Offering in EXCELLENT CONDITION...

a Vintage Original COUPLAND DIGITAL SYNTHESIZER BROCHURE from 1978...  8 page brochure on glossy stock.

This is a bonafide piece of modern music history... not for what it was... but for what it wasn't. Ultra rare. Absolutely impossible to find. Probably the only one ever offered on eBay in its fifteen year existence. The year was 1978... the Oberheim 8-Voice, the Prophet 5, the Polymoog and the Yamaha CS80 were the only decent polyphonic synthesizers on the market... and everyone called the Polymoog the Polyturkey (for obvious reasons). However, the big buzz at the 1978 NAMM Conventions and the 1978 AES Conventions (the Audio Engineering Society) was the supposedly earth-shattering and super-futuristic Coupland Digital Synthesizer being touted by self-proclaimed Genius Rick Coupland, a real nerdy looking goofball with a safety pin holding his eyeglasses together (some misguided marketing man must've told him it looked cool).

The hype promised the best musical instrument ever invented and a control panel lightshow light years beyond Star Wars. Only one problem... the big and bulky looking display model they carried around with them and showcased at convention booths and hotel rooms across the country could not be plugged in or demonstrated... and for a very good reason... because it was EMPTY. There was nothing inside AT ALL. Just a hollow fiberglass shell with a keyboard. And although they promised a working unit in the coming weeks, it never materialized. It was a hoax. (I am unsure whether there were a bunch of investors that got swindled in the fiasco or not, but all that exists of the infamous Coupland Synthesizer is this expensive glossy brochure and the truckloads of BS contained within...

From the brochure: "ANY MUSIC THAT HAS EVER BEEN PLAYED AND ANY MUSIC THAT EVER COULD BE PLAYED." ..."The electronic wave which goes from an instrument or a recording into a speaker of a high quality sound system can be specified with complete accuracy as a sequence of numbers. These numbers specify the amplitude of a wave at regularly spaced instants of time." ..."The number of numbers required per second are twice the bandwidth of the sound or about 40,000 numbers per second for high quality music. Furthermore, the numbers themselves need not be infinitely accurate for the ear cannot detect small errors in amplitude." ..."Thus, 40,000 three digit numbers a second can describe not only any music that has ever been played, but any music that ever could be played."

And if you buy into that, I have some swampland in Jersey...

In fantastic shape considering it is 33 years old. It has been stored in a filing cabinet in a smoke-free environment for decades. Shows a little wear and a fingerprint or two from minimal handling (see pictures) but the pages are all very clean. No fading. No stains. Frankly I don't think I've leafed through it more than two or three times. LOOKS FANTASTIC.

Buyer pays $5.65 for secure shipping between two stiff boards via USPS PRIORITY MAIL with DELIVERY CONFIRMATION (within the continental USA). Shipping elsewhere may be higher.

Bid with confidence. I have over 1400 glowing positive feedbacks and over 150 delighted repeat customers over the past twelve years here on eBay. Thanks for looking!