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The Numbers Game

Article from Music Technology, December 1987

Pick a number, any number... With modern equipment sounding more and more like car number plates and less and less like instruments, it could be time to return to naming gear rather than numbering it.


WOULD ANYBODY LIKE to buy a hi-tech black box called a T8PR? No? Perhaps it would help if you knew what it was.

A few of you may remember it as the pre-production name given to Yamaha's TX816 rack - the big one with the flashing lights that holds all those neat little TF1 modules. They were previously called PR modules or, more precisely, singly they were called PR modules but in pairs they became TX216 modules. As we all know, a single TF1 module is essentially a DX7 in a small black box - an alternative presentation to the TX7 - making a TX216 as powerful as two DX7s. At least, I think it went something like that.

The point is that Yamaha always believed they were giving the technology-hungry musician just what he or she wanted. History already shows that they were right about the tones produced by these FM marvels - they revolutionised synthesiser technology - but it's hard to imagine future generations of synth players reminiscing about the days when a T8PR was what a synth ought to be. And Yamaha aren't the only guilty party when it comes to obscure, convoluted and frequently irrelevant instrument names.

Perhaps it's just a touch of nostalgia but, to me, there always seemed to be something particularly intriguing about instruments bearing names like the ARP Odyssey, the Rhodes Chroma and the Zoukra Moog synthesiser. All these old instruments had character in their sound - as do their modern counterparts - but it was reflected in their names too. "Not the point", I hear you say, "instruments are meant to be played and listened to, not looked at." And I agree, although I suspect that there are an unhealthy number of technophiles out there taking more pride in their equipment than in their music. But isn't it easier to deal with ever-increasing amounts of hi-tech gear in a more personal manner? The neurologists tell us what a vast resource we carry around on our shoulders but, realistically, we can only hold so many numbers in our heads at one time; surely we should be concentrating on Song numbers and Patch changes - a necessary evil at best - instead of a multitude of model numbers.

I KNOW THAT the well-intentioned manufacturers of these hi-tech beasts have their reasons; certain names, for example, turn out to have unfortunate connotations (ARP Uranus anyone?), others suffer embarrassing translations into different languages. And I suppose they have a point, but it's no more valid a point than the one of musicians getting lost in a maze of indecipherable letters and numbers. It doesn't help us to buy, or them to sell the latest hi-tech gear.

We have bred a generation of musicians whose musical vocabulary is dictated by their equipment. Instead of talking music and instruments they're conditioned by their Atari 1040ST / Pro24 / X7000 / TX81Z / JX8P / R50 / SPX90 setup. And until things change, you just better keep on watching for developments like the new Yamaha DX11 and stablemates for the Roland D50 - the D100, the D60 or perhaps the D25. At this stage your guess is as good as mine or anyone else's here at MT - St, Nr, Tmcg or Dp.



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Publisher: Music Technology - Music Maker Publications (UK), Future Publishing.

The current copyright owner/s of this content may differ from the originally published copyright notice.
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Music Technology - Dec 1987

Donated & scanned by: Mike Gorman

Editorial by Tim Goodyer

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