Yamaha TX81Z brochure, 1986

Yamaha TX81Z brochure from 1986.

Brought to you by popular demand... or more correctly... a promise I made to one guy who I was talking with at a local electronic music festival last weekend.

We had both downed a couple of beer already, and had been talking about our mutual adoration for the TX81Z. I don't remember everything about the conversation, but three hazy points stand out in my mind.

1. The TX81Z is an awesome piece of kit
   
2. I promised I would scan the brochure and put it in a blog post
3. We both agreed that the TX81Z, along with many other Yamaha synths, would have made a great name for a Star Wars droid

So, yah, I'm obviously a TX81Z snob. And proud of it.

I think it was unfortunate that the machine was (and still is) often compared to Yamaha's other 4-operator synths such as the DX100, 21, and 27. And more unfortunately, it was even compared to the lowly FB-01 tone generator. Bleek. :D

But the TX81Z was so much more than those sine-wave-only-wannabes. It's beauty lie in the eight different waveforms that each operator could produce, "generating sounds more complex than were possible with previous 4-operator FM synthesizers". Read the call-out box on the inside of the brochure for more info.

In fact, even putting those waveform options aside for a moment, those crazy program engineers were obviously having a good ol' time designing the innerds of this thing. The new "Reverb" voice parameter simulated "the lingering decay of sound in a live room by slowing the EG release rates when the operator level falls below a certain point". In RL, not so good, but definitely fun. And the panning, transposed delay, and chord effects made the TX even more fun to play with.

Interestingly, Yamaha chose to promote the TX81Z's microtonal abilities on the cover of this brochure - as found in the screen of the synth in the photograph. Sure, it was a great feature, but I think a photo showing a screen shot of the multiple waveforms would have looked much cooler, considering those waveforms really are at the heart of the expanded sound space of the TX81Z. Just my opinion.

Anyways, take all these features, and add a list price of under $500, and you get a very popular synthesizer. For years after it's release, patches for it could be found regularly in magazines like Keyboard, and especially common in Yamaha's own monthly AfterTouch magazine.

A bit about AfterTouch magazine

Yamaha's AfterTouch magazine started in 1985 as a free promotional magazine sent out to those lucky individuals that actually remembered to fill out their warranty cards. Many of these readers thought they had automatically subscribed to the free mag, so when they stopped receiving issues after three months, the complaints started rolling in.

Turns out, the initial mailing had to be only a three month affair. According to the magazine, general postal regulations required that a signature be acquired by the sender to ensure the receiver actually wanted whatever was being mailed on a regular basis. So users had to fill out a proper subscription card in order to keep receiving AfterTouch after the three month grace period.

But I think these postal regulations were actually good for Yamaha. Costs to keep producing this high-quality magazine and mailing it out to readers was going to start adding up. Without measurements on whether users wanted it or not, the cost/benefit ratio couldn't be calculated. The subscription card gave Yamaha a much better idea of how many users are actually finding the magazine useful.

An even cooler fact about AfterTouch: Back in the day, Yamaha would PAY readers when they sent in patches and other useful information.

For example, if the magazine published your crazy DX patch - that's $25 in your pocket.

Got a cool synth trick to share - that's another $25 bucks.

And if you happened to develop a whole new approach to programming, or discovered an "important secret" regarding the use of one of Yamaha's synths - $100 bucks is yours!

Okay, so these AfterTouch facts won't get you chicks. But in my defense, at that electronic music festival I mentioned earlier, my girlfriend compared the electronic sounds that "come out of those little boxes" to "magic". And, putting the requisite Arthur C. Clarke quote aside for a moment, apparently magic can get your chicks.

Just sayin'...

:D

Sequential Circuits Inc. pre-launch countdown ads, January 1981

Sequential Circuits Inc. pre-launch countdown ads from pages 30, 32, and 34 in Contemporary Keyboard Magazine January 1981.

Update: Added to Sequential Circuits interactive advertising timeline.

What a great set of ads! I'm a big fan of teaser ads when they are done right. So when such a beautiful, simple, small, under-the-radar set of teaser ads comes out by SCI, I'm gonna jump on 'em - even when there isn't much to see. I almost felt silly scanning them, so to help with the visual, I've included small thumbnails of the pages that these ads were found on so positioning can be seen.

I assume that most readers coming across these ads behaved similarly to me.

I came across the first ad almost subconsciously the first time I breezed through the January 1981 issue of CK. But when I flipped to the next page and saw a similar ad in the exact same space (top left corner of the page), the similarity with the first ad immediately registered in my frontal lobe, and I automatically flipped back to assimilate that first ad as well. Then, my brain's logic circuits immediately hit over-drive, and I instinctively flipped two pages ahead to the same spot to see if there was a third ad. And sure enough!

Good times.... good times...

Unlike readers in 1981 who then had to wait a month for the actual announcement (suckas!), I ran through the living room to grab the February 1981 issue of CK off the shelf. I had a good idea since I had already blogged the ad last summer, but in case you missed it:

Yerp. The lovely Pro-One.

And, after that introductory Pro-One ad ran a couple of times, a more familiar, and soon to be part of a legendary series, Pro-1 ad come out. A series of ads that was so well-received that they were turned into a set of posters.

Yum.

The introduction of the Pro-One wasn't the only SCI announcement to be found in the February 1981 issue of CK. Readers who had managed to read all the way through to page 79 in the magazine without skipping most of the pages to get to the Spec Sheet info (which, I'll admit, is what I used to do), would have come across the Keyboard News section with some great historical reference info. It included a short note about Sequential Circuits' new service centres.

"California-based Sequential Circuits Inc., manufacturer of the Prophet synthesizer, has set up eight new service centers in the U.S. and Canada where owners of SCI products may go to correct instrument problems they encounter on the road. Technicians at the service centers have been personally trained by Dan Ramsauer, the firm's service manager, and are presently located in New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, Washington D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles. Further information about the service centers may be obtained by telephoning Ramsauer or Bob Styles at the company's headquarters, 408-946-5240..."

Great info and probably a good strategy by SCI considering some of the issues with early Prophets.

But back to teaser ads for a sec.

I've questioned the value of magazine teaser ads in the past. With TV or radio, a teaser ad can be run multiple times within a week, a day, or even within the same program. Not so with a magazine. Readers will really only get one or two chances to see the ad in a single issue, so odds are quite high that many will miss it.

For example, Korg ran a teaser ad for the Sigma keyboard in just one issue of CK in 1979. Visually it is a great ad, and considerable resources obviously went into producing it. But was it worth all the time and effort in creating it? Or would an extra month of the actual Sigma ad done more for the marketing of the keyboard?

In the case of these SCI pre-launch teasers, the cost of design and placement of these simple ads probably wasn't even close to the cost of the Korg ad. I guess I just wish it could have lasted more than one issue.

Sequential Circuits Inc. Prelude "Fully polyphonic instrument" ad, Keyboard 1983

Sequential Circuits Inc. Prelude synthesizer 1-page advertisement from page 23 in Keyboard Magazine April 1983.

Update: Added to Sequential Circuit's advertising timeline.

When looking around the Web for info about the Prelude, one particular item of interest always seems to pop up. No matter where you look you'll no doubt come across it:

• Prelude eBay posts on MATRIXSYNTH
• Friend of the blog Micke pointing it out in the comments section of Vintage Synth's Prelude page
• YouTube videos on the Prelude

They all mention the fact that the Prelude was built in Italy by Siel and was known as the OR400 aka "Orchestra 2". Internally, they were virtually identical - you can find a good comparison video of the two keyboards on YouTube by Bob Weigel of Sound Doctorin' .

This wasn't the first time SCI had partnered with the Italian company. According to SCI's Wikipedia page, a couple of years earlier the Fugue was designed by SCI (see comment by Micke) and built by Siel. But Similarly, with the Prelude, it looks like Siel had already built the keyboard, and SCI had slapped on its own front panel design and logo for US consumption. ARP had also done a partnership or two with Siel as well.

I contacted Dave Smith, award winning synth guru, "father of MIDI", head honcho of Sequential Circuits, and now kickin' out new synths at Dave Smith Instruments, what was up with Italy back then...

"Italy was a major center for organ companies back then, when home organs were big business. So, there were many keyboard companies like Siel, who expanded into other areas like professional keyboards."

... and how the partnership with Siel came about. Who contacted who...?

"Our marketing and sales guys back then wanted to add some products to our line, so they contacted Siel about private-branding some keyboards. These were all very close or identical to other Siel products, just with new paint jobs."

And it is not like SCI hid the fact that the keyboard was manufactured by Siel. In fact, they gave Siel some good-sized props on the back on the machine, as can be seen in the photo below from a recent MATRIXSYNTH auction post.

And if you had looked closely at the other photos from that MATRIXSYNTH post, you may have noticed something else rather amazing on the back of the instrument. I'm talking about this image in particular:

See it?

I sure didn't. And that's what's amazing.

No MIDI. Not even CV/Gate.

Just controls for a lonely foot switch and a volume pedal. That may have been more common for a keyboard in 1978, but not in 1983. And quite frankly a little surprising considering that this was the same company that had just launched MIDI in their Prophet-600 a couple of months earlier.

That's just the kind of control you loose (no pun intended) when you white-label another company's product. You don't have much of a choice.

The Spec Sheet promo appeared in the February 1983 issue of Keyboard, and doesn't appear to mention CV/Gate control. But there is a noticeable hundred dollar price difference when compared to the price tag in this scanned ad:

"SCI KEYBOARD. Sequential Circuits introduces the Prelude, a polyphonic keyboard instrument with string, brass, piano, and organ sounds, all of which can be mixed together if desired. Each instrument section also has three different tone colors that can be mixed. A modulation section allows for flanging, chorusing, vibrato, and delayed vibrato from an LFO. The brass section includes filter cutoff and resonance and attack time controls. the decay time can be controlled in the piano section, and attack and release times are controllable in the string section. the instrument also features a built-in five-band graphic equalizer. A rear panel input jack allows an external signal to be processed by the equalizer and the chorus effect. List price is $795.00. Sequential Circuits. Inc. 3051 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95134."

I should probably say something about the ad itself.

I'm not gonna lie - this definitely wasn't one of SCI's finer advertising moments. Not only was this ad competing for reader's eyeballs with a number of other manufacturer's slick ads like the Roland Juno-60, but readers would also be viewing SCI's own Prophet 600 and Poly-sequencer ads in the same issue. SCI has been know to throw curve-balls throughout the years. It's another example of the sudden appearance of an odd-ball-ish SCI ad during a time period that I like to refer to "the longest run of cool synthesizer ads in history" :D

SCI must have realized it was an oddball too - someone made the decision to pull the plug on the ad after only a two-month run.

The ad is a good example that even when you follow all the design and layout rules, it doesn't guarantee success. For example, it follows most standard layout protocol:

• Lovely title, subtitle and ad-copy. Check.
  (BTW - all three use that awesome faux-celtic font we all love so much!)
• To-the-point ad-copy. Check.
  
• Nice, large front panel photo of the instrument. Check.
  

Everything points to the production of a great ad.

Lesson learned: Designers *are* important. :)

I should point out that the coolest thing about this ad is the creator's choice to use SCI's own 1982 "The Sound Choice" ad as the backdrop, so faded out that most readers' eyes probably didn't even notice it. But nice to see the ol' SCI Wizard keeping up appearances.

End note: What? You thought I wouldn't ask Dave Smith about John Mattos artwork?

Actually, taking a page out of Stephen Colbert's interview tactics manual, I didn't give Dave much of a choice:

Question: John Mattos artwork: A great artist? Or the greatest artist? :)

Answer: "Yes, we always liked John's art; very cool stuff!"

Tee hee! :D

Mellotron "Make you a much better musician" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1975

Mellotron "Make you a much better musician?" 1-page advertisement from page 38 in Contemporary Keyboard magazine September/October 1975.

It's not so much about the ad. Although it has quite a few good qualities - like the classic Mellotron photo and all those juicy quotes pulled directly from such large magazines as Downbeat, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and even Time. And the cool thing is, most of those excerpts are also doing the job of name-dropping for Mellotron - referencing people like Peter Gabriel, Isao Tomita, and Larry Fast.

But like I said - its not so much about the ad. For me, this ad is about being in the right place at the right time. Notice the issue date - September/October 1975.

This just happens to be the very first issue of Contemporary Keyboard. The cover has a close-up, moody photo featuring... you guessed it... Chick Corea, with a few hints to the secrets readers will find inside including columns by Bob Moog, Bill Irwin, Chick Corea, and Art Van Damme.

Inside the magazine, readers find only a few proper "synthesizer" ads. Instead, the slowly growing population of soon-to-be-synth-addicts have to turn to the articles to get what for many is probably their first fix of gear lust. The "N.A.M.M 1975 Keyboard Equipment Review" includes mouth-watering photos of the Orchestron, Polymoog, and Four-Voice, and the "Bob Moog, from theremin to synthesizers" article included images of Bob and his modulars posing with the likes of Keith Emerson and Roger Power. Drool.

The lack of synth ads isn't surprising. It's a gamble for any company to advertisement in a new magazine. It take brass balls to shell out cash - even when the magazine has the clout of Guitar Player behind it. Many synthesizer companies at the time were still young, small, and probably a little cash-strapped, so its probably easy to understand that CK got their initial support from the likes of Yamaha pianos, Hohner keyboards, and Musitronic effects ads.

Oh. And Mellotron. :)

In fact, the distributor for Mellotron, Dallas Music Industries |USA|Ltd., really stepped up to the task of supporting the cause by being the first to provide gear for CK Giveaway #1 - a free Mellotron. All of you filled out that contest form... right?

We can't actually give Dallas Music Industries all the credit. The Mellotron/CK contest page, which just happened to be directly opposite the Mellotron ad on page 39, does extend its thanks not only to the distributor, but also to ARP Instruments and Systems & Technology in Music - so, props to them as well for steppin' up.

The contest description of the Mellotron may have been many keyboard enthusiasts first glimpse at the specs for the instrument, written suspiciously like a Spec Sheet promo:

"The Mellotron is best described as a series of tape machines manipulated by a keyboard. Armed with the basic set of tapes, the musician can effectively reproduce the sounds of a flute, 'cello, or violins, across the instrument's 35 note range. Tapes are 3/8" / three track, and are mounted on a removable frame for ease of interchanging with other sets of tapes.

The Mellotron provides the performer with a number of effects and features: Pitch control with a variable of plus or minus 20%, tone control of a 10db cut at 10Khz, and a gain control. Normal tape velocity is 7 1/2 ips, with a reproduction range of 50Hz to 12Khz, plus or minus 3db. The height is 34", width 34", depth 22", and weight 122lbs. Power consumption is 75VA with a transformer tapped at 115V, 220V, and 240V, at 50 or 60cps; single phase.

This unique instrument is used by many major keyboardists to recreate sounds ranging from orchestras to vibes. it comes protected by a padded cover and a year's warranty against imperfect workmanship and labor. "

I love how, in many ways, it reads more like tape machine specs than keyboard specs :)

So, as the ad questions... can a $2000 instrument make someone a "much better" musician?

Well, I can't count the number of times in my early years that I shelled out a lot of dough for a new piece of gear, thinking *this* would be it. *This* will make my music hip and cool (okay, I probably didn't use those exact words). And Dallas Music Industries was betting that I wasn't the only one who thought that way. It's a strong "pull" for potential buyers.

But, as I've learned over many years (and many purchases - new and used), fame and fortune is rarely one piece of gear away*.
* does not include Fairlight or Synclavier buyers between 1982-1984. :D

ARP Model 1601 Sequencer "Extra hand" advertisement - Part 2, Contemporary Keyboard 1976

ARP Model 1601 Sequencer 1-page advertisement in Contemporary Keyboard November/December 1976.

Part 2

If you don't want to read Part 1 of the blog post, I'll catch you up.

First I yammered on about the ad itself - design, ad-copy and it's general all-around creepy goodness. I also mentioned the Spec Sheet write up and other appearances made by the ARP 1601 Sequencer in other ads and promotional material.

Then I mentioned how I came across one recently, but got all grumpy trying to find consolidated information on the Web about it. Instead, strewn about the Web are a number of references to different designs and model numbers. And to make matters worse, ARP gave this sequencer a generic name - "Sequencer". Why wouldn't ARP give it a cool name like they did for the "Axxe" or "Odyssey"?

So, yah, I was a little grumpy last weekend. I'm much better now, thank you very much.

But later on, rather than keep being all angry about it, I decided to do something. Probe. Google. Catalogue. Organize.

First, although it looks like the Sequencer had two major "designs", I found that most people usually just refer to their unit as "ARP Sequencer Model 16xx". This number is usually found on the back of the machine with the serial number. But I did find one or two instances where others classify the Sequencer designs as Mk 1's and Mk 2's - probably because the ARP Odyssey uses a similar naming convention. Makes sense.

The differentiation between the two designs is easy to see - and the colour schemes basically match the last two versions of the Odyssey - which also helps in trying to narrow down manufacturing dates.

So, based on this naming convention (Mk 1 and MK 2) and the model numbers I was able to find online, I've summarized my findings below. It may not be everything, but it's a start:

Sequencer Mk 1 - model's 1601, 1611, 1612, and 1613
The Mk 1 is generally believed to have been initially released in 1976 with a black and gold colour scheme, matching the ARP Mk 2 Odyssey of the time period. Wooden side panels are also distinctive to the MK 1's. The appearance of the ads and Spec Sheet write up in 1976, and a 1601 Sequencer manual found on retrosynth.com that includes a copyright date of September 1976, support a 1976 release date.

For comparison purposes, I've included an image of a Mk 1 Sequencer from a 2008 e-Bay auction found on MATRIXSYNTH, alongside a photo of an ARP Odyssey Mk II image from Wikipedia.

So, where do you go when you want to get a good sampling of ARP Sequencers? Why, MATRIXSYNTH of course! And the site didn't disappoint - it had a number of ARP Sequencer posts with photos of Mk1s that also included model #s. Based on these posts, and other pages on the Web, I'm thinking that the Mk 1's included model #'s 1601, 1611, 1612, and 1613. Although, I was never able to find an actual photo of the back of an ARP Sequencer with a 1601 model number printed on it. I've only ever seen the 1601 referred to in the sequencer manual I found on retrosynth.com. Could it be that "1601" was the overarching model, and the 11, 12, 13 were the models within it? If you have a 1601 with the model number on the back, please let me know!

Here's a few example Web pages that included references to model #s.

• model 1601 manual found on retrosynth.com, in particular this cover image
• model 1611 from July 2010 auction.
• model 1611 anniversary edition with "old school coloured LEDs"
• model 1612 - serial #0001
• model 1613 with great high-res images
• model 1613 with a date of 1975?!?! I followed the auction link to e-Bay and it does say 1975. Huh.

Sequencer Mk 2 - model's 1621, 1623
I can't find a definite release date of the Mk 2 Sequencer, with its new black and orange colouring. And not only did the colouring change, but the Sequencer was also sporting a new sleek and clean look due to the removal the wooden side panels. Boooo!

Aside: I've always wanted to start an urban myth that wooden side panels make analogue synths sound better. The wood interacts with analogue waveforms, absorbing certain higher frequencies, providing a warmer sound. :)

It would make sense that the colour scheme would have been updated when other ARP synthesizers like the Mk 3 Odyssey was released with the same "Halloween" theme. Most sites, like Vintage Synth Explorer and arpodyssey.com put the Mk 3 Odyssey manufacturing start date around 1978, although Wikipedia references it at 1976. I'm more likely to believe 1978.

For comparison, below is a photo of an MK 2 ARP Sequencer from a 2007 MATRIXSYNTH auction post via Flickr, next to a Mk 3 Odyssey image from Wikipedia. Dang they look smart together. Wouldn't you like to have those two sitting beside each other in your studio?

Web pages and posts of Mk 2 Sequencers with model #s are not as common at Mk 1's, but I did find enough references online that lead me to believe that there were only two Mk 2 models available - 1621 and 1623. I couldn't find any reference to model 1622's anywhere online.

• model 1621 at synthfind.com
• model 1621 from MATRIXSYNTH found at Flickr
• model 1623 at synthfind.com
• model 1623 at Tonetweakers.com
• model 1623 at obliq.net (scroll down a bit)

When you compare the front panel layouts of the Mk 1's and Mk 2's, there doesn't seem to be any differences, leading me to believe that they function exactly the same. So, why the different model numbers? Different "batches"? Or changes internally? Design engineers that wanted to torment me 35 years later?

Most likely.

I can't find any references online - and have never been around one, let alone a bunch of different models, long enough to open them up and take a look.

Yup. You heard right. As I mentioned earlier, I came across one for sale. And I turned it down.

Don't judge me. I'm trying to build a Eurorack modular system. I'll blog about that when the Tip Top u-ZEUS flying bus board and other modules finally arrive.

I'll kick myself later.