Boss BF-2, CE-2 and DM-2 pedal "Understanding Technology Series: Understanding Time Delay Effects" ad, International Musician 1982

Boss BF-2 Flanger, CE-2 Chorus and DM-2 Delay "Understanding Technology Series: Understanding Time Delay Effects" full page colour advertisement from page 25 in the May 1982 issue of International Musician and Recording World (North America).

I'm still deep into packing up all my stuff for my house demolition/rebuild and during one of my epic procrastination sessions I came across this advertisement and fell in love immediately. I know effects aren't my usual jam, but its not unheard of if you search my blog by the "effects" label. Moog, Roland, Korg and some others are represented.

So, definitely worth a short blog post. And besides, I have two really good reasons for posting this ad.

The first reason is that I love pedals. Especially simple pedals with one in/one out. Easy peazy. No question of how to insert them into your ol'skool mixer either. And there's no doubt these pedals sound delicious.

The second, and more important reason, is that I absolutely LOVE the aesthetics of this ad. Boss ads didn't always line up in concept and design with their Roland counterparts, but this one fits snug as a bug in a rug with Roland's "Understanding Technology Series" advertisements that got many-a-loin-a-swelling during this time period.

In other words, this ad shares blood with royalty.

Let me jog your memory... remember this lovely "Understanding Technology" 808 advertisement from mid-1981?

Or, an even better example is this lovely "Understanding Technology" 2-pager for the Jupiter 8 from the same time period.

Or how about this TB-303/TR-606 "Understanding Technology" classic from mid-1982?

And I bet each of those synths have been plugged directly into a Boss BF-2, CE-2 or DM2 pedal at some point by most owners.

You get the picture.

And in all honesty, I'm drawn to this Boss pedal advertisement even more because it's educational component is off the hook too. Just look at that diagram underneath the three pedals that explains in visual detail the time delay differences between the flange, chorus and delay, including the overlap in timing found between each one.

Well... back to packing.

Alesis 1992 "Alesis Product Line" product catalog

                 

Alesis "Product Line" 7-panel two page colour product catalog from 1992.

So, I uploaded these scans as two long pages, and also segmented them out to higher res scans of different panels depending on content flow. Basically an experiment to see what works best. 

Surprisingly, I've only ever posted one other ad from Alesis - a Christmas ad for the HR-16 and MMT-8. But I was recently intrigued by my own MMT-8 and thought I'd share my little experience. I could have posted a number of earlier marketing promo pieces that feature the grey MMT-8, but I kinda love my black MMT-8 so I specifically dug into the vault and chose this brochure because of it.  Besides the MMT-8, it includes a great summary of Alesis' gear from 1992 - drum machine, mixer, effects and their ADAT. All fantastic gear for a great price at the time.

Anyways, about the MMT-8...

A few days ago, I was scrolling through Twitter when I saw this tweet from Peter Kirn:

So did anyone manage to get a working MMT8 and try out those grooves from Shawn Rudiman? Would love to work on a Sysex dump and - that might lead somewhere else (I can explain :) ) pic.twitter.com/mGssBp3fTB

— peterkirn (@peterkirn) May 26, 2019

Well, there's two things I love in one sentence! The Alesis MMT-8 sequencer and Shawn Rudiman.

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Side note for Rudiman fans: Just found out he's releasing a new EP on Tresor Records. From the page:

"The studio is Rudiman’s vehicle, the weapon and the balm. From synthetic wonders to dark-warehouse drum missives, Autonomic Pilot proves once again Rudiman as a master of his craft. Tresor Records is proud to welcome his new work into the world."

Sweeeeet!

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I jumped over to Peter Kirn's article on the CDM Web site called: "Post Album Techno: 9 years of live sequence data, from Shawn Rudiman". As Peter puts it -

"Shawn has taken the plunge and dumped years of live performance practice from his backups, in an irrationally specific media archaeology experiment for techno nerds." 

And specific it was! Each of the 12 live sets on the album called "Finest Quality, Big Time Data" are from the MMT-8's data tape audio back-ups. That's right. Not the audio. The DATA. I you try to listen to the tracks, it's just that screechy 90's dial-up modem-like sound for four or five minutes.

Brilliant! It's like he posted it just for me.  Okay, not just me - it's also for the eight other people that also purchased the "album" so far.

To me, that's one of the most interesting things about this release by Shawn. He knew when he posted it that it had a very narrow audience and hence was obviously a very limited money-maker. But from a promotional standpoint, it's a fun and interesting exercise aimed directly at us "techno nerds".

And exercise I did!

Unfortunately I had just packed up *all* my studio for a temporary move (over 200 synths, drum machines and sequencers into 250+ feet of 4' wide bubble wrap, 20+ cases and 25 carry-totes) so I had to find that MMT-8 first. Luckily, it only took about half an hour to find it and get it out of its bubble-wrapped sleeve. The power supply was somewhat easier to find since I have a healthy addiction to label makers.

So I plugged it in, and hoped for the best. Sure enough that lovely little screen lit up bright!

It turned on!

Next, I needed to figure out how to restore the audio data. One of the great things about the MMT-8 is its ease of use, and the fact that most of the directions on its use can be found on the flip-up lid on the top of the MMT-8.

flip-up instructions

So, with the instructions on how to restore pattern and song data identified, I dug out an audio cable and plugged one end from the headphone output of my laptop and the other end into the "tape in" port on the back of the MMT-8. I then pulled up the Shawn Rudiman's Bandcamp page, entered the correct key combo on the MMT-8 to start the restore process, and hit play on the Bandcamp page to get the first set of audio data playing.

Nothing.

I tried different volume levels.

Still nothing.

I tried downloading and playing the MP3 file from the computer. Nothing. Uncompressed WAV files. Nothing. Stereo cable. Nothing. Mono cable. Nothing. Mono->Stereo cable. Nothing.

Anger sets in.

Then I had an idea. I pulled up the Bandcamp app on my Android tablet, plugged the audio cable into the headphone jack and hit play.

Boom! The screen on the MMT-8 indicated it was restoring the data.

I had forgotten how fussy tape backups/restores could be. And not just fussy. But time-consuming. And so it was four minutes and fifty-seven seconds later the MMT-8's screen returned to normal and I started looking for parts (what Alesis calls patterns).

00. 01. 02..... 16 - jackpot - "Deep Techno-2"!

Success!

But now for problem #2. All my synths were packed up! What do I connect to the sequencer to see what exactly was restored?

I got an idea.

What if I play each track, one by one, from that first pattern on the MMT-8 while sync'd up and recording into Propellerhead Reason?

And that's exactly what I did:

The great thing about this method is that it created a nice visual reference of the MIDI data and I could get a better idea of what might be a percussive, pad or bass-type track. I then created a new instance of Kong, Thor or any of Reason's other great instruments (or VSTs!) and copied over the midi data from the track. Voila!

It also helped that I contacted Shawn to let him know I had managed to pull in one of his sets and he gave me a few more tips and hints about his workflow. Thank you Shawn!

So now I bet you want to hear something. Well, that's gonna have to wait because I have a few more Alesis brochures to post yet!  :)

Roland "The Roland Rack" catalog, May 1980

Roland "The Roland Rack" eight page catalog including SPA-240, SPA-120, SIP-300 and SIP-301 amplifiers, SDD-320 Dimension D, SBF-325 stereo flanger, SVC-350 vocoder, SPV-355 pitch-to-voltage synthesizer, SRE-555 chorus echo, SMX-880 line mixer, SST-120 sound system, and SEQ-315 and SEQ-331 equalizers from May 1980.

Oh man... after scanning that last Roland catalog, I just couldn't stop. I became a whirlwind of scanning... and this one got caught up in the tornado. Okay - a glass or two of wine might have helped too.

Point is - the result is another excellent Roland catalog for the blog!

As a teen I always ran into these racks in pawn shops. They looked awesome but I just couldn't afford them. That's not exactly true... I did end up finding a SVC-350 locally back in the 90s. Snapped it up immediately and its never left the studio. But there is just so many other racks from this series that I want. Unfortunately prices have gone through the roof on most of 'em, so it's just a fantasy to find them all now.

For me, the centre of that fantasy is that lovely KS-300 display stand! You'll find it on the last inside page in the bottom left. Take a look... I'll wait...

See... what I tell ya. Wouldn't that thing look great filled with all those rack units?!?! I've expressed it before, but it can't be said enough. I. LOVE. ACCESSORIES. And this Roland Rack is on the top of my "want" list.

I have never seen one of these in someone's gear shot or in an advertisement. But I want to.

If you have one of these, please snap a photo and send it to me! I will add it to the post with a link back to your page/bandcamp/wherever!

Please!   :)

End note: Did you find the System 100 synthesizer?

Roland Space Echos "What price clear music" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1978

Roland Space Echos RE-101/RE-201 and Chorus Echo RE-301 "What  price clear music" full page colour advertisement from page 47 in the May 1978 issue of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine.

Man, is it just me, or does that black/olive green combo with pops of red look great. Wow, I love that. 

Anyways, in my recent blog post on Roland's 1984 advertisement for their SDE-series of digital delay rack effects, one of the major talking points about the design of the ad was that of readability. More specifically, Roland's design decision to consciously or unconciously put form before function and make the ad-copy fit within the design of the ad, even thought this would affect readability. In other words, the ad-copy became one big block of text.  I also pointed out that Roland had done this with other ads as well, such as the one for their 1986 Alpha-Juno ad.

And, to be clear, I liked both of those ads.  :)

"Get to the point, Retro!"

Well, my point is that Roland was doing this waaaay before those two ads were created - and you can see it in this 1978 Roland Space Echo advertisement as well. Even more interesting is the size of the logo in the various ads. In those later ads, the logo is almost as small as the ad text. Still, it's interesting that if I asked you to look for the logo, your eyes would only take a few seconds to find it. Placement is everything.

Although Roland really pushed the 101, 201 and 301 in ads and magazines (they were always the photos), the ad actually mentions that there were six models available. Six? What the....?!?!? Let's see...

According to the RE-201 Wikipedia page, The RE-100 was the earliest in the series appearing around 1973 along with the RE-200, the main difference being that the 200 also included a spring reverb. Both were later replaced by the 101 and 201, and according to Sound on Sound's excellent November 2004 article on the history of Roland, these launched in 1974.

That SOS article also dates the RE-301 as launching in 1977 and Part 2 of the article that ran a month later dates the RE-150 as coming out in 1979.

The Wikipedia page also references a later RE-501/SRE-555 rack, and SOS dates it's launch in 1980.

So, in summary:

RE-100: 1973
RE-200: 1973
RE-101: 1974
RE-201: 1974
RE-301: 1977
RE-150: 1979
RE-501: 1980

But wait... this ad came out in May 1978. And it mentions six models. But by 1978 only five models were released. Hmmm... So, either Roland jumped the gun on promoting the unreleased RE-150, Sound on Sound has some dates wrong, or... maybe I researched/typed something wrong. But, I can't find out where I may have gone wrong.

Another possibility is that Roland is including the DC-50 digital chorus that came out in 1976. It had a similar look to the RE-series - big knobs, black/green colour, etc... Later DC-models like the DC-10 (1977) and DC20/30 (1978) were much smaller units with little design similarities with the RE-series.

Huh.

One last thing... because I think its neat...

A really great comparison between the RE-101 and RE-201 can be found in a 1975 "Deepen the depth of your music" Roland Space Echo brochure I posted back in late 2012. One of the neat-o things about this early Space Echo brochure is that nowhere in the actual text of the brochure are either unit actually referred to as "Space Echos". Yeah, the name is on the actual pieces of equipment, but it's like Roland hadn't realized what an awesome name "Space Echo" was back in 1975.

As you can see by this ad though, buy 1978 Roland had figured it out. And the "Space Echo" name had become a more general term, even for the "Chorus Echo".

"Space Echo". Good name for a band.  :)

Roland SDE 3000 and 1000 "Instant Delay" ad, Keyboard 1984

Roland SDE-3000 and SDE-1000 digital delay "Instant Delay" full page colour advertisement from page 7 in the May 1984 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Okay - I realize effects, and especially vintage effects, and ESPECIALLY vintage digital effects are NOT my core competence. I've got a rack of them like most vintage synth addicts I know (they're cheap!), but I don't know them as deeply as, say, my Pro-One or Minimoog.  I keep telling myself that when it comes to the blog I should stick to what I know - vintage synth ads and brochures. But, just like with the performance review I'm prep'd for recently,  everyone should have "stretch" objectives. Those outside the comfort zone. So, consider effects like one of my blog's stretch objective.

There is no denying the influence effects such as delay, chorus, reverb and distortion have had on synthesizer players since they first started appearing on stage or in recordings. And today, some synth manufacturers like Dave Smith Instruments treat some of those effects as just another sound-block. Like a filter or LFO. I'm looking at you, Evolver!

But back in the day, effects hardware was hard to come by. Well, cheaply anyways. So, it makes sense that companies like Roland, Korg and others, would advertise directly to keyboard players in magazines like Keyboard when the price point of effects hit that magic sweet spot. 

Ever since Korg announced the recreation of their SDD-3000 effects unit in to a pedal format, I've been hoping it would lead other manufacturers to realize the big love out there for vintage digital effects among those still using analog mixers like myself. And that's lead me to do a bit of research to see what other big guns were part of the delay world back in the 80s.

Korg wasn't the only synthesizer manufacturer to toy with digital effects advertising in Keyboard Magazine back then. A few others got into the act soon after, including Roland with this advertisement for their SDE-3000 and baby brother SDE-1000.

Turning attention to the ad itself, if you recall it was in the mid-80s that many companies like Roland were toying with computer art in their advertisements. I blogged about it while referring to Roland's 1986 Alpha-Juno ad just a few weeks ago that featured more solid abstract artwork. It's wire-frame origins can really be seen when jumping back in time two years to this SDE ad and its more Tron-influenced artwork with glowing wire frames, digital string art and lazers.

Yum. It makes me happy. Like Roland TB-303 level of happy.

Computer effects can only go so far towards the overall design. Ad-copy and layout goes a long way too - especially when readability is involved. Like when listing out the specs of a synthesizer or effects unit in an ad. But in both of these ads, Roland makes the ad-copy part of the design at the expense of readability. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - and the creative half of me prefers it, but it does make it tougher for the reader. Looking at that SDE ad, as cool as those lasers are, the one beam is cutting right through the middle of the text. The result is four hanging hyphens and no paragraph breaks. The Alpha-Juno ad uses a similar technique - one block of text, only this time using a smaller font and even curving it.

Readability suffers a bit, but for me it's all about the art! And I'm digging it.

No matter, if you take the time to read through the SDE ad, the marketing team has done a good job of making the case to purchase these Roland effects units over some of the more complicated effects units out there (like the Korg, maybe?). Their argument is that more features equals more time to set up effects.

If you don't have the patience to read it, that's okay. Readers of Keyboard were actually introduced to many of those features when these two SDEs showed up three months earlier in the February 1984 Spec Sheet section of Keyboard.

"Roland Programmable DDLs. The SDE-1000 and SDE-3000 are programmable digital delays. The SDE-3000 can produce delays out to 4.5 seconds. Delay times are set in 0.1 and 1.0 ms increments. The unit has eight memory positions, which are user-programmable, and can be accessed via a footswitch. LED readouts display all vital system functions. The SDE-1000 offers delay times of up to 1.25 second and four memory positions. Both units are equipped with four remote switch jacks for ease of operation onstage. These are : delay on/off, hold (for repeating delay endlessly with adjustable tempo). Playmate (to set delay times remotely during performance), and preset (for switching between memory channels). The SDE-1000 is also equippted with a modulation foot control jack for footpedal control of modulation rates. Both units are also rack-mountable. Prices are: SDE-3000, $1,095.00; SDE-1000, $499.00. Roland-Corp, 7200 Dominion Circle, Los Angeles, CA 90040."

I'm definitely going to be on the look out for an SDE-3000 now.  :)

Korg SDD-3000 "Programmable Digital Delay" ad, Keyboard 1982

Korg SDD-3000 "Programmable Digital Delay" full page colour advertisement from page 55 in the December 1982 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Aaaah - the sun is out and I'm bathing in its warmth. But for how long? I got a lot to say... better get busy. 

First and foremost, from a marketing point of view, what's really interesting about Korg's recent announcement of its new SDD-3000 Delay Pedal is that this ISN'T analog. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE analog and was first in line to get Korg's reintroduced MS-20. But if the online response to this piece of retro DIGITAL technology is any indication, analog isn't necessarily king. RETRO is. Analog. Digital. It doesn't matter. A success here will open the door for Korg and many other companies to seriously think about reintroducing a wider range of retro gear. And that's good for everybody.

Korg has really been on a string of hits lately. First with the MS20 filter in those cute little Monotrons back in 2010 and 2011, and then in the MS20mini and the kit. Those units pretty much sold themselves.

But with two of Korg's most interesting recent announcements (for me anyways), it shouldn't go unnoticed that they have been brought in some heavy hitters to partner with.

First was the totally unexpected and surprising ARP Odyssey announcement back in February where they brought in none other than ARP original Dave Friend. That is just so amazing on so many levels. And now with the SDD-3000 pedal, who's name is appearing next to it? U2 guitar tech Dallas Schoo. That's who.

Korg knows that if they are going to come out with an SDD remake, who better than to partner with than the band that single-handedly put that effects unit back on the map. I have no doubt they could have pulled it off with him, but it just wouldn't have been the same. AND, think about the negativity that could have resulted if they hadn't brought U2 guitar tech Dallas Schoo in and then he comments on how he *didn't* like it. Ouch.

 Smart move. Which brings me to my next point - another smart move by Korg.

Although the official introductory news release for Korg's NEW SDD-3000 Delay Pedal is dated July 10, 2014, Korg USA tweeted the introduction of this awesomeness just after 8 p.m. (my time :) on July 9, linking to their product page. Social media wins again. Most stogy corporations won't let anything leak until a news release goes out. And that sucks bum. In this day and age, there is no problem with giving it to the people before you give it to the media when the story is this hot.

Anyways, no matter how the news got out first, the result was a lot more happy guitarists in the world. Even the Emo ones I'm sure. AaaaaND even those of us who aren't guitarists (or barely keyboardists) who have also looked back on the SDD-3000 with such great fondness. Korg continued the SDD- tradition by later releasing the SDD-1000, SDD-1200 dual delay, SDD-2000 sampling digital delay and my personal favorite, the SDD-3300 triple digital delay. 

But as happens in the musical world, the first born is usually the favorite. And so it is with the SDD-3000 and the masses. The U2-angle obviously helped, but I think its also a favorite because it was a first for Korg and people have a soft spot for firsts.

It wasn't their first effects unit, but it was their first cool looking digital effects unit. As far as I know, before this effects unit was released,  their effects looked... well... like older effects boxes. The era of the 1-unit cool-and-sleek looking digital effects rack was still just in its infancy, and this was Korg throwing their hat into the Keyboard-Magazine-ring relatively early in the game.  

This doesn't mean it was the first 1-unit digital delay off the block, but it was probably one of the first that me and many others heard about because the only place we read about anything music-wise was in Keyboard. I'm guessing there is a good chance that other digital rack gear such as those by Lexicon were getting promoted in other magazines, but as a kid who pretty much exclusively read Keyboard, I didn't see it. As far as I was concerned, it only existed if it was in Keyboard.  :)

Let's put it in perspective a bit.

Before this Korg ad, effects advertisements and spec sheet write ups in Keyboard for the most part came in one of two forms. You had pedals being manufactured and advertised by the likes of MXR, Electro-Harmonix, Pearl and Boss, and you had big bulky effects boxes created by companies like Bode and Roland. These were what I was most interested in and the real standouts for me at the time were Roland's RE-501 delay, Yamaha's E1010 and E1005 analog delay rack units and Sequential Circuits PRO-FX system (drooooooool).

But in amongst all those ads and spec sheets, readers of Keyboard were about to get a hint of what was to come in the sleek-and-clean digital rack world.

First, in late 1981 the spec sheet section of Keyboard magazine included the new Fostex model 3050 digital delay that featured 270 milliseconds delay time for a tidy $450.00. Ohhhh.

Then in April 1982, DeltaLab published an ad in Keyboard for their Time Line DL-4 digital delay 1-unit rack and followed that up in August and October 1982 with an ad for their $499 Effectron digital delay 1-unit rack. Both slim, sleek and almost digital looking. Almost.

And then, with DeltaLabs holding the door open, Korg walked through with this SDD-3000 advertisement at the end of 1982. And although the ad didn't appear more than two or three times, it did make a statement. First, the ad was designed to be horizontal. You had to flip the magazine 90 degrees to read it. Second, the unit itself was really different looking from previous Korg effects units with its digital read-out and puuurdy yellow buttons. 

Although ADA and Ibanez would end up advertising here and there throughout 1983, it was DeltaLabs that really tried to make Keyboard's digital delay territory their own.  That company began a manufacturing and advertising blitz, first in the March 1983 issue with an ad for the whole family including the ADM-256 ($499.00), ADM-64 ($399.00) and ADM-1028 ($699.00). By August 1983 they had no less than three ads running in each issue. To compare, Korg and Yamaha both had a maximum of three ads running in a single issue at the height of their advertising blitzes. DeltaLabs was in good company.

Interestingly, it wasn't until nine months after the Kord SDD-3000 ad appeared that it was finally featured in the Spec Sheet section of the September 1983 issue of Keyboard.

"The SDD-3000 is a programmable digital delay. It was designed to produce a number of effects including chorusing, flanging, doubling, reverb, doppler effects, infinite repeats, and so on. All control settings can be stored in nine different program locations and easily recalled via push buttons or footswitches. Specs and features include: up to 1032 milliseconds of delay, 30Hz to 17kHz frequency response; stereo capability; footswitch connections for program up and down, delay bypass, and hold modes; a feedback loop with 4-position high and lowpass filters; phase inversion of feedback loop and final loop; input and output facilities on the front and rear panel; triangle, square, and random waveforms from the LFO; external and envelope control of the VCO; and 3-position input and output attenuators. Price is $1,495.00. Korg, 79 Frost St., Westbury, NY 11590."

$1,495.00. Wowza. The new pedal is $399.99.  Another reason to like retro digital re-boots!

Well, I think I've rattled on long enough. Time to go out and enjoy the...

damn... raining again.

Roland Echo Chambers RE-101/RE-201 "Deepen the Depth of Your Music" brochure, 1975

Roland Echo Chambers RE-101/RE-201 "Deepen the Depth of Your Music" four page colour brochure from 1975.

When I first got this brochure, I looked at the front image and asked myself.... REALLY? The tape inside these things really just flops around like that? Just all curled up?

Can someone verify that for me? Or am I missing something?

I just find it hard to believe, but then again, I find it hard to believe I used to listen to music on magnetic tapes at all. Or read books made of paper. Paper, I tell ya!

No matter - this brochure rocks. Yeah, its not a retro synth. So what. This thing is aces.

Before looking at this brochure, I really had no idea how tape delays functioned. Or their features. Nothing. I guess I could have always looked on the Web, but just never had the inclination. And that's too bad, 'cause now that I've read this brochure, I'm going on the hunt to find one. Or three. It's just the kind of doo-hickey I love. It has lots of knobs and controls and it's made to be opened up and fiddled with. Yum.

Ten bucks says I break my first one in under an hour. You know it! Whoo hoo! *high five*

Doh. 

The brochure's title "Deepen the depth of your music" is awesome, so it's beyond me why its located on the inside pages rather than slapped on the front - it would only add to the cover's beauty. Instead, the top of that front cover has the rather awkward lonely text "Best Echo Chambers Featuring Easy-to-operate Design and Well-developed Mecanism" just kinda floating there.

No matter, because once that brochure is opened up, it's like entering the Land of Oz. Smaller photos of the RE-101 and RE-201are surrounded by labels describing all the features of each and every switch, knob and dial.

And if you hate diagrams with labels randomly scattered about the two-page spread, then flip to the back for a nice little table comparing the main features of the two units.

And, for those history buffs, they graciously printed the full date of the printing - December 1975. Excellent.

Not much else to say today really. I've been kinda quiet both online and off recently. Except that while doing research, I noticed a couple of things that I found interesting.

First, the name of the RE-201 - the Space Echo. Although this awesomely cool name is clearly visible on the front panel of the 201 in the brochure photos, no where in the actual brochure is it ever referred to as the Space Echo. It's always referred to by the model number. And Space Echo is such a cool name that I think that was a lost opportunity, especially since, according to Wikipedia's RE-201 page, it is what the 201 became commonly referred to by the masses. Listen to the people, people! 

Second, the brochure keeps on bringing up the fact that the reverb unit incorporated into the RE-201 was manufactured in the U.S.A by O.C.E.  I've heard the name before, for example, in the Boss RX-100 reverb owner's manual (PDF) where it is referenced as "The three spring OCE Reverb Unit". But, I have no idea who or what exactly O.C.E is. And the few Google searches I did brought up nothing. I hate it when Google searches come up with zip. 

So... um... anyone got more info on O.C.E.?

Email me or leave a comment. Thanx.

Akai ME10D, ME20A and MM99 MIDI controlled effects, Sound on Sound 1985

Akai ME10D MIDI delay, ME20A MIDI arpeggiator and MM99 sound controller MIDI controlled effects 2-page advertisement from page 40 and 41 in Sound on Sound Magazine November 1985.

Akai had already been pushing musical gear for a while, especially the AX80. But those ads have nothing on this centrefold that appeared in the first ever issue of Sound On Sound magazine. Akai is obviously having fun with this ad - like they told the designer to just go nuts. And It all adds up to a stellar piece of work that keeps me chuckling.

I mean, this thing is really wacked-out. The retro design, acrobats in leopard skin with Akai module racks for heads and those crazy hands playing the AX80 in the bottom right corner. And, to put icing on the cake, I'm not even sure the hard-to-read squiggly ad-copy is even grammatically correct. At all.

Side note: I've been rather tired lately, and to give you an idea just how tired, I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out what Akai meant by what I read as "Tomorrow's S.O.U and N.D.S Today" in the top right corner of the ad-copy. I had literally pulled up Google to do a search on SOU and NDS to figure out what these odd UK terms meant. Gah.

The actual Akai MIDI gear doesn't really interest me, but as I was flipping through this first issue of Sound On Sound, I really started to respect the direction the creators of the magazine were taking. "RECORDING - MIDI - SYNTHESIZERS" is written at the bottom of the cover, and SOS made sure to start the magazine with a bang by putting Midge Ure, fresh off a world tour with Ultravox and appearances at Live Aid, on the cover.

And, if that doesn't set the magazine's agenda, then that first article starting on page 5 will. Called "The Programming People", it has this introductory paragraph:

"The recording industry has recently embraced a new breed - the programmer. These skilled individuals, specialized in the operation of top-flight computer musical instruments like the Fairlight and Synclavier, find themselves in great demand by studios and recording producers. Recognising this need, Karin Clayton has created a specialist agency - The Programming People - which offers clients the services of various expert programmers. Paul Gilby sampled her story and discovered how it all started". 

More articles follow covering MIDI, an intro to SMPTE and of course, gear reviews.

Being Canadian, reading UK magazines is a treat because I just didn't have the level of access to many of the UK musicians of the time period that my UK snail-mail penpals/music traders took for granted. For example, in the article on MIDI, the opening paragraph includes a quote by Rupert Hine about his first use of MIDI while recording Howard Jone's first album:

"There are certain very rare moments in the recording studio when you realise that a series of barriers you've been used to living with have just dropped."

You have no idea how happy it makes me when I come across quotes like that. Howard Jones still rocks.

Another article features the UMI-2B computer MIDI sequencing system that ran on the BBC B Micro computer. Again - you have no idea how many times I've read articles on Vince Clarke that mention this machine and sequencer. And to finally be able to read about it in detail seriously rocked. And, of course, the article included that soon-to-become classic photo of Vince Clarke and Eric Radcliffe posing with the computer and a rack of CZ101s.

Under the photo is a small quote by Vince, that includes:

"If you are looking for something to sequence, say, a bank of eight Casio CZ101s, then UMI-2B is the answer."

Bank of CZ101s - Drool.

Speaking of CZ101s, I had forgotten just how much coverage that little multi-timbral beast was actually getting when it first launched - and this magazine was no exception. The 101 also gets mentioned in a Casio SZ-1 review as "a leap forward in music technology" and the Midge Ure article mentions it was used to record three instrumental tracks on "The Gift".

After finding this Akai ad, I really did end up reading this issue cover to cover again after all these years, and Sound On Sound obviously wanted to make sure it was written for serious musicians (and technicians). But, in case you thought the magazine was taking itself too seriously, flip to the second last page and you find this:

It was so out of place that it took me a few seconds to process it. The Pee-wee Herman Wikipage tells me that the movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure came out in 1985, so I guess it makes sense that if you were going to be pushing underpants, now was the time.

You can view a list of all the articles found in that issue... where else?... on the Sound On Sound Web site.

Another reason it is such a great mag. :D

End note: Nope. Didn't get paid to promote SOS. Never gotten paid for anything written in this blog (unless you count my Google ads that bring in enough for about two Slurpees* a month). Probably never will get paid (or at least not until my grammar and spelling get *a lot* better).

* Nope. Didn't get paid for mentioning Slurpees either. And, BTW, we are talking Canadian Slurpees, not those ones found in other countries that are foamy and stuff - although I do enjoy those too).