Above: What the holy F is this thing?
Today: yet another installment in our ongoing series on Keyboard of the 1970s. Click here for part one. As per usual, if you are still using these things today, drop us a line and let us know! Except for the Rhodes. There’s nothing new to say about those fkkn things. So keep yr Rhodes to yrself thanks.
Above: the Univox Compac Piano. We had one of these things for a minute in high school. I think it was $100. Really terrible sound. Click here for previous coverage of this atrocity.
Above: the two worst ads Fender ever ran for the Rhodes. ’77 and ’72.
Above: The Novaline Piano circa ’77. Never seen one. Anyone?
Above: The KORG Maxi-Korg circa ’77. Looks pretty cool. Any of these still working?
Above: Hohner made many keyboards besides the famous Clavinet. For instance,,,
…The Contessa of 1972. Farfisa-type organ with accordion chord-buttons in the left hand. Yikes.
Next time you see one of those shitty old Baldwin living-room-organs at the goodwill, take a 2nd look: it might have the SynthaSound option boards. Wacky sounds ensue.
Above: The ELKA #8609 String Choir. My K2500 has a bunch of ELKA patches and I kinda like em. Anyone use the 8609? How does it compare to other string synths of the era?
19 replies on “Keyboards of the Seventies part II”
Oh!! I did not remember the korg maxi korg k3… nice !!
“Shitty living room organs” can often be repurposed into some truly different, yet useful, musical machines, much preferable to the LinnDrum derived thunkachunkers they peddle for large sums at the big box places.
Most of the surviving Korgs from the era are the Mini-Korg 700s. I saw a goth band a few years ago that had one that still worked.
The Baldwin Syntha-Sound unit was actually built by Moog Music.
I saw a few Elkas when I was working in a music store in the 70s. It’s the same top-octave subdivider system used by the Arp/Solina String Ensemble, so they sound pretty much the same. (In fact, I heard an Elka before I ever heard an Arp.)
Elkas were things of beauty. The one in the pic was their smaller model – just strings. Their flagship, the 8610 Rhapsody was strings, with e. piano/harpsichord sounds. It was THE sound of mid 70s Tangerine Dream, John Foxx era Ultravox, and even plays a prominent role of Jethro Tull’s Songs from the Wood. Other synth acts of the era – Jean Michael Jarre, Peter Baumann, Michael Hoenig, et. al. gave them a good work out too. (I had one, and have labored endlessly to recreate it’s sound on newer gear).
Anyone left stranded in the middle of a gig with a broken Rhodes tine or broken Clavinet string or blown String Ensemble capacitor doesn’t mind embracing new, reliable technology – ROMpler, Virtual or Modelling is fine by me. Fine by roadies as well. One keyboard instead of 20.
True dat… but it was not an easy transition for some. I was a touring keyboard tech in the late 80s-early 90s (Bobby Brown, The Whispers, Tony Toni Tone’) and convincing the old school keyboard players to give up their racks of keyboards and modules was not easy! At one point in the mid-90s I tried to convince the TTT keyboardist to give up the huge Rick Wakeman-esque keyboard rig, telling him that since he’s playing the same patches for every show, we could just sample all the stacked synth sounds (and the Whirly and Clav D6) into the Akai S-1000 samplers we used in the studio and cut his rig down to a couple of remote MIDI keyboards and a single rack. He wouldn’t have it. He just had to have that double-wide 32-space rolling rack (it needed a fork-lift to get it off the truck) and the three Ultimate A-frame keyboard stands on stage, or we were taking away his manhood.
Ah, but vst’s just sound ‘weedy’ ,sterile.
Novaline — I’ve seen them. In fact, my father designed them and co-founded the company. They were pre-digital, of course, and the first touch-sensitive electronic pianos available.
I have an 88 key Novaline, its not working but it makes an awesome table for lamp and a house plant. Is it worth anything to anyone? Even though I like having it, I’d rather see it be repaired and used.
I have an oval on original piano in the flight case
I own a novaline … need to figure out the sustain problem ..if u know any trick email me at enkneegivendaze@gmail.com
Novaline piano’s! My brother-in-low was Andrew’s father’s partner in designing and building them. They worked long hard hours. I worked for them and did quite a bit of the building of the piano. The electronics, the wiring, cabinet work. A wonderful piano that blew my mind. My Sis may still have one, I am not sure.
Hi Deb. Send us some factory photos and catalogs/press materials if you have them!!!
Hi Deb, let me know if anyone is interested in buying any of them back and rehabilitating them. I have one that’s not working currently but would like to see it be saved.
jack DeJohnette’s “Compost”! Wow, I’d forgotten them….. Anyone ever re-release that album? Is Jack paying someone not to?
I have had a working MaxiKorg since 1988 when I paid all of $75 for it at a pawnshop that “couldn’t get it to play normal keyboard sounds”. I took it home and fell in love with it.
Mine is from 1975, the year they were released.
It is, by far, one of the most unique synths I have ever played, easily one of the most “playable” of the analog mono/duophonics of it’s era, without giving up the open and creative soundscapes that the preset pieces lost. A wide range of sounds come out of it, yet, due to it’s layout it favors songs more than most of it’s kind, it WANTS to be played, not played with.
I’ve got a Novaline 88. Bought it in North LA for $60 in 2013. Still have the sustain pedal adapter.
I have an original novaline electric piano in a flight case
There’s a lot of information about NovaLine and it’s beginnings available here:
http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?company_id=16560