The Mini-Moog synthesizer was introduced in 1970. It was a truly revolutionary device.
KeyboardistRick Wakeman says of the Minimoog’s invention: “For the first time you could go on [stage] and give the guitarist a run for his money…a guitarist would say, ‘Oh shit, he’s got a Minimoog’, so they’re looking for eleven on their volume control – it’s the only way they can compete.” Wakeman said the instrument “absolutely changed the face of music.”
Essentially, the Mini Moog was the first widely-available ‘performance’ rather than ‘studio’ synthesizer instrument. The distinctive sound of the Mini Moog is due its 3 available oscillators (most vintage analog monophonic synths have no more than 2) and its 24db per octave filter (in contrast to the less-aggressive 18db per octave filter of its contemporaries).
The Moog Sonic-Six was similar to the Mini Moog, but it has only two oscillators. Its ‘institutional’ design and built-in amplified speaker highlights its intent as an educational instrument.
Polyfusion is an electronics firm in the Buffalo, NY area which began in the mid-1970s. According to their very outdated website, their sole standard product these days is a frequency-shifting device intended as a feedback-reducer in (presumably voice-only) PA systems. I do not know anything about these devices beyond what I have seen online, but I did recently come across a large folio of promo materials from the 1970s. It seems that Polyfusion got their start making modular synths which were used by such folks as“Vince Clarke, Ken Hemsley, Scott Humphrey, Masterworks, Steve Porcaro and Tangerine Dream.”
Anyhow. Here is the 1977 Polyfusion catalog and pricelist. Enjoy. If anyone is interested: I also have another 24 pages of detailed specs on each one of the modules, so drop me a line if you want to see those too.
Hammond Times was published by the Hammond Organ Company from around 1938 through at least 1962 (the last issue that I have personally seen is 1962). Click on the link below to download the 12-page issue Vol XV, No. 11, from March of 1953.
This is, of course, the Pre-Rock-Era. The Hammond Organ, long a staple of rock music, began its career as an instrument for churches that wanted a reliable, inexpensive alternative to pipe organs. When you think ‘Hammond Organ,’ you probably imagine something like this:
…but, of course, this was not Hammond’s intention for these devices. They were imagining something more like this:
The Hammond Organ’s incredible sound (owing in large part to the rotating Leslie speakers that often amplified it) was intended to be the sound of the heavens… the sound of the Lord. What better way to bolster your Rock-anthem than with the Chords Of God. It’s adaptation to RocknRoll was inevitable.
The first in a 3-month series of scans of obscure audio paper: the entire Yamaha Keyboard line from approx. 1980 (no date indicated in the catalog itself). Yamaha made some great analog keyboards – i currently have a CS-1 and it is very cool – and there earlier ‘YC’ combo organ series are very underrated. “The Peavey of Japan,” it has been said. Dig in….
Moog is a legendary name in the world of music. As far as manufacturers/innovators of musical/audio equipment go, Robert Moog is a close to a household name as anyone I can think of. The original Moog Modular Synthesizer, as used in early ‘hit’ electronic records such as Carlos’ “Switched on Bach,” was the earliest commercially-available integrated audio synthesizer instrument.
But as much as Moog was indeed an innovator and a massive contributor to the world of music and audio, widespread acceptance of his (and others – Buchla, EMS, etc) synthesizer systems actually marked the demise of a much earlier tradition of electronic music practice. Because the Moog Modular, complex and inscrutable as it now seems, was in fact a massive simplification and streamlining of the earlier academic/institutional ad-hoc electronic music studio. Today we will start (what I intend to be) a series of investigations into the technology of early studios used by electronic pioneers such as Varese, Stockhausen, and Luening.
I am slowly-but-surely accumulating some of the original circa 1960 equipment similar to that which pre-Moog electronic music was created with, and I hope to attempt some of this early practice myself.
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This article, from the same 1965 issue of the AES journal which heralded the arrival of ‘The Moog,” details a basic ad-hoc electronic studio of the era. Read through it. The basic components that Robert Moog integrated into his ‘modular instrument’ are all present in the Brandeis studio, minus the keyboard: oscillators, a mixer, a filter, a noise generator, a ring modulator, a spring reverb unit. And, of course, several tape-recorders to allow the various sounds to be layered and combined in order to meet the composer’s intent. In order to understand just how much effort was necessary to create even these basic conditions for composing, consider this: the (very simple) mixer had to be custom-designed and built by an engineering firm.
And the studio-staff themselves designed and built the white-noise generator that the set-up used.
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Columbia University had a similar, but much more sophisticated studio at the time. They began the construction of their set-up in 1952, nine years before Brandeis did the same.
Here the Columbia/Princeton studio is profiled in the June 1965 issue of ‘Radio Electronics,’ the same year that the AES covered Brandeis.
You can here some of the music that Otto Luening made on this rig (presumably) at the youtube link earlier in my article. I find it to be very beautiful; it is in many ways the most basic type of music: I think we experience it directly as ‘Organized Noise,’ as free-as-possible from cliche and expectation. Just my $.02.
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As I had mentioned earlier, Moog’s real innovation was to take all of the disparate components of electronic sound-generation – the oscillators, mixer, filters, noise generator, ring modulator, a spring reverb – and combine them into little panels that fit a single chassis, with a conventional piano-type keyboard as the primary input-control device.
But where did our pre-Moog pioneers source their hardware? As the c. 1965 coverage indicates, Brandeis and Columbia had some of it custom built; some was built by the staff; and some originated as non-musical laboratory equipment.
General Radio was perhaps the pre-eminent manufacturer of electronic test equipment in the 1950s and 1960s. I have owned some of their pieces, and the build-quality is absolutely incredible.
This type of hardware is fairly easily obtained nowadways for very little money – i generally pay $5 – $20 for a unit – and usually it still works. Sometimes it is hard to resist the temptation to chop up these pieces in order to use the valuable transformers for other projects, but I have saved a few of the better pieces in the hopes of getting my own super-primitive Electronic Composing Studio together.
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Anyone out there ever made music on a pre-Moog system?
Anyone attend the Brandeis or Columbia programs in the early 1960’s? Drop a line and let know about it.
Downbeat is one of the oldest music magazines in the world. They have been publishing since 1934. This is incredible. Downbeat primarily covers jazz music. Much of jazz was (and is) performed on acoustic instruments, or electric instruments where ‘fidelity’ and ‘natural-ness’ of tone is the desired effect. If you have been following this website you will probably guess that this is not of great interest to me. The late 60’s/early 70’s were an inclusive, experimental time for instrumental music though – consider Miles’ Bitches Brew period, Melvin Jackson, and even our friend Steve Douglas – and equipment manufacturers were beginning to create devices that our scale-ripping friends could use up on the bandstand. For evidence, let’s turn to some Psych-era issues of Downbeat and see what was on offer…
Selmer was not the only firm to offer an ‘electric saxophone’ kit. I have owned a few that VOX marketed as well. Basically these devices offer combinations of various primitive sound effects, from distortion, filtering and reverb, up to actual monophonic pitch-tracking. Some of the effects that you can get with these things are pretty radical (literally). Check out the earlier Steve Douglas post for an example.
Along the same lines, here’s a slightly later offering from Maestro, the effects division of Gibson Musical Instruments.
In an earlier post, I briefly covered the Gibson GA100, a late-50s guitar amplifier which was intended for use with classical guitar and acoustic bass. Baldwin marketed a similar product in the late 60’s. Willie Nelson has used one of these for decades with his lil buddy Trigger.
And while we’re on the subject, how about an amplifier that REALLY sells to the jazz guys?
I have used one of these (with the similarly humongous 2×12″ extension cab) and they are pretty funny…
Alright so if you’ve made it this far, I am guessing that you are prepared to follow the link below and see more of this fun stuff.
SEE MORE CIRCA 1968 DOWNBEAT ADs FOR OFFBEAT EQUIPMENT…
So once Dubreq conquered the world with a keyboard-that-you-play-with-a-pen, they dropped this bomb. The Piano-mate. I picked up this lil weirdo at the Flea market the other day for a few bucks. I had thought i was buying some obscure guitar amp. I was so, so wrong.
Seems like there was a real obsession with the physicality of the keyboard over at Dubreq HQ. Really a very uncanny obsession.
What is the Piano-mate? Basically, it’s a Synth/Organ which does not have a keyboard of its own. Instead, it has these 2 bars that you place ON ANOTHER FULL-SIZE KEYBOARD (let’s call it ‘The Host”). The bars have little plunger microswitches that rest on the Host-keyboard.
When you press a key on the Host, the Piano-mate responds with its own little squawk. The Piano-mate gives the user 3 different sounds (roughly, organ, elec piano, and ‘synth’), and it also has its own vibrato section. Oh and did i mention that it also has its own amp and speaker built in? And and that the whole thing nests together into little recesses in its backside? Really very odd.
The piano mate is interesting to me because it was not intended to be its ‘own sound.’ As the manual tells us, Dubreq’s concept was for the Piano-mate to augment the acoustic tone of an acoustic piano. So we are supposed to hear both sounds, acoustic and electronic, together as one experience. It’s a very strange hybrid.
OK so how does it sound? I find it a lot of fun to play. In my assessment, it turns any simple little piano-tune into instant Roxy-Music/ 70s Eno ballad-majesty. I recorded these 2 examples with my little Tascam DR08 dictaphone, aka the Digital Camera of Sound.
————————————————————— What you are about to hear is a single sonic event – no layering or multitracking. Give ’em a listen.
From the PS dot com archive/pile: Download nine pages of German-language Mini Moog and Moog Sonic-Six catalogs from 1974.
