x 16.5 cm). So, even in bright red, I guess CK thought it could easily get lost. So, to help everyone find this important piece of material, CK also included a big one page subscription ad only a page-flip away on page five, sending the reader back a page flip.

And it is on page five that we get a better idea on why this Michelangelo-like imagery was chosen. Just look at the tagline - "A Truly Inspiring Music Magazine".

So, now that the reader has found the form and filled out a check for the appropriate amount, Contemporary Keyboard again wanted to make sure it was as easy as possible to get that money back to them. So, at the bottom of the back page of the form, you will see the text "Detach this page, fold, and insert into envelope".

What envelope...?

Well, sure enough, I flipped to the back of the magazine and found that the other half of the form page was attached to a mail-in envelope. Address info already printed on the front, and postage paid. They even kept the 'inspiring' imagery going.

So, let me get this straight. A buck an issue. And postage paid?

Count me in!

But what a hassle from CK's end. All that design, print and other resources that had to go into this just-starting-out magazine.

CK kept this form and envelope going until October/November 1976 issue when they changed it to a more contemporary design to promote subscriptions as a holiday gift.

Soooooo, if anyone wants to get *me* a holiday gift...

hint... hint...

Moog Minimoog ad #2, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Moog Minimoog synthesizer advertisement #2 from page 10 in Contemporary Keyboard September 1979.

Moog didn't advertise the Minimoog a lot in CK. Because they didn't have to. Everybody knew the Minimoog - it was a legend.

Then, for some reason in mid-1979, Moog decided they needed to up the Mini's profile. Maybe other manufacturers were beginning to get a little to close for comfort, and sales were starting to diminish. Who knows. But in the July and August issues of CK, Moog ran a unique and memorable black and white advertisement with the simple ad-title and ad-copy, "You know what this is - because you hear it everywhere".

That ad had no logo, no contact info, no anything. But everyone knew that silhouette.

After the ad's two-month run, someone at Moog must have though that they needed to turn the heat up another notch and came out with this baby of an ad. They spun that silhouette around, flipped on the lights, and added more than a dash of colour. But the one thing they didn't add was any more text. Again, they kept the title and ad-copy simple.

Readers of CK didn't have to skip a beat. The ad began to immediately run in September and October 1979, and then ran more sporadically in December and the following March.

Even with all these unique qualities, to me the most remarkable aspect of this ad is the colour. And in particular, that green. As much as I can recall, green wasn't too common in CK for ads. Blues and reds, sure. But green. Nerp.

But in this ad, that green really became instrumental in making that Mini pop. Especially those red and green switches. I even feel it helps pull out the wood grain of the Mini's case. But, now I'm probably just getting too dramatic.

Anyways, there isn't much I can say about the Minimoog that hasn't already been said. And, like it says in the ad - with that kind of sound, I don't have to talk about it so much.

And I'm not going to try.

Heet Sound Products E Bow, Synapse 1977

Heet Sound Products E Bow for guitar, from page 26 in Synapse Magazine May/June 1977.

This ad has *always* infatuated me. Ever since I first laid eyes on it in Synapse (as far as I know, it didn't appear in Keyboard - at least around this time period) I have wanted to try one. But there was always one big problem...

I don't play guitar.

I am into guitar pedals, and anything else that will create and/or modify sound. I eat up sites like Chris Carter's CCCL blog. And just like CCCL blog makes me want to buy more guitar pedals, this thing actually makes me want to buy a guitar.

Anyways, I thought it was cool that Heet had decided that '70's readers of Synapse magazine were experimental enough to really get into the E Bow. In fact, in the month previous to this ad showing up, it looks like Synapse made the first move by featuring the E Bow in the What's Happening section of the March/April 1977 issue.

"New for the progressive guitarists is a hand held string sustainer that works on an electromagnetic principle. The E BOW (Energy Bow) will sustain any steel string indefinitely with total control over attack, sustain and decay without any distortion, allowing further possibilities for guitar and synthesizer interface. The E BOW is available from Heet Sound Products."

The next month, the same month this ad began to appear, the E Bow was reviewed in Synapse in the "Equipment" section. The first paragraph describes it as "a perpetual sustain device for any steel string guitar, electric, or acoustic." It goes on to say that "at $125.00 list it's one of the most expensive distortion devices you can buy for a guitar. It's definitely priced for the professional market."

You can read the full E Bow review online at cyndustries.com, where all the issues of Synapse have been scanned.

The coolest thing is that the E Bow is still around. According to their Web site, the concept was first 'inspired' in 1967, with a working model created in 1969. The E Bow was then introduced at NAMM in 1976 in Chicago, which means that these advertisements in Synapse were probably some of their first.

YouTube has a number of E Bow videos, and two in particular by MacDaddyMusicStore helped me to understand how the E Bow works and observe some live guitar playing.

I also did a bit of Googling to see if there was anything else out there that sounds like the E Bow - and I couldn't really find much, unless you think of yourself as a really talented guitarist and know your rig well. GuitarGeek.com has a thread from 2003 with a couple of suggestions about how one might get a similar sound, and a more recent thread on musicgearreview.com from 2009 quickly turned into an discussion on experimental sound design. I'm kinda surprised at just how popular the sound is. I would never have guessed (again - I thought I should mention that I'm not a guitarist).

The E BOW Web site includes *a lot* of reference information, including sound clips from songs from famous bands like R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins, and Pearl Jam, a long list of artists that have used the E Bow (Bill Nelson! Camouflage! Cocteau Twins! Flock of Sea Gulls!), quotes, YouTube videos, their own videos, and more. Definitely check it out if you even *think* about thinking of buying one of these devices.

End note: Awesome logo - but so small in the ad. But I could get a t-shirt with the logo for only $4.50 in 1977! I couldn't find any merch on their Web site - I would have bought one right away.

ARP Omni symphonic electronic keyboard ad #2, Contemporary Keyboard 1977

ARP Omni symphonic electronic keyboard advertisement #2 from page 29 in Contemporary Keyboard February 1977.

If you read my first Omni ad blog post, you may have noticed I didn't touch on one certain aspect of that ad - the demo sound sheet that was obviously attached to the centerfold between the two pages of the ad. Now I have no choice but to touch on it since ARP was smart enough to keep the demo record promo thing going for the next two months with this single-page advertisement - an ad that showcases a shiny close-up image of the sound sheet. Again - smart move ARP, one month of promotion just wouldn't have cut it. More on that promo record in a second.

In that first two-pager post, I really focused on one question - the manufacturing start date of the Omni. Most online resources, as well as Mark Vail's "Vintage Synthesizers" book have the manufacturing start date of the Omni beginning in 1975. But, based on a lot of evidence, including commentor Micke from my last blog post, I questioned when the Omni really started to be commercially available - and hinted at a much later date. Say, late 1976.

This ad piles on even more evidence to this theory. For one, the first sentence in the ad copy is:

"The ARP Omni is an incredible new electronic keyboard you have to hear to believe".

"new". That's pretty clear-cut. But there's more.

If you look at the small address form that readers could fill out, you will learn that for $1 you can send away "to receive your demonstration record and complete information on the ARP synthesizer line."

And if you look even more closely at the photo in that form, you will see that at the top of the pile of ARP information (*drool*) is the October 1976 issue of ARPeggio - ARP's newletter. You can barely make it out, but that issue has Less McCann on the front cover with the title "Less McCann 1st to Try New OMNI". And, if you had a copy of the newsletter, you could flip to page 7 and read the article titled "New ARP Omni: Completely Polyphonic". Content of both articles make references to the "new" ARP Omni. And this is the October 1976 issue! Granted - ARP newsletters weren't too frequent, but still... the evidence for a later manufacturing start date just keeps mounting.

You can view the full newsletter online - I scanned all the pages and blogged about it back in June.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system...

My second-hand copy Contemporary Keyboard didn't include the attached demo sound sheet, but over the years I've manage to pick up a few copies of what I believe is the same one. The Omni demo I have is performed by Tom Piggott, who worked at ARP and was one of the three ARP authors of the book "Learning Music with Synthesizers". It includes examples of all the sounds - violins, violas, string cello, bass, and synthesizer section, many of them played in combination. There is also a comparison of the instruments with the wave form enhancement, chorus/phaser, and stereo effects enabled so the listener can get a really good understanding of just what $2300 or so bucks gets ya. Split and footswitch capabilities are also showcased.

I found a copy of the mp3 online at peterunderdog.com's ARP Omni resource page. The "Sounds" section includes the link to this mp3, as well as a link to another Omni demo recording that unfortunately is broken (the link - not the record :o) That Omni site also includes some good tech and repair information, along with links to other ARP-related sites.

In my last blog post I linked to two other Web pages that included some other good Omni reference info - but here they are again - Wikipedia and Vintage Synth Explorer. Definitely check those two out if you want to learn more.

As I was surfing around looking for more good reference material, I also started to look at more and more photos of Omni's through Google's Image search, and my curiosity turned quickly to the "Waveform Enhancement" switch. Never heard of it before.

According to an ARP Omni page on cy-gb.facebook.com, the switch "allowed selection of a square wave voice waveform vs. the default quasi-sawtooth waveform". An ARP Omni service manual (PDF) I found on Synthfool describes the feature as "altering waveforms produced by the Omni to a hollow like (square) sound".

There is a bit more detail on how the basic sound of the Omni is obtained, and how the Waveform Enhancement sound is eventually created, in section two of that service manual (theory of operation, page 5):

"The OMNI's tone generator circuitry consists of a master oscillator at 500 kHz., which drives a large scale integrated circuit top octave divider. The top octave divider produces the highest twelve tones in the instrument. Frequency dividers derive the remaining pitches from the top octave divider. The squarewave outputs of each divider are waveshaped to a sawtooth form (the waveform enhancement alters the waveshape to a differentiated squarewave)."

A few sources on the Web indicated that you can hear the Waveform Enhancement sound from the Omni in the lead line from Modern English's I Melt With You. I've included the YouTube video in this post so you can hear the sound yourself, see the Omni in action at around 1:52, and most importantly, to get "extra points" from my girlfriend, who loves this song. :o)

Happy viewing!

ARP Omni symphonic electronic keyboard, Contemporary Keyboard 1977

ARP Omni symphonic electronic keyboard advertisement from page 28 and 29 in Contemporary Keyboard January 1977.

This was the first ARP Omni ad to appear in Contemporary Keyboard. A two-pager that only ran once as the centerfold in the January '77 issue. And I would have to say it is on par with other centerfolds I may have come across as a kid in 1977. Wink wink.

The ad sports a fantastically large photo spread across the full two page width. It also includes great ad-copy with good action items positioned as sub-titles. Lines like "Listen to the strings" and "First play the record, then play the Omni" are always pushing the reader towards the end goal - buying an Omni.

And that OMNI logo on the top of the instrument is to die for. Seriously.

When I became interested in the Omni and started doing some research, the keyboard was looking like some kind of ghost at first. You only have to look at the first sentence of the ad-copy to see why.

"On this five-minute demonstration record, you will hear some of the sounds you can create on the new ARP Omni".

New? In January 1977?

Most Web sites list the production start date of the Omni as 1975 (Vintage Synth Explorer, Wikipedia). Even the book "Vintage Synthesizers" by Mail Vail indicates that, "the company's all-time best-seller was the Omni, introduced in 1975." Was it just new to Contemporary Keyboard readers then?

Even more odd, just the previous year ARP ads were showing up monthly in CK magazine, including two "family of products" ads running in 1976 that featured a wide range of their products. For example, this ad from May/June 1976, and this one from March/April 1976. And NEITHER of those family ads included the Omni either.

Wussup? If ARP was cranking out this keyboard out as early as 1975, why wouldn't they include the Omni in any of those "family of products" ads? ARP's String Ensemble is in both of these advertisements, so it's not like those two ads were "synthesizer-only". And, I would think that the Omni would have had it's own series of ads much earlier than January 1977 if it was ARP's "all-time best-seller".

There is definitely some evidence that the Omni was available prior to this two-page introductory ad, but not anything near 1975.

A month before the advertisement came out, the Omni promo appeared in the Spec Sheet section of the November/December 1976 issue of Contemporary Keyboard. CK had only been publishing every second month for the last year or so, and at this early point in CK's life, it wasn't uncommon to promote synthesizers that had already been available to the public for quite some time. But even so, I would have expected to see this keyboard promoted much earlier considering it's popularity.

"ARP SYNTHESIZER: Capable of producing realistic string, brass, piano, harpsichord, and vibes effects, the Omni synthesizer features stereo outputs, waveform enhancement, built-in chorus phasers, and split keyboard. A VCF and an ADSR envelope generator are supplied, and the instrument's effects can be mixed together. For example, the musician can play the machine's violins and horns, and then add a separate string bass line on the left end of the keyboard. Its control panel includes computer-grade switches and LED status indicators. The unit weighs 33 lbs. Cannon XLR connectors are provided and interconnection to other ARP synthesizers is possible via systems interface jacks. List price is $2,250. ARP instrument, 320 Needham St., Newton, MA 02164."

A similarly small "Equipment Review" appeared in the November/December 1976 issue of Synapse magazine. And to me it suggests that the Omni is quite new, ready to drop-kick the aging String Ensemble off the map.

"The Omni employs the most modest approach to polyphonics and also has a modest price: $2395.

It is essentially two instruments played from one keyboard. The one half of the Omni is a string synthesizer possessing truly remarkable, lush sound. Undoubtedly, the Omni will soon replace ARP's own more ready-sounding String Ensemble.

The other half is the synthesizer itself, the part subject to timbre variation. As in the polymoog, all frequencies are generated by top-octave division, so the sound is a little thin. Another weak point is the single trigger for all keys; notes can not be individually gated or filter swept. But what do you want for $2395? There are some distinct touches, such as a foot pedal that controls envelope decay time, and a slider pot that mixes together the string and synthesizer timbres for some interesting effects. The Omni definitely can fill the "polyphonic need" of the budget minded synthesist."

The fact that the Omni appeared in the Spec Sheet section of CK and the Equipment Review section of Synapse in the same November/December period, together with this two-pager ad appeared only a month later in January, seems more than a coincidence. It is all good evidence that ARP was doing some kind of coordinated promotional effort for the Omni at this time. Together with the fact that the ad-copy states that the Omni is "new", it all makes me really interested to know when the first Omnis came off the assembly line.

And if it was truly 1975, ARP sure didn't seem too interested in promoting the instrument right away.

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)

Korg Sigma, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Korg Sigma synthesizer advertisement from page 13 in Contemporary Keyboard August 1979.

This was the third Korg Sigma advertisement to come out. And you wouldn't know it just by looking at it, but this was the final ad in the series. The campaign was actually quite different from most synthesizer introductions at the time, and quite different from the other Korg ads running at the time too.

I blogged about the first two ads in the series last February. The first was the pre-launch ad in the June 1979 issue, and as much as I liked the visuals of the ad, I just didn't think Korg put in the same effort for the ad-copy. I also didn't think they let the ad run long enough. In the end, it didn't do it's job.

The second ad ran just one month later in the July 1979 issue - and like the first ad, only ran for one month. This one introduced the Sigma to readers as *the* performing synthesizer, where again, the visuals of the ad blew the ad-copy out of the water.

This last ad of the series started running the next month (August 1979), and Korg threw it into the ever-growing rotating list of their products showing up in Contemporary Keyboard at the time. It ran monthly until January 1980.

Korg had been really hitting CK readers hard with advertisements starting around November 1978. Before that issue, Korg usually had a single ad per issue, but then in August, September and October 1978, they went silent. Nothing. Nadda.

Then in November 1978, Korg started running three ads at the same time - for the MS-10 synthesizer, MS-20 synthesizer, and VC-10 vocoder. Korg continued to hammer these three full page ads in CK in most issues afterwards, until the Sigma pre-introductory ad was also put into the mix. Korg then had *four* full page ads running for at least the two summer months, until the VC-10 ad was phased out. I'll have to take a closer look, but off the top of my head I can't think of any other companies during this time period that had that many ads in a single issue. Not Moog. Not Oberheim. Not Roland. As I mentioned in a previous Sigma post, "a reader is either going to remember all four ads because they are a Korg-fanatic, or more likely, all that Korgmania is just going to get lost in a sea of gearporn".

As far as this ad is concerned, the ad-copy has the same "feel" as the first two ads with the addition of a bit more reference information. Plus, below the ad-copy is a list of bullets that include information on each of the main sections of the synthesizer in the photo. Unlike the first two ads, the photo in this ad is purely functional. Together with the section bullets, the photo provides the reader a good overview of what the Sigma has to offer.

I finally had a chance to play on a Sigma for an extended period of time just a few weeks back - which is what got me thinking of this third Sigma ad. Overall, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be with the sound. Maybe I had built the Sigma up in my mind a little too much - what with those two joysticks and all that. But, in the end, I guess I'm not as interested in the performance side of this synth as I thought I would be.

Your mileage may vary.

Moog Source Part 2, Contemporary Keyboard 1981

Moog Source advertisement from page 71 in Contemporary Keyboard Magazine July 1981.

I finished off Part 1 of this blog post writing about how much I loved all the futuristic aspects of the Moog Source. But, all that futuristic stuff aside, to me the most interesting thing about the Source was Moog's decision to add major competitor Roland's DIN sync technology to the machine.

I did some quick Google searches to see what kind of information I could find out about this addition, and two great online discussions bubbled to the surface.

The first discussion was from June 2005 and can be found on the Moog Music Forum. In the topic entitled "Differences in Moog Source", the question of differences in the back panel layout came up. According to forum participant "mc", the DIN sync interface was added in mid-1983 (a year and a half into the Moog Source's manufacturing run), and could apparently control the arppeggiator and sequencer.

"Every Source has CV/Trigger jacks. Newer Sources added a Roland DIN sync drum interface. This addition was implemented May 1983 after serial 3180 on 120VAC versions and 3285 on export 220VAC versions. There was a kit to upgrade older Sources, mine has the upgrade."

The DIN sync became a topic of conversation again in May 2009 on MATRIXSYNTH when a Moog Source with DIN sync went up for auction. Commenter Analogika provided some useful reference information:

"The Sync input was standard on all later Sources (it's mentioned in my manual as an addendum from February 9, 1983). There was a period were the cassette input was re-assigned to sync in via factory retrofit, and a sticker applied to the rear of the case. It's a rather bizarre semi-solution. The arpeggiator needs a clock signal in order to run, but the actual notes are triggered by pulses to the "reset" in."

Based on this info, I decided to look at images on the Web to see how the DIN sync was implemented. Sure enough, I found examples of all three versions.

You can view a photo of a pre-DIN sync Source below, taken from this December 2009 MATRIXSYNTH auction post. You can clearly see the Audio Out, CV, S-trig, and Cassette Interface connections. This is exactly what the back of the Source in this 1981 advertisement looks like.

[pre-DIN sync version - from MATRIXSYNTH]

A May 2007 MATRIXSYNTH auction post links to Flickr images of what I believe is the retrofit/sticker version of the Source. I've included both the left side and the right side of the back of the Source below, where it appears that the cassette interface connections and S-trig connections were expanded and moved to the right side of the instrument. As mentioned by Analogika in that 2009 comment, you can see where the cassette interface was re-assigned to sync.

['bizarre semi-solution': retrofit/sticker version
left and right sides - from MATRIXSYNTH]

A December 2007 MATRIXSYNTH auction post links to images of what looks to be the final version of the Source with the silk screened labeling. Again, I've included both the left side and the right side images below.

[silk screened version - left and right sides - from MATRIXSYNTH]

More interesting than answering the questions of "when, where and how", is the "why". Why would Moog install a competing company's technology in their synthesizer?

And that was actually what participant "ebg31" asked in that 2005 Moog Music Forum discussion I mentioned earlier:

"On another note, doesn't it seem odd that Moog Music would curry favour with a Japanese competitor by implamenting the DCB buss?"

No one really answered this question, but assuming that "ebg31" actually meant the DIN-sync addition, and not DCB buss, then yes, it was odd that Moog would include it, but maybe not for reason "ebg31" suggests (curry favour with a Japanese competitor).

You have to remember that the DIN-sync feature looks like it was added to the Source around early 1983. Synth companies from around the world, including Moog, had for some time already been slowly coming together on the development of the MIDI specification. So, companies were already willing to work together in some form.

But what I find odd is that Moog decided to implement DIN sync when MIDI was about to be launched, or had already launched.

So, would Moog ever implement MIDI on the Source?

You can find Moog's official answer in the "Questions" section of the November 1983 issue of Keyboard, where Keyboard reader Richard De Laura asked, "Are any manufacturers planning to retrofit their older synthesizers and programmable effects with MIDI interfaces?"

As part of the answer, Bob Doerschuk wrote that, "A Moog representative stated that the Source and Memorymoog are the only two digital microprocessor keyboards produced by Moog, and that while the Memorymoog has a MIDI interface, no plans are being made to retrofit the Source."

So, although there was a good reason why the Moog Rogue never got a MIDI due to the fact that it didn't have a microprocessor, the Moog Source definitely would have qualified!

I can't help but think this would have reinvigorated Moog Source sales if MIDI had been installed. But of course, I think all synthesizers sales around this time period would have been reinvigorated if you slapped MIDI in. :o)

But that's just me.

Moog Source Part 1, Contemporary Keyboard 1981

Moog Source advertisement from page 71 in Contemporary Keyboard Magazine July 1981.

I recently blogged about a Moog Rogue advertisement, and it's Tron-influenced futuristic design elements. Well, Moog took it to a whole new level with this Moog Source ad that began to run in Keyboard around the same time period. Because not only does the design of this advertisement look as futuristic as that Moog Rogue ad did, but the design of the actual Source synthesizer is something straight out of a sci-fi block buster. In fact, maybe both ads were influenced more by the design of the Source synthesizer than the movie Tron... :o)

Moog wasn't just selling a synthesizer with the Source, it was selling "the future". Just look at that big photo showcasing the silver casing, front panel 1980's colour-scheme, and slick membrane buttons. But maybe slick isn't the right word. The Moog Source was the first (and last) Moog synth to use membrane-type buttons, but from what I understand they were just a little more reliable than the buttons on my Roland JX-8p, and a little less than the ones on my Matrix-6r.

The size and placement of the back panel photo tells us a lot about how Moog was positioning the Source in the marketplace. Back panel photos are often large, and included in an ad so that readers can see all the cool in's and out's. But the small back panel photo in this ad is pretty much useless, and the placement of the photo makes it look more like an after-thought. It's like it was thrown into the ad just because "it's always been done that way". In fact, the small photo is literally pushed aside for what Moog was really trying to sell - the power of digital technology. And all that digital power can be found in the much larger, centred, vertical photo of Moog's "programmed memory chip" and the accompanying Z80 microprocessor.

The Z80's Wikipedia page actually devotes a whole section to its integration in musical instruments under "Notible uses". I didn't realize the number of popular synthesizers that used the Z80 for one thing or another. Gear from Akai, Emu, Lexicon, Moog, Oberheim, Roland, SCI, and Waldorf are listed. Ironically, the only synthesizer that stands out as not being mentioned (on the date of the writing this blog post) seems to be the Source - and it was the one pushing the microprocessor right on the ad! Anyways, the whole Wikipedia article is actually quite an interesting historical read. I recommend it.

The ad-copy of the ad reinforces everything a reader takes in visually through the design. First, unlike this Rogue ad, there is no misunderstanding what synthesizer the reader is looking at. The title "The Source" shows up twice in two different large fonts. And, to make sure Moog got the whole microprocessor-thing across to readers, peppered throughout the ad-copy are words like "digital", "program", and "programmable". This was, after all, the first Moog synthesizer to offer patch storage.

But Moog wasn't dumb - they didn't let years of tradition get totally lost in a sea of one's and zero's. They make it perfectly clear to all potential buyers under "The Sound" section of the ad: "Moog filter, Moog sound".

The Spec Sheet for the Moog Source appeared a month before this advertisement started to run in the June 1981 issue of Contemporary Keyboard. It contains a lot of great reference information, and one of the most interesting things about this spec sheet is the description of how to change settings (in bold). The idea of no knobs on a synth was still pretty new at the time, so it's actually described in quite a bit of detail for all the people that may have been scratching their heads:

"Moog Source Synthesizer. The Source is a microprocessor-controlled programmable monophonic synthesizer. It has a three-octave keyboard, two VCOs, and a noise source. The oscillator's range is from 32' to 1'. They can produce sawtooth, triangle and variable pulse waveforms, and can be synced together. The two four-stage envelope generators are micro-processor-generated and control the VCF and VCA. The oscillators and filter can be controlled by an LFO which puts out triangle and square waves. Modulation and pitch wheels are included. The unit will remember up to 16 patches, and it comes with a cassette interface built-in so the total number of patches that can be stored is virtually unlimited. The front panel controls are touch switches. When one is pressed it is assigned to the incremental control at the left of the keyboard. This pot and LED readout then give you a numerical readout of the value that the switch you hit is set at. You can adjust this value as you like. There is also a software-generated sequencer (two real-time-loaded sequences of up to 64 notes each), an arpeggiator, automatic triggering, and sample-and-hold. Moog. 2500 Walden Ave., Buffalo, NY 14225."

As much as I love all the futuristic aspects of this synthesizer, there is one thing in particular that really got my attention with this synthesizer. Unfortunately, this blog post is already kinda long, so I'm going to save that for part 2.

Besides, I'm still typing it... :o)

Moog Ten Band Graphic Equalizer and Three Band Parametric Equalizer, Contemporary Keyboard, 1978

Moog Ten Band Graphic Equalizer and Three Band Parametric Equalizer from page 9 in Contemporary Keyboard Magazine April 1978.

This ad popped up in Contemporary Keyboard in April 1978. and continued to run in the following two issues. Then it ran again in September 1978. The two equalizers were also featured as CK Giveaway #25 in the April 1978 issue ($600 value!).

Normally I'm not much into vintage signal processors and effects gear, but the first time I really paid attention to this ad, it kinda felt 'weird' to me for some reason. For the first few minutes I couldn't put my finger on it, but then it suddenly hit me in my marketing-type head.

The weirdness had nothing to do with the technology side of things. Or even the design of the ad (although you will notice that the descriptions beside each instrument should have been switched around). No, the thing that bugged me was the fact that neither of these units had a "cool" name. They had model numbers on the back that are often included in online descriptions, but that's just not the same as a cool name that appears on the front panel. And the ad just refers to them as 'Moog Graphic Equalizer" and "Moog Parametric Equalizer".

Moog had a good thing going with their x-moog naming convention around this time period. MiniMoog. MicroMoog. PolyMoog. Minitmoog. Multimoog. You get the idea. Not the most creative, but still, they were descriptive terms and the names just "worked".

Calling them Equamoogs or some such name would have definitely been a bad idea, but surely the marketing team could have come up with something. These two pieces didn't even use simple letter/number combos such as Moog GE-3 and PE-10 (I'll let you figure those ones out). Maybe Moog had figured out they had done the x-moog naming thing to death and they were in a transition period. It would only be a year or so later that they would change their naming convention with the Moog Prodigy. And from then on, it was balls-to-the-walls with gear names such as Liberation, Opus-3, Source, Rogue, and Taurus. Whoa! All favorites. And most are now the names of electronic acts. :o)

Because I'm not really into vintage effects, I decided to flip through a few issues of CK from the same time period just to see what other effects companies were doing in terms of naming conventions. MXR had their Phase 45, Phase 90, and Phase 100 phase shifter pedals. Horner had their Vari-Phaser phase shifter. And Polyfusion had their stereo panner SP-1. All decent enough - but nothing spectacular. And it gets worse. MXR also had a digital delay named the "Digital Delay", And Ross had their digital delay named "Stereo Delay". Booo.

It's not to say there weren't some goodies out there at the time. In fact, what I think was one of the most progressive effects names at the time turned up in an October 1977 CK Spec Sheet promo - the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man Deluxe analog delay. Electro-Harmonix *still* sells a Memory Man Deluxe delay that uses the same font and very similar graphics and controls that they used back in 1978. Nice.

And guess which spec sheet write-up also appeared along side the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man Deluxe. You got it - the write up for these two Moog equalizers also ran in October 1977 - a full six months before the Moog ads started to appear. But the fact the two Moog equalizers appeared together in the Spec Sheet promo was a good indication that the two units would also be advertised together in the future. The spec sheet gives us some good historical reference information I haven't run into very often online:

"Moog parametric and graphic equalizers. The Moog three-band parametric equalizer has a range that is adjustable from 4 octaves to 1/4 octave on all three filters. The maximum available cut/boost on the 4-octave width is +-12dB; on the 1/4-octave width it is +-20dB. Nominal input level over 30 to 15,0000Hz is +4dBm. The overall frequency response with the effect switched in is 30 to 15,000Hz. A status switch controls whether the parametric is in the circuit or not, and an indicator light goes on when the effect is engaged. Power requirements are 100 to 135 volts AC @ 60Hz or 200 to 270 volts AC @ 50Hz, selectable from the rear panel switch. The ten-band graphic equalizer's overall frequency response is 30 to 15,000Hz +-2dB. Maximum available cut and boost on each band is +-15dB, and the insertion gain is adjustable from -10 to +10dB. The unit has nine band-pass filters spaced one octave apart from 31Hz to 8kHz and a shelf-type filter at 16kHz. Like the parametric equalizer, the graphic has a status indicator light that lets the performer know when the effect is in the circuit. Power requirements are the same as those for the parametric. Moog Music, 7373 N. Cicero Ave., Lincolnwood, IL 60646."

Doing this research has given me more appreciation for vintage effects, and has definitely made me more interested in getting more involved in both vintage and current effects gear. I have to confess I do usually have a Boss OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion pedal attached to my 303 (along with a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor :o) And I have been doing more effects-based experimental-type stuff lately. I'm no where near the point where I can get full-on Chris Carter in my studio, although it is something definitely to strive for. Definitely hit "play" on that video I've linked to.

Oh - and anyone who wants to buy me the book "Analog Man's Guide to Vintage Effects" for Christmas can find it online. Hey lady-friend! I'm talkin' to you...

Moog Rogue ad #3, Keyboard 1983

Moog Rogue 1/3-page square advertisement from page 25 in Keyboard Magazine March 1983.

Okay, I'll get to the ad in a sec... but first, just as this blog post was 'going to press', a question about the Moog Rogue popped into my head. I just had to start digging through old issues of Keyboard to find the answer. Thought it might be interesting to others...

Why didn't Moog ever retrofit the Moog Rogue with MIDI?

Advertisements for the Rogue continued to run for at least a year after MIDI was introduced, and I think it would have been a great little synthesizer to quickly pop a MIDI interface into. It would have been the cutest thing ever. But it seems Moog never did this (or at least advertise it).

Even better, Moog had not only shown signs of supporting the specification, but had already introduced MIDI into one of it's synthesizers by mid-1983. In Bob Moog's July 1983 Keyboard article entitled "M.I.D.I - What it is, What it means to you", he lets readers know where each company stands in terms of supporting MIDI. Three companies had already "shown" at least one of their synthesizers with MIDI (at NAMM, I'm guessing...):

"Digital Keyboards, Moog, and Octave-Plateau are each showing a previously-introduced instrument which they have equipped with MIDI...

...The Memorymoog is equipped with a new polyphonic-sequencer-plus-MIDI package which mounts inside the instrument and is controlled by the LFO section of the Memorymoog front panel. The package will also be available as a retrofit".

So, if Moog was doing it for the Memorymoog, why not the Rogue? Maybe cost?

I quickly recalled reading that MIDI interfaces were relatively cheap. After searching frantically through old issues of Keyboard trying to track down this tidbit of info, I finally found it in the exact same article I just referenced above:

"An especially attractive aspect of MIDI is that there is very little hardware associated with the interface. A complete MIDI Interface adds $25 or so to the list price of an instrument that already incorporates a microprocessor. Furthermore, future specification updates are not likely to involve hardware changes, so that, hardware-wise, the 1983 MIDI will probably not go out of date for a good long time." [Aside: Bob nailed that prediction...]

Can you see the problem? It's cheap if the synthesizer already has a microprocessor, which the Rogue unfortunately doesn't. So I guess Moog decided it wasn't worth the effort. Although a quick Google search shows that at least one third-party eventually did.

Well, back to the ad. And it's an odd-ball.

This advertisement appeared only once as far as I can tell. And it wasn't at the end of the long sporadic showing of the full-page, full-colour version of this ad, but smack in the middle. For some reason Moog decided - FOR ONE MONTH - to run a shrunk-down black and white version of that full-colour ad.

The ad uses a modified version of the full-colour background. It's not just a re-use, the designer has actually moved the smaller photos to better fit within the matrix-squares in this ad's format. The ad-copy has also been pared-down to fit the smaller size.

But in the end, it never lives up to the full-page version.

The ad actually does one thing better than that full-colour version. The name of the synthesizer is in LARGE BOLD LETTERING. No need to go digging into the ad-copy to see what synthesizer this ad is for. I also kinda like the scan-line stroking that appears around the Moog logo - very TRONy. In the colour version of the ad, the stroke effect is a blend of colours that probably would have been lost when converting directly to black and white.

The shape of the ad is what I refer to as "1/3-page square". It appears two columns wide, and only half a page tall. It is probably a good value for the advertiser that can't afford a half-page ad, but definitely wants more real-estate than the more common 1/6-pager (1 column, half page).

But I would think that Moog could definitely have afforded full page advertisements, and in fact had been running at least one full page ad (sometimes two) in every issue of Keyboard since June 1982. AND, they continued to run full page ads after this 1/3-page ad ran, until April 1984 when they took another break from advertising at all in the magazine.

Even more strange is that Moog ran *another* black and white 1/3-page ad in this issue for the MemoryMoog with a similar TRON-like background. So, that's really more like 2/3's of a page of advertising in the same issue. I'm not sure that running these two black and white ads would have been better than running one full-page, full-colour ad. Maybe they were trying something new. Maybe they just couldn't get the space that month.

What ever the case, it at least makes for a unique retro advertising experience for me. :o)

Moog Rogue, Keyboard 1981

Moog Rogue synthesizer advertisement from page 15 in Keyboard Magazine, November 1981.

Overdrive? Well, that sounds interesting!

This black and white 1/2-pager was the first ad for the Moog Rogue, running in Keyboard during the latter half of 1981 and again at the beginning of 1982. It was then replaced by the much more colourful, full page Moog Rogue advertisement that ran sporadically from 1982 to 1984.

This humorous car-racing themed ad ("sorry, air conditioning and racing stripes unavailable") heavily promoted one of the main features that Moog must have thought would set this synthesizer apart from the pack - OVERDRIVE.

"Overdrive" is not only featured prominently in the opening tag-line of this well-designed advertisement ("Shift into OVERDRIVE, OVERDRIVE, OVERDRIVE, OVERDRIVE..."), it is also the first feature to be mentioned in the ad-copy: "Twin oscillators with hot new overdrive circuits".

So, what was so special about the overdrive?

According to Stuart M Condé, a self-described "creative, and somewhat opinionated sporty animal loving extrovert" (great bio!), it's the main reason he loves his Rogue so much. Stuart created a Moog Rogue page on hubpages.com, and explains that it's a great way to get "nasty over-driven 'hoover' type sounds, or a deep warm bass". Just "whack it up and it saturates the filter to produce a distinctively rich sound which is perfect for bass or screaming lead sounds. It's not quite as appealing as the overdrive circuit on the Mini-Moog but it still sounds wonderfully organic."

Interestingly, what Moog thought would be such a great feature to promote, and what is now known as such a great feature of the Rogue, seemed at the time to... well... get a little ignored by everyone else. Or at least, that is how it looks to me.

For example, the overdrive function received only a few sentences in the "Mixer and Final Output Controls" section of Dominic Milano's dual Sequential Pro-One/Moog Rogue Keyboard Report that came out in January 1982.

"The mixer has an interesting feature - you go into an overdrive mode when you get to about 5 on a scale of 1-10. This gives you some warm and fat intermodulation and harmonic distortion. It adds some bite to the sound of the unit."

In Dominic's defense, I guess he is indirectly referring to the overdrive in the introduction of the report by remarking that the "Rogue is a useful tool in creating nice-sounding lead lines". And again at the end of the Rogue section of the report where he states that "it's pretty good at lead lines". But, if Moog thought the overdrive feature would be such a hit that they based their whole advertisement theme around it, you would think it would have been mentioned as being directly responsible for the sound in review articles such as this Keyboard Report.

So, is that Keyboard Report indicative of how the Rogue's overdrive feature was received by the synthesizer community at the time? Did Moog over-estimate how well the overdrive feature would be received, and respond by later changing it's marketing strategy for the Rogue?

This certainly would seem to be the case when you compare this ad to it's replacement.

The overdrive functionality that Moog positioned so prominently in this advertisement was virtually lost in the follow-up full-page Rogue ad. Look at that ad and you will see that "overdrive" gets just a small mention in the ad-copy and a small photo-op in the top right-hand corner. Instead, Moog focuses on one of the Rogue's other unique qualities - Moog sound at a small price.

I can't tell you if Moog's reason for shifting their marketing strategy was due to the synth community's lack-luster response to the overdrive feature, or if it was just a Moog marketing guy's whim that led to the change. But something happened to make them change gears (pun intended).

Or, am I over-thinking it [again]?

Maybe Moog was just expanding on the original theme of "overdrive" to a more generic "Moog sound" at a more affordable price. The overdrive is, after all, one of the main features of the Minimoog sound. Maybe it wasn't such a jump to go from one to another. Meh.

I do know that if you look around the Web today, the Rogue is still known for being a cheap way to get that Moog sound we all so love. So, in the end, Moog probably made the right decision. And, in the end, Moog still seemed to be selling Rogues well into 1984.

End note: BTW - you can read more about the Pro-One/Rogue comparison report in the second half of my rather long-winded Pro-One clear-plexiglass blog post.