Passport Designs Soundchaser 1981 - original brochure

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via this auction

"Original Passport Designs Soundchaser - Product brochure from 1981
This is pretty obscure, I had to look it up myself.. a pre-midi computer music interface for Apple computer. Strange stuff.

This brochure is in good condition, see photos for details"

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1981 Passport Designs Soundchaser Ad

via Retro Synth Ads where you'll find the full write-up

"Passport Designs Soundchaser 'Bring your computer to your senses...' 1/4 page black and white advertisement from the bottom left side of page 13 in the August 1981 issue of Keyboard Magazine."

1986 Passport Designs Master Tracks MIDI Sequencer Ad

via Retro Synth Ads where you'll find the write-up.

"Passport Designs Master Tracks MIDI sequencer software "The 1-2-3 of MIDI Sequencers" 1-page advertisement from page 11 in Keyboard February 1986."

Also see:

computer chronicles - midimusic 1986 - 1992
And the Passport Designs label below for more.

computer chronicles - midimusic 1986 - 1992

Computer Chronicles midi music 01

"TheCyberbedouin | January 24, 2011 | 0 likes, 0 dislikes

MIDI Music
Computers and music, MIDI machines and interfaces,
and music composition software.Guests: Chris French,
Music Software; Bob Moore,
Hybrid Arts; David Schwartz,
Compusonics; Chris Potter,
Mimetics; Curtis Sasaki,
Apple; Gary Kildall,
Digital Research; Gary Leuenberger,
Midi RevolutionProducts/Demos: Casio SK-1 Synthesizer,
Atari ST, Activision's Music Studio, ADAP Sampler, DSP-1000,
Apple II GS, Ensoniq Sound Chip, Soundscape,
Commodore AmigaEZ Track, Kidnotes

Episode year: 1986"

Computer Chronicles midi music 02

Synthesizer Ads From the Past - PPG Monkey, PRISM, DCS II, Synthia and More

You'll find the scans on Scott From Canada

Also check out scott3eh on Flickr
Some of the rarer items pictured here:
Adaptive Systems Synthia 1980
Kinetic Sound Prism 1980
Strider DCS II
Synclavier II Terminal Support Package 1981
Wersi Condor DMS 1984
Bob Moog on the Fairlight

The full list at the time of this post:
Adaptive Systems Synthia 1980
Akai AX80 1984
Aries Modular 1977
arp omni-2 ad 1980
Crumar Stratus 1981
crumar t1-b ad 1980
Emulator 1 1982
Ensoniq ESQ-1 1986
Fairlight-bob moog 1982
hohnar keyboards ad 1980

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Alpha Syntauri for Sale

via bodsterbug in the comments of this post.

"I have a alpha syntauri synth that has been sat around for years... Can anyone shed any light on it as I have no idea how it is used etc? How much is it worth? I am looking to sell it to free up some room. My email is bodsterbug aol.com.
Here are a few pics"

Update via Steve in the comments: "Check out this youtube video featuring the Alpha Syntauri (spelled there Alpha Centauri, like the constellation). The sound quality is somewhat muffled." Video below.


UFO from the PLEIADES Mark Murdock SOUNDTRACK
YouTube via musicproductionnotes
"Soundtrack by Mark Murdock for THE MEIRE CHRONICLES UFO documentary film featuring Apple 2 and Alpha Centauri [alphaSyntauri] Mountain Music- the first digital music software introduced in 1981 performed by Mark Murdock and assisted by Joe Berger on a very low budget" Update via Deadpan110 in the comments: "Quote: At the same time synthesizers were becoming less and less analog. Digital sequencers and digital keyboards were the norm, and digital oscillators offered better stability than the analog type. A microprocessor of the day could be programmed to produce 16 voices of somewhat limited tone colors, and this cold be build on a circuit board that would fit into a slot on an Apple II. These boards were mostly built by hobbyists, but commercial versions were sold by companies like Mountain Hardware. The Alpha Centauri was based on such a board and also included a piano style keyboard and sequencing software. Also: There must have been over a thousand hybrid systems built between 1978 and 1984. Most of these were home made. Found on: Short History of Computer Music - Part II." Update via Laurie Spiegel: "To elucidate this mysterious antiquity somewhat: The alphaSyntauri (note: not "C...entauri") "The Origin Syn" (as our promo buttons said): http://www.purplenote.com/syntauri/" link to proximaSyntauri website.

DSI still Sequential Circuits

This one spotted by prophei. He downloaded the sysex for the three individual OSes for the DSI Poly Evolver Keyboard off of the DSI website. When he looked at the manufacture in the Mac OS X SysEx Librarian this is what he saw. Anyone confirm?

Update: another screen shot sent in and confirmations in the comments.

Update via wavedeforum via the comments: "The manufacturer ID is not IP that would get sold with Sequential Circuits. It is an ID issued by the MIDI Manufacturers Association. Usually a number is retired or recycled when a company ceases doing business.

Because of Dave Smith's role in getting MIDI going, he gets to keep his ID, which is 1.

It's the programs that interpret Sysex that lookup the ID and display an appropriate string that are at fault for still displaying Sequential Circuits. I would think that they should be revised to display DSI/Sequential or something similar."

also sent my way privately via Stephen via Synthwood. Pretty cool when you think of it. Dave Smith was THE man behind MIDI. SCI was first with the Prophet-600 followed by Roland with the JX-3P. I'm guessing Roland has ID #2, but I have yet to confirm this. Be sure to see the comments of this post for more.

Update via Dave Cornutt in the comments:
"Roland is not ID #2 because the IDs are divided into three groups, American, European, and Japanese. The American group starts with 1; the European group starts with 20 hex, and the Japanese group starts with 40 hex. Roland is assigned ID 41H; for reasons unknown to me Kawai was given 40H. Here's the whole original list, from "The Complete SCI MIDI", January 1984 edition (all numbers in hex):

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Roland CMU-800R

Click here shots via this auction.

Details:
"2 VERY RARE ANALOG + CV synth + 2 apple2 computers the kit includes:
- 2 x cmu-800r de roland compu music for apple
- 2 x apple2 with disk drive
- 1 x cart midi interface for apple2 de Passport Designs
- 1 x operation manual for cmu-800 original
- shématics (copy)
- no software"

You *might* be able to track the software down. See this post. via JB