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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1982)
ford American Dictionary (but lighter). n s portable and could be strapped to the body, but not tammed into the hip pocket. By the time one has exhausted the imagination with pure experimenta tion on the MG-1 (about the time the neighbors are exhausted as well), the manual provides answers on how the 50 buttons actually can work in har monic consort With or without back up band, the instrument enables the player to be many things to many people. With only three more keyboard key's than the VL-Tone. it can be manipulated like a real piano made for human fingers rather than elf’s knuckles, and within that 2-1/2 octave range, a polyphonic capability allows you to play chords as well as single notes. No memory capability or rhythm synthesizer is included, but the easy - to - follow - but - not - very - complex instruction booklet does explain a number of true synthesizer terms such as auto contour trigger, detuning, cutoff frequency, peak emphasis, and ocher (argon of the tune Following some diagrams for dial-twiddling, one builds the sound into an electronic or gan, a hurricane, a violin, a tuba, a helicoptor. electric fuzz guitar (but one even the Ventures wouldn t have touched, I might add), the clarinet robots (an incomprehensible kitchen sink) Bevond these prescribed func tions. and a cursory description of the six boxed, color-coded sections which control modulation, two tone sources, contour, fiber of brightness and low tones, and the mixer, you are on your own. My own basic forays into pos sibilities, done in conjunction with Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark plugged in through an overdub plug in the back, cranked out such hybrids as a dentist drill, the gamut erf bird calls. Echoes of the Lost World, and other amazing conjunctions of sound to drive any ordinary record reviewer | insane with metaphorical phrase making To wit, a sealing mehdown which explodes seconds after the but ton is pushed, a burbling brook with warm heart blips reverberating, regur gitating on belhone background, etc Make no m istake The MG-1 is a real instrument If the advertising picture is to be believed (and it must be seen to be believed), Elton John uses one Still. 1 would assume that the primary kick one can derrve from playing with the machine is scoring the themes from Pac-Man. Donkey Kong, and As teroids, or simulating any hundreds of special effects The theme from Jaws for example, can be created and left running by itself, playing endlessly for vour bathtub pleasure Personally, the more traditional possibilities enticed me, and I found myself working up snide arrangements of Silent Night' and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Rein deer" (using as much white noise as passible) to play at the annual chow down By interfacing your MG-1 to a home computer, you can program many more musical possibilities With a but ton called random wave shape, a com puter generated noise system of beeps, drips, kerplunks and zaps will speed across the keyboard endlessly without any sense or aesthetic for as long as the machine is plugged in It's not exactly a comfort on a lonely evening, but it does do things by itself if you're still feeling incompetent The best possible solution for such musical nontalent is the personal stereo, the ultimate compression of musical ability into a small space Let someone else do all the driving The Personal Stereo irst on the moon, Sony lucked onto the generic label of 1. Walkman (plural Walkmen), like Kleenex for tissue, hut everybody s into the action Panasonic has a per sonal stereo thai s more cumbersome, General Electric's Escape comes in striking blue, Penneys has confusing controls, the Infinity Intimate costs a bundle (with the FM module), and more than twenty others compete, each dropping in sue and pirxe from day to day Technology virtually )ets along WM-I1 is the sue of a cigarette pack Sanyo's machine plays the tape both ways without flipping, a few types record as well as play back, earclip speakers can already replace the headband, everything is getting smaller and smaller than Alice's eat me'' mushroom We'll he injecting jams before the Nineties Now, there are good ways and bad ways to utilize the amazingly snobbish personal stereo, and the bad ways are the most fun Strapping on a Walkman and heading out on wheels undoub tedly takes first preference Roller skates, bicydes. mopeds, tractors and wheelchairs, any means of transpioru non gets a boost when the crystalline separation of a good P S unit provides a throbbing aria from the croaking chords of an Angus Young or a Joey Ramone in your ears The danger gives a tingle, too, as all other sounds lake second place, including irate horn honks and skidding tires Sony claims, "The Walkman is more than a breakthrough product It has es tablished itself as the representative produei of an entire generation Tele vision, color television, and sports cars held this distinct ion for previous gen e rations Does this imply that a sprouting crop of robotons are about to invade our walkways, maneuvering as solitary n irnbies blocking out all the world but for their chosen sounds, never to talk to one another again* Will disco music return* The more practical service of the personal stereo exists for the opposite group the non mobile types Bed ridden patients, unable to haul their stereo components into the ward, can enjoy high quality stereo without crowding Sedentary |obs. from factory work to truck driving, can block out the blahs Time seems to fly while washing dishes, and the chances of the ps dipping into the suds are remote, especially if one utilizes the belt / hook instead of the neck strap to attach it For most purposes, the strap secures the machine nicely, keeping hands and waist free Want to go strapless? Sony's WM II fits into a shin pocket, and fea tures "soft-touch" controls which op erate through the fabric. Most brands offer a mute" feature, to enable you to speak to the check-out girl without clicking off the tape You can com municate while the music flows on deep in the distance Some machines have a microphone with the mute, eer ily broadcasting the external noises into the soundtrack, suitable if you prefer to croon with the tune Despite the lightweight comfon of the headphones sound quality is usually sharper than stand up speak ers, the lyrics brought closer to the brain, with subtleties distinguished. Record reviewers have been known to tape their free promos, in order to lis ten while biking to their day jobs as busboys. The political ramifications of the Walkman and its proliferating ilk may balance on the obsolescence of sidewalk "boom box" radios. Clearly, one need not advertise his preference for high column P-Funk to the generic crowd passing by, but on the other hand, there is nothing particularly suave about accidentally belting out the chorus of Bette Davis Eyes" in an otherwise quiet and crowded elevator. And, the person next to you doesn't need to be shouted at to understand. Me can't hear REO cranking in vour ear. These potential snags are quickly learned, and overcome. The larger model personal stereos might not be as cute as Sony's, but they are still small enough to fit comfortably in the most active situations. The FM radio units, while draining batteries at a much slower rate than the 9 or so hours cassettes get on 2, 3 or 4 AA bat teries, sometimes don't get consistent reception, dependent upon the area and the activity where they're used. The best personal stereo models offer an FM module which snaps in like a cassette, allowing you to opt for re corded or broadcast sounds. Some begrudging competitors don't hold much for the future. Richard Sut ton of Toshiba America claims, “It's just like the CB boom. It will go down -. K the tubes in two years. With the Ko reans and Hong Kong manufacturers in there, pretty soon you’ll see them for $29 95 . " In the meantime, who's waiting to find out? I've got a date to scrub the bathroom floor with Ellen Foley, and I can’t wait. + — * The Many Roads to Hi Fi by Martin Clifford There are no upper and lower limits to high-fidelity sound, and since listening to music with an assist from electronics has so many dif ferent approaches, one person’s fi is another person’s phooey. What you may like in the w»ay of audio and what you will ultimately buy depends on the way you interface with audio compo nents, on your budget, age, sex, envi ronment, personal taste and musical training. Fortunately there are various ways to set up a hi/fi system, some of which are a dead-end arrangement, others permitting the system to grow as your budget and musical taste per mit. Getting a hi/fi system is a decision making process and the selection of the wrong option can be costly, time consuming, and stress inducing. The problem is compounded by the fact that you cannot really hear a hi/fi sys tem until you’ve listened to it for about a half year. It is only then that the od dities of the system you have set up will begin to emerge. Your natural yearning for audio can be satisfied in a number of ways. Basi cally, there are two approaches, com pact vs component, but there are a number of subheadings under these two. A compact svstem consists of an (Continued on page 22) EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER WANTED IN A PORTABLE. If you’ve always had a taste for a portable stereo with loads of stereo features, but were afraid of gaining weight, try something new Our new series of Slim-line Personal Stereos. Available with home audio features like stereo AM/FM and cassette, Dolbvfmetal tape capabilities, a 6-band graphic equalizer Music Search (forward and backward), auto replay and direct AND LESS. one-button feature switching. © 1981 Pioneer Electronics of America, 1925 E. Dominguez Street, Long Beach, CA 90810. ’Dolby is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories. All with about 1/3 less bulk than regular portables. 131 ^ IVI So, finally, you can goi^ge yourself on incredible VT# ^ sound. And still be able to move. We never miss a performance.
