Whenever I think of the beginning of Japan's rule, I think of the 1977 US$4800 (twice as much in the UK). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_MC-8_Microcompose

Whenever I think of the beginning of Japan's rule, I think of the 1977 US$4800 (twice as much in the UK). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_MC-8_Microcomposer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_MC-8_Microcomposer. This is two years after the Pop Electronics article on the Altair. Ralph Dyck-inspired, [1] with an 8080A micro, starting with 4K (1100 notes) of expensive RAM (later 16K). 22 quarter-inch jacks, 30 push-buttons, LEDs.... An inch-thick manual. This wasn't just an improvement on anything that existed. It was a Kakehashi moonshot - wine and roses. Only 300 made. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20110918103549/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/mar97/rolandmc8.html https://web.archive.org/web/20110918103549/http://www.soundo... [1] https://rolandmc8.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/exclusive-interview-with-ralph-dyck-godfather-of-the-mc-8/ https://rolandmc8.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/exclusive-intervi...