ALF Products Inc., or ALF (named after an assembly language instruction for "rotate the A register Left Four bits"), was a Colorado company primarily known for its computer-controlled music synthesizers and floppy disk supplies and duplicators.
History
In 1971, Tim Gill, a Wheat Ridge High School student with an interest in computers, visited the computer terminal room at Lakewood High School looking for "other intelligent life-forms". There he met Philip Tubb, a Lakewood High School student, who shared his interest in computers. This meeting inspired Philip to start the Jefferson County Computer Club. As a freshman, Philip had served as Student President,Lakewood High School Annual Yearbook, LAHIAN 1973, pg. 138 and he had good relationships with the school's and district's staff. He was able to create the only student-founded multi-school club in the district. Using log-on messages on the county's Hewlett-Packard 2000-series time-shared computer system, club meetings were announced county-wide and held at various high schools.
At the Jefferson County Computer Club, Philip Tubb met many other students who shared an interest in computers. He also shared a strong interest in electronics with John Ridges, a Wheat Ridge High School student. John designed and built one of the first computer-controlled music synthesizers, a polyphonic unit with 6 voices (each with an 8 octave range and 8 volume levels). It could be controlled by a remotely located computer when connected between a teletype (or similar device) and its modem. The ASCII serial data flowing on that connection was used to issue commands to the synthesizer. John also wrote programs in BASIC which allowed music to be entered in text format, saved on the computer's hard drive, and played back using the device. The synthesizer got the nickname "Mesmerelda" due to the hypnotic effects of its status LEDs during playback.
While a student at Lakewood High School, Philip Tubb was hired part-time to operate the district's computer. In that job, Philip also taught seminars on programming to many of the county's high school math teachers who, with little if any prior instruction, were struggling to teach the programming classes. With those contacts, Philip and John began demonstrating Mesmerelda to music classes at several high schools, introducing the students (and teachers) to this new concept of computer-controlled music. Many of the students were interested in music but not skilled enough to perform using a conventional instrument. These students were excited by the idea of using a computer to play music, eliminating the need to master an instrument first. The potential market for computer-controlled synthesizers was apparently larger than the two had assumed.
After high school, Philip Tubb joined fellow former computer club members Tim Gill and Rich Harman at the University of Colorado. Philip soon discovered the computer science classes were based almost entirely on mainframe computers, which he considered obsolete by that time. He dropped out after one semester to study programming independently. Late in 1975, Philip began discussing the idea of starting a company to make computer-related electronic products with John Ridges (who by then was a student at the University of Colorado). Colorado law at that time required an incorporator to be 21, and required at least three directors. Neither Philip nor John were 21 years old; Rich joined the project and signed the incorporation paperwork for "A L F Products Inc." in November 1975.ALF Products Inc., "Articles of Incorporation" Document 19871295108. Retrieved 2013-04-11. The three served as the board of directors at ALF through 1992. The name "ALF" was chosen from a list of assembly language instructions for the Hewlett-Packard computer. It stands for "rotate the A register Left Four bits".Hewlett-Packard, 1970, "2114B Computer, Volume One, Specifications and Basic Operation Manual", Section II, pg 2-8. Retrieved 2016-10-01. This particular instruction was chosen largely because the letters have no curves and would therefore be easy to draw with a plotter or other line-vector graphics device.
ALF developed miscellaneous products before doing more serious work on computer-controlled music synthesizers. Several former Jefferson County Computer Club members became ALF employees, including Tim Gill (who left a job at Hewlett-Packard to join ALF). ALF created several products for the Apple II computer. Tim Gill wanted ALF to work on products for the new Apple III, but Philip Tubb had concerns about the viability of that computer. Tim soon left ALF to start Quark, Inc.Tim Gill, profile page, LinkedIn. Retrieved 2013-04-11. and wrote Word Juggler for the Apple III. Despite this parting, ALF and Quark maintained a relationship over the years. One item ALF manufactured for Quark was a keyboard enhancement circuit that allowed Word Juggler to be used with the Apple II.
ALF was known for its whimsical advertisements and subtle humor in owner's manuals and product brochures. ALF's "Rock Star" adALF Products advertisement, "Announcing the music card that turns you into a Rock Star", Creative Computing, Sept. 1980, Volume 6 Number 9 pg. 175. Retrieved 2013-04-11. noted that "Some companies will say anything to sell you a music card" and proceeded to ridicule selected quotes from competitors' ads. One of the quotes was actually from one of ALF's own earlier ads.ALF Products advertisement, "ALF's Apple Music II is Part of the Excitement of Owning a personal Computer". Retrieved 2013-04-11. The "guitarple" in the ad is not a real instrument; ALF constructed it only for the photo shoot. ALF's "Craftsman" advertisementALF Products advertisement, "ALF still believes in Old World Quality", Creative Computing, April 1980, Volume 6 Number 4 pg. 3F. Retrieved 2013-04-11. was featured in Creative Computing's 1980 April Fools issue. The magazine, when turned upside down, appeared to be "Dr. KiloBYTE's creative Popular Personal Recreational Micro Computer Data Interface World Journal",Back cover of Creative Computing, April 1980, Volume 6 Number 4 a take-off on the names of several computer magazines at the time. This issue included 73 pages of humorous articles, with all the pages numbered in hexadecimal; ALF's ad appeared on page 3F.
As computer-controlled music became more and more popular, much larger companies began entering the market. ALF decided to switch their focus to equipment for duplicating floppy disks, which had little competition, and became a dominant supplier in that field. As compact discs began to replace floppy disks, ALF realized a larger partner was needed for that market. A buyout by Rimage Corporation, who had recently completed their IPO, was negotiated.Rimage Corp. Press Release, 1993 October 4, "Rimage Corp. Acquires ALF Products Inc." . Retrieved 2013-04-11. Most former ALF employees left soon after the acquisition; Philip Tubb and John Ridges remained with Rimage for a few years.
Products
Early products ALF's first products were adaptations of the punched tape reader in the Model 33ASR Teletype which allowed it to operate at higher speeds. Display-based terminals were becoming popular for use on time-shared systems, and they could operate at higher speeds than the Teletype. ALF created an interface card which allowed the Teletype's reader, which normally reads 10 characters per second, to read at 30 characters per second when used with a display-based terminal. It was sold only to schools in the local district; no attempt was made for larger marketing. Another version allowed the reader to operate at 55 characters per second, but modems that could operate at such speeds were not widely used at that time.
Next, ALF produced a number of incidental S-100 products: a card extender, which facilitates testing an S-100 card by raising it above the other cards in the computer; an S-100 motherboard; an S-100 motherboard testing card, which simplified checking for assembly errors on a motherboard; and a random number generator. The motherboard testing card was sold though local hobby-electronics stores, and the motherboard was used in a subsequent product (the AD8).
AD8 Music Synthesizer ALF's first computer-controlled music synthesizer, designed in 1976–1977, was called the AD8 (a homophone of 88, the number of keys on a piano). It was intended for use with any S-100 computer, but could be used with any computer via a parallel bus. The primary hardware was a one-voice synthesizer card; up to eight cards could be used to create a polyphonic system with one to eight simultaneous voices. A controller card, which had its own 6502 processor, connected to the user's computer and the synthesizer cards.Price, David, "Music, Maestro!", Kilobaud Microcomputing, Feb. 1979 pg. 42. Retrieved 2013-04-11. Each one-voice card had the following controls:ALF Products advertisement, "Music.", Creative Computing, Vol. 4 No. 1, Jan/Feb. 1978 pg. 124. Retrieved 2013-04-11. An 8 octave range (96 pitches) Volume control with 256 levels Two programmable waveform generators (sample-based synthesis) Scanned-RAM D/A with 64 elements 256 amplitude levels per element A low-pass filter with 16 levels An envelope generator Rise rates of 0.004 to 1.3 seconds in 256 steps Fall rates of 0.003 to 7.8 seconds in 256 steps 256 sustain levels Stereo channel selection (left or right)
The AD8 was also able to produce various white noise effects, which were particularly useful for percussion sounds, by programming the waveform-RAMs with random numbers.
ALF created a demonstration record, "Computer Controlled Synthesizer Performances", containing performances from Mesmerelda and the AD8.ALF Products phonograph record, 1977, Computer Controlled Synthesizer Performances. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
Costing almost twice a much as the Altair 8800 or similar computer required to control it, the AD8 was too expensive for most hobbyists at the time. Few systems were sold.
Quad Chromatic Pitch Generator Around the same time as the AD8, ALF sold a simple pitch generator card in two versions: one that plugged directly into an S-100 computer, and one that could be connected to any computer via parallel interface."News Release dated July 13, 1977", page 415 of volume 2 compilation, Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia, Vol. 2 Issue 9, October 1977 pg. 45. Retrieved 2015-09-11. Each card could produce four simultaneous voices, and multiple cards could be used in an S-100 system. There were no controls other than pitch (the same 8 octave range as the AD8). It could serve as a computer-controlled sequencer by connecting the individual voices to external equipment, such as conventional analog synthesizers. Additionally, a standard audio cable allowed connection to an ordinary audio system.
Apple Music Synthesizer / Music Card MC16 The S-100 computers that customers used to control the AD8 or Quad Chromatic Pitch Generators varied widely in configuration; there was no single standard for even major items such as the type of display, keyboard interface or layout, tape device for software distribution, and so forth. This lack of standardization was a significant obstacle to ALF creating user-friendly software for their products. When Apple introduced the Apple II in 1977, it was available with only one display and keyboard format, which allowed software to be created that would work for all users. Unfortunately, the Apple II was less powerful than most S-100 computers and the accessory cards it could accommodate were physically quite small. It was necessary for ALF to design a synthesizer much simpler than the complex AD8.