We're fans of the Stylophone, an oddball British instrument from the 60s. it strikes a dear bleepy chord within many hearts since for many it was their first ever electronic instrument, or even their first musical instrument! Monophonic, buzzy, and played with a little plastic stylus seems like an unlikely combination of ideas to become a cherished object, but for decades the Stylophone has stood the test of time by remaining resolutely true to its 60s origins.
A few years ago the Stylophone re-entered production by the same outfit who put out the original. they added such luxuries as a volume control and an output jack, but it was the same analog bleepiness as ever. More recently, the Stylophone Beatbox morphed the shape into a circle, and triggered a whole mess of samples, and even had a sequencer of sorts built in. We had the first Stylophone Beatbox in the USA, and have since wondered what was next for the proto analog synth.
Now we know. The NAMM show rolled out the newest member of the Stylophone family, the S2. it's a larger road-worth successor to the original Stylophone, with some surprisingly advanced tweaks built in. The keyboard is much larger and can be played either with stylus or fingertip. The sound is also tweakable and filterable, all built in. You can even patch external sounds through it and apply analog filtering through the S2 itself. There's more to it, but even this short list is an amazing start.
The past few years have seen a resurgence in interest in analog synth technology, and the original Stylophone represents one of the simplest and earliest expressions of electronic sound. A huge part of the fun of the original stylophone is how cheap and odd it is. For example, the 60s version didn't have a volume - the manual helpfully suggests that you cup your hand over the built in speaker! This new version seems like it has tremendous potential to combine the oddball likability of the old instrument, with the sorts of new features that a modern synth freak might look for. We'll have to keep our eyes on YouTube for the first squeaky tunes to come out of the thing.
Until then, ostensibly famous synth duo "The Bret Domino Trio" have cut a demo song with the S2. It's a Justin Bieber song, so I'm very very sorry. Just do your best to listen solely to the cool Stylophone bits.
For those of us who worship at the temple of the Most Holy
Bouncing Light In Time To Music Phenomenon, it’s a good time. Every software
music player has some sort of swirly visualization that morphs in time to the
music. It used to be more of a trick to pull off. The Atari Jaguar video game
console could do some colored patterns driven by the music spooling off of a
CD, but to enjoy that you had to have an obscure game system with few good
titles to justify keeping it around.
Atari knew from its earliest days that it’s fun to “see” you
music in action, so they developed the venerable Atari Video Music (yes, mine
is hooked up to my contemporary flatscreen) which we’ve written about more than
a few times here on Retro Thing. Yes, these are all very fun ways to get your
eyes going as well as your ears, but sometimes visualizations can be practical
too.
Radio Shack’s APM-200 is about the simplest form of music
visualization there is, i.e. two VU meters bouncing along in time to the sound
coming out of your amp. This unit has speaker terminal inputs because you’re
meant to install it inline with your speakers (which involves some cable
splicing, or stuffing a few too many wires into those spring terminals). The
meters show how much wattage is actually making it out of your amp and going into
your speakers.
Retro stereo covet these units, but fortunately it’s not an
expensive covetousness. These can be hand on Ebay for around $20-25 with some
regularity. You can even get different styles depending on the era of your
system. The APM-100 is more or less identical, except it has (drumroll)
woodgrain on the sides. The APM-500 is a bit more 80s Knight Rider in its
design sense. Sleeker, smaller, with an all-LED display pulsing out from the center of the
unit while you pump out the sweet jams.
These are not a bad idea whether you’re a connoisseur or not.
If you’ve got a high-powered amp, it’s good to know just how much signal you
can pile on to your speakers before they distort, or worse yet… start smokin'. It’s also a good way to actually see whether
each speaker is getting an equal level of your stereo output. Mostly though, any of these units are a cool way to pay homage to the Most Holy Bouncing Light In Time To Music Phenomenon.
Thirty five years after its initial unveiling, the MS-20 synthesizer is back. This time around, it comes with a USB port and MIDI IN.
The new MS-20 Mini is reduced to 86% the size of the original, with 1/8" plug jacks instead of the original 1/4" phone plugs. The same engineers who worked on the original have reworked it for the 21st century using modern components.It includes a classic 2VCO / 2VCA / 2VCF / 2EG / 1LFO design, along with a self-oscillating high/low pass filter, a highly flexible patching system and a complete reproduction of the original analog circuit.
We're expecting the instrument to retail for around $595, although we'll have to wait for official word from KORG at this week's massive NAMM show in Anaheim, California.
You can point your joystick a whole lot of directions to try to target the exact cause of the Great Video Game Crash of the early 80s. Home computers were on the horizon, reaching a level of sophistication that 70s era game console hardware couldn't touch. There were a couple of high profile failures at Atari in the form of that poor anemic Pac-Man, and the much maligned E.T.. Then there was the avalanche of atari 2600 shovelware littering shelves.
The Atari 2600 didn't have any sort of built-in security, so anyone could figure out the workings of the system and develop a game for it. [Nintendo was able to reboot video gaming a few years later by building a lock-out chip into their NES system so only licensed games bearing the "seal of quality" would run.] The tremendous profits that Atari was raking in attracted developers who were less invested in creating cool games, than they were in cashing in on the fad.
Genuine games from Atari cost $30-40 back then, but this new breed of budget releases were hitting shelves at $10-20 driving the overall market down. Many of these poor games made the Atari 2600 look even longer in the 8 bit tooth, weakening confidence in the market.
Here's a TV commercial from the mid 80s that bundles together several third party games (with doubtful claims of the games' value) into a mega-bundle deal for $19.95. The Game Crash may have been over, but there was still a lot of crap game inventory to blow out. It's a long ad too - 90 seconds to offer UHF audiences everywhere (at least in Chicago) about this Five Pack of not-so-great games. Even at this price, it wasn't that great of a deal. My local Zayre was already selling these titles at 88 cents a piece at that time.
No cash grab is complete without reaching the largest audience possible, so here's another version of the ad (that's even 30 seconds LONGER!) en Español as it was broadcast in Chicago on Sunday June 9th, 1985.
Yeah, I know. Everyone who's cool these days carries a Macbook Air or an Ultrabook. The thing is, this machine is far cooler than anything I could lug around in a messenger bag.
The Clacker is an all-in-one computing environment that includes an ergonomically hostile keyboard that clacks (of course), stereo horn speakers, a retro kitsch landline phone and what appears to be the top third of an old grandfather clock that houses an LCD screen with a few surprises:
"The LCD also features an antique video projector built into the back
which is powered and spins custom brass film reels while LED lighting
flickers in a custom projection box, to give the impression that the
image is being projected onto the LCD through the back. The projector
and light box are visible through bevelled glass in the side of the LCD
housing."
There are a few kinks to iron out (I suspect the Difference Engine gears have a nasty habit of chewing up neckties) before Datamancer Enterprises can mass produce this system, but you can order a handmade one right now for an unspecified price.
For more steampunkesque delights, visit the Datamancer site.
Commodore wanted to attract business types to their blazingly successful Commodore 64 home computer by creating a portable version. Sort of. January 2013 is the "luggable" version of the C64's birthday. Sort of. But we're going to party anyway. Definitely.
The Commodore 64 still stands as the best selling personal computer ever, with something like 30 million units sold. It was THE gaming machine. If a title was available on multiple platforms, the magazine screenshots and TV commercials would unfailingly feature the C64 as the best of the best. With Commodore building 400,000 units a month at its peak, they thought about boosting sales with a "serious" version of the Commodore 64 for business.
We've written about the SX-64 before here on Retro Thing. The SX-64 was what we could begrudgingly call "portable" (sort of like taking a sewing machine to the beach) with a built in 5" color display. Significantly, the SX-64 was the world's first color portable. The built-in floppy (expandable to two) and the keyboard doubling as the lid made for a nice looking portable package.
The SX-64 was announced in January of 1983, and finally released in 1984. After a string of successes, it would have looked like Commodore had another potential winner with the SX-64, but sadly there were problems. Rejigging the motherboard and ports meant that certain accessories and cartridges didn't work correctly. At $995 it was quite an expensive proposition. Still less than the $1200 an Apple II would set you back, but Commodore made its mark with computers "for the masses, not the classes" (according to Jack Tramiel). The regular "breadbox" C64 cost only $595.
The main problem was that there just weren't as many popular business programs on the C64 as on other platforms. The C64 made it's bones as the best home computer and awesome game machine. A business user probably wouldn't take the SX-64 seriously, when for a bit more of his boss' money he could get an Apple II (or splash out $2500 for a sexy new Mac, or $4000 for a PC, etc. etc.)
So the SX-64 became more of a curiosity than anything. Another expensive (but really, really effective) doorstop on the way to discovering what portable computing was really going to look like. Today they are a cherished collectible in the Commodore crowd, hence a multinational effort to party on January 20th to celebrate what could have been...
Here's the idea. You visit THIS website and register your location. Then on January 20th, bring your SX-64 and meet up at the specified time at your local coffe hangout and set up shop. Play some games, show off some music demos, you can even update us all via Twitter using your C64. Let's show those hipsters with their 2.2 ounce laptops see what it meant to bang the iron back when "portable computer" meant the same thing as "blunt force trauma".
So far, only three cities are registered, and I'd love it if we could give this event the Retro Thing boost it deserves and get a couple more meet-ups organized. I don't have an SX-64, but there has got to be someone in Chicago who does? What about in your neck of the woods? If you do get together with some C64 guys on January 20th, and can pull yourself away from Lode Runner for like five friggin' minutes, take a couple of pictures and we'll post them right here on Retro Thing.
One of the great comforts of the internet is that no matter how obscure your interests are, you're going to find some virtual friends out there who like the same stuff. Lots of folks who thought they were the only people in the world interested in [insert oddball anti-social pastime here], are now part of online communities and real-world clubs too. The net has made it easier than ever to find others and organize real world get-togethers between like-minded hobbyists.
What if your new shared-interest friends aren't quite specific enough for your tastes? You're about to discover the joy of the splinter group... My father was, quite literally, a card-carrying philatelist. Sure, there was the unparalleled joy of tweezing his way through all of those miniature sticky-backed engravings, but there sure seemed to be a lot of multi-ethnic riff-raff around. So here's his membership card from the really specific First (there were more?) Czechoslovak Philatelic Club Of America. The membership card is from 1973, but the club actually dates back to 1924, and was founded right here in Chicago. Follow this link to thrill to one of their newsletters from the 60s.
Like a lot of hobbies, your interest eventually focuses less on the hobby itself, and more on the friends you've made along the way. So I imagine that stamp night was more about my father hanging out with his stamp-crazy singing buddies (I did mention that he was a card carrying member of a Czech singing club, right?) swapping stamps, telling ribald stories of Ben Franklin (that's a Postmaster General joke right there...), and have a few laughs.Growing up, I always wanted to be part of some club too, but I was remarkably unliked. Okay, so in high school in the 80s I was in Doctor Who club - not exactly a bid for Mr. Popularity. I was a card-carrying member of the Doctor Who Fan Club of America (I'm still waiting for my newsletters, guys!). Before that, I did carry around a sort-of membership card. In reality it was from a pack of Pac-Man bubblegum cards and was my way of claiming to be a bad-ass at arcade Pac-Man. You'll note my best attempt at Pac-Man style lettering (I used to go by my middle name back then in a vain bid to fit in... *sigh*) to really cement my nerdery.Most recently, I was a card-carrying member of the Chicago Accordion Club (which was pretty much all 80 year old men, plus me...), so I probably shouldn't be too haughty about my old man's Czech stamp collector card. Looks like the weird apple doesn't fall far from the twisted tree. I guess that I collect peculiar membership cards with my last name on them.
[Addendum: Moments before I published this post, I moved some stuff in my office only to have this set of "collectible" stamps that had been missing for years end up in my lap. I should probably cogitate on what this all means, but I'm going to go have a lie down.]
"The decade that just ended, may mark the finale of television as we
have known it, an industry dominated by three corporate mastodons,
geared to the mass market. Crowding the horizon are new creatures -
videocassettes, videodiscs, pay television, satellites, a growing
public-television system, ad hoc networks, superstations."
"The television of today will probably be transformed into the home
video center of tomorrow which will harness the new technologies into
one all-purpose unit. Even Ma Bell is steadily creeping forward to grab a
piece of the telecommunication action."
"For the first time since television entered our homes, the
territory monopolized by the three networks is in danger of shrinking.
The question now is whether the interlopers, if successful, will
transform the wasteland into a forest of genuinely diverse vegetation or
litter it with more of today's trash."
- From the introduction to "Up The Tube", Sally Bedell's 1981
book on the 70s TV landscape under TV network executive Fred Silverman.
Except
for the references to videocassettes and video discs, this could almost
be an assessment of TV today. Sure there are some shining spots, but
network tv is slowly fading to black. I just started reading this book
telling the story of Fred Silverman's amazing career which winds its way
through network TVs most powerful days. As with so many historical
accounts, I find myself scratching my head at how many similarities
there are to today.
It's also interesting to see Bedell's prescient view
of TV's future, though some parts of her prediction took until recent
years to take root. The very idea that a telecommunications company would be involved with broadcast content must have seemed outlandish in 1981. The past few years have seen a number of old media/new media conglomerations like AOL-Time-Warner, and MSNBC. Apple's content deals pave their long-rumored path to the living room... and even stodgy old Intel has their sights set on television. Not content to merely power other people's products, Intel wants to provide content just like a broadcast network. Rumors are that they are engineering a product that operates less like a computer or DVR and more like... you guessed it... television.
The national and international views made possible by television
back in the 50s is still one of the best tricks ever in retro
gadget-dom. It's just unfortunate that executive bravado, lowest common
denominator programming, and just plain ignorance of what the audience
wants is pushing network TV further and further on the back burner, displaced by technology companies. It seems like when broadcast TV strikes paydirt, it's in spite of what network
execs do, not because of what they do.
Broadcast TV's stubborn evolution/diminishing relevance is edging closer and closer to Bedell's
prediction from 30 years ago. So for about half of TV's existence, this
prediction has been on the table, and now that it's here, TV executives
are caught as if by surprise? What I'd like to know is just how much
longer the old guard can hold out...
The vinyl resurgence shows no sign of slowing, so here's a great budget turntable for your newly thrifted LPs.
