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Instruments and Equipment

Article from Sound International, January 1979

Split as they are (these pages) into Studios and Recording, Instruments and Equipment, and Etcetera (for news pieces with no homes to go to).


AMII Showtime


The Association of Musical Instrument industries (AMII) recently announced precise details of their two British trade fairs for this year - in London and Manchester. These fairs will also be open to the public for certain periods.

In London 'The Live Music Show' will take place from Friday 27th July to Wednesday 1st August in the National Hall, Olympia, as reported in our October '78 issue. Friday and Saturday, 10am to 9pm, will be public days, while the trade will have their evil way from Sunday to Wednesday, 9.30am to 6pm.

After the 'trial' exhibition at Harrogate last October, AMII have decided to hold this year's northern show in the Belle Vue Complex, Manchester, between Saturday 6th and Tuesday 9th October, again with a mixture of trade and public days.

AMII reckon that this consolidation will enable their members to concentrate efforts on two major shows, relieving their need to consider the many regional shows that local dealers organise throughout the year.

AMII secretary Douglas Michell responded to our suggestion that it might be more healthy for the trade as a whole to have annual fairs including exhibitors regardless of their affiliation to whatever association by saying that his members pay substantial fees for membership and cannot be expected to finance other people.

Tama's Snypsynth


Tama's contribution to the fashionable world of drum synthesisers is due to appear this month in the UK - the Model DS200X Snyper percussion synthesiser. Where it differs from Synares' and Syndrums' 'dummy' drums is in its use of two small head-mounting pickups which Snyper players can attach to any two existing drums in their normal kit. The only parallel to this that we can think of is the Barcus Berry 1339 series of drum headmounting transducers, which retail in the UK for around the £40 mark.

But back to the Snyper: once mounted, the leads from the pickups are connected to the 2-channel DS200 module. Each channel features six rotary controls, labelled Sensitivity, Tune, Sweep Range, Sweep Time, Decay Time and Output Level. The set-up - pickups, module and interconnections — is expected to retail in the UK for around £295, and more info can be obtained from the UK distributors of Tama, Summerfield. They also have available new colour Tama and Ibanez catalogues - yours for 20p (to cover post and packing).

Summerfield, (Contact Details).
US: Eiger Company, (Contact Details).

British Poly


It seems that British firms are at last starting to move seriously into the electronic music field. There seems until recently to have been but one British company manufacturing electronic musical instruments on a production line basis, that being EMS.

However, in the past year several new companies have introduced a range of synthesisers and allied products, eg EDP Ltd with the Wasp, Jeremy Lord's Skywave, and Keynote's Scorpion to name a few. One particularly interesting new product that has come to my notice is the Arak Polycontroller.

Arak, a fairly small firm from Crowthorne, Berkshire, have produced a polyphonic keyboard controller that provides control voltage and gate outputs which can be used to drive up to ten synthesisers, or synthesiser modules, polyphonically. There is also a transient generator on each of the ten lines, all controlled simultaneously by five controls on the front panel (Attack, decay, sustain, release, and release level).

A rather interesting pitch bender is also included. When touched it is turned on and the notes bent by rocking the 'bend bar' in either direction; when released the pitch bender electronically zeroes and so there is no necessity to relocate the bend bar in the correct position to maintain perfect pitch. I had a go with the bend bar and I found it very pleasing to use!

Other facilities the Poly controller provides include vibrato, portamento, a unison facility, and infinite sustain capability. A computer interface is also included to hook up to your very own computer, thus enabling you to sit back and have a cup of tea.

Seriously though, this is an interesting machine and is well priced. It is particularly suitable for owners of large modular synthesisers (eg the Roland System 700) since, for a comparatively modest outlay, it could turn the instrument into an extremely versatile polyphonic synthesiser. British too.

Arak Sound Ltd, (Contact Details). Dave Crombie


Electrostatic Oldfield


Mike Oldfield's much publicised world tour starting next March may well appeal to some musicians' and followers' fanzine reflexes. But even the most dedicated James Last fan in possession of even the faintest technical wont is likely to be amazed by Oldfield and company's on-the-road sound equipment plans for the tour.

In fact, Oldfield's sophisticated personal recording studio in Bisley, Gloucestershire is being largely dismantled to provide just some of the equipment commissioned for the tour. Any notion that the Oldfield entourage will be following the superstar norm of hiring what amounts to an entire PA hire company for the duration of the tour is dispelled by the news that most of the gear will be made specially for Oldfield to his own specifications. Among the line-up will be the biggest array of electrostatic speakers ever used in public — a total of 64 Quad electrostatic speakers with backs and trimmings removed mounted four to a cabinet, with eight cabinets each side of the stage. The speakers were modified and prepared for PA use by a mini-consortium comprising Tom Newman, the Tubular Bells engineer, who will also be engineering the gigs; Paul Lindsay of Paul Lindsay Electronic Services, who is building much of the equipment and putting it all together; and a small team of Quad engineers. (Quad still hold the now ageing patent for electrostatic speaker units.) The Quads are to operate generally in wide band mode although frequencies below 200Hz will be siphoned off to a panel of JBL reflex bass bins behind the Quads. Although final stage positioning has not been drafted, a stack of six Eastlake monitors will be included and are likely to be placed adjacently outside the Quad soundfield. All in all, a healthy two articulated lorries' worth — hardly surprising when you consider that each left and right stack ensemble is to measure something like 15ft high by 20ft wide.

The 50 or so musicians involved directly in the gigs (don't forget the orchestra and choir) should guarantee to break the ice at gigs and quite possibly break the hearts of roadies and sound crew, because the sound decision was to bring a total of 56 channels up from the stage through a series of mixers and submixers. Specifically, these will comprise three 10/2 submixers and one 30/24 mixer, the latter employing mixer modules straight from Oldfield's studio mixer into a 24 channel programmable mixer (all mixers made by Rebus). The programmable mixer reproduces selectable echo send, EQ (on nine channels) and pan settings derived at rehearsals from a Solid State Logic microprocessor handling 120 channels of data stored on floppy disc. Level is controlled by API 940 type VCA faders whose settings are controlled 'live' on each night. Rumours that Mike Oldfield has recently had a bionic implant operation are completely unfounded and should be summarily dismissed. Richard Dean

Note: A full interview with Mike Oldfield follows in next month's Sound International.



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Publisher: Sound International - Link House Publications

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Sound International - Jan 1979

Donated & scanned by: Mike Gorman

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