Kawai R-50 drum machine "The Right Stuff" full page colour advertisement from page 81 in the December 1987 issue of Keyboard Magazine.  Although it was in June 1987 that the R-50 started appearing in ads alongside the R-100 (see my last blog post), in November of that same year the R-50 finally got the spotlight to itself. This ad above appeared on and off until early 1988, getting bumped periodically by an ad for Kawai's additive synthesizer the K-5.  This ad was a big departure from the R-100/R-50 80s themed extravaganza that came before it - with a much more standard title ..read more

Kawai R-100 and R-50 drum machine "Overnight Sensation" full page colour advertisement featuring Jan Hammer and Steve Smith from page 73 in the June 1987 issue of Keyboard Magazine. Wowza. There is so much 80s goodness to unpack in this little rare advertisement. It only ran twice in Keyboard - the June and August issues... but should have had a much longer run, dammit. First - lets look at those 80s design elements. Have you ever seen anything more 80s? Those pink, blue, yellow and purple colours? That "torn page" design element traveling through the middle of the ad? Even the logo for Kawa ..read more

Kawai R-100 drum machine "What good is playing loud if you can't play soft?" full page colour advertisement from page 11 in the November 1986 issue of Keyboard Magazine. This gorgeous advertisement appeared in Keyboard Magazine from around November 1986 to February 1987. Somehow Kawai found a little hole in time between promo'ing their K3 ad they had been running, and a K3/K3m/computer ad that kicked the K100 to the curb in March 1987.  It deserved more. More real estate. More promo. More time.  This thing is still a beast. A living, breathing animal. Seriously. You see, I'm ..read more

  Roland JX-3P synthesizer and PG-200 programmer "Programmable/Preset/Polyphonic Synthesizer" four page colour brochure from August 1983. Well, well... another "We design the future" brochure. I got a million of them. Okay - maybe a few are duplicates.  Can you blame me? Look at this beauty. All the signs of a Roland brochure from this era - like this JX-8P brochure I published back in 2020 - and the blog post that holds the record by far for hate mail regarding my position on the statement "Too much gear reduces your creativity". But that's another story.  Where was I ..read more

Moog Retail Price List from January 1, 1977. Good lord. I haven't posted since August. Time is just flying since I took a new work gig in the spring. Told myself I was "retired" back in 2016, but after some consulting work during the height of COVID, I found an opportunity I just couldn't pass up.  Anyways, I found this write-up sitting half-finished in my drafts, and thought it was a gooder since it includes some comparisons to other Moog pricing brochures I've already published. In particular, a 1974 brochure I posted in 2012 and a 1980 brochure I posted back in 2018.&nb ..read more

      Anatek "Pocket Products Catalog" 10 page fold-out colour brochure from 1991. Since moving into the new house, I've taken the few opportunities I've had to go through some of the boxes of brochures I've acquired over the years but never put into their protective sleeves. And just yesterday I did just that, and came across *this*. Now'r days, people will joke that Eurorack modules are the synth-equivalent of Pokemon.  "Gotta catch 'em all." But, I submit this brochure before the court as evidence that the original synth-equivalent of Pokemon were these little ba ..read more

  Roland TR-727 drum machine "The Rhythm Composer that keeps you in the groove..." four page colour brochure from October 1985.  Hey! Has it really been 20 days since 707 Day!?!?! Well golly-geeeee!  Happy 727 day, peeps! No better way of celebrating than by scanning this lovely beast from the archives. (Yes, I also flinched when I used the word "beast" to describe a vintage brochure of a vintage drum machine). But there ya go. What's done is done. The 1984-1986 period was an awkward one for drum machines. It was like watching your teenager go through puberty. You wanted to ..read more

Roland TR-707 drum machine's "A brand new digital drum machine from Roland "four page colour brochure from March 1985.  Hey there! Happy 707 Day. My fifth happiest day after 303 Day, 808 Day, 909 Day and 606 Day. Oh wait... 202 Day. And 101 Day. Wait. 272 Day. Okay, my eighth happiest day of the year.  But its still a great day! It beat our 358 or so other days. Not too shabby.  All that aside... let's keep this short and sweet. Just like the 16 beat patterns found on this thing.  Based on the classic "We Design The Future" brochure style of the period for Roland, thi ..read more

Novation Super Bass Station four page colour brochure from 1997. Sure, the BassStation was (is) cool. So what could be cooler? The SUPER Bass Station. Want to know what is not cool though. For the follow-up, Novation decided to make BassStation two words. Super. Bass. Station.  Grrrr.... Okay - with that out of the way. The first thing I need to point out is that I love Novation's consistency (except for that whole name thing). This looks amazingly similar to the Drum Station brochure I posted previously. Same design inside and out.  Just look... two peas in a pod. Front page: S ..read more

Novation Drum Station four page colour brochure from approximately 1996. So, it's looking like May could become Novation month. Well, the last half of May any way. I've been drilling down into their brochures and I'm really liking what I'm seeing. But first, a little house-keeping.... I haven't posted anything for almost a month a half. And that last post was my April Fools number.  I know I've had droughts before but this time I actually have a reason. I got a job. No really... a REAL job. Digital marketing of course. But this time with a dash of business development involved too.&nb ..read more