New Member

[Gene Zumchak]

List,

    I am a new member of your list.  I graduated with an MEE from
Cornell U. in 1968, and took a job with a guy named Dr. Robert A. Moog
whose synth factory was located in Trumansburg, NY about fifteen miles
out of Ithaca up the West side of Cayuga Lake.  I was the first engineer
he ever hired.

    I have been out of the loop for about 25 years, but haven't stopped
thinking about analog synthesizers.  These days I'm into micros and have
been working with the Motorola HC12.  Like everyone else, I'm about to
design my own analog synth.

    Are there any old Moog employees on this list.  If so, I'd like to
hear from you.  In particular, does anyone know the whereabouts of Bill
Hemsath or Jim Scott?

    I worked on a lot of custom jobs for Moog customers.  One module
which I designed was the 960 Sequencer, using (then new) RTL digital
integrated circuits.

    The Moog modular stuff was made without the benefit of IC op amps.
Moog made his own simple op amps.  The key to their working was the
differential input pair that had to be matched.  He built a fixture that
a transistor was plugged into.  One of his working ladies would take a
fresh bag of transistors and plug them in one by one.  A set of radio
switches selected one of several base currents.  Resulting Vbe voltages
were logged on a little form.  The transistor was tapped the form and
thrown into a box.  Some day when someone needed a job to do, the forms
would be sorted and matched as closely as possible.  Matched pairs were
stapled together for later use in op amp circuits.

Having been away from this stuff for more than a couple of decades I
have a couple of questions.


1.  Back a couple of decades ago, there were some people making analog
synth chips.  One was called Curtis.  The other Solid State Music.  Does
anyone know what happened to these guys?

2.  There are some common needs for anyone building their own analog
synth.  Has anyone ever investigated putting some of the stuff on a
custom chip?  With a group as big as this (almost 600 members), if
everyone tossed in $10, there would be $5000 to finance the chip.  It
need not be complex, or even include op amps.  Of course, there might be
some disagreement about what should be on it.  Specifically, I would
like to see the Moog LP ladder with its exponential transistor current
source (preferably heated) and a heated section with perhaps three or
four free current sources to use for VCO or VCLFO's.  The actual
oscillator mechanism is too personal to get a consensus on, but
everyone, I would think could use the heated transistors and ladder.

I'll be happy to hear from any old friends, particularly from the
Trumansburg days.

Eugene M. (Gene) Zumchak