
This photo is on the insert of the Computer World LP, which I have on vinyl btw, thank you very much. I got to looking at it the other day and noticed the instruments. All looked like handheld devices and toys. I guess back in the day it was part of the show for Kraftwerk to come into the crowd and let people play their mini keyboards and one may argue that they are one of the poineer bands that used such devices in their music.

I started playing the game to see if I can ID all of the instruments held. I pretty much got most of them except for one. The
Beegees Keyboard was fairly easy to recognize.

The one held in the background next over appears to be something that may use a stylis much like this
Stylophone, I think I am correct on this one given the switch placement on the right and the black frame around those, the top of the case must have been simply masked off to hide the brand.

The shiny box in the center I have no clue as to what it is. It may be some sort of a custom device.

All the way on the right is the IT
Language Translator which may seem like a normal calculator to the untrained eye. Those things are great to say the least! And one can be seen with a break out box in Jeff's collection, posted earlier. If anyone can shed some light on the mystery object fell free.
The images used as reference were taken from
datamath.org and
miniorgan.com both amazing sources to have around. Could not have done this without them.
8 Comments:
At 10/07/2005 03:17:03 PM, Shaun said…
I'll look into that also. The photo on here isn't really helping much. I'll get back to you when I look at my Computer World LP, which I also have on vinyl. I have no clue where it is at though. That will be my first task.
At 10/07/2005 04:31:35 PM, Phil. said…
if you will look into the mystery box holders other hand, he has a wand, or batton, or stick, which leads me too believe it would eb adrum trigger pad, probably custom.
At 10/07/2005 05:36:28 PM, Shaun said…
Not until you brought this up did I ever think about that photo and what they are holding. I always thought that they just used synths and C64's
At 10/08/2005 02:02:40 AM, Anonymous said…
Nice job! Slight typo, though... you meant to write "TI" (as in Texas Instruments) Language Translator. This is the device that counts out loud in the song "Numbers". The sound of those old TI speech synthesizer chips from the late 1970s is very distinctive -- somewhat robotic, with a metallic ringing.
At 10/08/2005 02:15:04 PM, Master said…
Yeah, I never thought of it too. They do use alot of synths however their main power horse was the Kling Klang studio synth.
At 10/08/2005 05:31:09 PM, David said…
It is most definitely custom: Kraftwerk had a lot of custom kit built for them. As for the edrum kit, it is probably one of the earliest examples of circuit bending. From what I've read, Wolfgang Flur in KW took apart an early drum machine and used metal rods and metal pads to trigger the individual sounds. You can see him playing the drum machine in KW videos (The Model or Computerworld, I think).
At 10/08/2005 05:31:29 PM, David said…
This post has been removed by the author.
At 4/12/2006 09:17:12 AM, Barry said…
It is a custom job, if you read the Kraftwerk autobio from the drummer he speaks about it.
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