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Firstman was a Japanese company, also known as Hillwood. It was founded in 1972 by Kazuo Morioka, who later worked for Akai in the early 1980s.[1][2]

Digital sequencers[]

  • SQ-01 - A combination of synthesizer and sequencer. Performs bass synth functions similar to the later Roland TB-303.[3] Originally released in 1980 by Hillwood under Firstman brand, before Multivox released it in 1981.[4][5]

References[]

  1. A TALE OF TWO STRING SYNTHS, Sound on Sound, July 2002
  2. Mark Jenkins (2009), Analog Synthesizers, page 107, CRC Press
  3. "[Multivox SQ-01]". Keyboard 9: 28. 1983. https://books.google.com/books?id=6GUJAQAAMAAJ&q=Multivox+SQ-01. "Like the TB-303, the Multivox SQ-01 [see Keyboard Report, Oct. '81] has a rudimentary built-in monophonic synthesizer, allowing it to play back sequences itself. Standard control voltage and gate outputs are also provided. The SQ-01 is loaded in single-step mode, and stores up to 1,024 sixteenth-notes, with longer notes being created by tying sixteenth together. It will play only in 4/4 or 3/4. ..." 
  4. "Firstman International". SYNRISE (in German). Archived from the original on 2003-04-20. FIRSTMAN existiert seit 1972 und hat seinen Ursprung in Japan. Dort ist dieFirma unter dem Markennamen HILLWOOD bekannt. HILLWOOD baute dann auch 1973 den quasi ersten Synthesizer von FIRSTMAN. Die Firma MULTIVOX liess ihre Instrumente von 1976 bis 1980 bei HILLWOOD bauen.","SQ-10 / mon syn kmi ? (1980) / Monophoner Synthesizer mit wahrscheinlich eingebautem Sequenzer. Die Tastatur umfasst 37 Tasten. Die Klangerzeugung beruht auf zwei VCOs.
  5. Mark Jenkins (2009), Analog Synthesizers, pages 107-108, CRC Press