ARP 1976 family of products, Contemporary Keyboard 1976

ARP advertisement of its 1976 family of products including the ARP Odyssey, ARP Pro Soloist, ARP Axxe, ARP String Ensemble, ARP 2600, ARP Explorer, and ARP Little Brother from back inside-cover of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine March/April 1976.

Time to add another family photo to the blog!

As noted in previous blog posts, ARP used musician endorsements more than most to help sell their instruments and this ad is no exception. But they satisfied the gear-heads as well by providing a delicious family photo that included all of ARP's latest wares.

The ARP marketing team must also have known that this was a great issue of CK to showcase their whole collection, because it just happened to also include a good-sized article on one of the big-wigs of ARP - David Friend.

The article, written by Hans Klein and simply titled 'David Friend of ARP Instruments' is a great read from a historical perspective of the company. It is also a great journey into the mind of David Friend. The Article starts with a bit of Friend's history including his work towards a double major in music and engineering at Yale, and how he came to meet ARP's founder Alan R. Pearlman (ARP). As I continued to read through the article, it became clear why Friend was "credited with ARP's 'human engineering' in synthesizer design."

For example, it is obvious that Friend cared about designing synthesizers that would be easy to perform with. He knew it would take time for most of the musicians who were still used to the relatively non-expressive electric pianos and organs to become familiar with the expressive performance tools and techniques available with a synthesizer:

"The surface has barely been scratched... Since 75% of the synthesizers sold have been sold in the last three years, it's not surprising that most of the people using them today are still doing so in a fairly unsophisticated, elementary way."

Friend also had (what CK called) some 'provocative comments' about monophonic and polyphonic synthesizers and their separate uses, including:

"Polyphonic and monophonic instruments are played completely differently, and have to be used in different types of music. A melody is by its very nature generally one note at a time. People who play trumpet, saxophone, or other traditional lead-line instruments have never felt any resentment about the fact that they couldn't play a chord, because that's not what the playing of that instrument is all about. "

His recognition of musicians other than keyboardists was most likely what led Friend to try to find ways to get non-keyboard musicians interested in synthesizers:

"For many musicians, the keyboard may be their second instrument, or they may want to process their first instrument's signal through the synthesizer. I expect that as time goes on, more specialized types of synthesizers will be available, that can be played using techniques that are more familiar to people who play other instruments."

In my mind, this thinking led directly to the production of the ARP Avatar - an instrument that was developed to be used by guitar players to control a synthesizer. But the pitch-to-voltage converters weren't the greatest and the instrument didn't do well in the marketplace. According to an April 1983 Keyboard article entitled 'The Rise and Fall of ARP Instruments' by Craig Waters, Pearlman recalled later about the Avatar - "Essentially, we blew our brains out on that instrument." Ouch.

Friend's comments in the article often reached outside the world of synthesizer design. For example, he also observed how the synthesizer was going to expand upon and become an important part of the familiar 'hook' to be found at the beginning of many future hit songs:

"A skillful musician can use the synthesizer to create a musical signature for a song that makes it immediately identifiable to the listener, and that instant recognition factor seems to be one of the necessary ingredients in making a hit record."

It was Friend's ability to look at synthesizer design from a musician's point of view that helped ARP build performance-friendly instruments and this article captures this point of view perfectly.

Lastly, one more quote from the article - a single sentence by Friend that pretty much explains the current state of my bank account:

"Every keyboard player I know has more keyboards this year than he had last year, and I think that's a healthy trend that should continue."

Could he really have predicted 'gear lust'?

E-mu Emulator, Contemporary Keyboard 1981

E-mu Systems Inc. Emulator sampler ad from page 9 of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine May 1981.

Although this is not E-mu's first ad for the Emulator, I thought it most fitting since today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

This version of the ad contains a photo of an early model a prototype model of an Emulator that included a lighter display panel and a Tune section with only one knob. Late the same year they replaced the photo in the ad with a later manufactured Emulator. The later model manufactured Emulator (in a totally different ad) can be seen in one of my other blog post scans. I'll give you a second or two to go take a look and compare...

Great - you're back. Did you notice one other difference? I saved it for last since the topic is kind of near and dear to my heart...

THE LOGO!

The Emulator in this ad is sporting an early E-mu logo that included a stylized thirty-second music note and the Mu symbol. You can see a better image of the logo in this Emulator price list pdf from the Emulator Archive Web site. I think this logo might make good tattoo material in the near future.

The Emulator looked great with its clean lines and stripped down user interface. And, best of all, it included a small holder for the 5 1/4 inch floppy disks that you would use to store your samples on. Musicians weren't accustomed to using disks, so having a place to hold the disks right on the instrument was definitely convenient. Unfortunately, the holder couldn't store them while transporting the instrument, and Keyboard magazine writer Dominic Milano creepily predicted the soon to be well-overheard phrase 'whoops - I forgot to bring the disks with me' in his March 1982 Keyboard Report:

"One more thing about the diskettes: Don't forget to pack them up and bring them with [you] when you're taking the Emulator out on a gig, because it won't work without them. We musicians aren't used to thinking about diskettes yet."

I can't tell you how many times I had to drive back home to get my Emax disks after arriving at a gig to set up. Grrr...

Well, time to start preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Gobble gobble.

Korg Maxi-Korg K-3, Contemporary Keyboard 1977

Korg Maxi-Korg K-3 synthesizer from pg 15 of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine January 1977.

I think this is the first half-page ad I've posted. I also think this ad is one of Korg's earliest to appear in CK.

I have to confess I'm not that familiar with this line of Korg synths (my MS-20 and Trident are about as far back as I get). While starting to do some research, it soon became clear that this piece of kit goes by a few different names online. Maxi-Korg K-3. Univox K-3. Korg 800DV. Maxi-Korg 800DV.

The problem is that I'm one of those people that believes everything I read on the InterWebz and, even more problematic, I crave consistency.

So, which is it? Maxi-Korg? 800DV? Univox K-3? Time to dig a little deeper.

Synthmuseum.com indicates that this synthesizer was marketed as the Univox K-3 in the US and as the Maxi-Korg 800DV elsewhere.

This MATRIXSYNTH post (from an eBay auction), contends that the piece of gear in question was sold under the name 'Maxi-Korg K-3' in the US and as the 800DV and Univox K-3 elsewhere.

This other MATRIXSYNTH post has great photos of a U.S. model sporting the Maxi-Korg logo on the front and lists K-3 as the model on the back. And when you click on the link to the auction, there is a photo of the back of the synth with the Univox logo.

Meanwhile, back in 1977, Unicord puts out this ad in a US magazine - with 'Korg' in big print, a Maxi-Korg logo on the left hand side of the control panel, and although distributed through Unicord, the name 'Univox' can't be found anywhere in the ad copy. But, my guess is that 'Univox' is slapped on the back of the synth in the photo.

So, I'm going say the US model should be officially called 'Univox Korg Maxi-Korg K-3 distributed by Unicord'. Sounds about right. :o)

The fact is, the big reason I like this ad is because Unicord totally jacks the Timothy Leary 1960's counterculture phrase 'Turn on, tune in, drop out', tacking on 'EXPAND YOUR MIND' at the start of the ad copy. Nice touch for 1977 - I think Unicord definitely knew their audience.

Sound on Sound has a great article from April 1998 about some of the early Korg gear including the Maxi-Korg, with some great insight as to why this synthesizer was so unique. BTW - big 'ups' to Sound on Sound for putting their older articles online.

For more on the history of Univox and Unicord - it's a good ride - check out this site.

And, one final note. I'm going to beat Zenbecca on commenting on the Univox/Maxi-Korg font. Yes - very retro... :o)

Sequential Circuits Model 700 Programmer and Model 800 Digital Sequencer, Contemporary Keyboard and Synapse 1977

Sequential Circuits Model 700 Programmer and Model 800 Digital Sequencer from page 7 of Contemporary Keyboard June 1977 and page 5 of Synapse May/June 1977.

My archives are far from complete, but this must be one of Sequential Circuits earliest ads - at least in CK magazine.

Historically, I find the images in the ad most valuable from the perspective of SCI's logo evolution.

If you look closely, the Model 700 in the ad has a Sequential Circuits 'Co' logo rather than the more familiar 'Inc' logo. I'm not sure when they stopped using 'Co', but photos that I've found online of the 700 Mark 2 (released in 1979) can be seen with various versions of a non-'Co.' logo, including this one on Matrixsynth with the SC logo on the right side of the front panel and this photo in a brochure PDF I found on the Emulator Archive Web site that has the logo dead centre.

The Model 800 Digital Sequencer in the ad has what I believe is an even earlier version of the Sequential Circuits logo. This stylized 'SC' logo is more visible at the bottom of this very early Model 800 ad I found on synthmuseum.com.

You can follow more of the evolution of the SC logo throughout the Model 800's lifespan. After the stylized 'SC' logo, the front panel of the 800 displayed the 'Sequential Circuits Co.' logo as seen in this photo from Synthnut's tech pages, and then the logo changed to the straight-up 'Sequential Circuits' logo like this one from matrixsynth's Flickr photo stream.

More on SCI logo evolution later...

Korg VC-10, Contemporary Keyboard 1978

Korg VC-10 vocoder from page 79 of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine November 1978.

This ad began running in CK Magazine in Nov. '78 along with two other Korg ads - the MS-20 and MS-10. Interestingly, as can be seen in past blog posts, these MS-20 and MS-10 ads were very technical in text and design, while the VC-10 ad was largely dominated by artwork and included practically no technical information. Fortunately a bit more information was available in the Spec Sheet section of the same issue.

Although vocoders faded out of the spotlight over time, they never really left us - for example, my 1990's Wavestation A/D contains a fairly usable vocoder effect. More recently, vocoders have made quite a comeback in pop, alternative rock and electronic music. Hardware and software manufacturers have stepped up to the plate to provide updated vocoding tools to bands and producers, including Korg, with their own microKorg and R3.

Basic information on the VC-10 can be found online in the usual places, including Vintage Synth Explorer and Synth Museum. Korganalogue.net also has a good online version of the manual.

Wikipedia doesn't seem to have a VC-10 page, but they do have a fairly extensive general vocoder page for those interested in more information.