Roland Alpha Juno 1 & 2 "Flash boards" ad, The Music Technology Magazine 1986

Roland Alpha JUNO 1 & 2 "Flash Boards" full colour advertisement from the inside front cover of the July 1986 issue of The Music Technology Magazine (U.S. edition).

There are just so many reasons to love this ad, and the first is that this ad is from 1986. Let's face it, the 80s were a kick-ass time to be into synthesizers (as well as the growing MIDI music software industry). And with kick-ass time periods come kick-ass advertising art.

It just so happens that the 80s was also a time when affordable computers started popping up everywhere - in the office, at home and in the studio. More than a few commercial artists decided to try their hand at this medium called "computer art".

All that said - I can't even begin to speculate what the imagery in this advertisement is supposed to be. Except for many that face in the bottom right-hand corner. Yeah, I think that's a face.

But I know what the result is:

1. Awesome advertising art.

2. Awesome 80s advertising art.

3. Awesome 80s COMPUTER advertising art.

Another reason to love this ad is that it showed up in the "inaugural" issue of "The Music Technology Magazine". According to the editorial on page 3, the reason the magazine launched in 1986 was because they "felt there was no publication adequately catering for the needs of America's modern musicians". Apparently it was time for one.

Now, some of you readers from across the pond may be wondering - what are you talking about, that magazine has been around for years?!?! Well, they are related.

According to the "History" page of the Recording Magazine Web site, founders of the American version of the magazine were already well-established in the UK:

"In 1986, Music Maker Publications, Inc. (MMP) was formed to launch Music Technology magazine in the United States.

Founders Terry Day and Dennis Hill had already established a successful publishing operation in the United Kingdom, which published several music magazine titles including Music Technology and Home & Studio Recording. Their idea was to establish a company in the United States that would mirror their publishing operation in England.  

Partnered with a U.S. based management team, Terry and Dennis launched Music Technology magazine from their new corporate offices in Canoga Park, California and the timing was just right. In the days when MIDI and digital technology were being developed and refined, Music Technology rapidly gained a devoted readership, passionate about their music and hungry for news and information about the evolving technologies in the audio industry."

The rest of the page is quite an interesting read too, including many different music magazines you are probably familiar with.

I couldn't find a publication date in that inaugural issue. It just has a copyright date of 1986. I had to go to the second issue, dated September 1986 to get more info. In the editorial that appears on page 2 of that second issue (Tony Banks from Genesis appears on that cover), it states that "it's nearly two months now since we launched Music Technology with our inaugural issue...". Bam! That's reason enough to give the inaugural issue a July 1986 date for publication purposes.

Anyways - where was I...? Oh yeah - this was the first issue of the American version of TMTM. So, who better to show up on the cover? Peter Gabriel, that's who. No surprise to find him sitting there beside an Emulator.

Even more interesting is who else the magazine decided to interview in this first issue.

You may have already read the name on the cover image to the right - Douglas Adams! If you don't recognize the name, duck, because I'm about to punch you in the neck. Second, if you don't recognize the name, maybe the title of the article will help jog your memory:

"The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Macintosh".

And for anyone else still in the dark - here's the Wikipedia link. 

According to the opening paragraph, Douglas Adams was not only an author, but also a musician with an interest in music technology. Enough of an interest that article writer Matthew Vosburgh refers to Douglas as an "expert on the Apple Macintosh computer and its associated software".

Well, waddaya know!

I will forgive Matthew for probably thinking he is the biggest Douglas Adams fan ever born. Many people around the world make this mistake simply because they haven't met me yet. So to hear that Douglas Adams was also a synth-nut?!?! My head nearly exploded. Point being that when I first came across this issue some time ago, I actually ignored all the synthesizer and MIDI software advertisements to flip directly to the article.

Matthew's article is a fantastic, funny and entertaining read that gives us quite a few juicy tidbits of synthy knowledge. For example, Douglas Adam first used music software for the Mac called Concertwave Plus. Oddly I don't think I'm the first person in the world to punch that in to Google - but all that came up was cracked software sites. Moving on...

Reading the article, we soon find out that some of the first synths Douglas Adams looked at were the Casio CZ3000 and 5000 on account of them both being multi-timbral. But after listening to a Yamaha DX7, he ended up walking out of the store with a TX-7 module and a Korg DW8000. And what good are MIDI synths without MIDI software? It was then that he decided to get Mark of the Unicorn Performer software.

And well, I think many of us can relate to what happened next. He got GAS (look it up...).

According to the article, he picked up THREE more TX7s, A Korg EX800 and a Yamaha RX15 drum machine played through a Roland Octopad (although he regrets not going with the RX11 with its better MIDI implementation). Everything was wired through a Seck mixer and into a Fostex 260 four-track recorder.

Later, Douglas Adams also checked out the Emulator II, Kurzweil, and Fairlight, but opted for a Mirage sampler instead. As luck would have it, the Mirage never came in, and he "wandered off" with the Emulator. That happened to me when a Kawai K1 didn't show up at my local music store and I ended up walking out with three more expensive synths, a drum machine and a sequencer. I kid... kinda.

The behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes are amazing to read - more so 28 years later. If you can find a copy on eBay, definitely pick it up. Buy two like I did because you will want one copy by your bedside at all times because chances are your Fruitloops and milk are going to spill onto it.

What? No... that has never happened to me. :)

Ensoniq Mirage "It makes $1695 sound like a lot more." ad, Keyboard, 1985

Ensoniq Mirage "It makes $1695 sound like a lot more." full page colour advertisement from page 53 in the July 1985 issue of Keyboard magazine.

Just a quick Monday blog post as a follow-up to last week's UK Mirage advertisement. After posting that ad, I thought it would be neat-o to do a comparison of sorts and see what Ensoniq was doing across the pond in North America. Sure enough there was an ad running in Keyboard the exact same month - July.

And... what a difference can be found!

While Ensoniq was pushing a very minimalistic ad in Electronics and Music Maker (EMM), the company went in the complete opposite direction in Keyboard. In fact, they went full-on Chatty-Cathy.

Now, granted, this wasn't Ensoniq's first advertisement in Keyboard - this was actually their second ad in Keyboard that started appearing around May 1985.  There was the chance that the company introduced the Mirage to North America with equal minimalism in their earlier ad, but when I went back and checked, that was clearly not the case and that first ad was even more detailed than this one. Will post that one in the near future.

Let's face it, the Mirage's most unique, defining feature when it was introduced was price, and Ensoniq came out swinging against one of its biggest competitors without actually naming names. But the field was still so small at the time that everyone must have known exactly who they were talking about - the E-mu Emulator. Or at least that's who I think they were referring to. The ad compares the Mirage to a "$10,000" sampler, but the Emulator was actually around $8,000 for the regular model, and $10,000 for the "plus" with extra memory (according to Wikipedia).

What about the Fairlight, you ask? Well, it's probably not surprising that Ensoniq made no comparison to the Fairlight in this ad - they were biggest name in sampling with the biggest price tag. The Fairlight was *too* big and expensive and Ensoniq must have known their core market for the Mirage wasn't going to give the Fairlight a second thought (it was everyone's first thought  :). Point is, there was no need for Ensoniq to go there. At all.

On the other end of the cost spectrum was the Akai S-612. Coincidentally, the first Akai advertisement appeared during the spring/summer of 1985 in Keyboard as well - including the same issue as this Ensoniq ad. And it too included a price tag - $995.00. 

Side note: Also coincidentally, Kate Bush appeared on the cover of the July 1985 issue of Keyboard sitting next to a Fairlight in what can only be described as a Cosby sweater. To be clear - Kate is in the sweater... the Fairlight isn't. Back to the ad...

Anyways, after that initial swipe at the Emulator, the ad-copy then strategically breaks down the other features of the Mirage by playing to both the left and right half of readers' brains.

First it touches on the creative side of the instrument, listing off some key features - polyphonic, velocity-sensitive keyboard, and 77 parameters of sweet-ass editing goodness that includes filters, envelopes and modulation. And to top it off - a built in sequencer. Yum.

The the techie side takes over - because back in the 80s, if you were talking about samplers and sampling, it was hard NOT to bring technology into the conversation. In Ensoniq's case, floppy diskette storage, MIDI, and their customized "Q-Chip".

But, as I said near the beginning of this ad - it was the price that really differentiated the Mirage from other samplers at the time. In this case, the cost for a Mirage in the US in 1985 was $1695.

Now, compare that to the 1695 Pounds that the Mirage cost in the UK in 1985. According to one foreign exchange Web site, that US dollar was worth 1.3807 pounds in July 1985. So, if I've done my calculations correctly, UK buyers were paying approximately $2,340 US dollars for the Mirage in 1985.

Interesting stuff.

Time to go out and enjoy the nice weather! 

*FINALLY!*

Ensoniq Mirage "This is a Mirage. This is not." ad, Electronics & Music Makers, 1985

Ensoniq Mirage "This is a Mirage. This is not." page and a half black and white advertisement from page 66 and 67 in the July 1985 issue of Electronics & Music Makers magazine.

No.  It's not an April Fools post. I'm just late. Was supposed to post yesterday and ended up having to work and the post never got finished.

Then, tonight when I got home (late... again...), I got on my stationary bike to blow off some stress from the day but found it had a flat tire. WTF?!?! How does that happen? But it was flat.

And then I remembered the post. So, I pulled up an Ultravox concert on YouTube, Chromecasted it to my TV, and decided to finish the post.

And so here it is...

---

While doing some background research on the Ensoniq Mirage for a different project, I was reading through the product review for this cute little sampler in the July 1985 issue of E&MM. But as I was flipping through the magazine to find the review, I was startled when this Mirage advertisement popped up further on in the magazine. I don't recall ever coming across it.

It's startling for a few reasons.

First - it's black and white. At a time when most of the ads appearing in E&MM were taking advantage of the magazine's glossy pages through the use of saturated bright colours and classic 80's designs, Ensoniq darted in the other direction with a very stark, black and white advertisement.  Ballsy? Or did they just not have the cash for a colour ad? Who cares... it stands out.

Second - Ensoniq took a page (knowingly or unknowingly) out of Moog's 1979 marketing playbook and kept the ad concept simple. Very very simple. If you don't recall those particular Moog advertisements, here's a refresher (click to view blog posts and larger versions of the ads):

Both of those Moog ads, and this Mirage advertisement that came six years later, don't even sport a logo.

But, what the Moog keyboard itself has that the Mirage doesn't is a distinctive design. Most readers of this magazine would immediately recognize a Minimoog. But, remove the logo from an Mirage keyboard and it looks a lot like the other digital keyboards that were around at the time.

Another company that got away with this type of advertisement is E-mu with its Emulator. It too, became a classic in my books (again... click on the link to view the blog post and a larger version of the ad):

The only reference to the name of the instrument in this E-mu advertisement is glued to the keyboard itself. But the Emulator was distinctive like the Minimoog, so they can get away with it. As quickly as the Ensoniq Mirage gained fame, it was too generic not to point out what the instrument actually was.

Aside: Ultravox concert from YouTube. The Thin Wall just started. Amazing. I had to stop writing and dance a little - no joke. Look it up - Ultravox Concert 2010 - Return to Eden Full Show. Okay - back to the blog post...

Third - although not really "startling", is the theme. Ensoniq used a nice little play on words to get across the best thing the "Mirage" had going for it - the price. But the "optical phenomenon" theme didn't end after the price tag in the bottom half of the ad. If you read the fine print, you get to "Rush to your nearest oasis before it's gone!" and then the ad directs the reader to the previous facing page.

There on that facing page, the reader will find another 1/2-page long list of dealers for the sampling keyboard. E&MM managed to sell the 1-1/2 page advertisement spot a fair bit, and it was very effective.

And that brings up to the forth thing - and definitely back into the range of "startling". Even on this page, the company logo is only in small print at the bottom of the column. This ad is all about the synth, not the company. Not sure why this is, but my best guess is that the distributor or dealers were paying for this ad. And it was the Mirage that was the darling of the show. Not Ensoniq. But that's just me thinking out load.

Anyways, if you ever get a chance to read that Mirage review from the same mag, don't pass it up. The review gives an amazing account not just of the instrument itself, but the history of sampling up to this point as well as Mirage's debut at the February 1984 Frankfurt music fair.

"One factor contributing to this chaos [of the music fair] was the presence of two stunning German girls giving out glossy brochures, but the main reason was superficially rather more mundane. Three extremely dull-looking electronic keyboards, similar in size to a DX-7 and obviously in a just-finished production state, wouldn't ordinarily command such universal attention.

But these instruments were different. Even withe the help(?) of an unflattering speaker system struggling to make its presence felt in the face of strong competition from some triffid-like potted plants, the keyboards sounded good. Lots of strings, brass and piano sounds being reproduced with uncanny accuracy by electronics were not, of course, a novelty. But when the girls told us the keyboard would be selling for under 2000 pounds, our mood changed from one of mild pleasure to one of uninhibited astonishment."

The review also explains how six months later, the orders were coming in so fast to America, that Ensoniq set up production in Italy where Mirages were made under license.

That's enough blogging for now. Time to get back to that Ultravox concert.

Casio CZ-5000 "If you've got your eyes on the charts..." ad, Keyboard 1985

Casio CZ-5000 synthesizer "If you've got your eyes on the charts..." full page colour advertisement from page 132 in the October 1985 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

It's Sunday night now, and usually I've wrapped up my blogging by noon - or at least have Monday's post in the bin, and Thursday's on deck. But today was different. I woke up in one big procrastination mood.

The first thing I did, as I usually do when I wake up, was immediately reach for my tablet and check my email. I was quickly reminded by FutureShop that the WiiU went on sale this morning.  Well, I'll be darned. So much for blogging.

Historically, I'm not known for falling into the marketing hype of new products. I usually wait a year and then buy used for a fraction of the price. Computers. Synths. Everything. But recently I've gained a bit more financial freedom to make spontaneous purchases. So, recently I have made a few purchases on opening day. The Google Nexus Tablet was one of those recent purchases. And now the WiiU.

It wasn't that I was overly excited to buy one and plug it in. Sure, in the deep crevasses of my belly I could feel the beginnings of that "ooh-I'm-about-to-buy-a-new-product-and-unbox-it" tingly feeling, but honestly I think I was actually just more curious as to what kind of line-up there might be at the store.

Would it be mayhem?

Two dudes dressed as Star Wars characters?

Wait... wrong line.

I got there about five minutes after the store opened, and there wasn't a line in sight outside, and I just waited in a small queue at the checkout where they were hoarding them. When it was my turn I just paid and left. I asked the guy if there had been a line, and he said a few people came an hour and half before the store opened. But it was quite tame.

So what was my point - oh yeah - procrastination. Expensive procrastinating. For a new product that normally I would never pay top dollar for.

Thinking back while waiting in line (and stressing a little bit about what I was going to blog about), I realized that this is my purchasing model for synthesizers as well.

Wait.

Buy used.

Pay less.

But there were a few synthesizers that I have bought new. My CZ-5000 synthesizer was probably the first and holds a special place in my heart. I had heard good things about the CZ-series when they first came out - all of it through Keyboard Magazine. I saved up a long time (and probably so did my parents  :) for this baby.

Opening up the old issues of Keyboard now immediately brings me back to this purchasing decision and the logic I used on my parents to borrow some cash. In the September issue of Keyboard, a month before this ad began to sporadically appear, there is a killer page-long Keyboard Report on the CZ-5000 by Jim Aikin. And reading it today, I'm reminded about Casio's jump into the professional synth market.

"Long known as an industry leader in the field of fun keyboards that you buy in the department store, Casio is attempting with their new CZ series to move into the pro musician market. They've got the marketing clout, no doubt about it, and their synthesizers have a great sound, with distinctive digital waveforms and extensive envelope shaping. But their engineering staff still suffers now and again from odd lapses of judgement that reflect their greater familiarity with the home amusement area."

The diminutive CZ-101 and it's bigger brother, the CZ-1 were part of the initial marketing launch at the beginning of 1985, but it was the later marketing push of the CZ-5000 and it's multi-timbral sequencer that finally got me hooked. Especially that endless repeat function that allowed me to have a number of different sequences with different sounds looping continuously at the same time (sound familiar?  :)

But it wasn't just this article that convinced me to buy the synthesizer new. It was actually this ad. Or, I should say, it was Casio's marketing technique used in these ads.The easiest way to explain it is to compare it to other ads in the October 1985 issue.

• On the inside front cover of the issue is a two-page ad for the Korg DW-6000 that features a giant photo of the DW-6000.
  On the back outside cover is an ad for the Yamaha DX-7 and KX-5 that features a giant photo of both of those instruments.
• On the inside back cover is an ad for the Oberheim Matrix-12 that features a giant photo of the synth. 
• Linn-9000 drum machine ad - big photo of a Linn. 
• Akai AX80 synth ad - big photo of an AX-80.
• Roland 2-page centerfold ad for all of their current products - giant photo of the instruments.
• Ensoniq Mirage ad - giant photo of the Mirage. 
• Sequential Circuits MAX synth ad - giant photo of the MAX.

This list goes on and on. But do you catch it? What makes the Casio ads different.

NONE OF THESE ADS INCLUDE A HUMAN BEING.

None. There is no visual connection between the technology and the musician.

Casio knows phase-distortion synthesis is new. And they also know it can be complicated. Their marketing team knew they had to make a visual connection to a musician to push these synths into a new product category dominated by Roland, Yamaha, Sequential Circuits and Korg. A connection between the technology and a working musician. In a studio. Making music. And it doesn't hurt that the musician looks like he is right out of Miami Vice (ahem - the 80s television version).

Casio would use this visual theme and the ad-copy cues that go with it with other CZ ads

And it worked. On me anyways.

Akai S-612 "Finally Sampling Made Simple!" ad, Keyboard 1985

Akai S-612 sampler "Finally Sampling Made Simple!" 1/2-page colour advertisement from page 58 in the December 1985 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

After a five or six month run of their rather humorous 1/2-page black and white advertisement, Akai and/or distributor IMC decided to up their game a little bit.

For one, they decided to pay the big bucks and go CMYK on our @ss. Although, I think at the expense of a bit of readability. Actually, looking at this ad again right now, it kinda reminds me of an early 1990's rave pamphlet. It's like Akai already knew that sampling would play such a large role in electronic dance music of the future. Creepy good fun.

But, that rack sampler really does look purrrrdy in colour with its blue and red twiddlies and bitz. 

They also changed their primary message used in that earlier ad from one of cost ("less than a $1000!") to one based on ease of use. A message, I'm sure, that is a direct shot at the Ensoniq Mirage's rather more difficult sampling procedures:

"No longer do you need to be a computer whiz kid to unleash your sampling creativity. Now in just 8 seconds you can sample anything from a Model T to a Boeing 747..."

But it's this next part of the ad-copy that is really wonderful:

"...or permanently store your favorite sounds... from a C.D. to a $25,000 synthesizer!!"

Just to be clear, I'm pretty sure Loop Masters and Time+Space weren't around yet. :) Is Akai suggestingI use there S-612 to SAMPLE music CDs? Like, other people's music? Awesome.

But, like I said - colour at the expense of readability. It took me a while to find that low price of $995.00. And for some reason the designer put a really bright star right behind the price, making it even harder to see. Even if it isn't the main message, its still one of best features of this sampler.

After the introductory black and white advertisement ran from July to November 1985, this colour ad started running in December 1985, and actually continued to run pretty regularly through out the first half of 1986. But still, at a 1/2-page size, I think it continued to have trouble getting noticed over main competitor Ensoniq's full page colour ads for the Mirage. Complicated sampling and all.

But, the S-612 did a get a boost  in November 1985 just before this colour ad started to run in the form of a coveted Keyboard Review by Jim Aikin. After a brief introduction about the pros and cons of sampling in general, he zeros in on two of the S612's cost-cutting measures - no keyboard (played through MIDI), and the fact that you can only hold one sample in memory at a time.

Soon after (and much like this ad's message) Jim points out the obvious - this thing is easy to sample with. In his words:

"The S612 is simplicity itself to use".

After reading this, Akai should have immediately dropped all future marketing plans for the S612 and just put well-respected Aikin's quote above a photo of the S612.

Clap hands. Job done. :D

The review also points out one other feature of the S612 that isn't really mentioned elsewhere - storing sounds with the S612 on its own takes around EIGHT MINUTES BY CASSETTE. Do you know how long eight minutes is? Um... a long time.

But that's why Akai came out with the "optional" MD280 mini-disk drive module.  I put that "optional" in quotes, because it's really not all that optional. This module reduces the time it takes to store a sample from eight minutes down to eight seconds. Aaaaah. Much better.

Jim also rightly makes note of the suannoying 2.8" quick-disk format micro-floppies the unit used. Smaller than Mac's 3.5 inch disks. I hated them on my Roland S10 sampler too. But according to Jim, Akai's reason for choosing the format was because they could "hold exactly 64kb per side, which is what was needed to store one sampled sound and associated voicing information.  64kb? That seems low, no?

Jim also reviews other aspects of the machine, including factory sounds, voice parameters, truncating and looping functions and MIDI implementation (something of great importance in a rack sampler that relies on MIDI to be played).

In his conclusion, Jim once again points out the issue of saving to cassette, calling it "an exercise in frustration". He also brings back the awful memory of how expensive floppies were back in the day and comments "don't forget to budget a couple of hundred dollars for disks". LOL!

Before signing off, he makes one final observation about the future market for samplers:

"At the rate technology is advancing, we can expect to see more units like this one hitting the marketing in the near future, packed with bells and whistles to make them seem superior. But it's hard to see how the basic package found in the Akai could be improved upon."

It's hard to think of Akai as the underdog of sampling. But the company is catching up. Fast.

Akai S-612 "Would you like a sampler for less than $1000.00?" introductory ad, Keyboard 1985 - first ad

Akai S-612 sampler "Would you like a sampler for less than $1000.00?" 1/2-page black and white introductory advertisement from page 87 in the May 1985 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Work is about to take over my life for the next two or three weeks, so I've decided to enjoy this gorgeous weekend as  much as possible and spend only a minimal amount of time indoors - cleaning, blogging, music, etc. And, in retrospect, it looks like Akai took the same minimal approach both in the design of its S-612 sampler as well as its introductory advertisement.

Right or wrong, much of the early life of the S-612 was probably spent being compared to another relatively new and cheap-ass sampler, and it's main competition - the Ensoniq Mirage. So, of course, I did the same when looking at when exactly each of these samplers started showing up in Keyboard magazine.

The S-612 Spec Sheet appearance looks to be the first sign of life for Akai's sampler in the May 1985 issue of Keyboard. For comparison, the Ensoniq Mirage sampling keyboard had already been showing off its chops for a good five or six months in the form of a full colour two-page introductory advertisement that began running during the December 1984 Xmas season. I would have hoped for a bit more meat in the Spec Sheet from a company trying to play catch-up to the competition:

"Akai's 6-voice polyphonic 612 Sampler is a 19" rack-mount device designed to operate with any MIDI-equipped keyboard. It features 12-bit resolution and can digitally sample up to eight seconds of any sound. Front panel controls enable the user to set a looping point for the sampled sound, set MIDI mode and channel, and externally trigger the device. An LFO and filter are built-in. Price is $999.00. Akai, dist. by IMC, Box 2344, Fort Worth, TX 76113."

Yeah, not a lot of info in that spec sheet... but then again, the Akai S-612 was a simple machine. There wasn't much more to it. Just your basic entry level sampling machine.  And what was probably a really bad case of "coin-ki-dink" (ah... coincidence), competitor Ensoniq managed to slide in a FULL PAGE COLOUR advertisement directly opposite Akai's Spec Sheet promo. And not the Mirage introductory ad - that one had already run for a while and was replace in this May issue of Keyboard with Ensoniq's second advertisement for the machine!

In the words of Martin Q. Blank from the movie Grosse Point Blank: "Dumb fucking luck".

So, I'm thinking. Okay, a slow start. But maybe there is earlier mention of Akai's sampler in Keyboard's semi-annual NAMM tradeshow round-up article. That February 1985 Winter NAMM show article turned out to be easy to find. It was in the same issue as Akai's Spec Sheet - May 1985. 

From the article:

"One of the games that was being played at this NAMM convention was spot the digital sampler, also known as how many sampling machines can you fit inside of one convention center. Kurzweil, Ensoniq, E-mu and Fairlight were all on hand to show off their instruments... ...And everyone was curious about the Ensoniq Mirage (which we'll be reviewing next month in Keyboard Report), the sampling keyboard with a list price under $2,000."

Ensoniq's timing was perfect. A Xmas launch, hitting NAMM at just the right time with a great price-point, and free earned media in this NAMM article with a mention and a photo!

And yet, no mention of Akai. Gah!

So, from a casual reader's perspective, Ensoniq's Mirage had already been on the market for quite a while, resulting in five or six month's exposure in advertisements and articles before Akai even gets their first break with their Spec Sheet promo. Until this advertisement came along, some readers may have thought that the only thing the Akai S-612 rack sampler had going for it was its under $1000 price tag compared to the Mirage's $1700 list price.

You'll probably agree that the S-612 needed to come out swinging with it's first advertisement to get in front of Ensoniq. But Akai or distributor IMC (or whoooooomever) looks like they made the unfortunate decision to make the S-612's introductory advertisement a 1/2-page black and white ad. ON PAGE 87!!!

Not really that confident, were we, Akai?

Or just playing it safe?

It's not all bad. For a half-pager, it is a nicely designed ad. Good layout with a large title, good photo and a very readable large-ish ad-copy font.

Akai knows they have the cheapest sampler on the planet - and use that fact to their advantage in the ad-title:

"Would you like a sampler(TM) for less than $1,000.00."

That "TM" symbol beside the word "sampler" makes me a little uneasy. Did Akai really trademark the term "sampler"? They give the word the "TM" treatment through the ad-copy. I did a quick search and I wasn't the only that noticed this. The Microscopics blog made note of this back in 2009. Interesting.

Also, I just gotta point out the crazy sense of humor in the ad-copy . Underneath the ad-title about wanting a sampler for less than a grand is:

"So would 348,000 other synthesizer players". 

Huh? What? Where does that number come from? Did they just pull that number out of their ass? Or am I missing some in-joke?

Again - we get a little chuckle in the first sentence:

"Now the S-612 sampler(TM) by Akai enables thousands of synthesizer owners the freedom of sampling technology without mortgaging their wife and kids!"

Giggle.

Okay, between the time I started writing this post and the time I finished it, I've done a complete 180 degrees on my thoughts on Akai's first S612 advertisement, and their move into the professional instrument market.

I think Akai has a really shot at this "sampler (TM)" thing.   :D

Passport Designs Master Tracks MIDI sequencer software, Keyboard 1986

Passport Designs Master Tracks MIDI sequencer software "The 1-2-3 of MIDI Sequencers" 1-page advertisement from page 11 in Keyboard February 1986.

// begin sappy //

I originally had another blog post pretty much ready to rock, but when I heard the sad news about Steve Jobs, I decided to post this advertisement. I know it sounds sappy, and you've been hearing it everywhere lately, but this ad literally changed my life.

Although I would currently define myself as a Windows-based music producer using mostly Sonar and ReNoise  (and even more recently, testing an Ubuntu/ReNoise combo on a first-gen netbook :), my first music production love affair with a computer was an Apple IIe running PassPort Design's Master Tracks. A Mac IIci running MOTU Performer was my second.

Before using a computer, I thought sequencing with the Six-trak's and CZ-5000's on-board sequencers was the bee's knees. But when this advertisement presented itself, it was enough to pull me away and get me interested in computer-based music production. 

I have fond memories of walking into my local music store and special-ordering Master Tracks software along with their MIDI interface. They had never sold either the software or the hardware before. But just now, reading Passport Design's Wikipage, has brought back some not-so-good memories of trying to install that MIDI interface (or the extended memory card - can't remember which, but pretty sure it was the Interface). Twice I took back the interface because it wasn't working properly and had to wait for them to ship another.  All the while the music software sat on my desk waiting to get put into action.

I was frustrated. So was the manager of that music store.

The third time I got the interface - it too didn't work. But my older brother who was much more wise in the ways of the mysterious Apple IIe (it was actually his computer until he moved out of town for grad school), read through the manual and proceeded to either move the interface or extended memory card into slot #1 rather than slot #2 (or some similar silliness).

He then turned on the computer and loaded the software. And it worked like a charm. Gah!

I learned a valuable lesson that day. Chances are when something doesn't work - it is user error. :D

Back in the day I would lug that IIe onto the stage, along with a Yamaha TX81Z, Kawai K1 and Mirage sampler. I can't even recall what drum machine I used.  And this fading memory of that time period is probably for the best - looking back, trying to compose a mixture of angry industrial and electronic music a la NIN probably wasn't working so well for me.   :)

It was only years later that I admitted to the manager what had happened with the MIDI interface. And that was well after he gave me a number of synth belt buckles. 

I've only recently come back to Apple with the iPad 2, experimenting with music apps like Synthetic Bits FunkBox, and now Little Midi Machine with the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer. And I plan to have even more fun downloading some of the newer composing apps this Thanksgiving long weekend.  I'm hoping to be ready to try and leave the laptop at home during my next out-of-town trip - trips that have become good test scenarios for my increasingly frequent mobile/netbook composing habits.

I'm sure Apple is in good hands with new CEO Tim Cook, but I don't think the company will ever be the same without Steve Jobs.

// end sappy //