Month: September 2012

Categories
Synthesizers

Keys Break: 1980

Today: a quick look at some forgotten synths+keys from circa 1980 A.D.  Above: the Electro-Harmonix Mini Synth, a pretty cool little piece.  Incredibly, it has a touch-sensitive keyboard.  Other period entries in the mini-analog-monosynth field included my beloved Yamaha CS-01 and ???

Above: Roland’s Saturn, a hopped up organ similar to the RS-09.  Read the advert text for Roland’s suggestion that the Saturn’s sound corresponds to the aesthetic values of New Wave (i.e., trad rock + the new ‘punk’ sounds = New Wave, demanding a combo organ with… something extra….).

Octave-Plateau’s CAT and KITTEN synthesizers. But what’s that lil’ box in the center?

Why it’s the CAT STICK, a four-source modulation generator.  Pretty good, pretty neat…

Above: the Hohner Duo, a large mechanical nightmare that comprises a complete Clavinet and a complete Pianet in One-Handy-Keyboard.  We have a fully-restored Duo at Gold Coast Recorders and it makes the occasional appearance on tracks. Coolest unexpected feature: keyboard split!

Above: the Moog Liberation and Performance Music System’s SYNTAR, early Keytar instruments.  Nice Spyro Gyra appearance.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Without a doubt the stupidest fkkng thing i have ever posted

…but try to tell me you didn’t laugh. Courtesy of this eBay auction. New actual PS dot com content coming shortly, i promise.

Categories
Early Electronic Music

Max Neuhaus, Electronic Music Pioneer

Above: Neuhaus at work on an aquatic sound installation

Download a three-page article by Joan LaBarbara on the 1970’s work of sound-installation artist Max Neuhaus, originally published in High Fidelity, 10.77:

DOWNLOAD: MaxNeuhaus_HighFidelity_Oct1977

Apologies for the less-than-stellar scan quality.  Neuhaus created some incredible pieces in his time, pieces that attempted to use sound to expand spatial experience in unexpected ways.  He is very much the forefather to such contemporary artists as Janet Cardiff.  As LaBarbara (herself an experimental composer) sagely writes, “Neuhaus’ works focus on that most important function of the composer in society, of retraining ears and minds…”

Categories
Antique Hi-Fi Archive

Forgotten Formats: The Elcaset

Here’s the thing about experimental anything.  Experimental music, experimental writing, experimental technology: if it really, truly is experimental, that means it very well might fail.  This is a necessary condition of experimentation.  More than any other technology company, SONY is known as much for their failures as their successes.  Not failures in a technical/engineering sense, but market failures.  The fact that SONY has survived through so may famous failures is testament both to the intense brilliance of their successful experiments (Trinitron, The Walkman, the Compact Disc) as well as the depth of their commitment to innovation.  Times are not good for SONY right now; the marquee position that they once held has largely been usurped by Apple and Samsung.  But don’t believe that a comeback is impossible.

The Elcaset was a SONY-driven consumer analog tape format introduced in 1977  (TEAC, Technics, and JVC also marketed compatible decks).  Essentially, Elcaset was a large cassette tape (approx. the size of a Beta) that used 1/4″ (rather than 1/8″) tape, plus it ran at 3.5 (rather than 1.75) IPS and used VCR-like extra-shell tape handling.  The hope was to offer the performance of open-reel tape machines with the convenience of the compact cassette.  You can read a quick description of the technology at this link.  For a much more detailed account, I have scanned a three-page article from HIGH FIDELITY, 2.77, by one Larry Zide.  Zide provides detailed analysis of the technology and also offers his personal guess as to its market viability.

DOWNLOAD ZIDE’S ARTICLE: Elcaset_Feb1977

Even if you’ve never heard of Elcaset, I think you can probably guess how it fared in the marketplace: miserably.  Making this chapter in SONY history little more than a tragic harbinger of the coming Betamax fiasco.  But then what happened to all of those thousands of unsold Elcaset machines and pieces of tape stock?  Why do they rarely turn up for sale?  If you’re Finnish, you already know the answer.  Very bizarre.

If you want to learn way, way more about Elcaset, just click here…

Categories
Antique Hi-Fi Archive

Visual Culture: the late 1970’s

Today on PS dot com: a quick survey of some wonderful Hi-Fi visuals circa 1977.  Above: Fuji blank cassette media.  My latest embarrassing collecting habit: dead stock unopened blank cassette tapes. Because why not.  Report to follow.

Altec Model 15 and Model 19 loudspeakers

Empire Phono Cartridge

Hitachi metal-cone speaker drivers. Who knew?

Jennings-brand Hi Fi speaker systems

Experimental binaural headphone system by JVC.  500-cycle crossover point; highs originate in front of the face, lows from above the ears.

Above: KOSS headphones, for both pop/rock and classics

NIKKO Hi-Fi components

Categories
Early Electronic Music

Great Ladies of Electronic Music: Rosalyn Tureck

Bach Expert Rosalyn Tureck at-work at the Moog Modular circa 1977.  Tureck was a student of Leon Theremin and made her Carnegie Hall debut playing the primitive electronic instrument of his name.  (Image: High Fidelity Magazine, 10.77)

Categories
Recording Studio History

Augmenting the Feeble Groans Of Hopeful Teenagers (aka Signal Processing)

RCA Studio circa 1964.  Ed Begley resists adjusting the controls.  

Download an eight-page article, again from ‘Easy Guide To Stereo Hi-Fi,’ on the subject of ‘Where did they hang your ears,’ circa 1964 (no author attributed).

DOWNLOAD: HangYrEars_1964

Written for the layperson, this article offers an account of how audio fidelity (both the recording and user-playback spheres) had apparently achieved such high quality that the question of ‘what IS the best way to make this recording’ had at last supplanted the earlier question of ‘how do we make this sound life-like AT ALL?’  It then discusses the varying approaches to microphone technique as practiced by some of the leading record labels of the day.  The piece is only concerned with classical and concert music; pop (no mention of rock) is mentioned only briefly, and then in the most condescending possible manner.  In describing how various unnamed audio-processing techniques (we can safely assume these to consist of equalization, multi-mic techniques, and compression) can be used to allow the listener to “hear everything,” the author goes on to say:

If this doesn’t just say-it-all (re: rock music/recording history), I don’t know what does.  From (EQ+Compression+Slapback) to (doubletracking+delay+chorusing) to (DAW editing+Autotune), the kids are still want sex appeal, some of them benefit from augmenting, and they’re sure as shit still hopeful (re: wanting-you-to-want-me).