Tag: vintage synthesizers

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Early Electronic Music

(Very) Early Electronic Instruments

When you think of ‘early electronic instruments,’ what period comes to mind?  European tape music of the 1950s?  Academic electronic music labs of the 1960s?  How about 1931?

Download a five-page article from Radio News 1931, on ‘The Electrical Future Of Music.’

DOWNLOAD: Radio_News_3107_Electronic_Music

It’s interesting to see her how the focus is primarily on the creation of instruments on which one could perform western tempered music (as opposed to music concrete or noise-music).  Although those more avant garde approaches to electronic music would come soon, this earlier approach – the electronic (as opposed to bellows) organ, the violin-simulating theremin – seems to be what has won out.  Eighty years later, most of us are not usually listening to atonal clusters of carefully organized noise – we’re still mostly listened to very diatonic, 4/4 folk-songs (essentially) performed and presented via wholly electronic means.

Above: the photo-electric organ

Above: the Theremin, still popular today in a variety of musical genres.

Above: an electronic organ built by Westinghouse, 1931.

Above: an electronic Carillion as built by RCA.  The principle employed here is also still very popular today.

Early attempt at acoustic isolation of an instrument for electronic pickup

 

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Uncategorized

Some 70s electronic oddities

The Computone Lyricon is an analog synthesizer with a wind controller interface.  The horn-controller responded to three input parameters: the keys (‘valves’) themselves, lip pressure, and wind force pressure.  It sounds beautiful.  Listening to this thing, I can’t help but think of the infamous Charles Napier ‘space hippies’ episode of Star Trek.

Other things that come to mind: Steve Douglas’ “Music of Cheops”;

(image source)

…and Quicksilver Messenger Service’ “Just For Love” LP. 

Kinda makes me want to get a CV wind controller for my MS20…

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“Maestro will travel anywhere for new sounds.” Indeed.  Maestro was the effects-device division of CMI in the 60s/70s. CMI was best known as the parent of Gibson Guitars in this era.  When I was growing up (late 80s/early 90s), Maestro effects were considered fairly shite by professional musicians and we could still readily find these things for a few bucks at yard sales and pawn shops.  M. has collected many of these units, so I’ve been able to use a lot of these things on recordings through the years.  Missing from this family photo is the epic ‘Universal Synthesizer,’ which is not a synth at all, but rather a very early (the first?) multi-effect unit for guitar ETC.  Synth or not, this device can make some fantastic synth-esque sounds with just about any input signal.

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The Ampli-Tek Phaser AT-10, circa 1973.  An early Leslie rotating-speaker emulator with a charming cottage-industry aspect.  This piece is truly lost to time.  Anyone?

 

Categories
Connecticut Audio History Synthesizers

Electronic Music Labs, INC, of Vernon CT

Electronic Music Laboratories, INC, was based in Vernon CT from 1968 through 1984.  The company’s founders included Dale Blake, Norman Millard, Dennis Daugherty, Fred Locke, and Jeff Murray.   Apparently EML synths used op-amps rather than transistors in certain circuits, which improved reliability relative to Moog and ARP designs of the period.  Above, the EML 101.  Below, the EML model 500.   Anyone using one of these in their work?  Drop a line and let us know…

Categories
Early Electronic Music

Vladamir Ussachevsky, electronic music pioneer and educator

“Does this qualify me for a prophet? Well, perhaps partially.”

Imagine if this dude had been your college music professor.  Read a 4-page essay by Mongolian-born composer Vladamir Ussachevsky as printed in the 1/17/74 issue of DOWNBEAT magazine.  Ussachevsky was one of the founders of the legendary Columbia-Princeton electronic music studio, and one of the folks who bridged the tape-manipulation and synthesizer eras of early electronic music.  It’s almost impossible for us to grasp the conceptual leaps that these early pioneers had to make in order to arrive the formulation of audio-manipulation-as-music; for many of us working as musicians in the past few decades, it’s hard to even separate music and audio, so intertwined is audio technology with music, so thoroughly has the studio become-an-instrument.

Follow the link to READ ON…

Continue reading “Vladamir Ussachevsky, electronic music pioneer and educator”
Categories
Synthesizers

ARP Synthesizer Endorsers of the early 1970s

Stevie Wonder endorses the ARP 2600 in this early 70s advert

Billy Preston likes his ARP Pro-Soloist

Les McCann and the Arp Pro-Soloist

Edgar Winter apparently used the ARP 2600 on his cheerful Doobie-Bros-esque hit record ‘Free Ride’; those wind sounds in the breakdown, i’m guessing?

Several more examples after the jump…

Continue reading “ARP Synthesizer Endorsers of the early 1970s”

Categories
Synthesizers

Univox-branded Synth+Drums

Billy Preston with a Univox Compac-Piano

Univox (brief company history here) was a US company that marketed a huge range of musical products in the late 60s and into the early 80s.    Most famous is their ‘Hi-Flier’ electric guitar, aka, not-an-actual-Mosrite, aka, one of the iconic Kurt Cobain guitars.

They also made tube amplifiers, some of which actually sound pretty great, and distributed several synth instruments and drum machines which are believed to have been built by KORG in Japan.  Their Compac-Piano (no resemblance to the sound of an actual piano) was apparently of Italian origin.  Here’s a few period adverts for these oddballs.  These were all sold in large numbers and are still fairly readily available for a reasonable price.

Edgar Winter with the Compac-Piano

Univox Mini-Korg analog preset synth

Univox Pace Ship Drum Machine

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Uncategorized

1980 (via Music Emporium)

Download 25pp of excerpts from the 1980 ‘Music Emporium’ mail-order catalog: synthesizers, keyboards; effects pedals; pro audio equipment:

DOWNLOAD SYNTHS:Music_Emp_Keys_1980

DOWNLOAD EFFECTS PEDALS: Music_Emp_FX_1980

DOWNLOAD PRO AUDIO: Music_Emp_audio_1980

Keyboard instruments covered, with photos, text, and (often) pricing, include: ARP Axxe, Odyssey, Quadra, Quartet, Omni II, and 2600 keyboards, Moog Micro Moog, Mini-Moog, Polymoog, and Multi-Moog, Korg MS-10 and MS-20; Oberheim OB-1, two-voice, OB-X, and four and eight-voice systems; Roland RS-09 and RS-505 string machines; Roland MP-600 electronic piano; mechanical keyboards from Hohner (pianet and clavinet) and Wurlitzer (200); Leslie 820, 860, 147, 760, and 815 rotating speaker systems.

Effects pedals include full lines from MXR (many…), Morley (VOL, SVO, PWO, WVO, PWB, PWF, PWA, PFA, and PRL), Mutron (III, Phasor II, Vol-Wah, Octave Divider, and Bi-Phase), and DOD (250, 280, 401, 640); plus interesting oddities like the Gizmotron, eBow, Altair PW-5, and the original Pignose amplifier.

Audio includes a wide range of mics from Shure, Sennheiser, Beyer, Sony, plus some predictable selections from the AKG and Electrovoice lines; Teac tape machines; Technics 1500 and RS-M85; the Tangent 3216 mixing console; time delay effects including Loft 440, Lexicon Prime Time model 93, MXR digital delay and flanger-doubler; Roland space echos, Tapco 4400 and Furman RV-1 reverbs; compressors including MXR mini, Ashly SC55 and SC-50. Biamp Quad Compressor, Ureil LA4, and DBX compressors 163, 160, 162, 165; plus a host of mainly graphic EQs including Biamp EQ210, EQ270A and EQ110R, MXR Dual 15 abd 31, Tapco C-201, Ashly SC-63 and SC-66, and Ureil 537 and 545 parametric filter set.

DOD effects pedals circa 1980

The Gizmotron, which is sort of the mechanical equivalent of an e-Bow; it was invented by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley of band 10CC; I have never come across one of these but wow would I love this for studio work.  Check out some amazing sound clips here.

The Korg MS-20.  This is our house monosynth at Gold Coast Recorders and lord do these things sound great.  Pitch to CV conversion built in!

Loft 440 Time Delay effects.  Loft was a Connecticut maker of Pro Audio kit in the 70s/80s.  Much previous Loft coverage on PS dot com; maybe start here…

I just got a new MacBook Pro and guess what.  My Protools LE 8 does not work on it.  Big surprise.  Everytime this happens (which means everytime a new Mac comes into my life…) I inch closer to replacing the PT LE system that I use for demos at home with one of these 70s four-track reel systems.  Of course, an Mbox and Laptop weigh about 100lbs less and take up 1/10th the desk space.   Is anyone out there making demos (or album masters) on a Teac/Tascam 1/4″ reel system? Drop us a line and let us know…

Technics RS-M85 cassette deck.  Beautiful looking machine.  Working example on eBay right now for $138…

The Urei LA4 was the compressor that I learned on at school.  The studio had a pair and they sounded great. Simple and effective… 

I don’t know how accurate it was to have ever called the Beyer M69 a popular microphone, but they do have a good sound.  We have a pair at GCR and they are a good alternative to the SM58 as a handheld dynamic.  To my ears they sound less boxy; seem to have less proximity effect. 

For previous Music Emporium coverage on PS dot com (incredible as it may sound….), visit here…

Categories
Guitar Equipment

Circa ’75

Download a twenty-three-page excerpt of the 1975 catalog from Music Emporium of Bethesda, Maryland (h.f. ‘ME’):

DOWNLOAD: Music_Emporium_1975_Catalog

Products covered, with vague text, no specs (or prices), and moody photography/impressionistic illustration, include: 1975 Martin D-18, D-28, D-35, etc; Gibson Les Paul bass, Triumph, Signature, ES-335TD-SV, ES-345TD, among others; Gibson J-200, Blue Ridge 12, and J-55; Dobro 60D, 33, 90, and 35 resonator guitars; Guild F-50, F-40, D-50, F-212XL, among others; Fender Telecaster, Telecaster Deluxe, Thinline, Precision, Jazz, and Telecaster Basses; the Bradley line of directly-imported MIJ ‘Lawsuit’ guitars, including the Doubleneck, FV-60, ES-775, TE350, JB60-W, ST50-N, LP65-N, and LP54; Amplifiers and PA from Acoustic, Ampeg, DB Sound (look similar to Heil, which is also represented), Gollehon PA from Grand Rapids, MI, including their 8218/M, 8218/A, MR-90 Horn, 8220/M and /A models; AKG, Shure, and Maruni Mics; ARP and Moog synthesizers; and a pile of guitar effects pedals that no one can afford anymore.

ME was the catalog division of the family-owned Veneman instrument retail-store business.  Veneman was purchased by Guitar Center in 2004.  Check out these sepia-tinted photos for a second.  Veneman could easily have opted to re-print the images that manufacturers supply through their distributors, but they really went the extra mile; the mood of these images, combined with the glaring lack of any sort of pricing or specifications, seems impossible today as a sales strategy for guitars: ME was selling you an attitude and a vibe first; the particular instruments were secondary.  Consider another interesting fact about the images in the catalog: apart from the High Priestess on the cover, there are no almost no photographic image of people in the catalog.   Instead we get some beautiful line-illustration work.  While this could have been a talent compensation/rights issue, I feel like it’s more of a deliberate move that allows the musician/customer to more easily insert themselves into these instrument-scenarios.  I mean, who wants to buy a Les Paul that you see slung around the neck of some bro in a (insert yr least favorite sartorial signifier) shirt?

 

A possible overall explanation?  It’s the Whole Earth Catalog Effect.  If yr not familiar with the Whole Earth Catalog (h.f. WEC), and you have any interest whatsoever in American culture of the 1970s, get a copy of an early edition and check it out.  It is one of the most seminal documents of the era, as well as being an early precursor of the peer-to-peer information exchange style that we now experience in the form of….yup…  the internet.  There were about a billion (or googleplex…) copies printed and you can find if for a few bucks at most community book sales or used book shops.  Anyhow,  WEC was such a powerful and ubiquitous presence among the more liberal and artistic elements of American Society in the 70s that we start to see its editorial and visual style reflected in actual catalogs of the era that were directed at a similar demographic.  For another example of this phenomenon, check this…

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The only really interesting bit as far as the equipment offered is the BRADLEY line of guitars.  Bradley was apparently the house-brand of directly-imported Japanese-made guitars which ME exclusively sold.

These sure look like Ibanez to me.  Anyone own a 70’s Bradley?  Tell us your thoughts.  Read some discussion online here.

Categories
Synthesizers

Not what a synthesizer can do, but what a man can do with a synthesizer.

There’s a chance that Gold Coast Recorders will soon have a Crumar DS-2 in our synth collection/pile;  researching this Italo-Moog turned up the absolute best instrument-demonstration video that I have ever seen on youtube.   As Polish creator WC Olo Garb states, his (?) mission is to “show() you not what a synthesizer can do, but what a man can do with a synthesizer.”    For instance:

All in all, the video provides some of the best video-treatment analogies-to-sonic-effects that I’ve ever seen.  The filtering, jump cuts, found footage, multiple flavors of distressing, even the wardrobe choice are all incredibly incisive.  Even with the sound turned off I think you could get a sense of the Crumar DS-2.  Well worth all 11 minutes of your Thursday.

Categories
Synthesizers

ARP Synthesizers Full-Line Catalog 1977

Download the twenty-page c.1977 ARP Instruments, Inc. catalog:

DOWNLOAD: ARP_1977_Catalog

Products covered, with text, specs, and photos, include: ARP Avatar Guitar Synth, ARP Axxe, Odyssey, and 2600 modular-style synth; ARP Sequencer; ARP Omni-2 and PRO/DGX preset synths.

ARP can be considered the ‘other’ Moog of the 1970s.  Similar product lines, pricing, and appeal; in my limited experience, ARP synths are of similar sonic potential.

I studied electronic music extensively in college; the program had a nice selection of pieces going back to the early 70s; the big daddy of which was an ARP 2600.  It still sounded great 25 years after it rolled out of the factory.