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Electronic Music Lab from I.W. Turner, Inc. – Obliq Museum

Recently I was rearranging a bit and pulled down these modules from display in my studio.  I decided it was time to research these further and add some pictures for the Internet.  I have very little information about these modules so far so I’m assuming I.W. Turner, Inc. was a fairly small operation and I suspect these were marketed towards schools as educational modules.  Hopefully I will uncover more information in my search and update this post, and I’ll get a set of 9V batteries I’ll see what kind of sounds I can produce with these unique devices!  Looking into a couple (especially the Sequencer!) they are in a bit of dis-array inside, so I need to do some troubleshooting work as well.  We’ll see what I can come up with.  Contact me if you know ANYTHING at all about this company, these modules, or anyone that might have more information or modules!

I did some searching and was able to chat with Donald Tillman who worked for I.W. Turner, Inc. and created several circuits for these modules.  Here is some of our email conversation:

Dave:  What was the target market and do you know roughly how many were available?

Donald:  The target market was specifically music classes in elementary and middle schools.

At the time synthesizers had just become popular (the development of Moog, Buchla, ARP synthesizers, Switched-on Bach, the synth in progressive rock music, Beatles, the Monkees, the hokey Moog albums, etc.) and this was a way to introduce children to some of the basic concepts in electronic music in their school music classes.  An untapped market.

The “modules” were all self contained, battery powered, very simple.  They usually came in a set of 8 (?) with a wooden rack.  They were sold through music education distributors, and maybe some direct.  They were never intended to compete in the regular synth market, and they were never sold in regular music stores.

 Dave:  Do you still stay in contact with I. W. Turner, Inc. or have contact information so I can reach them for more information?

 Donald:  I don’t, unfortunately.  I really should have stayed in touch.

“I. W. Turner” is a fictitious name; there’s nobody that we know of with that name.

The company was founded by William Fish who lives in Port Washington.  He’s a very accomplished music educator in the Port Washington public schools and community bands.  And he’s a bit of an  an inventor and entrepreneur.  The company was mostly him.  And he hired neighborhood school kids and neighbors to do some of the manufacturing and other work.

The first IW Turner product was an electronic metronome.  Again, intended for the school market.

 Dave:  Can you elaborate more specifically on what you did for them while you worked there?  Can you talk to any of the modules that you designed, or any fun stories from that time working there?   I am starting from scratch and know nothing, so any information you could share would be wonderful.

 Donald: I was a very nerdy kid and pretty accomplished in music and electronics at an early age.  Bill was the band director at the high school, I showed him some cool electronic music thing I built, I think it was a ring modulator, and he hired me part time.  This was probably in 1973.

At the time I joined he had the modules in production, but my ring modulator circuit (based on the Motorola MC1496) sounded much better than his original (a transformer and diode circuit).  Not only was my circuit more accurate, it was an aesthetically more musical sound, and it showed off what a ring modulator does much more dramatically (which was the main point of the product).  And it was a lot less expensive to manufacture.  So he switched to using my circuit for the ring modulator module.  Then similarly with the triangle, sawtooth and square generators.

Basically, if the module has an IC in it, it’s my design.  Otherwise it’s one of the original designs that Bill had some consultant do.

The sequencer was completely mine.  It’s a composing sequencer inspired by an article in either Popular Electronics Magazine or Radio Electronics Magazine (I forget which) about the Triadex Muse, which was an MIT project using digital logic chips and pseudo random sequences to compose weird little tunes.

My sequencer does interesting things by adjusting the weights on a 5-bit binary counter (really four bit, but the clock is a square wave so we can pretend it’s a 5 bit count).  All CMOS.  If you set the top knobs to 5 2.5, 1.25, 0.625, 0.3125 you’ll get an up staircase.  And a down staircase for negative numbers.

It’s simple, but nothing else sounds like it.  There’s usually one note that’s lower than all the others, and so it goes something like “deedle-deedle doodle-deedle deedle-deedle BLAT!”.  And I always thought that the BLAT gave it a ton of personality.

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Selling (or trade?) my analog sequencer genoQs Octopus

This is the king of Analog-style analog sequencers, it is VERY rare and powerful! I actually ended up with two of these amazing sequencers; and that is simply more sequencing power than I need and I’m looking to sell or perhaps a trade is more what I’m looking at. If you are interested, let’s talk!

This genoQs Octopus Classic Legacy is one of the first ones to make it into the United States. This German sequencer is absolutely beautiful in hardwood and in great condition; its built like a tank! For those unfamiliar with this hardware sequencer, it is currently only a MIDI sequencer but I suspect since the operating system is Open Source (thank you genoQs!!!) that there could be an OSC version coming…we’ll have to wait and see on that.

The sequencer may look intimidating at first; but after you get your head around the workflow it actually is very musical and easy to create great sequences with. It has 2 MIDI ports (A & B) with an In/Out for 16-channels on each port. The circle area controls the transport, chording, transpose, bpm and other various sequencer controls. The rectangle grid are the sequencer tracks. 10 rows of 16 steps that can be expanded to a single track of 160 steps, or any number of tracks/step combinations that you desire. Completely configurable. One way I like to use this is set up a page with each of the 10 rows being a different MIDI note number. Then you can craft your sequence across the 16 steps and always be in key (one thing I didn’t like about older analog sequencers without quantization). Of course, this is just one way to craft patches with the sequencer; there are many many more!

Another cool feature of this sequencer is it is a great hardware sequencer for your software/laptop setup. You can control Ableton, Logic or other sequencing packages and configure all the knobs (which have many banks to extend the amount of knobs) to be real-time control of whatever parameters of your soft synths! So you are in full control of your soft synths with an analog-style sequencer; with plenty of knobs to change parameters in real-time! This is another amazing way to utilize the sequencer.

If you are familiar with Elektron style sequencers and parameter locks; the Octopus can do this too. On any given step of your sequence you can adjust anything of that step (note, length, start, etc etc etc etc); whether you’re hooked to a laptop, keyboard, drum machine, sampler or whatever. The object-based design makes the user interface powerful and you’ll be creating amazing patterns quickly. There are also really great chording features with a “strum” mode and transpose is powerful in performance too. For editing, you can play around in a temporary “buffer” and if you want to revert it is a simply click away! The sequencer then lets you chain with some really sweet chaining features.

You can record from an external keyboard/sequencer/computer to load your sequences. I was able to make it control surround sound using MIDI CCs which is really sweet by recording surround control from my iPad! I suspect with a little work you can control all your Christmas lights with this thing too…it has been a dream of mine to do; but I’m not a Christmas lights kind of guy…

There are 3 general modes, the Grid mode which is mainly used for control of patterns; double-clicking on a button in the grid drills you into one of the 160 pages which is full of your tracks with sequences. You can adjust, create, delete, and generally control your sequences from this mode. However, double-clicking on a button in Page Mode takes you into the step mode on that step where you can see and adjust all the detailed parameters of a given step. The Esc button takes you back out a level; so everything this can do is basically one or two button presses away. Note there is no LED or computer screen; this is a good thing with this sequencer!!! Again, once you understand the paradigm it is a simple and powerful sequencer! I’ve demoed this for very sophisticated software sequencing musicians before and they wanted to write a Max/Ableton patch to give a computer-based representation of the sequencer…I just laugh as they obviously don’t “get it” and are making things way way too complicated!

If you’re familiar with the classic Latronic Notron sequencer, this also has the concept of hyper steps; I believe the Notron was the initial inspiration for this sequencer.

I recommend you visit YouTube and do a search as there are some great instructional how-to videos that will get you up to speed very quickly!
first… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzpLp0VNEkE&feature=related
then this one… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiK6SCRRMIw&feature=related

This isn’t an iPad or computer; it is hardware, so you will need to take a little time with the manual and/or these how-to videos but I was able to get great music out of this within an hour of opening the box! Heck, the first thing I did was drag your hand across the grid and then sit in awe for minutes on how amazing this sequencer is! Once you have the basics down the unit becomes intuitive and very quick to create music and sequences! For me, only one other manufacturer of gear has ever been as creative (Elektron Sweden).

The unit is in great condition and has only been out of the house once–I used it at an smoke-free venue for an electronic music festival. Laptop jocks take note…with this thing in front of you, there will be a line of people watching you memorized by all the blinking 3 color LED lights, silver ball bearing buttons and custom made brushed bolt/knobs. It really adds a dimension to a live show, especially if you are mainly a laptop jock–it’s the perfect companion (I think watching laptop jocks perform is rather boring; add an Octopus and your audience will be transformed!). There is nothing better, however, than having the Octopus sitting next to a modular analog synthesizer; it’s the perfect compliment for any studio or live rig!

So, why am I getting rid of it you ask? I acquired a limited edition version (Black Sea) and that is just more eye candy (like that is needed as this is already ultra-eye candy, but I’m a guy and a gear nerd, so I had to have it)! I’m actually torn as I really like the Classic Legacy version (this one I’m offering) too; it sits beautifully in my studio that has several synths with wood sides. I guess I _may_ be able to be talked out of the Black Sea version instead; but that will require a lot more in trade/cash to persuade me!

I’m looking for analog polyphonic (or perhaps monophonic?) keyboard synthesizers…Dave Smith, Moog, Alesis A6 that type of thing; but am open to suggestions.

Shoot me an email if you have interest in any kind of trade or cash offers and we can go from there.

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Arp 1623 Sequencer – Obliq Museum

Wow, what an incredible sequencer. The latest version of this great and classic sequencer, the Rev 3. This was a lot of fun and was used in MANY of our tracks. I got it from New Mexico and it came with an Arp Axxe Rev 3; the sequencer was never used! It went to a collector’s home in Europe and I’m sure is still babied!

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