Korg Poly-800 eight page fold-out poster/brochure, 1984

Korg Poly-800 eight page fold-out poster/brochure from 1984.

I totally forgot I had this piece. But, after my last blog post on the Poly-800 introductory ad, I was flipping through my Korg sales brochures and came across this. I unfolded it, and, as usual, immediately looked for a print date. 1984. As soon as I saw that date on the poster, I was quickly reminded of that last bit of ad-copy from the ad:

"Or send $3.00 (check or money order) to Unicord, 89 Frost St., Westbury, New York 11590 for a Poly 800 demo record, color brochure and poster."

Could this be that color brochure and poster? Both in one printed piece? It would make sense. Now I just had to find a way to scan it.

Its real size is a rather large 16 x 21.5 inches. Too big for my home scanner and the local UPS store scanner/printer. So, I actually scanned it in four chucks to a side, and, unlike most of my scans, combined the pieces together in Photoshop. Gah!

Once created, I uploaded through Blogger, but because they were over 1600x1600 pixels, Picasa shrunk 'em down. Boo. So, in the end I uploaded them to Live.com. You have to do an extra click to view the larger version, but its worth it. :D I also dumped both of the hi-res images into a PDF.

What an awesome piece this brochure/poster is. So much reference information, all clearly laid out with some great design. So detailed are the step-by-step instructions, that in many cases, the text in this poster replaces the need for a manual.

And where readers don't find step-by-step instructions, Korg provides other detailed information about the keyboard. For example, just look at the info under the "6 Parameter Digital Envelope Generators" section. Korg provides lots of info for their "Newly Developed ADBSSR System". Nice! Another example - the big photo of the Poly-800 with the alpha-numeric references that lead readers to more detailed info below. Excellent.

The front of the poster/brochure is just as cool. The front image of the Poly-800 in space reminds me of the classic "cat on a synth in space" Web page (there might be pop-ups on that Web page - click at your own risk). And the other side of that section contains all the reference specs for the keyboard, as well as a great list of all the accessories that were available from Korg in 1984. AND another photo of the back of the synth.

Flip that side of the poster upside down and you get some more great photos of Chuck Leavell and the Poly 800 in a few not-as-awkward-as-the-ad photos.

But for me, one of the most interesting features of the poster is the photo of the reverse keyboard displayed next to the computer. I find this particularly fascinating because if this poster/brochure was actually the one promoted in the introductory Poly-800 ad, then that means that the reverse keyboard version was actually available early on, or even at the same time as the launch of the original version. Or at least a prototype was. Which means Korg had the forethought to produce a cool alternative version right from the start.

Just one more observation before I go. In the introductory ad, Korg refers to the synth as the Poly 800 (no hyphen). But, on the poster, as well as on the piece of gear itself - its listed as the Poly-800 (with hyphen). Okay. No point really. Or, if there is one, I guess it is that I prefer consistency. :D

Anyways, I love Korg. Seriously.

Korg Poly 800, Keyboard 1984

Korg Poly-800 synthesizer two-page and one-page advertisements from the inside front cover (and/or page three) in Keyboard Magazine starting in February 1984.

This was the first Korg ad to feature the Poly 800 - and Korg obviously wanted to hit the press with a loud synthesized bang. And as far as I'm concerned, they *almost* did everything right.

First, they kept the marketing campaign running for an extended period of time. The two-page version of the ad ran in that costly front-of-mag advertising space for a full six months - from February to July '84. Then, they switched it up with a one-page version of the ad for the August and September '84 issues of Keyboard for a total ad run of eight months. Then, after a bit of a break, Korg brought back the one-page version of the ad to page three of Keyboard from July to November '85.

Next, the layout it top-notch - well balanced, bright, with adequate white space. The ad contains a nice centre-fold photo of the instrument with the name of the instrument in big fat letters. Even the rather long winded tag-line is well placed and comes with a dash or wordplay.

Also, unlike a lot of introductory synthesizer ads that feature a HUGE photo and little or no ad-copy, Korg made sure to use those two pages of space to get a fair bit of synth info about the Poly 800 out to the masses. They give details on the eight voices, 64 programs, 50 parameters of control, the polyphonic sequencer, noise generator, on-board chorus, 4-way joystick (awesome!), MIDI and even the headphone jack.

If that isn't already enough of a feature buffet, Korg also let readers know that the keyboard also doubles as a 13-pound keytar! Although, I do think they could have used a better photo of Chuck Leavell rockin' out on his Poly 800. Not only does the one hand position look a little uncomfortable, but Chuck himself looks like he is having an awful hard time trying to lift that thirteen-pounder. Don't get me wrong, I respect his musicianship, but I think Korg was smart to not try and cram that photo into the one-page version of the ad. Just sayin'.

And finally, to put the icing on the cake, Korg even advertises a price. All this for "less than $800". Normally, I would have suggested going with the ol' psychological $799 price tag, but providing a number that lines up the price of the instrument with it's name is another small win for Korg.

The only thing Korg seemed to have missed out on with this product launch was the lack of any promotion in the Spec Sheet section of Keyboard. If there was one, I never came across it. But that's small potatoes with this smooth launch.

For real Poly 800 fans, the most awesome surprise about the instrument was still to come. The month after this ad stopped running in 1984, the October '84 Spec Sheet section of Keyboard let readers know that they could also strut around on stage with a reverse color keyboard version of the synth:

"Korg Synthesizer Keyboard. A limited edition of the Korg Poly 800 with a reverse color keyboard is now available. All other features of the Poly 800 remain unchanged: 64 memory positions, 256-note sequencer, MIDI, and six-segment envelopes are standard. Price is $849.00. Korg, 89 Frost St., Westbury, NYT 11590."

Korg even had the balls to charge an extra 50 bucks for the privilege of sporting those reverse keys around your shoulders! Worth every penny.

I happened to come across a reverse key version of the Poly 800 a long while back at my local music store. It was just sitting there all lonely. So, ten minutes and $99 later, it was at home, strapped around my shoulders, and plugged in.

Quite honestly though, back then, it just didn't do it for me at first. I thought there were just too many limitations. I was a bit of a synth-snob back then.

But over time, the more I played with it, the more fun it became. The chorus adds good movement to bass sounds without being too noisy. And combine that the noise generator together with the organ-like DCOs (each with its own extended envelope!) and you can start coming up with some great sounds. I use it a lot as a sample source for my chiptunes. It can almost sound Nintendo-ish sounding.

My GF came over and saw it on the floor as I was trying to take a picture for this blog post, so I just had to try it on for her. The next thing you know, we were trying to emulate Chuck's pose from the ad. The results....? About as uncomfortable as getting an open-mouth kiss from your drunk aunt during a family reunion.

Chuck must have very flexible wrists and knee joints of steel... :D

End note: And yes, that is a Green Lantern pillow on the chair behind me. It rawks almost as much as my reverse colour keyboard Poly 800.

Korg KR-55 rhythm machine, Contemporary Keyboard 1981

Korg KR-55 drum machine advertisement from back inside cover of Contemporary Keyboard February 1981.

Researching the KPR-77 for my last blog post got me increasingly interested in Korg's earlier drum machines, so I thought I would do a bit more digging into Korg's earlier ads and see what was up.

As I looked through back issues of CK, it seemed to me like the the KR-55 was the first Korg rhythm machine to be advertised in the magazine. I found this a little surprising because Korg released a number of drum machines previously, including the Mini Pops MP120 and MP35, as well as the SR120 back in 1976. But it turns out that Korg didn't start advertising in CK magazine until 1977.

That early on, they didn't advertise much either. During 1977, Korg only advertised once for the Korg Maxi-Korg K3 in the January 1977 issue, a product that was actually launched in 1975 (must have just taken a while to get across the pond). Then Korg went silent again until July 1977 when they advertised just once again for their Ensembles.

I'm thinking the KR-55 also took a while to get to the U.S., because this ad oddly describes the KR-55 as "new". Most sites and online references such as Vintage Synth Explorer give the launch date of the KR-55 as 1979, and for a second there I thought maybe Korg was just getting a jump on advertising for the KR-55B (launched in 1982). But the characteristic colouring of the case along with the rest of the ad-copy describing the 48 rhythm patterns and all that, tells me they were definitely referring to the original.

And, the ad-copy looks like it was written early on too. Referencing "up-to-date disco" beats as a reason to buy this drum machine in 1981 probably didn't go over too well with largely US-based readers. I don't need Wikipedia's Disco page to tell me Disco's popularity peaked in the middle to late 70's. But I linked to it anyways. :D

But, in true Global-Wikipedia fashion, I did have to be reminded about the July 1979 Disco Demolition Night riot where the "angry backlash against disco music and culture" peaked.

Boo on them. Boo to the angry people. And thank-you to the rest of the world where "the genre continued to be popular elsewhere during the 1980s". You guessed it. I'm a closet disco fan. Just never wore the tight pants.

Enough about Disco... According to Gordon Reid's "History of Korg - Part 1", written for Sound on Sound in October 2002, Korg was in need of "a bit of a breather" after two years of kick-ass gear releases that included the PS/MS/VC/SQ- range of keyboards, expanders, vocoders, and sequencers. So, their 1979 product launch list could be seen as a bit of a let-down to some:

• CX3 organ
• Delta paraphonic strings
• Lambda polyphonic ensemble
• Sigma monophonic synth
• KR33 and KR55

Well, it may not have been their best year, but I wouldn't say it sucked bum either.

In that article, Gordon goes on to say that "it is the CX3 organ for which 1979 should be remembered", but he does comment that the KR-55, along with its younger sibling the KR-33, were also bringing in a few sales:

"More successful [than the Sigma] were the KR33 and KR55 rhythm units, which replaced the ageing Mini Pops series. These were more sophisticated than their predecessors, generating analogue sounds that were far more realistic than the noise-based thumps and hisses offered by the earlier DoncaMatics, Mini Pops, and units from competitors."

But I have to say there was one specific fact that I found on the Web that really peaked my interest in the KR-55. The KR-55 was used by Depeche Mode on "Speak and Spell". And with "snappy" being one of the most common adjectives to describe the KR-55 sounds, I'd believe it. But, there is some debate out there, and you can find a compressed version of the argument on Jaakko Suominen's "Depeche Mode Keyboards And Other Tech Stuff" Web page.

Most notable is this quote from Dael (and close to what I remember hearing about Depeche's early bass drum sounds) in the open questions section near the bottom of the page - sorry for the quotes, it seems Dael likes to yell:

"I SPOKE TO VINCE CLARKE A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO AND HE TOLD ME THE DRUM MACHINE USED ON SPEAK AND SPELL WAS A KORG KR55 PRESET MACHINE .THE BAND USED JUST THE SNARE AND HIGH HATS SOUNDS FROM. THE BASS DRUM WAS GENERATED FROM AN ARP 2600 SYNTH WHICH WAS SYNCHED TO THE MACHINE AND AN OLD ROLAND MC4 MICROCOMPOSER SEQUENCER. SO THERE THE ANSWER IS!THE SAME MACHINE WAS USED ON MOST OF THE EARLY DANIEL MILLER PRODUCED TRACKS INCLUDING THE FAD GADGET STUFF LIKE 'RICKYS HAND AND THE FABULOUS MEMORABILIA BY SOFT CELL!! PS .BOBBY ORLANDO ALSO USED ONE ON THOSE FANTASTIC TRASHY NY DISCO RECORDS BY DIVINE AND THE FLIRTS (PASSION ' NATIVE LOVE SHAKE IT UP ETC..)"

You can get a good indication of the sound of the KR-55 by viewing this demo I found on YouTube by Anjelicas Baby, providing almost 10 minutes of KR-55 analogue goodness. You can really hear the characteristic "snap" found in the KR-55 drum sounds:

End note: I have to admit, the first thing I did when I came across this ad was read carefully through the ad-copy to see if Korg referred to the KR-55 as a "rhythmer", like they did with the KPR-77. Nerp.

Did I mention I find the word "Rhythmer" a little creepy? :D

Korg KPR-77 Programmable Rhythmer, Keyboard 1983

Korg KPR-77 Programmable Rhythmer advertisement from page 9 in Keyboard Magazine January 1983.

When I first started getting interested in analog gear, I totally ignored this thing. I seriously never noticed it. Maybe it was always there, listed beside the 606 whenever the topic turned to small drum machines on Analogue Heaven or on Web site forums, but for some reason or another it was always in my blind spot.

And when I did start to take notice of it, I found that it was often referred to as the KPR-77 Rhythmer. And I couldn't figure out where the "Rhythmer" part came from. So, when I finally saw this ad, everything started to make sense.

Started to...

I originally thought the word "Rhythmer" was strictly some kind of Korg term because I usually saw it associated with the KPR-77, but every now and then I saw it pop up on other gear, like the Farfisa Melodic Rhythmer. And even though Korg calls it a "rhythmer" in the title of this ad, it's not called a rhythmer on the actual unit. So, maybe it's just another generic term to describe rhythm units in other parts of the world?

Anyways, I guess the point is that I think "Rhythmer" is one weird looking word. Make a good band name. Or at least an album title.

I do like this advertisement from a design point of view. It's nicely balanced, with "KPR-77" in big, bold, bright letters against a dark background. And the font the title is sporting is simply spectacular. It's one of those retro-fonts that has a modern feel to it. In fact, the ad as a whole is fairly modern looking.

The photo of the KPR-77 is nice and large too. I'm not sure I like the fact that there is a solid white line running vertically right through it. It doesn't really get in the way of any detail in the photo, but whoever the designer was had some big balls to get away with it.

Interestingly, Korg took the design style from this ad and used it for their SDD-3000 Programmable Digital Delay - font, glowing piece of gear, lots of ad-copy. But another big piece of Korg gear that appeared in 1983 - the Poly61 - didn't use this design at all.

The ad only seems to have appeared twice in 1983 - January and March - so it was a good thing that Korg included a fair bit of ad-copy for readers interested in learning more about the KPR-77. And in some ways, it has even more reference information than the delayed Spec Sheet write up that appeared in the May 1983 issue of Keyboard:

"Korg programmable Rhythm Unit. The KPR-77 Programmable Rhythmer stores up to 48 2-measure patterns, and six 256-measure chains tha can be combined to produce three 512-measure chains. Other features include the ability to program all instruments simultaneously in real time, a cassette interface for external storage of patterns, analog-sound generating circuitry, and AC or battery operation. Sounds include bass drum, snare, open and closed hi-hats, cymbal, high tom-tom, low tom-tom and hand claps. A 7-channel mixer is built-in, the clock can be interfaced to external synthesizers, sequencers, and other drum machines, and there is a stereo headphone out-put. Unicord, 89 Frost St., Westbury, NY 11590."

The most disappointing thing is that neither the ad nor the spec sheet copy mention exactly how this little machine syncs to other gear. DIN-sync! But before you get too excited like I did when I first found out, I quickly learned that it used Korg's 48 parts per quarter note (ppqn) sync, and not Roland's 24 ppqn. But I would just use my trusty Korg KMS-30 to sync it up. I love my Korg KMS-30. :o)

Most forum comments and sites such as Vintage Synth Explorer suggest that the KPR-77 was Korg's answer to Roland's TR-606. But, lucky for Korg, Roland's well-known TB-303/TR-606 ad had stopped running regularly in keyboard six months previously. But because Korg's ad only ran twice in early 1983, I don't think Korg really took advantage of this golden opportunity. And Roland did bring that 303/606 ad back for a one-month run for the holiday season in December 1983 - probably taking some holiday money away from Korg.

One of the coolest links I found online while researching this thing was a custom mod done on a KPR-77 at circuitbenders.co.uk. It included a face lift as seen in the first photo on the page as well as tons of functionality. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to hear some fantastic samples.

But don't get your hopes up that you can get your KPR-77 modded this way. The poster added this paragraph right above the sound examples:

"Unless you want to pay an outrageously obscene amount of money there is absolutely no way that we're doing this again! This was one of those occasions where an initial 'good idea' slowly snowballs into an avalanche of nervous breakdown inducing tweaking ;-)"

Time to buy a lottery ticket...

Yamaha E-70 ad #3, Contemporary Keyboard 1981

Yamaha E-70 organ advertisement #3, from page 41 in Contemporary Keyboard October 1981.

This final Yamaha E-70 ad appeared in CK with a clear purpose. It began running regularly through out the holiday months starting in October 1981, for five consecutive months. People are just more in the buying mood during the holidays, I guess. But, Yamaha just had to do things a bit different. So, for the first, third and fifth months, the ad appeared in colour, while during the second and fourth months, it appeared in black and white.

Looking closely at the two versions of the ads, other than the whole colour/not colour thing, they appear pretty much identical. Except for one little difference. The lens flare highlights in the black and white version have been intensified quite... er... intensively. Although the flares are still quite understated, I can't help but think of Photoshop whenever I see lens flares in photos now. It was like someone from the future went into the past to create this ad, just to torment me at some point in the future again... :o)

Like past E-70 ads, this one mentions Yamaha's "revolutionary" PASS, aka Pulse Analog Synthesis System. It also highlights many of the orchestra preset sounds that are available on the E-70. But, unlike previous ads, this ad really starts moving the E-70 into more "un-organ" territory.

Here's what I mean. In all past E-series ads, including those for just the E-70, the first sentence of the ad-copy has ALWAYS mentioned the E-70 in terms of being an organ.

• "Yamaha's new Electone console organs deliver a variety of uncompromisingly-real, precisely-defined sounds."
• "It's an organ! It's an orchestra!That's what you get with features like the Upper Orchestra section on the fabulous E-70 and E-50 Electone Organs. "
  
• "Now that you've finally learned to play an organ, you owe it to yourself to play up to a Yamaha Electone E-70. "
  

But this ad switches it up slightly:

• You know how to play keyboard. So now you can play an instrument that delivers every possible orchestra and organ sound.
  

And, in the photo, the pull out image of the newspaper personals/advert doesn't mention "organ" at all. It seems the marketing emphasis has switched from the E-70 being an organ that plays realistic sounds, to the E-70 being a keyboard that plays orchestra and organ sounds. It's subtle. But I think significant.

My guess is that Yamaha realized that keyboard players were looking more closely at the E-70 as a blues, rock or jazz keyboard. Not an organ in a stuffy little living room (as pictured in the last ad). Luckily, Yamaha also built one of the monsters of the synth industry at the time - the CS-80. I would think keyboard players at the time would have been comparing the two. And probably mostly the presets, since the E-70 focuses closely on those.

In my recent back-and-forth emails with FlameTopFred, he pointed out the fact that there were more preset buttons for each bank on the E-70 than on the CS-80.

"The CS-80 has 11 preset buttons for each bank (x 2 channels). The E-70 has 18 preset buttons for upper and 12 preset buttons for the lower manual - but the lower manual sounds can be coupled and blended with the upper manual sounds.

Plus the E-70 has an additional bank of 12 preset buttons of mono CS-80 type synth sounds - and some are very, very good bass sounds. Some of those can also be used for lead type sounds, but you would have to play on the lower keyboard."

And then FlameTopFred said something that, frankly, made me look at organs in a totally new light.

"The CS-80 is an amazing synthesizer. But the E-70 deserves a second look - especially by anyone that loves having a lot of very musical features in one box. Two 61-note manuals, arpeggiator, bass-line-arpeggiator, drum machine.

I find it strangely odd that those big home organs of 1977 had everything working cohesively - which MIDI then exploded out into separate components. It takes ages of time and lots of patience to make unrelated MIDI components work as flawlessly as a big E-70 running on all cylinders."

Organs did have a lot of tech working together - very cohesively. And MIDI must have affected organ evolution by allowing the components of organs to be sold separately. Suddenly you didn't need to buy one big piece of equipment. You could mix and match.

But, other technology also kept evolving along with MIDI, which led to the evolution of large workstation keyboards. And those workstations really just brought back together all the different components of the organ together again (along with a sequencer).

So, really, workstation keyboards are just another evolutionary branch of organs. Kinda. Not really. :o)