Garfield Electronics
Garfield Electronics
Also known as: Garfield
UnclaimedGarfield Electronics was an American music technology company based in Burbank, California, founded by Dan Garfield. The company specialized in synchronization hardware during the pre-MIDI era of the early-to-mid 1980s, when synthesizers, drum machines, and tape machines from different manufacturers used incompatible clock signals, polarities, and connector formats. Garfield's products were des...
Garfield Electronics was an American music technology company based in Burbank, California, founded by Dan Garfield. The company specialized in synchronization hardware during the pre-MIDI era of the early-to-mid 1980s, when synthesizers, drum machines, and tape machines from different manufacturers used incompatible clock signals, polarities, and connector formats. Garfield's products were designed to translate between these standards so that gear from competing brands could be locked together in the same session.
The company is best known for the Doctor Click Rhythm Controller, released in 1982, a two-channel sync box that converted clock signals between drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers. Other products in the lineup included the Mini Doc, a smaller rackmount sync unit, the Master Beat SMPTE Synchronizer for locking electronic instruments to tape, and the Time Machines series. The Doctor Click in particular became a fixture in studios that mixed equipment from manufacturers like Roland, Linn, Oberheim, and Sequential Circuits.
With the widespread adoption of MIDI from 1983 onward, the technical problem Garfield Electronics was built to solve largely disappeared, and the brand's gear is now mostly encountered on the vintage market as a relic of pre-MIDI studio practice.
Garfield Electronics has 3 products cataloged on Equipboard, including Audio Sequencers. Their gear is featured by 3 artists, with the strongest followings in Electronic, Funk / Soul, and Pop. Notable users include Stevie Wonder, Jean Michel Jarre, and Anthony Marinelli.
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