FM117.
80sgear 15/11/2001 2:16 PM Page 80
80s SPECIAL: THE GEAR
80s
GEAR
> The 80s had it all: dodgy fashions, dodgy haircuts and dodgy tunes. But it also had the technological
breakthroughs that shape what we play and hear today. Jonathan Miller turns back the clock…
S FAR AS history is con-
A cerned, the 80s are for-
ever destined to remain
a time of style over con-
tent; dodgy fashions,
dodgy haircuts and dodgy tunes were
the order of the decade.
But it was also a time when music
technology gear became affordable and
the masses started making music. A
whole new ream of talent that might
otherwise not have seen the light of
day, started taking over the charts… By
chalking up two Number 1 singles (Are
Friends Electric and Cars) and two Num-
ber 1 albums (Replicas and The Pleasure
Principal) in a three-month period of
1979, synth pop pioneer Gary Numan
unwittingly became the UK’s fastest ris-
ing star since The Beatles, opening the
TIMELINE >> 1980: Linn Electronics LM-1 released >> 1981: E-mu Emulator released >> 1981: Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer
80 FutureMusic
floodgates for the wave of early 80s
synth-based acts to follow. As Numan
himself observed: “Synths provided an
opportunity for people without any
great musical training or ability to make
pop music. You could rent them cheaply,
record them in little studios and they
would sound incredibly powerful.”
Manufacturers soon sat up and took
note, producing relatively low-cost
products that self-confessed non-musi-
cians could create music with. It seemed
that German electronic trailblazers
Kraftwerk’s vision had been realised, (all
the more so when, seemingly out of the
blue, The Model, taken from 1978’s The
Man Machine, topped the UK singles
chart in December 1981).
Music technology became the great
liberator as scores of Kraftwerk
wannabes took their first tentative steps
out of the bedroom, getting hits in the
charts and on global dancefloors.
The technology moved on in leaps
and bounds throughout the 80s, making
it arguably the most important decade
in our musical history. MIDI, sampling,
multitimbrality, polyphony… all this
technology evolved and became acces-
sible and affordable to everyone. Heck, it
got so popular that people even started
magazines about the stuff!
And even in 2001 the synths and
sounds from the 80s live on as software
RETNA/DAVID ELLIS
reproduction or analogue-modelling
synths and used by bands such as Meta-
matics and Ladytron (interviewed on
Numan. Kickstarter. p102 to p107). So sit back as we pay
>
homage to a decade that shaped what
we play and listen to today…
FM117.80sgear 15/11/2001 2:16 PM
1980
As the 70s – in which punk had slain the
pompous prog rock dinosaur – drew to a
close and new wave quietly ushered in
what was to become the high-flying
80s, all was initially quiet on the gear
front. Sequential Circuits Inc. (SCI) had
cleaned up at the high-end synth game
with the Prophet, which was the first
genuinely programmable analogue poly-
synth, back in 1978.
Then in 1980, synth pioneers Moog
wisely opted to launch their first low-
cost (£295) analogue monosynth, the
Prodigy. It would soon become their
best-selling product after the infamous
(but considerably more expensive) Mini-
Moog that had served Gary Numan so
well. Fledgling Depeche Mode (known
then as Composition Of Sound) bassist
Andy Fletcher happily shelled out for
one, and within a year his Prodigy had
led him and his Essex cohorts straight to
the stage of Top Of The Pops.
In Japan, Roland Corporation coun-
tered with the £299 single-VCO (plus
sub-oscillator) SH-09, together with a
matching pair of compatible CV/Gate
sequencers, the CSQ-100 and CSQ-600;
the former being a basic two-channel
affair with a capacity of just 84 notes
per channel!
Back in the States, guitarist Roger
Linn was about to start a musical riot of
his own with Linn Electronics’ LM1, the
first drum machine with sampled
sounds. Unsurprisingly, this came at a
price ($5,000 originally), but the 500
takers attracted to its unprecedented
eight-bit, 28kHz sounds (all 18 of them)
read like a Who’s Who of popular music
of the time. Producer Martin Rushent
used one on Human League’s multi-mil-
lion-selling synth-driven Dare in 1981
and Prince remained a big fan, giving the
LM1 a funky workout on 1999 in 1982.
1980 was also the year that Brit
Dave Simmons launched those bizarre –
some might say ‘cool’ – hexagonal-
shaped electronic drum pads as part of
Simmons’ SDS5 analogue electronic
drumkit. Due to their harsh nature, some
The Moog Prodigy formed band names
>
released >> 1982: Fairlight CMI Series II launched >> 1982: SCI Prophet 600 released >> 1983: Yamaha DX7 released >>
Page 81
COVER FEATURE
80s
REDFERNS/GLENN A. BAKER
80s TOP 10 SYNTHS
1 Korg M1 (1988): the
archetypal workstation
The Human League dared to use synths whose 250,000 sales say
>
it all: it’s still the biggest-
selling synth of all-time.
drummers reputedly developed physical 2 Roland D-50 (1987): a
problems in their hands and elbows, close second to the M1 due
though this was alleviated on later, digi- to its 200,000 sales, this set
the S+S standard. Roland’s Jupiter 8 is just superb!
tal models prior to the company going
>
3 Yamaha DX7 (1983): this
belly up in 1989. (Soft Cell ‘synthesist’ 160,000-unit-shifting FM
Dave Ball smacked a couple with his wonder changed the music blues debut Only You and its 1982 long-
hand while performing Tainted Love on world, stopping subtractive playing follow-up Upstairs At Erics. While
(analogue) synthesis dead
TOTP back in 1981.) perhaps not as well known as the Mini-
in its tracks.
Elsewhere, NED updated their mon- 4 Korg Poly 800 (1984): a Moog, it has seen a resurge in recent
strous – in size, facilities and price – budget digital/analogue interest in the shape of the Mac and PC
Synclavier music computer system to hybrid, this eight-voice pro- software Wine Country Sequential Pro-
grammable MIDI polysynth
Synclavier II status. The new update One Survival Kit, a sure sign of its
shifted 100,000 units!
included digital recording, external disk- 5 Roland MT-32 (1987): enduring popularity.
based sound storage and FM (Frequency 100,000 people rushed out Moog meanwhile, opted for a more
Modulation) synthesis, later utilised and and bought this early multi- radical and pricy (£899) route, replacing
timbral MIDI module, a sure
marketed to better effect by Yamaha, as their ageing MiniMoog with The Source,
sign that computer-based
we shall see. Way ahead of its time, the music-making had arrived a programmable analogue monosynth
continually evolving Synclavier would with a vengeance. with digital parameter access control.
eventually find a very expensive home 6 Casio CZ-101 (1985): (The now flush Andy Fletcher bought
70,000 amateurs and pros
in the studios of rock and pop’s elite one, with Mute Records founder and
dined on the digital delights
including Sting and George Michael. of this cost-effective com- Depeche mentor Daniel Miller reputedly
pact and bijou baby. once restoring lost tour patches while
7 E-mu Proteus: 50,000 on the loo!)
1981
This was the year those UK synth pop
musos bought into E-mu’s
tweakable sample-based
synth module concept.
8 Ensoniq ESQ1 (1986):
In 1981, our cousins across the pond
– that’s America – were again in ground-
breaking mood as small-town, garage-
floodgates finally burst open. Out this forerunner of the based synth manufacturers E-mu
modern-day workstation
poured Ultravox, Duran Duran, Human unleashed their legendary eight-voice,
also had 50,000 takers.
League, Depeche Mode and Soft Cell. 9 Kawai K1 (1988): a eight-bit, 21kHz Emulator sampler for a
Revolutionary releases on the gear front 50,000-selling full-size key- ‘mere’ $7,995. E-mu’s engineers first
were equally competitive with German board-endowed digital tested the instrument’s looping function
alternative to the diminu-
synth specialists Palm Productions by sampling the sound of someone pee-
tive CZ-101.
GmbH (PPG) upping the ante with their 10 Roland SH-101 (1982): ing in a nearby toilet! Again, many of
eight-voice, wavetable-based Wave 2 this striking ‘strap-on’, sin- the day’s stars were eager to jump onto
digital/analogue hybrid. The catchy bell- gle-VCO (plus sub-oscilla- this novel sampling bandwagon: Stevie
tor), sequencer-endowed
like motif and unusual middle-eight Wonder, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream,
posing machine remains the
tones of Depeche Mode’s catchy See best-selling monosynth Kraftwerk, OMD and Depeche Mode, to
You (1982) represented this polysynth’s ever (45,000+ sales). name a few.
initiation to the UK singles chart. Back in Japan, Roland had their eye
Roland led Japan into the polysynth on seriously addressing matters of a dif-
fray (albeit expensively) with their awe- ferent electronic nature: sequencing.
some 16-VCO, eight-voice, programma- Basic eight-step analogue sequencers
ble analogue, flagship, the Jupiter 8 from Moog and ARP had already been
which cost a hefty £3,999. The Jupiter around for some time, but by 1981,
was replete with nifty arpeggiator, as more bands were writing songs based
used by Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes on on multiple, short sequenced phrases.
1982’s Save A Prayer. Their machine of choice was Roland’s
By comparison, SCI appeared to 1981 MC-4 MicroComposer, an 11,500-
backtrack with their £470 Pro-One, note, four-channel step sequencer capa-
arguably the last ‘classic’ American ana- ble of simultaneously triggering four
logue monosynth, used extensively by CV/Gate-endowed synths. Tiresome
>
Vince Clarke on Yazoo’s seminal synth program data was saved to cassette
FutureMusic 81
FM117.80sgear 15/11/2001 2:16 PM
80s SPECIAL: THE GEAR
> tape! This was a revelation at the
time, especially to the likes of Human
League, John Foxx and Vince Clarke.
What’s more, the MC-4’s proprietary
Sync 24 interface (a five-pin DIN affair
looking remarkably like a MIDI socket)
was also included on Roland’s TR-808
Rhythm Composer, which was released
in the same year. This was a popular
microprocessor-controlled, analogue
drum machine with accents and individ-
ual outputs, and it appeared on Marvin
Gaye’s 1982 Grammy award-winning
classic, Sexual Healing. The TR-808 later
became the techno beatbox of choice,
later resurfacing in software as part of
Steinberg/Propellerhead’s groundbreak-
ing ReBirth, ironically something of a
classic itself now.
1982
REDFERNS/FIN COSTELLO
Soft Cell in 1981. Little did they
>
know they’d be back in 2001
1982 was another year of technological
extremes, from Australia’s six-figure
Fairlight CMI Series II, a multitimbral,
16kHz ‘super sampler’ (put to cutting-
edge use by established, forward-
thinking artists like Kate Bush, Thomas
Dolby and Peter Gabriel, who used the
Fairlight ‘shakuhachi’ sample on 1986’s
Sledgehammer) to Roland’s TR-606
‘Computer Controlled’ analogue drum
machine (also known as ‘the poor man’s
The TB-303 is still
>
used a bit today
TIMELINE >> 1984: SCI Six-Trak released >> 1984: Apple Macintosh launched >> 1984: Linn Electronics Linn 9000 released
82 FutureMusic
Page 82
808’). When partnered with its similarly
Depeche Mode. Christ,
>
styled, similarly priced (£290) TB-303 they’re still going too!
BassLine sibling, the TR-606 represented
many a budding bedroom-based
musician’s introduction to the joys of
synchronised sequencing. The latter, of
course, went on to become the defini-
tive acid ‘silver dream machine’ and
induced a wave of TB-emulators like
Novation’s BassStation as part of the
early 90s analogue revival.
SCI began raining on Linn’s digital
drum machine parade with their Drum-
Traks featuring 13 sounds burned on to
8K EPROM (Erasable Programmable
Read Only Memory) chips. These
included cymbals which had been
missing on Linn’s LM1 due to the high
cost of incorporating longer sampled
sounds. Linn responded with the $2,995
LinnDrum, also EPROM-based, which
was used by anyone who was anyone in
the early 80s and beyond, from Stevie
Wonder’s I Just Called To Say I Loved You
REDFERNS/HARRY GOODWIN
to Wham’s equally smoochy Last
Christmas. Classics!
In 1982, Roland continued their 80s TO P 10
quest to bring electronic musical ACTS WH O NE VE R
instruments to the masses with their WE NT AWAY
six-voice Juno 6, the first sub-£1,000 The universal Musical Instrument
1 Depeche Mode
analogue polysynth. This had digitally- 2 ABC
Digital Interface, better known as MIDI,
controlled oscillators (DCOs) making 3 Soft Cell soon put a stop to such proprietary
for a more stable performance, tuning- 4 Duran Duran interfacing shenanigans in 1982,
wise. Alas, it had no memories; a short- 5 Human League although back then, little did we know
6 Pet Shop Boys
coming that Korg exploited with their 7 Kylie
how much MIDI would come to rule
similarly specified, 32-patch PolySix 8 Sting our lives. SCI’s ‘budget’ ($1,195), pro-
(£899) that same year. Moog had one 9 Erasure grammable, analogue polysynth, the
last crack of the programmable poly- 10 George Michael Prophet 600, was the first instrument
synth whip with the monstrous 18- to sport those now familiar five-pin
VCO, six-voice MemoryMoog (£3,676), DINs at the tail end of 1982.
which proved to be their swansong
(they went bust in 1984).
In light of synth pop’s ongoing domi-
nation of the charts, manufacturers
turned their attention to ways of
1983
Next to MIDI up was Roland’s £1,075,
sync’ing gear together. Roland came up six-voice JX-3P, a radical polysynth
with the Digital Communications Bus for the time by virtue of its knobless
(DCB) protocol, a cumbersome multi- control panel that proved to be the
pin affair implemented on their new template for Roland’s JX-8P (1985) and
JSQ-60 and MSQ-700 digital Super JX-10 (1986) polysynths,
sequencers. This was designed to drive although the optional PG-200 program-
the simultaneously launched, DCB- mer showed they weren’t quite ready to
endowed Juno 60 and Jupiter 8A pro- ditch the usual knobs and sliders… yet.
grammable polysynths. Not all Roland’s latest toys featured
Meanwhile PPG came up with the MIDI though. 1983’s MC-202 Micro-
Computer Music System based around Composer, a £250 two-channel
the updated Wave 2.2 polysynth and 8U sequencer owing much to the earlier
rackmountable Waveterm offering
eight-bit sampling, DIY wavetable cre-
ation and more extensive sequencing
capabilities. And Oberheim had The
Oberheim System, comprising the DMX
digital drum machine, DSX digital
sequencer and the upmarket OBXa
programmable analogue polysynth, “the
best analogue synth of them all,” Only Eno could use the DX7
>
according to Gary Numan.
FM117.80sgear 15/11/2001 2:16 PM
MC-4, had the added bonus of a built-in
monosynth styled on 1982’s sling-on
SH-101. However, it stuck with the
CV/Gate and Sync 24 socketry for hook-
ing up a TR-808, TR-606, TB-303 and
SH-101. To cover all bases, Roland also
developed the OP-8M CV-to-DCB/MIDI
interface for their MC-4 sequencer. Talk
about not letting dead dogs lie!
It seemed E-mu initially weren’t
PETER FORREST
convinced either. While their 12-sound,
eight-voice Drumulator’s magical sub-
$1,000 price widened the digital drum
marketplace (Howard Jones used one
throughout his debut album Human’s
Lib), MIDI was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, in an unsuspecting nod to the
future, E-mu’s ‘cheapie’ could be hooked
up to an Apple II computer for more
visual programming.
On the other hand, Japanese giants
Yamaha, turned the synth market on its
head with the unprecedented DX7 (a
16-voice digital polysynth with MIDI).
Clearly the sparkling sounds of FM syn-
thesis – particularly its realistic electric
piano, string and bass (by 1983 standards)
– were a hit with the masses (it sold
160,000 units!) despite being a bugger
to program. Those 32 patches killed off
the analogue synth market overnight
[not permanently though – Ed], the slap
bass patch alone making it on to legions
of hit records such as A-ha’s Take On Me.
To say the £1,549 DX7 proved a
headache for rival manufacturers is the
understatement of the decade! Most
were stumped, some would even fall by
the wayside. Times were changing… fast.
1984
SCI had good intentions with their six-
voice Six-Trak, the first multitimbral
MIDI synth. Like E-mu, they even
acknowledged the burgeoning home
computer market by creating MIDI soft-
ware and accessories for the Com-
modore 64. Perhaps they were a little
too early off the starting blocks, and the
fact that the £850 Six-Trak was still
analogue – and basic at that – didn’t
help matters.
Yamaha were likewise quick to spot
the merits of multitimbrality (at a
price). 1984’s hefty, rackmountable
TX816 effectively contained the guts of
eight DX7s, each capable of storing 32
patches and independently playing one
of those patches 16-voice polyphoni-
cally on its own MIDI channel. The cost?
£4,199! Also a DX7 was needed to pro-
gram new patches and dump them to a
TX816 module. Still, eight DX7s repre-
sented an awful lot of FM firepower and
a surprising number of TX816s ended up
>> 1985: Casio CZ101 released >> 1985: Atari ST launched >> 1985: Ensoniq Mirage released >> 1986: Akai S900 released >>
Page 83
The
The TX816
TX816 effectively
effectively contained
contained
>
the
the guts
guts of
of eight
eight DX7s
DX7s
in high-end studios and on plenty of
hit records.
Yamaha also addressed the low-end
market, as evidenced by their £549
CX5M Music Computer, comprising FM
sounds, multitimbral sequencing and
sound editing add-ons. Unfortunately
for Yamaha, the CSX computer platform
on which it was based failed. Any chance
the CX5M might have had at bringing
computer-based music to the masses
was consequently sunk.
Speaking of computers, honorary
mention must go to the Apple Mac,
which single-handedly revolutionised
the home computer market by virtue of
its simple, icon-driven operating system
following the infamous Orwellian
advert. The ad, directed by Ridley Scott,
was shown only once, during the half-
time break of the SuperBowl final with
the unforgettable byline: “On January
24, Apple Computer will introduce
Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984
won’t be like 1984.”). Though not imme-
diate, the Mac’s impact on the music
market would be immense.
E-mu joined the MIDI masses with
their 24-sound, 12-bit SP12 digital drum
machine (a hip hop classic in the mak-
ing) and 14-/15-bit Emulator II multi-
timbral sampler (£5,175), which was used
on Depeche Mode’s People Are People.
Yet another percussive classic in the
making arrived in the distinctive form
and sound of Roland’s TR-909, a
digital/analogue MIDI hybrid with
sampled crash cymbals. In the all-
digital instrument arena this £1,000
unit was already a touch dated, and
was replaced by the all-digital, Pulse
Code Modulation (PCM) TR-707
within a year. Paradoxically, the
vagaries of 90s dance-orientated
fashion resulted in the 909 spawning
a host of hardware imitators like
JoMox’s XBase 09 in 1997 and its
incorporation into ReBirth V2.0 (in
1998) by popular demand.
In spite of this setback, Roland
was seminal in instigating an influx
of rack synth modules, starting with
1984’s MKS-80 analogue polysynth
PETER FORREST
80s TOP SAMPLERS
1 Ensoniq Mirage (1985):
with 30,000 sales, the
biggest-selling sampler of
the 80s (and possibly of
all time).
2 Akai S1000 (1988):
22,000 stereo units sold
between ’88 and ’93… need
we say more?
3 Akai S900 (1986): the
S1000’s mono forefather
still managed to shift a
respectable 15,000 units.
4 Akai S950 (1988): a
cheaper (£1,349) S900
replacement of sorts,
although the stereo S1000
was still a more attractive
option for many.
5 E-mu Emulator II (1984):
although the mid-price
mono Emax should be in
here, its sales figures were
neve made public, so the
Emulator II slips in here. It
was the first sample to
break the four-figure sales
barrier with 3,000 sold.
80s TO P 10 ACTS
WH O SH OU LD HAVE
STO PP ED YEARS AG O
1 Big Country
2 Art Of Noise
3 China Crisis
4 A-Ha
5 Sam Fox
6 Lotus Eaters
7 Kim Wilde
8 T'Pau
9 Chris De Burgh
10 Jean Michel Jarre
COVER FEATURE
(a kind of mod-
80s
ern modular
reworking of their
Jupiter 8 flagship). After all, why the
need for numerous keyboards when one
MIDI keyboard controller could play sev-
eral modules? Here too, Roland were
quick off the mark with their £1,665
‘piano-action’ MKB-1000.
Linn likewise continued to innovate
with their high-end ($5,000) Linn 9000,
fusing a velocity-sensitive sampling
drum machine to a 32-track MIDI
sequencer. In the face of a notoriously
fickle operating system, Tears For Fears’
Roland Orzabal was quick on the uptake.
Oberheim’s contribution was the
Prommer, a limited eight-bit MIDI sam-
pling device capable of burning EPROM
chips for use in the company’s now
MIDI-compatible DMX drum machine.
They were also compatible with the rival
Linn 9000, LinnDrum and DrumTraks.
By the mid 80s, electronic trailblazers
Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk’s
prophetic prediction of the synth’s
future dominance had clearly come to
pass as popular music itself rapidly
became synth-driven. Frankie Goes To
Hollywood’s Two Tribes was created
almost entirely on a 1984-vintage PPG
Wave 2.3 polysynth and Waveterm B
16-bit sampler/sequencer combination.
Anyone craving a taste of this distinc-
tive PPG sound today could grab a copy
of Steinberg/Waldorf’s PPG 2.V VST
instrument plug-in, capable of running
up to eight 64-voice instruments.
REDFERNS/GLENN A. BAKER
Frankie used a PPG Wave
>
2.3 on Two Tribes
1985
1985 began with the surprise entry of
Japanese calculator specialists Casio
into the hi-tech music arena. For many,
their tiny, bargain basement CZ-101
>
digital polysynth seemed heaven
sent, despite its dinky reduced-size
FutureMusic 83
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80s SPECIAL: THE GEAR

MC-500 and QX1 MIDI sequencers

offered independent polyphonic tracks
with unparalleled 100,000-note storage
synths (bar the
PPG Wave), the
VS’s waveforms were
80s
capacity on floppy disk (3.5-inch on the not static. Its vectoring
former, 5.25- for the latter). To give an joystick allowed an unprece-
idea of the power of these monsters, dented degree of real-time control of
Tangerine Dream performed a 90- their harmonic content when program-
minute piece on their 1986 UK tour ming or performing. Electronics & Music
using three QX1s without once having 80s TOP 5 Maker magazine at the time concluded:
to change disks. In coming years, both DRUM MACHINES “Vector synthesis is a winner.” Too bad
Roland and Yamaha would release a 1 Roland TR-909 (1984): only 3,000 were sold.
gamut of MC- and QX sequencers… initially a commercial flop Meanwhile, flush from the success of
The Atari ST is still loved today
>

with disappointing sales,

when you’ve got a good thing going, the Mirage, with its onboard, 2,400-note
the 909 has since become
why change the winning formula? capacity, eight-track sequencer and res-

>
keyboard. At £395, this four-part
multitimbral ‘toy’ was a bargain. That
it employed PD (phase distortion) syn-
thesis with sounds to almost rival the
DX7 guaranteed its success and over
70,000 units were sold. Even synth mae-
stro Vince Clarke used several in his
early Erasure MIDI set-up.
Other big news was the timely arrival
of Atari’s ST computer, soon to become
central to most MIDI sequencing set-
ups. German software houses Steinberg
and C-Lab (later Emagic) cottoned on to
its built-in MIDI sockets with their
groundbreaking Pro-24 and Creator
packages. En masse computer-based
music making would soon arrive in
earnest, and with it, the modern-day
the most desirable drum
Sensing a market shift, Korg launched machine ever, commanding onant analogue filters (sorely missed on
an eight-voice digital/analogue hybrid silly money on the second- rival’s later efforts), Ensoniq’s ESQ1 fol-
hand market.
polysynth, the £1,100 DW8000, featur- low-up almost constituted the first true
2 Linn Electronics LM1
ing their new Digital Waveform Genera- (1980): the first digital workstation. Its sampled waveform-
tor synthesis (DWGS) system to drum machine opened up endowed, eight-voice, multitimbral
‘synthesize’ real-world waveforms like the world of sampled per- power proved big hit with the buying
cussion, though a $5,000
piano, sax, violin, acoustic and electric public, but strangely the ESQ1 didn’t
price tag limited its appeal
guitars, and organ alongside traditional to 500 of the world’s most seem to trouble any charts. However,
subtractive (analogue) synthesis fare. rich and famous. Adamski created his 1990 smash Killer
While MIDI-compatible, it wasn’t multi- 3 Roland TR-808 (1981): it using only its SQ80 successor and a
put step-time programming
timbral; however, its onboard digital TR-909. But was it the way of the
on the musical map and its
effects were a world-first, albeit limited distinctive analogue tones future? Soon it would be…
to simple digital delays. are still sought after today.
4 Linn Drum (1982): was
1986
responsible for thousands of
seminal digital drum-based
hits and it managed to sell
1987
10 times the amount of its 1987 should have been christened
LM1 predecessor. ‘Roland’s year’. Their 16-voice digital
The Oberheim DXP1 was
>

5 E-mu SP1200 (1987):

composition process was changed for-
ever. And the Atari is still great today…
We also have the computing industry
to thank for plunging sampling into the
hands of everyday mortals, courtesy of
Ensoniq’s $1,695 eight-bit, eight-voice
Mirage, replete with handy five-octave,
velocity-sensitive keyboard, onboard
polyphonic sequencer and standard
the first sample player
was groundbreaking and its
unique sampling features
later endeared it to the hip
hop community.
PETER FORREST
wonder, the D-50, was the biggest-sell-
ing synth (so far) to feature what
became known as sample-plus-synthesis
(S+S) technology (Linear Arithmetic or
LA synthesis in Roland-speak) to pro-
duce more realistic sounds. While inex-
plicably ignoring multitimbrality, Roland
had an ace up their sleeve. By including
onboard digital reverb, chorus and EQ

3.5-inch disk drive. Ensoniq, originally
founded in 1982 by three ex-
Commodore executives, was later
bought out by E-mu.
For Japanese big guns Roland and
Yamaha, hardware was still where it was
at. Their identically priced (£1,999)
effects, the D-50 sounded amazing,
without any expensive external treat-
ments. Instantly recognisable, multi-
1986 was also dominated by sampling textured sounds like ‘fantasia’ and ‘digi-
breakthroughs. SCI’s belated attempt to tal native dance’ (almost a sequence in
get in on the action with their eight- itself) quickly entered into pop’s com-
voice, 12-bit, 44.1kHz Prophet 2000 mon currency. Longstanding top dog
keyboard (£1,999) was doomed for fail- Yamaha was finally knocked off its dom-
ure as Akai released the eight-voice, inating FM perch.
12-bit S900 sampler (£1,899), a winning In the first of many D-50 spin-offs,
combination of British design ingenuity
and Japanese manufacturing know-how,
which kickstarted an industry standard
in Europe that was to last years.
Roland implemented multitimbral-
ity on their bargain (£450) MT-32
>
The Roland D-50 sold gazillions
>

Not to be outdone, Oberheim’s

£1,579 DXP1 represented the first
‘sample player’, capable of reading
sounds originally recorded on the Emu-
lator II, Mirage, Prophet 2000 and S900,
but it didn’t really come close.
SCI actively pursued another sonic
avenue with the Prophet VS polysynth,
a revolutionary, £1,899, eight-voice,
digital design based on a new technique
known as vector synthesis, hence the
Vince Clarke took to the DX7
>

instrument’s name. Unlike all previous

TIMELINE >> 1986: SCI Prophet VS released >> 1986: Ensoniq ESQ1 launched >> 1987: Roland D-50 released >>

84 FutureMusic
FM117.80sgear 15/11/2001 2:16 PM Page 86

80S SPECIAL: THE GEAR

Korg M1 was almost the

of Akai and
80s

>
first workstation Roger Linn’s
alliance following the
1986 demise of Linn Electronics. While
popular with professionals, Akai’s hith-
erto unimaginable 16-voice, 16-bit,
32Mb S1000 easily stole the sampling
show. Not only was this exciting 3U
rackmount something to behold, the
beast was stereo too!
Hardly a company for resting on its
laurels, E-mu hit back with their stereo,
16-bit, 8Mb Emax II, a keyboard that did
reasonably well Stateside, despite lack-
REDFERNS/GLENN A. BAKER

two independently routable multi- ing in the memory department. No

effects processors, this was the next matter. E-mu had other plans…
generation DX7 and D-50 rolled into
Prince is a fan of drum machines
>

one; the winning design against which

all future workstations would be judged
> module. A blueprint for future Gen-
eral MIDI modules, despite only
being programmable via an Atari-based
editor, it was capable of spreading its 32
well into the next decade. Its factory-
produced, sample-based sounds graced
innumerable hits worldwide. London-
Beat’s I’ve Been Thinking About You got
D-50-esque voices over five parts while much mileage out of the M1’s distinc-
supplying a rhythm track of TR-626- tive chunky piano in 1991.
derived digital drum sounds and dows- Those unable to stretch to the
ing all in a wash of reverb. Another hit? £1,499 M1 could always opt for
You bet! It sold over 100,000 units! Kawai’s 16-voice K1. Not quite a work-
E-mu continued its sampling innova- station, it was more a half-price (£599)
tions, releasing the competitively priced multitimbral D-50 of sorts, with 256
SP1200 sampling drum machine, which digital waveforms. It had no onboard
was essentially an SP12 with an integral effects, drums or sequencer, but you
3.5-inch floppy disk and 10 seconds of couldn’t complain at that price! That
sample memory. They also launched the said, Kawai brought effects and drums
mid-price (£2,100) Emax keyboard; this into the equation on 1989’s K1 II.
was a 12-bit sampler that was later The MPC60 MIDI Production Center,
updated to incorporate additional, non- a full-featured sampling drum machine
real-time, additive synthesis facilities; a and MIDI sequencer, was the first fruit
mind-boggling technique already
debuted (unsuccessfully) by Kawai with The Pet Shop Boys, of course
>
1989
At the time of Akai’s S1000 launch,
E-mu’s sample library was second to
none. A cunning plan was needed to get
that library out to the MIDI’d up masses
at a price to die for. That plan swiftly
80s TO P 10: WH ER E materialised in 1989 in the slender form
AR E TH EY NO W? of the Proteus, a 32-voice digital synth
module, packed to the hilt with 4Mb of
1 Shakin’ Stevens
2 Classix Nouveaux quality easily tweakable E-mu presets,
ts
3 Kid Creole & The Coconu courtesy of the company’s flagship
4 Icicle Works Emulator III sampler and all for the
5 Blancmange tidy sum of £629. Roland predictably
6 Tik & Tok
7 Jan Hammer followed suit with their comparable
8 Living In A Box U-110 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
9 Europe sample-based module.
10 Modern Romance And so, in this consistent blurring of
sampling and synthesis technologies,
ended what is arguably the most excit-
ing decade in music technology and
perhaps even pop music itself.

1987’s K5 polysynth. Tiring of these, bright shiny, similar

Unable to compete against this sounds, the 90s saw an analogue renais-
incoming tide of cheaper, mass-pro- sance with the four-on-the-floor-
duced Japanese and American instru- obsessed dancing youth actively seeking
ments, PPG’s brave epitaph was The out and abusing vintage synths that had
Realizer, which looked like a blue, table- originally enjoyed their heyday at the
top-sized games console. Had this out- turn of the previous decade. And when
rageously featured instrument made it their second-hand pricing became
into production (with an equally outra- inflated beyond belief, music technology
geous projected $65,000 price tag), the again stepped in to save the day with
music world could have marvelled at its virtual analogue synths, first in hard-
software-based emulation of other ware, then software. But that’s another
synths (including the MiniMoog and
DX7) in what would have been another
world-first. Alas it was not to be, and
PPG bit the dust (as did SCI in 1988).
story… and decade. Now, anyone fancy
a 90s special?! FM
>
1988
If 1987 belonged to Roland, they
weren’t able to bask in their glory for
REDFERNS/DAVID REDFERN

long, thanks to Korg, whose almost per-

fectly executed M1 workstation remains
the biggest-selling synth of all time.
With its 16 voices, eight-part multitim-
The D110 was a D-50 like multitimbral module
>

brality, onboard sequencer, drums and

TIMELINE >> 1987: Roland MT-32 >> 1988: Korg M1 launched >> 1988: Akai S1000 released >> 1989: E-mu Proteus released

86 FutureMusic