Keyboards before MIDI

[Normanfernandez]

Before Midi technology,
People had to record in Analog.

How would the keyboard work before Midi?
And the storage for all the Voice Samples.

[DerekA]

So the earliest synths didn't use samples at all - they used oscillator circuits that produced simple wave forms (sine, square, saw, triangle etc).

The first samplers actually used short tapes (yes, physical tapes) with one for each note.

[Normanfernandez]

That's still pretty amazing !

Wish I could get a chance to have a look at one.
I did use Cassette Tapes when I was a kid.

[overover]

Hi Norman,

the best known "electro-mechanical polyphonic tape replay keyboard" of those days was probably the "Mellotron":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron

http://egrefin.free.fr/eng/mellotron/melwork.php


Best regards,
Chris

[MarkF_48]

Years ago I had a KORG Polysix with no MIDI, although there were aftermarket kits to upgrade to MIDI with limited functionality. Most all I recorded with the Polysix was to a Tascam 4 track cassette Portastudio.
As there was no MIDI to facilitate storage of user created patches/sounds, the means to save and load sounds was usually done with a cassette tape recorder as data in an audio format. This data sounded very much like what one hears if listening to FAX machine data over the phone. Sometimes not 100% reliable and getting levels correct for the data was tricky.
Unfortunately my Polysix met its demise when its NiCd battery used for retaining patch storage memory leaked onto the printed circuit boards it was mounted to and caused damage beyond a reasonably simple repair. Leaky batteries were a common problem.

A bit of a demo of the Polysix........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hq4F2vyQ9Q

[DerekA]

Here's a great demo of a mellotron that has multiple voices and even accompaniment styles. Probably could even be called an arranger ...

Remember each sound / accompaniment is playing back from magnetic tape!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdkixaxjZCM