Anatek "Pocket Products Catalog" 10 page fold-out colour brochure from 1991.
Since moving into the new house, I've taken the few opportunities I've had to go through some of the boxes of brochures I've acquired over the years but never put into their protective sleeves. And just yesterday I did just that, and came across *this*.
Now'r days, people will joke that Eurorack modules are the synth-equivalent of Pokemon.
"Gotta catch 'em all."
But, I submit this brochure before the court as evidence that the original synth-equivalent of Pokemon were these little babies.
I can vividly recall going into my local synth haunt and seeing these stacked into their swiveling wire display stand. Okay, "vividly" may be a strong word. Maybe it didn't swivel. And now that I think about it, maybe it wasn't a wire frame. Was there even a stand?!?!? Gah. I'm old.
Point is, they were there. And they left an impression. And the urge to collect.
There was no date on the brochure, so of course I started Googling to try to remember when exactly these popped up on the radar. Didn't take long to find Creation Technologies Wikipage and some great info.
"1989 - Creation Studios, a high end music recording studio is built in North Vancouver by Barry and Jane Anne Henderson. Barry Henderson was also Music Products Division Manager at Anatek Microcircuits, a hybrid manufacturer in North Vancouver, BC with revenues of $1M USD. He and his team developed the Anatek line of MIDI and audio products including the now famous line of small MIDI signal powered MIDI processing accessories called "Pocket Products". "
Boom! Further reading explains how in 1991 a partnership lead to the name "Creation Technologies", which is the name you will find on this brochure, and why I decided to date this brochure to that year.
And look at that - Oh Canada!
Two other great historical facts can be gleaned from that wiki page. The first is this:
"The most famous of the Pocket Products, Pocket Merge, sold close to 10,000 units and generated over $1.6M in revenue in 1989, the product launch year."
Niiiiice! What a great little tidbit of knowledge to blurt out next time you are in someone's studio and they happen to have a Pocket Product sitting around. One thing I'm always interested in when it comes to vintage gear is the number of units manufactured.
The second great historical fact is this:
"Creation had a vision for becoming a high quality global contract manufacturing enterprise and developer of RADAR, the world's first multi-track digital recording system for professional recording studios."
Say what now? I had no idea the peeps behind some of the simplest midi/audio tech devices of the time period were also responsible for one the most complicated and expensive pieces of audio tech at the time as well.
Surprisingly, my squirrel instincts never kicked in even though they still cost less than those Boss half-racks on eBay and there is always at least a few of them for sale.
*looks at eBay again*
Dammit!
