The official auction start date is Nov 3 and runs until Nov 11, however you can see some items listed here. From the description it looks like you can start bidding now.The rarest item to be auctioned? Joel Chadabe's late 60s CEMS system (pictured - click the image for the full size shot). The CEMS system was located at the Electronic Music Studio at State University of New York at Albany. You can see and read more about Joel Chadabe and the system at his official website. Joel also wrote Electric Sound which recently came up for auction here. Side Note from the comments of this previous post: Richard Lainhart of O-Town Media learned to play electronic music on the CEMS system pictured here.
Peter Forrest who runs the auction let me know that the auction will include Felix' Visser's own Syntons. Felix is the man behind Synton, pictured here . His items start at number 5500 and go to 5539.
Update via Richard Lainhart in the comments:
"Some notes about this system: the large knobless module at the end of each sequencer is a Linear Mixer that Bob custom-designed for this system. These were very clean simple mixers that could mix from DC up into the audo range. They were intended mainly to mix the CV outputs from the sequencer stages together, but since they were so clean, we would often use them to mix the oscillator and filter outputs as well.
The jackfields at the bottom of each cabinet are patchbays that connect the cabinets together. In its original configuration, there were bundles of cable behind each cabinet that connected the patchbays to each other, so you could cable between the cabinets without needing extra-long patchcords.
The cabinet with the large white panel contains all the components of the Master Analog Clock, another custom design. The four vertical slots in the third row down from the top are Nixie lamps; these would display the current time count (in 10th of a second, I think). The top row are 8 individual clock subdividers, which could be set to send out divisions or multiples of the basic clock pulse. Below all that are the 8 clock outputs, any of which could be routed to any of the sequencers. The purpose of all this was to provide a master timing source for the sequencers, so they could all be synced with complex rhythmic relationships. The sequencers could also free-run, so you could have any combination of master-synced and free-running.
The remaining cabinet contains most of the actual audio-generating modules, although as I recall there were a couple of additonal filters and oscillators in some of the control cabinets as well.
At the time, it was the largest integrated Moog system in the world, and probably the largest integrated Moog sequencer system ever."
Update via Richard Lainhart:
"By the way, all the pieces on the second half of this page. from "The Wave-Sounding Sea" to "A River On Cold Mountain" were created with the CEMS system. "
Some notes about this system: the large knobless module at the end of each sequencer is a Linear Mixer that Bob custom-designed for this system. These were very clean simple mixers that could mix from DC up into the audo range. They were intended mainly to mix the CV outputs from the sequencer stages together, but since they were so clean, we would often use them to mix the oscillator and filter outputs as well.
ReplyDeleteThe jackfields at the bottom of each cabinet are patchbays that connect the cabinets together. In its original configuration, there were bundles of cable behind each cabinet that connected the patchbays to each other, so you could cable between the cabinets without needing extra-long patchcords.
The cabinet with the large white panel contains all the components of the Master Analog Clock, another custom design. The four vertical slots in the third row down from the top are Nixie lamps; these would display the current time count (in 10th of a second, I think). The top row are 8 individual clock subdividers, which could be set to send out divisions or multiples of the basic clock pulse. Below all that are the 8 clock outputs, any of which could be routed to any of the sequencers. The purpose of all this was to provide a master timing source for the sequencers, so they could all be synced with complex rhythmic relationships. The sequencers could also free-run, so you could have any combination of master-synced and free-running.
The remaining cabinet contains most of the actual audio-generating modules, although as I recall there were a couple of additonal filters and oscillators in some of the control cabinets as well.
At the time, it was the largest integrated Moog system in the world, and probably the largest integrated Moog sequencer system ever.
Nifty. Wonder how much repair it would take to bring to about 100%
ReplyDeleteElectric Sound is a great book.
ReplyDeleteRepair would be difficult, I think. I know that it wasn't in great shape when it was sent to Felix, and that was around 1990. The main problem, though, is that while there are quite a few restorers who could deal with the standard modules, since those are well-documented, I don't know that any documentation exists for the custom modules.
ReplyDeleteThe Linear Mixers probably wouldn't be tough to figure out, but the Master Clock was unique, and quite possibly based on currently unavailable components. Between that, and the lack of design documentation....
By the way, all the pieces on the second half of this page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.otownmedia.com/he/earlyworks.htm
from "The Wave-Sounding Sea" to "A River On Cold Mountain" were created with the CEMS system.
Sad that it will probably end up in some rich European synth collector's basement.
ReplyDeleteI am an auction lover. So every news related to the auction makes me very happy. Thanks for keeping us updated.
ReplyDelete__________________________________________________
Penny Auction Online | Online Penny Bid Auction