Yamaha CS-01 "Full Synthesizer Performance You Can Take Anywhere" brochure, 1982

Yamaha CS-01 synthesizer "Full Synthesizer Performance You Can Take Anywhere" two-side colour brochure from 1982.

While searching through my Yamaha brochure pile I came across this two-sider. Gah - can't believe I didn't add this one to the rest of the Producer Series blog posts!

If you recall, back at the beginning of March I was going through a bit of a Yamaha Producer Series fetish that included some great artwork that could be seen in ads (they look so juicy lined up in a row like this)...

... as well as in an awesome brochure that also pushed the mobile aspects of each piece of gear...

Artwork so good that I threatened to make T-shirts, or get a tatoo, or something. I don't really recall that part.  

Anyways, the final blog post in the series concluded with an new ad that came out a fair bit later, pushing some of Yamaha's new Producer Series gear while at the same time pushing aside those lovable characters. Instead we got actual humans photographed with the gear as Yamaha tried to swing the professional/studio angle.

What's interesting about this just-added CS-01 brochure is that although it came out at roughly the same time as the original 1982ish ads, it didn't include the characters. Instead we get a nicely dressed human using the synthesizer against an anonymous grey wall or while awkwardly sitting on a chair in the middle of a park. Neither of which I think helped create that connection with the reader. Luckily those were small photos.

I also find this brochure interesting because you can't really tell which side is the front. The gorgeous half-page photo probably should be the front, but then the specifications, and all those additional components (excellent!) and accessories (even more excellent!) are usually found on the back of these types of brochures or sell-sheets. My only guess is that the page was meant to be folded in the middle so that you had a front, back and inside.

As I stare more closely at that photo, a few other freaky things pop out at me. For example, that BC1 Breath Controller and CS01 strap aren't following that whole law of gravity thing that seems to be affecting the CS01 itself and the headphones. It messes with the brain a little seeing them floating around like that.

Another freaky thing involves the background image that frames the photo. None of those synth knobs and switches seem to have come from any Producer Series equipment. Instead it looks like they have taken the front panel of a CS40m to use as a pattern - probably to help subtly introduce some higher quality aspects to the CS-01. I'm not saying the CS-01 is cheap, its just not *as* high quality as something like the CS40m.

Just saying.  :)

Short post - because I have to get ready for the snow storm that's coming.

Yeah. Snow. 

Roland "Eschew mediocrity" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Roland JP-4, MP-600 and RS-505 (and family) "Eschew mediocrity" two-page full colour advertisement from pages 42 and 43 in the April 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Eschew? Gazoontite.

That has to be one of the best ad-titles I've come across in a long time. Someone needs to get that tatoo'd to their ass. And make it about the same size as the ad-title in this two-page, one-time-only centrefold ad that popped up in the April 1979 issue of CK.

This advertisement features three of Roland's "newest line of Professional Keyboards", but it's really about the promotion of the "FREE-Deluxe, full-color 58-page Roland Catalog of the largest, most diversified line of electronic music equipment in the world". A catalog you can get for a mere dollar (shipping and handling charges  :)

As a centrefold should, this ad's focus is on that one big lovely photo of the three featured keyboards. There is some good detail to be found.

One of the most interesting details I found was the green colour framing around most of the controls of the RS-505. My recollection told me that these were gray, not green, and I was excited that this photo may contain a prototype. Like the grey colour found on the photo of the RS-505 on Vintage Synth Explorer.It makes me wonder if that colouring changed on other Roland synths during their life spans.

This was actually the first ad to feature the RS-505, but the keyboard itself seems to have been around a lot longer than when it first appeared in advertisements.

For example, it showed up in the December 1978 Spec Sheet section of Contemporary Keyboard. It's not the best Spec Sheet I've seen, but it includes the basics as well as the coveted retail price. Not gonna argue with that:

"Roland Paraphonic-505. The RS-505 Paraphonic keyboard has a splittable 61-note keyboard with three voicing possibilities - a string synthesizer section, a lead synthesizer and a bass synthesizer are included int he unit. A number of different settings are available on the string section, a 24dB-per-octage filter is supplied on the lead synthesizer, and the bass synthesizer has two 16' settings and one 8' setting. There is also an independent three-state ensemble mode for creating effects ranging from flanging to chorusing. Re-tail price is under $1800.00. Roland Corp, U.S., 2401 Saybrook Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90040."

But that's not even the earliest sighting of the RS-505 this side of the pond. It actually appeared even earlier in the What's New section of the Summer '78 issue of Synapse Magazine. And it contains something REALLY weird about another synthesizer featured in this advertisement. Read it right to the end:

"...Roland Corp US, 2401 Saybrook, LA, CA 90040, has released several new synthesizers recently. The SH-7 is a duo-phonic keyboard instrument with dual sample and hold, so that both notes will hold pitch after the keys have been replaced. The $1,895 unit features a 24dB fVCF with external signal envelope follower, and a "bender" that can control VCO, VCF, and VCA. The RS-505 "is a paraphonic ensemble, a strings and synthesizer combination," with a tag of $1,895. The PO-44 Space Bird is a "four-voice polyphonic synthesizer with a computer memory," listing for $2,695. No further information has been furnished on these instruments yet. Roland has also announced plans to introduce additional guitar synthesizer models later on this year..."

Did you catch it? The PO-44 SPACE BIRD. When I had first read that name, I could only assume that Synapse was referring to the Jupiter-4 - it was the only 4-voice Roland released soon after. Could you imagine if the Jupiter-4 has been named the SPACE BIRD?!?!? Pure awesomeness. I can only assume a Rave band of the same name would have sprung up in the late 80s or early 90s. Oh - and dibs on the domain name!

I had no idea. But apparently Simon James and Matt Ford of TheSimonSounds twitter account did back in 2011. Gah.Was I the only one that didn't know this?!?!

I used to want Roland to reissue the TB303 or SH101 as part of the new craze to build on old brands - like the new Korg MS-20 or even Novation's just announced Bass Station II. But now I just want Roland to create a 4-voice polyphonic analogue synthesizer called the Space Bird.

Pleeeeeeeeeese Roland!

Roland Saturn SA-09 "The Hot Sound of the Saturn" ad, Contemporary Keyboard, 1980

Roland Saturn SA-09 "The Hot Sound of the Saturn" full page colour advertisement from the front inside cover of the July 1980 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Hmmmm. Interesting.

This was the last Roland ad of in this campaign series. And unlike the other ads in this series that saw only small, inconsistent runs for the most part, this Saturn SA-09 advertisement ran consistently through the second half of 1980 - July to December. And always in that most excellent front inside-cover position. Not too shabby.

Roland had taken over that front inside cover position only two months earlier with the Jupiter-4 ad from this same series (see below for image) running in May and June, before handing the reigns over to The Saturn.

[Side note: Roland would keep the front inside cover position pretty much exclusively until February 1983. That's almost three years. Not a bad run for Roland.]

This SA-09 advertisement is slightly different from the previous ads in the series. It's all subtle, but still significant. First, Roland decided not to put the name of the synth at the very top of the ad, instead using 'Roland Presents".

Secondly, Roland decided to switch up the background of the photo to be more "hot" looking - a carry-over from the ad-title no doubt. Its almost like there are embers glowing underneath the keyboard. All the rest of these ads featured very solid, subdued colours, with a very subtle slight shading or glow. 

But the big news to me has to do with the Saturn SA-09 keyboard itself. In particular those lovely Roland buttons in beautiful bright red, yellow, white, green and blue! You can find similar colours tucked underneath the keyboard on the Jupiter-4, but this time Roland proudly displays those colours right on the front panel. There isn't a lot of them, but its a start.

When I think early-80s Roland, I think of those buttons. Those are pretty much the colours that appear in my dreams whenever I'm lucky enough to have caught up on my sleep and hit REM. Similar buttons can be found on Roland's TR-808, Jupiter-6 and Jupiter-8. I associate this button style so closely with Roland that I went into a kind of confused state when I first came across Korg's X-911 guitar synth. Those do look like Roland buttons, don't they!?!?

I also really like this ad because Roland acknowledges New Wave music. Sure, they talk about it kinda like grandparents, adding a "the" in front of it. Kinda like "Hey son, have you been on the Twitters today?" or "Use the Google to find out that info". Yeah yeah... not really, but that is how I read it in my mind. The fact that this new music style is being acknowledged can only be a good thing.

Roland actually went even more "pop culture" on our asses earlier in this ad series when they dropped "squadron of Cylons" out of the blue in that Vocoder Plus ad. Reading it today immediately puts the ad into it's historical perspective. And made me happy.

Very happy.

Roland Organ/Strings RS-09 "The Sensible Addition" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Roland Organ/Strings RS-09 "The Sensible Addition" full-page colour advertisement from page 11 in the December 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Roland made a lot of keyboards during this era, and their series of ads to promote all this new gear is a testament to this. The Jupiter 4 synth. Vocoder Plus with strings and voice. The RS-505 strings, brass, bass/synth. And now the RS-09 organ/strings machine.

I've gone on endlessly about the design/style of this ad series. No need to start up on that *again* (psst: really really good, especially as more ads get added to the series). But as the series begins to include more keyboards, another curious pattern begins to develop - the look of each keyboard itself. 

The Jupiter-4, Vocoder Plus, and RS-505 all look "similar" to me. I know, there are distinct differences - but they all look like they belong to the same family. But, the RS-09 looks distinctly different. Gone are the wood side panels and left-side controls. Sure, with less features (and a price tag of $795.00 to match), there are less controls in general. But to me, lacking any splashes of colour or wood, it takes on more of the look of two Roland synths that came before it - the SH-01 or SH-02 - or the SH-09 synth that followed.

I know its wrong, but it is those physical details that, in my mind, allow me to throw the RS-09 into Roland's "synth" bucket rather than the "string machine" bucket. Even with the organ-like flip-switches (I don't even know the proper name for them is), it still evokes that warm fuzzy feeling I get when I think of Roland synthesizers. On the reverse side of this weird brain behaviour is that my brain puts the Jupiter-4 into the string-machine bucket when compared to the look of the Jupiter-6 and Jupiter-8. The younger me immediately dismissed the Jupiter-4 for looking too string-machine-like next to the totally synth-y look of the Jupiter-6 and -8. 

What's really messed up about this whole situation is that once I actually listened to the RS-09, my brain wanted to immediately throw it back into the string machine bucket. I just wasn't impressed. Seriously. And I should have know better - it does say "organ" right in the name on the front panel of the instrument.

Its like in all those 80s movies when the dude puts the girl on the pedestal at the beginning of the movie, but then when he finally meets her he begins to see all the flaws. And like that guy, who at first denies the flaws and continues to try and make the relationship work, so did I do the same thing with the RS-09.

I first decided to listen to the RS-09 on Vintage Synth Explorer - they have a few audio samples on the right side of the RS-09 page. The first sample sounds okay to me, but I just couldn't get into the others. Just not my thing. But as soon as I looked back at that lovely image of the machine, my mind flipped right back into "synth" mode. I put it right back on that pedestal. 

I decided to give it another chance through YouTube. I found a decent demo with a guy who could even play.

Again, very organ-y. It just doesn't do it for me. Yet I want to buy this machine. And I want to like it.Just because of how it looks.

I know its a problem. I know its discrimination. I'm embarrassed.

Help.   :)

Roland Paraphonic RS-505 "It Starts as a Symphony Orchestra" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Roland Paraphonic RS-505 string synthesizer "It Starts as a Symphony Orchestra" full page colour advertisement from page 5 in the September 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

This wasn't the first advertisement to feature the RS-505, but it made sense to post it now since it's part of the Roland series of ads I'm currently infatuated with. In fact, I probably should have started with this ad since it was the first of the series to appear in the September 1979 issue. The Jupiter-4 ad started a month later in October, and the Vocoder Plus the following November.

On its own, it is a pretty ordinary looking ad. But as you put the series of ads together, they start looking a lot more like a set of Pokemon cards you want to collect and preserve. Distinctly different, but yet definitely complimenting each by following a tried and true formula - Ad title/photo/three columns of ad copy.

For the longest time I couldn't put my finger on it - but it must have been sitting there in my subconscious for a while. What I finally figured out was that one of the big reasons I'm drawn to these ads is that they all contain the retail price of the instrument. In the case of the RS-505 its $1,695.00. I have a lot of respect for a company that is willing to put a price in a magazine ad. And I think consumers, even more than 30 years ago, realized that this was the retail price and chances were that they could pick it up in-store much cheaper. 

Flipping through the rest of the September 1979 issue of CK with this in mind (a great activity for an Easter Sunday while sipping a coffee and beheading a white chocolate bunny) one will quickly realize that none of the other big ads had included the price:

Another interesting point about this ad (and some other RS-505 advertisements I've run across) is that Roland itself never refers to the RS-505 as the "Paraphonic RS-505". "Paraphonic" is not only a cool word that balances on that fine line between technology and art, it's also clearly labelled RIGHT ON THE FRONT PANEL OF THE INSTRUMENT. Why not include it in the ad-copy? Even today, my small circle of synth addict friends always refer to the machine the Paraphonic 505. Time has spoken. Its a well-liked term.

In the past I've had a bit of a chip on my shoulder for string machines. They didn't offer the full control of a synthesizer and so as a youngin' I probably wrongly considered them like toys. I'm not sure if it was when I got my Korg Trident, or maybe when I starting paying more attention to bands that regularly used string machines like The Cure, but I've grown wiser with age. But, there is only so much real estate in the studio, and if I have to choose between making space for a keyboard like Roland's  Jupiter 4 or 6, or the RS-505, the true synthesizer is going to win most of the time. I'm sure I'm loosing out through my discriminating behaviour.

Maybe its just time to take down a wall or two (figuratively and physically) and just double the size of the studio.

But first, Time to start on the legs of that bunny.