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Observations after revisiting 80s Keyboard Magazine articles in 2024


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5 hours ago, HammondDave said:

Someone needs to digitize all those pages and post them up on the web for research. (And make sure they get copyright clearance)


There was talk about this on the old forum, when KB magazine was discontinued (or assimilated into EM) - I wonder what happened to that project? 
 

I’m definitely envious of your full collections! I’ve been reading it since the 80’s, but only own a few select issues here and there (mostly featuring Herbie, lol). 

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8 hours ago, kpl1228 said:

"tell us you're a Boomer without saying anything"

NOPE :)

8 hours ago, kpl1228 said:

"tell us you're a Boomer without saying anything"

NOPE :)

8 hours ago, kpl1228 said:

"tell us you're a Boomer without saying anything"

NOPE :)

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5 hours ago, ProfD said:

... I doubt there is much interest in the full page ads and gear reviews of old KB technology that has been replaced with newer and more powerful tools. 

 

I beg to differ! Old ads are one of the more entertaining perks of leafing thru a 30 year old issue! 

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2 hours ago, mcgoo said:

 

I beg to differ! Old ads are one of the more entertaining perks of leafing thru a 30 year old issue! 

Sure.  It's a perk for Generation X. 😁

 

Leafing through a magazine doesn't appeal to the generations that have never used a rotary dial phone or a cassette player or a floppy disk drive.🤣😎

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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5 hours ago, ProfD said:

Sure.  It's a perk for Generation X. 😁

 

Leafing through a magazine doesn't appeal to the generations that have never used a rotary dial phone or a cassette player or a floppy disk drive.🤣😎

 

Well, ok, you're probably right. Now get off my lawn, punk! 😜 

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3 hours ago, mcgoo said:

Well, ok, you're probably right. Now get off my lawn, punk! 😜 

As a fellow Gen-Xer with a lawn to maintain and a presence, the punks don't even come near mine. 🤣😎

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PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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Sign me up for the old ads!  Those things were gold.  

I mean look at this one here, clearly illustrating that keyboardists were not geeks, but in-fact rock gods.

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I loved Keyboard Magazine and Electronic Musician. I only kept a few issues, including the Keyboard Magazine issue that I'm in. It's one of my proudest moments!

I just posted this on comment Alex Ball's recent video (a short on FB) where he plays the Korg Trident, that came out in 1980.

"When you hear these early 80s boards, it puts in perspective just how revolutionary and disruptive to the entire industry the DX7 actually was, which came out just three years after the Trident.

Consider where synthesizer technology went from 1970 to 1980 and then compare that to where it went from 1980 to 1990, it's pretty amazing how much it advanced in those latter 10 years. It went from "Well, this keyboard is fully polyphonic, but it's just strings and it's actually paraphonic because it only has one ADSR and one filter... but this one has a whole 8 notes of true polyphony!" to "This keyboard has sampling, sample playback, digital synthesis, 32 note polyphony, 16 part multitimbrality, a built in multi-track sequencer, never goes out of tune, built-in stereo FX, and can do your taxes."

Reading KM every month in the 80s was like gazing into the future. So many amazing boards that my pre-adolescent self could never dream of affording.
 

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On 6/12/2024 at 7:30 AM, Jim Alfredson said:

I loved Keyboard Magazine and Electronic Musician. I only kept a few issues, including the Keyboard Magazine issue that I'm in. It's one of my proudest moments!


 

Which issue are you in Jim? I’ll go back and read it.

 

I have almost a full collection. I just wish I could find someone to pass them onto … soon. I’ll cry the day I have to dump them in the recycle bin 🥲

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Legend Soul 261, Leslie 251, Yamaha UX1, CP4, CK61, Hammond SK1, Ventilator, Privia PX3, Behringer 2600, Korg Triton LE, VB3M, B3X, various guitars and woodwinds, drum kits …

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3 hours ago, John Tweed said:

I’ll cry the day I have to dump them in the recycle bin 🥲

Not to worry.  Keep the magazines as a part of your estate.  Let someone else be responsible for clearing it out.😁😎

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PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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On 6/11/2024 at 4:05 AM, mcgoo said:

 

I beg to differ! Old ads are one of the more entertaining perks of leafing thru a 30 year old issue! 

 

Absolutely! One of my favorite things about leafing through these. Such a time capsule.

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On 6/13/2024 at 11:14 PM, ProfD said:

Not to worry.  Keep the magazines as a part of your estate.  Let someone else be responsible for clearing it out.😁😎


That’s how it will go down in all likelihood. Lately I have been passing superfluous bits of gear on to my younger family members or their friends if they can use the item in question. For example my Behringer KX3000 still works just fine (with a few missing knobs) but I can’t move it. It makes a perfect little rehearsal PA. 

Legend Soul 261, Leslie 251, Yamaha UX1, CP4, CK61, Hammond SK1, Ventilator, Privia PX3, Behringer 2600, Korg Triton LE, VB3M, B3X, various guitars and woodwinds, drum kits …

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On 6/6/2024 at 11:14 AM, eric said:

When I first started reading KB Mag in the early '80s, I found each issue to contain such rich and helpful content. I would read them cover to cover, including ads and articles that were less relevant to me. I would rush to the mailbox each day, hoping to find the newest issue.

 

One of the issues that stands out for me was the feature on INXS (can't remember the date off the top of my head). There were very detailed graphic depiction of the onstage and offstage keyboard rigs, including racks and everything. The same thing was done in the David Bryan Bon Jovi feature and the Michael Jackson tour (three keyboard players, if memory serves). Among others. I used to completely geek out over these diagrams that often included huge racks with all kinds of processing gear, MIDI patchbays, a wide array of rack modules, vintage and modern synths, controllers, pedals, etc. There was also a cool one I remember on Night Ranger's keyboard player, who had a custom rack version Korg CX-3 (analog version) that had been involved in a fire, so that's how its innards found their way to a rack. I would get even more excited if a famous touring keyboard player had some of the same gear as me!

 

Somewhere in the '00s (I think), I didn't get that adrenaline rush when I found the monthly KB Mag in the mailbox. This was related to the focus on a lot more soft synths, drum machines, and things that I didn't really use and I lost interest in reading cover to cover. This was also after the internet was pretty much ubiquitous and things started moving more online and less for magazines to cover. If I look at my full collection of KB Mags (I have every single issue in chronological dividers on a single shelf), it it clear that the later magazines kept getting thinner and thinner. In the '80s-'90s, I could only fit one year of KB Mag into a divider box...in the '00s and beyond, it wasn't hard to fit 2-3 years of KB Mag in the same sized box.

 

I think the '70s and '80s were the golden age of KB Mag. This probably tracks along with most any other specialty industry in terms of print media being much more robust in the pre-internet days.

 

I hadn't noticed how "vintage" and "old" were used then vs. now. Interesting observation!

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Nicely arranged, Eric! I have every issue as well but they are stacked differently. You have inspired me to do a little more categorization by year.

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On 6/10/2024 at 4:57 PM, tapes said:


There was talk about this on the old forum, when KB magazine was discontinued (or assimilated into EM) - I wonder what happened to that project? 
 

I’m definitely envious of your full collections! I’ve been reading it since the 80’s, but only own a few select issues here and there (mostly featuring Herbie, lol). 

Copyright issues I think was the sticking point. I have every issue as well and would consider helping in the digitization but it may face some resistance.

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"The devil take the poets who dare to sing the pleasures of an artist's life." - Gottschalk

 

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On 6/10/2024 at 11:11 PM, ProfD said:

Sure.  It's a perk for Generation X. 😁

 

Leafing through a magazine doesn't appeal to the generations that have never used a rotary dial phone or a cassette player or a floppy disk drive.🤣😎

Hey - the floppy disc drive in my Kawai Q-80 sequencer (from the late 80s) STILL WORKS!!! 😃

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"The devil take the poets who dare to sing the pleasures of an artist's life." - Gottschalk

 

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On 6/13/2024 at 1:59 PM, John Tweed said:

Which issue are you in Jim? I’ll go back and read it.

 

I have almost a full collection. I just wish I could find someone to pass them onto … soon. I’ll cry the day I have to dump them in the recycle bin 🥲


It's the May 2011 issue. Just a little blurb about my career, but it meant the world to me. Oh, and I think they reviewed my THEO disc in the June 2016 issue, too. I have both around here somewhere.

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On 6/11/2024 at 1:11 PM, ProfD said:

Sure.  It's a perk for Generation X. 😁

 

Leafing through a magazine doesn't appeal to the generations that have never used a rotary dial phone or a cassette player or a floppy disk drive.🤣😎

Due to space limitations I slowly digitased my analogue life.  Forget the cassette analogy, I still have my 1983 HP12c and know what reverse polish notation is.

A misguided plumber attempting to entertain | MainStage 3 | Axiom 61 2nd Gen | Pianoteq | B5 | XK3c | EV ZLX 12P

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On 6/15/2024 at 8:45 AM, Bosendorphen said:

Copyright issues I think was the sticking point. I have every issue as well and would consider helping in the digitization but it may face some resistance.

NOT an attorney, but the copyright question is if Keyboard Magazine was renewing the copyrights when they were around (after 28 years of publishing I believe you need to renew), and/or if EM/Music Radar (who I think has the ownership) was doing after the acquisition? 

 

I could also envision a scenario where EM/Music Radar might just say "go ahead"...? 

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This caused me to recall the Frank Zappa special released as a team effort from Keyboard, Guitar Player and a few others. Its the most exhaustive document of its type, really. The studio tour is hallucinatory, but there are scads of mini-interviews with band mates, techs and assistants of all kinds you would rarely see elsewhere, if at all. About a third of it is a semi-holographic interview with Frank, which is deeply satisfying. I babied that thing for years until I ran into a young guitarist who was really getting into Frank's work. He lit up when I told him what it was and handed it over. It warms my cockles as an old synth boob to think of the great leaps younger players can take when handed a spiritual gem like that. You know how it works.

 

Those magazines are a lot of why I can tackle a Synthex like a semi-boss today. :cheers:

 "You seem pretty calm about all that."
 "Well, inside, I'm screaming.
    ~ "The Lazarus Project"

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