In fact, it more or less dominated the field until the Sequential Pro-One became available in March of last year. Moog's Prodigy did surprisingly well in the field of low-cost monophonics. 'A number of companies came out with low-cost monophonics in the mid- and late '70s, including Korg, Yamaha, and Roland. It really gives us an idea of just how dominant the Pro-One became in the marketplace. Keep reading that first paragraph of the report and historically significant references will just keep on smacking us in the face. Fast-forward almost 30 years, and what I see is mono-synths being marketing largely to software-based users that know little or nothing about hardware. It's a tool for playing music, and in the last five years there have been a number of them brought out by various manufacturers, designed for the neophyte synthesist who perhaps doesn't want to spend a fortune on an instrument that they know little or nothing about.'So, back then, it looks like mono-synths were marketed towards new users that didn't know much about synthesis.

And, interestingly, I think there is a parallel to be drawn in today's market for mono-synths. You just have to read the first paragraph of the report to really get an idea of what the monophonic landscape was like at that time in history. In the report, Dominic does a great comparison between the Pro-One and another mono-synth of the time, the Moog Rogue. A fantastically written piece by Dominic Milano - a well-known writer and editor for Keyboard. It wasn't until almost a year later, after the second Ear-Force ad ran in the second half of '81, and this third ad started its long, sporadic appearance throughout '82 that Keyboard magazine finally came out with an extensive report on the beast in the January '82 issue. First St., San Jose, CA 95134.'Poor analogue thing was surrounded by announcements for sparkly new 'digital' devices - the Con Brio digital synthesizer, the Multivox digital sequencer and the Sony digital editor. Also included with the unit are a built-in 40-note two-channel digital sequencer and extensive modulation facilities. 'The Pro-One is a monophonic synthesizer featuring two VCOs that produce sawtooth and pulse waveshapes (the second oscillator also produces triangle waves), a 24dB/octave lowpass filter, two ADSRs, a C-to-C 3-octave keyboard, an arpeggiator, pitch and modulation wheels, single and multiple triggering modes, repeat and drone switches, 1-volt-per-octave control voltage in/out jacks and gate in/out jacks, and an internal interface for hooking the instrument up to most home computers. It was pretty much your standard tech-sheet announcement: I never really got around to talking about the specs of the Pro-One, and though there is quite a lot of technical information out there today on the InterWebz, there really was quite a bit of information bubbling to the surface back in the early 80s - some great references and historical commentary.Īround the time the Pro-One was launched in early 1981, and the first 'why another monosyth' advertisement started to appear in magazines, the Pro-One also made it into the Spec Sheet section of the March '81 issue of Contemporary Keyboard. Which is sad, cause this one would drive trainspotters crazy on stage.'Too bad. I asked him if there would be clear mophos or tetras, and he confirmed in the negative. Dave Smith has confirmed to me that it was a non-working one off that was only for display at the NAMM show back in 81 or 82. 'Sadly, the clear plexi Pro-One was only a marketing gimmick. Was it real? According to a comment on a post that featured the ad back in September 2009 - No. It's been seen in the wild, among other places, in CK magazine as well as SCI's customer magazine 'The Patch'. Hopefully you have already come across this clear plexiglass Pro-One advertisement. But, since I'm on a roll with Pro-One blogging lately, I thought I would resurrect this ad since I still have some Pro-One history I'd like to get down in writing before the excitement wears out (could it?).

I actually posted this advertisement back in early 2009 when I was a shy young lad and didn't really blog too much. Sequential Circuits Pro-One synthesizer advertisement from page 79 of Keyboard magazine October 1982.

Dimensions sequential circuits pro one