15 Years Ago in EM

Sep 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Steve Oppenheimer

           
 

Given that EM founding editor Craig Anderton has long been both a guitarist and a synthesist, it's no surprise that we often wrote stories about MIDI guitar and guitar synths. Indeed, MIDI guitars stepped to the fore in our September 1987 issue, starting with a cover photo of the Stepp guitar synth. Captain Craig wrote the cover story, “The MIDIfied Guitarist,” in which the maestro provided a solid tutorial on the subject. The Captain started by discussing sequencing features that were of special interest to MIDI guitarists; he then got into MIDI-controlled effects and finished up with tips on synth-patch selection. Following hard on the heels of the cover story was a collection of four assorted tips for electronic guitarists, written by three different authors.

Our cover theme was only one aspect of the issue. EM director of advertising and marketing (and later, publisher) Peter Hirschfeld delivered an in-depth analysis of DAT, then a new and controversial recording format. The controversy, of course, was caused by the fact that one could make top-quality digital copies of any recording using DAT. That raised the ire of record labels, who dreaded the specter of rampant music piracy. Sound familiar?

In the eminently forgettable “The Zipless Track,” Kirk Austin rounded up a few of his favorite new products (the Yamaha DX7II, TX81Z, and RX5) from the January 1987 Winter NAMM show. Then-assistant editor Tim Tully followed with an “applications” story about the Korg DSS-1 sampling synthesizer that was more of an overview and review than an applications article. Tully also wrote a huge sidebar — really, a companion article — introducing Digidesign's now-legendary Sound Designer audio-editing software.

We got in trouble with our featured DIY project, “The $10 Harmonic Sweetener.” It turned out that Jules Ryckebusch's design was unwittingly close to that of Aphex's first-generation Aural Exciter, and Aphex boss Marvin Caesar was not amused. Sorry, Marvin, we weren't trying to rip you off!

Our September issue also featured a Robert Carlberg interview with long-time EM subscriber Michael Stearns. Stearns discussed his gear, his love affair with Serge modular synths, and his work composing for planetariums (“the ultimate spatial environment”) and IMAX film. Stearns foreshadowed currently fashionable techniques by sampling from CDs and looping and processing the resulting samples.

Of course, we also published product reviews, starting with the Casio FZ-1, one of the first affordable ($2,499 list) 16-bit samplers, which earned a modest but fanatic following. We also explored the IVL/DigiTech Steelrider steel guitar-to-MIDI interface, which competed with a product developed by Texas steel-guitar wizard Al Petty that was based on the Photon MIDI guitar. Our other reviews included Alan Gary Campbell's evaluation of the Elka PM-13 and Fast Forward Designs MIDI Step MIDI bass pedals; and Michael Levine's coverage of the Zeta electric-violin system.

Finally, we did a roundup of what was hot and what was cold at the 1987 Summer NAMM show. What was hot: 16-bit samplers, MIDI stringed instruments, MIDI wind instruments, and low-cost, consumer-oriented software. What was cold: keyboard samplers (rackmount units were taking over), Commodore computers, digital reverbs (we saw no new ones), third-party synth patches and samples, and the Summer NAMM show itself.