I uploaded a file to the files section of our homepage. It is a short clip
of Michael Iceberg playing two Chamberlin M1 Remotes, which were part of his rig
at the time, known as, "The Iceberg Machine."
It was really quite incredible, as he had been "building" this thing for
about eight years and was triggering all sorts of analog keyboards without
MIDI
At the time his rig consisted of:
What appears to be a two manual (Lowery?) organ with a Prophet 5 on
top (originally a Polymoog). To his right he had (in 1979) a Yamaha CP-70 piano
with an Oberheim 4-voice on top of it. Sandwiched in between the organ and the
piano was a Korg Vocoder.
To his left he had a Minimoog with no keyboard and to the left of that, a
Moog Taurus 1 with the pedals removed and relocated below the organ. Also on the
left was a Steiner-Parker sequencer and below that was a Mutron Biphase. Also on
the left was an Oberheim SEM that was probably patched to the Steiner Parker
sequencer. Below the Minimoog was what appears to be a Sound Workshop 12
channel mixer. There also appears to be a TEAC mixer in there as well.
With his three main keyboards (2 organ manuals and the Prophet), he could
access virtually any sound and assign them to any of the three keyboards. He
could also control the synths and the Chamberlin from the remoted Taurus pedals.
This was done with hand wired relays and triggers. Also mounted on his
left and on a board in front of him were banks of switches and knobs that
he could manipulate to assign sounds to different keyboards, which, apparently,
he could split. The two Chamberlin remotes were controlled by two "ten speed
bicycle shifters" as he called them, mounted in front of him. I could go on
an on about how this whole thing worked, but suffice it to say, it did, and he
put on amazing shows.
There's tons of video on you tube of his various rigs over the years.
Here are some photos of his 1979 rig. I will post them to the home page as
soon as I can... but first, here's the file
Below is a later version of the Iceberg Machine...
1983 or so. By then he had ditched the Yamaha piano and gotten a sampler for
piano. Still had the Chamberlins