rare Allen tone cards

[circa1949]

This might border into the off-topic, but this is the place we discuss Allen's classical technology. Even if it was applied to other areas of musical commerce, so to speak.
I think in some way we do Allen a disservice when we pigeonhole them as "conservative". Certainly, Rodgers is only other major company whose roots were strictly in classical organ music tone production, and they weren't building anything like these:

http://www.synthmuseum.com/rmi/index.html

Looks as though after 1983 they no longer thought they could make money with these pop lines and abandoned them. (maybe had something to do with switching to ADC manufacturing as well) But in their time they were recognized as cutting edge, and no less a legendary synth musician as Jean Michel Jarre used them on the iconic track "Oxygene 4". Which, oddly, is not something I listen to regularly but has always been one of my favorite tunes from the 70s. Until last night I didn't know it was partly produced by an instrument from Allen. At any rate, a failed $2000 ebay auction for one of those instruments (not the rarest though) led to this page:

http://www.9nerds.com/isabelle/RMI/

And I noticed the odd mix of cards. I can only begin to imagine what the following sound like: "Pulse Wave I Time Slot" "Pulse Width 3/16" etc. Does anybody have one of the truly non-organ, non-classical sounds in their MOS card archive? I've seen a catalog of ADC sounds and even though it would have been technically possible, I don't believe any synthy sounds were produced for the ADC line.

Finally, I found this extraordinary promotional recording from Allen, demonstrating several of these instruments (mostly the later digital ones):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_VT4vXtu3U

And how can I not post this, pay particular attention around 57 seconds...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeujZtBvMFY

[davidecasteel]

Interesting. I don't know what a "Pulse Wave I Time Slot" sounds like, either, but I'm guessing the card is punched to have only one column with a non-zero value in it (the "I" is really a one). As for the "Pulse Width 3/16" card, that would be one with 3 of the 16 columns (adjacent) having a non-zero value, and I might have an idea about that one, because I created a few cards similar to that when I was discovering the coding algorithm used by Allen for their Tone Cards back in 1978. (It was a long time ago, but IIRC it was sort of a stringy horn. I do still have those cards--they've stayed with me all through my travels after retiring in 1980.)

I am curious about the "Pulse Width 3/32" card, though--it implies a tone where only 3 of 32 values are non-zero, and the MOS card system is not capable of that (ADC would be, though). Either the instrument was built to allow 32 points as input (a la ADC) or some other method was employed (perhaps 2 full size entries flanked by half-value ones?).

David

[radagast]

I had an RMI KC-II at one time. I bought some of the cards. There were some that were supposed to be pipe organ ensemble sounds; one was diapson chorus with mixture, another one without the mixture. I'll have to check out the videos at home --- can't get to them at work.

[davidecasteel]

radagast, do the KC-II cards look like MOS or ADC cards? I'd be interested in seeing some of them--the pictures never showed any completely, but they appear to have the same clocking scheme as MOS. Can you post or e-mail me pictures of a couple? Thanks.

(edited to add) One of the cards pictured (Krummhorn Harmonic 8', I think) actually has the "MOS" literal printed on it, and is an Allen card. That picture is the second one on Page 1, and I used a later picture to get the complete card name.

David

[sadatoni]

My folk have a MOS-1 Allen 436-TH (it was bought new). Among the many tone cards they have for it are some of ones for the RMI instruments (the tone cards are identical in size, and are indeed interchangeable).

It's been decades since I've used some of those cards, so I can't remember what they sound like. But I do remember them being interesting. The next time I'm at their place I'll have to listen (it won't be any time soon, they're over 1,500 miles away). I don't see much in the way of shaping the sound from the pictures, so I suspect what I would hear on the TH is the same sound that came out of the RMI KC-II

There was one interesting card, a negative diapason (or something like that). With the only the alternate voice turned on, it sounded like the name. But, if the same-named stop were then turned on -- nothing. They cancelled each other out. I also remember one card was just harmonics, no fundamental.

[davidecasteel]

There was one interesting card, a negative diapason (or something like that). With the only the alternate voice turned on, it sounded like the name. But, if the same-named stop were then turned on -- nothing. They cancelled each other out. I also remember one card was just harmonics, no fundamental.

That is interesting. Of course, it is entirely possible to build a card that produces the exact inverse of a given stop, and the effect of drawing it with the corresponding stop would result in a null. Since the ear is not critical of either phase or polarity in the waveform, drawing only the negative stop would sound the same as the other stop by itself. In my opinion, a card with "just harmonics, no fundamental" would actually just be a stop in a different footage (perhaps a mutation); it might not sound like any known stop, of course. Using only the 4th, 5th, and 6th harmonics would produce a tone similar to tubular bells, I think, and would fool the ear into hearing the fundamental.

Regarding the cards shown in the first post: I have been able to discern the punch coding for 3 of the cards from the photos and descriptions and created waveforms for them using my spreadsheet. I am attaching those waveforms and also that of the 4th, 5th, and 6th harmonics. (Put the pointer over each image to see what it is.)

David

[circa1949]

Cool! I'm impressed you were able to decode them from the pictures. The waveforms make sense, I wish I had an easy way to play them.
It's somewhat surprising that, since Allen was already experimenting with ways of modulating/crossfading from one waveform to another (as appeared on the MOS era SDDS), that they didn't come up with a way to do something like the PPG wavetable synth, but with the cards. In other words, allow you to load 4 alterables and "morph" between them. That being said, supposedly the RMI Synthesizer (the rarest of the Allen pop instruments) had facilities to the FM modulation, well before the Yamaha DX7, and maybe it could do something like that. It's too bad to me that they gave up in this arena...the instruments were clearly ahead of their time and arguably the gritty 8 bit-ness of MOS reproduction was more suited to popular music anyhow. I wouldn't be surprised if the association with a church organ company might have given them an aura of "uncool" at least among the people who set trends in that particular market. Maybe they saw the original Emu come out in 1982, and realized that sample playback would eventually become a "commodity item" since it was much less expensive than the infamous Synclaviers and Fairlights. (which cost as much as houses did back then)

[davidecasteel]

Well, the reconstruction of the 3 cards is not all that impressive: the 2 "pulse" cards were pretty well described by the names and I could see enough of the tops of the cards to know which columns were involved--I just assumed they were maximum amplitude positive; in the case of the Cathedral Choir stop, the picture showed all of the card from row 6 upward (well enough to see the punches), and that is enough (the clocking punches are always the same).

It is, of course, possible to punch new cards from the specifications, given a way to punch cards. My hand punch can do the job, but it's a very tedious chore. (I wish that back in 1978-1984, while I still had access to some keypunch machines, that I had punched out a lot of cards with just the clocking punches in them. If I had a keypunch today, I'd do that, and for the ADC cards I'd punch cards with the clocking and constant punches in them. Keypunch machines also make it a lot easier to put the desired variable punches in place, because the work to align them is handled by the machine. (Oh, for a nice working 020.... I even still know how to program the control cards for them.)

David

[radagast]

radagast, do the KC-II cards look like MOS or ADC cards? I'd be interested in seeing some of them--the pictures never showed any completely, but they appear to have the same clocking scheme as MOS. Can you post or e-mail me pictures of a couple? Thanks.

(edited to add) One of the cards pictured (Krummhorn Harmonic 8', I think) actually has the "MOS" literal printed on it, and is an Allen card. That picture is the second one on Page 1, and I used a later picture to get the complete card name.

David

David, I don't have any way, or know how, to takes pictures and post them. However, I would be glad to describe them in terms of what holes are punched in each column. I think I still have some of those cards with my MOS-1 Allen at home. They are definitely MOS cards, as both the RMI KC 1 and KC 2 used MOS computers. Both instruments could use any of the MOS card library.

[radagast]

This might border into the off-topic, but this is the place we discuss Allen's classical technology. Even if it was applied to other areas of musical commerce, so to speak.
I think in some way we do Allen a disservice when we pigeonhole them as "conservative". Certainly, Rodgers is only other major company whose roots were strictly in classical organ music tone production, and they weren't building anything like these:

http://www.synthmuseum.com/rmi/index.html

Looks as though after 1983 they no longer thought they could make money with these pop lines and abandoned them. (maybe had something to do with switching to ADC manufacturing as well) But in their time they were recognized as cutting edge, and no less a legendary synth musician as Jean Michel Jarre used them on the iconic track "Oxygene 4". Which, oddly, is not something I listen to regularly but has always been one of my favorite tunes from the 70s. Until last night I didn't know it was partly produced by an instrument from Allen. At any rate, a failed $2000 ebay auction for one of those instruments (not the rarest though) led to this page:

http://www.9nerds.com/isabelle/RMI/

And I noticed the odd mix of cards. I can only begin to imagine what the following sound like: "Pulse Wave I Time Slot" "Pulse Width 3/16" etc. Does anybody have one of the truly non-organ, non-classical sounds in their MOS card archive? I've seen a catalog of ADC sounds and even though it would have been technically possible, I don't believe any synthy sounds were produced for the ADC line.

Finally, I found this extraordinary promotional recording from Allen, demonstrating several of these instruments (mostly the later digital ones):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_VT4vXtu3U

And how can I not post this, pay particular attention around 57 seconds...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeujZtBvMFY

I have the LP record that is featured in the youtube video. I actually have a demo record for the KC 2 as well. The covers (dust jackets) had pictures of tone cards that I recreated with a card punch at work. At the time we still used cards to input to an IBM 360 and 370.

[davidecasteel]

The place I worked also used IBM equipment and cards; they stopped using cards in the mid- to late-1980s. (I wonder if they have some old keypunch machines just gathering dust somewhere?)

As far as just sending me info on where the punches are, that would work. Use "1" to represent a punch and "0" to represent no punch. Start with column 6 and row 6 and go up the column through row 0, put in a comma and go on to the next column (9) back at row 6, etc. Look at the picture of the Cathedral Choir Vowell "OO" & "AH" card: in this scheme, the first 2 columns would appear as 1111100,1111011,.... You'll have 16 groups of 7 bits. I can reconstruct a card from this data. (You don't need to worry about the punches in rows 8 and 9--they are the same on all cards; also no need to worry about any punches to the right of column 51.)

David

[myorgan]

I have an MOS card named Allen Sound. Would that be considered rare? Has anyone seen it?

Michael

[davidecasteel]

I have an MOS card named Allen Sound. Would that be considered rare? Has anyone seen it?

Michael

I've no idea what it might sound like (it's not a typical stop name), but if you'd like to send me a copy or the data (as above) I'll try to analyze it.

David

[Johan]

Hi all,

Firstly I'm new here and happy to have found this forum.

Some time back, because I'm really interested in anything RMI, I decided to create in my favorite NI Reaktor a way to hear the RMI KC-I/II MOS tone cards found in pictures on some site. The decoding was really easy. Though I'm still in the dark about the bit's on the far right of a punch card. It sais in the manual the card number but I'm not so sure about that.

Since I'm new I cannot post attachements yet so here is my creation: ni-rmi-kc.png
I simply click the button where there is hole and the waveform appears automagically :) and I can play it immediately :D

Inside the RMI KC's is a ROM with pre-loaded tone cards for the several stops on the front of the instrument. It's basically a 5 channel, 12 voice, 7-bit programmable 'computer'. One of the beauties is the simple but unique way of generating sounds. Everything is calculated. Including the envelope's (attack,sustain, decay) in several variants. See the documentation below:

RMI KCII Owners Manual
RMI KCII Service Manual

For the record, being an ex jmj-fan, jmj used the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer for the Oxygene album. Most noticeably the second solo sound on Oxygene 4. The KC-II was used on his second album Equinoxe.

Johan

[myorgan]

I've no idea what it might sound like (it's not a typical stop name), but if you'd like to send me a copy or the data (as above) I'll try to analyze it.

David,

When I tested it, I seem to remember it making somewhat of a pleasant sound, but it's been several years. I'll get it when I go to church on Sunday and send you a scan.

Michael