Birotron

The Birotron is a unique electronic keyboard instrument invented, developed, and manufactured in the 1970s. Although many people were excited about this new musical instrument, it was never produced commercially or released to the public. Today, musicologists call the Birotron the world’s rarest manufactured instrument.

Development

The Birotron was a tape replay keyboard. This meant it could store sounds and songs on magnetic tape and later play them back to produce music.

It was similar to the Mellotron and Chamberlin, two other types of tape replay keyboards. However, these three keyboards used different methods of storing tape. The Birotron used 8-track tapes in endless loops, meaning they never had to be rewound or replaced. However, the Mellotron and the Chamberlin used strips of tape wrapped around pulleys.

The Birotron was developed by Dave Biro and financed by Rick Wakeman (of the band Yes), alongside Rudkin-Wiley Corporation, which was under the ownership of Pepperidge Farm Foods / Campbell Soup and Air Shield Ltd.

Early interest and pre-orders

The Birotron was heavily advertised in trade magazines and gained attention in newspaper articles. Over 1,000 pre-orders, valuing more than one million dollars in sales, were received from many of the most popular bands and musicians of the time.

Legendary artists who pre-ordered the Birotron included John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Vangelis, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Chicago, Uriah Heep, Roger Whittaker, The Faces, Yes, Larry Fast (Synergy), Rod Stewart, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Gary Wright, Captain and Tennille, Dudley Moore, and Patrick Moraz.

Manufacturing issues and delays

When production of the Birotron started, manufacturing difficulties soon arose. These problems became time-consuming and costly to resolve, and this caused major delays in the instrument's release to the public.

By the time Birotronics was ready to launch the Birotron in the late 1970s, digital keyboard technology (like the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument) was emerging. The Birotron's 8-track tape technology was now out of date.

End of production

Birotronics predicted that the Birotron’s profit margins would be be very low because of its obsolete technology, rising manufacturing costs, and competition from string synthesizers (electronic musical instruments designed to imitate string instruments). As a result, Birotronics halted funding and production for the Birotron.

Birotronics disposed of all Birotron B-90 prototypes and the specialised parts needed to manufacture them. These important parts could only be manufactured by the companies who had originally created them.

Of over 1,000 people and bands who pre-ordered a Birotron, only three bands ever received one. These were Yes (with Rick Wakeman), Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze (alongside Earthstar). To obtain their Birotrons, they had to make personal visits to Peter Robinson, the owner and CEO of the manufacturing company Birotronics Ltd.

Legacy

Today, the Birotron is classified by musicologists as the world’s rarest manufactured instrument. As of today, only two working Birotrons (with incomplete and non-playable tape sets) are known to exist.

Because it was used to create soundscapes (combinations of various sounds), there is no definitive record of how the Birotron sounded by itself. No representative Birotron samples have ever been created for software, as replacement 8-track tapes were never produced or issued to the few bands that owned one.

The Birotron was used just briefly on albums, tours, and a hit single, and then disappeared rapidly. Its rarity and sense of mystery increased public interest in the instrument. According to reports by Rick Wakeman and The Times, a Birotron was privately sold in the 1990s for between £35,000 and £45,000. In comparison, similar keyboards from the same era were selling for just a few hundred pounds at the time.

Rudkin-Wiley Corporation did attempt to develop a 1980s version of the instrument, called the Birotron Polyvox, which would have used both digital and 8-track tape technology. However, this project never advanced beyond the design stage.