Bob Moog's Archives moving to Cornell University

[Sweep]

Statement from Bob Moog's widow on why she made this decision:

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2013/ ... niversity/

[EMwhite]

Umm... wow!

Quite a bit in her statement and even more in Michelle's statement which is linked within. I had not read either; yeah, it clears up some things but also confirms that there was/still is some ill will.

Now that she is done, it would be nice if BMF and Cornell could get together and I suspect that it's possible but the proximity to where they setup shop and the fact that there is such a great distance between the two locales will be even more of a draw on BMF resources.

Will Cornell assign a tiger team to plow through it all and have a vision for how to present and a timeline, etc. or will it just sit and not be available to public in any form for another 2-3 years.

Will Cornell turn over full access of electronic copy and plenty of hardware and tooling to BMF so they can continue in Asheville...

"so many questions..."

[Kevin Lightner]

Not to make soup out of this pot of poison, but I just visited the BMF website.
I, apparently naively, wanted their address to look at their building via Google Earth or Google Streetview.
But there was only a PO Box address posted.

Now, the announcement for the Moogseum appears to have been first made at the 2009 Namm show.
That's about 4 years ago.
Their goal was to raise $3 million dollars to build it.
But in looking at their financial statement of 2011, they'd take quite a long time to arrive at that goal.

So if what I'm seeing is correct, there is no actual building to visit even today?
No actual permanent installation?
Just a PO box?
Sorry if I sound critical, but this amazes me.
People are commenting that the BMF should remain in Asheville, but as far as I can see, it doesn't even tangibly exist.
(Cornell already covers more than 2300 acres, fwiw.)

What am I missing here?
If someone today wanted to visit the BMF today, could they?
Is there a building somewhere I'm missing?

Also, I tried to download their PDF of the Moogseum plans (twice), but for whatever reason it wouldn't open on my Mac.
Perhaps it's readable on other computers, browsers or using Acrobat, but it didn't work for me and most PDFs download fine here.

[latigid on]

Shall I wade in here...?

The .pdf works for me (maybe their server is a bit flaky though) and it looks like a great, if not ambitious, project. The Moogseum seems to be about exposing people to synthesis, with performance and experimental space. There is a restoration/archival section in one corner with digital access to the processed pieces.

If the BMF still receives documents, equipment and donations, I don't see why they can't realise the Moogseum without the archival space. Cornell is already an established restoration facility and has the means (funding, staff, infrastructure) to correctly handle this collection.

(I suppose this is what David said above.)

[George Nada]

The Bob Moog Foundation does have a physical address. From their website:

"If you’d like to come visit us in person our physical address is:

2 Wall St. Suite 108

Asheville, NC 28801"

I'd love to go to a Moogseum and I like the Foundation, but I also understand why Dr. Grams-Moog is making the decision that she is. Seems like the Foundation will have to take a new path from here. Maybe focus more on their forward thinking activities like education and find other ways to continue Bob's legacy.

[thealien666]

Kevin, FWIW, the pdf document took some time to load but eventually displayed the message "failed to load PDF document" on my Mac also (in Google Chrome as well as Firefox and Safari. Even directly downloading it.).

File must have some non-standard content that makes it incompatible with some pdf file viewers I guess. Maybe it has been hacked and contains a trojan (and that's why it can still be opened on a PC ? Sorry I couldn't resist some Windows bashing )

Edit: I've even tried with my Windows XP PC laptop and it refuse to display with a message that the file is either damaged or corrupted. (so much for my Windows bashing... )

[latigid on]

If anybody wants it, PM me your email address and I'll send it through. For what it's worth, the download now fails on my side.

[museslave]

The level of ignorance coupled with strong assertion present in this thread is really astounding. Really, truly astounding.

Before you assert a strong opinion about something you know (what seems to be) almost nothing, perhaps you should do some research.

I'm glad to see that people are very slowly making their way around to the bounty of information present on the internet. Sadly, it seems to be happening AFTER decisions about this situation have been made.

After being a member of this forum for this long, I have to say that I'm really really surprised.

If you'd like to actually learn literally ANYTHING about this situation, please talk to me. Otherwise, I'll leave you to your assertive and prejudiced imaginings.

[CZ Rider]

If you'd like to actually learn literally ANYTHING about this situation, please talk to me.

Why hasn't the BMF published any of the schematics or drawings from the Bob Moog archives?
I would have no problem at all with the BMF if they kept their promise of saving this info and showing it. Why would they not scan every document to preserve it? Right now the actual documents could be lost in a flood or fire and lost forever. 6 years is plenty of time to take a large flatbed scanner and actually scan and save all these rare drawings and schematics. After all what is Bob's work if not for the schematics and diagrams showing what he did and how he did it. Right? Why has this not been done, and if it has, why not make it public for all to see? Who better to interpret these schematics that the many of us who know how to read schematics and how to take Bob's ideas further by using his ideas.
It makes no sense at all that this Moogseum could not have been an online resource for the whole world to see. This would have benefited so many more interested in Bob's work. I just don't get how the BMF could drag their feet so long on this.
Back in 2007 the BMF asked us, the synth community for donations to document these very schematics and drawings. They even sent out an Email and got our addresses from condolences left when Bob was ill. Here is the original request for help to save the documents.

From the BMF 10/04/2007:
Do you want to see Bob's Archives?

We're working to save them so we can share them with you.

Bob Moog Foundation Archives

Bob loved electronic tools and what he could do with them. He believed that his instruments were tools Moog musicians could use to express their innovative thinking. He was right.

With that same spirit, our goal is to document, celebrate & teach innovative thinking. Starting with Bob's archives.

We have started to document the notes, prototypes & correspondence of the brilliant mind that built the defining instrument of 20th century music. He left behind thousands of items. Do you want to see them? We have a lot of work to do to make that possible.

Make a gift that supports our work to preserve the archives.

Currently, the wealth of information & artifacts Bob left behind are in danger from mold, mildew & water damage. Most are in a big warehouse in the country outside of Asheville. This should have been a temporary home for his last project--to sort out his archives. Cancer ended his life before he could complete the project.

The reality is, we can't preserve, document & share the archives without funding. It's going to cost upwards of $50,000 for the first phase, which includes removing the mold & mildew from instruments, getting the content off the tapes and getting the paper documents dried out.

We are calling on the Moog community of artists, engineers, friends & family to donate $50,000 by November 15th. To meet our goal, we need 500 people to give just $100 to save Bob's archives.

Be one of the 500 people who donate to save Bob's archives.

We've found some real treasures in the archives already. On the first day of working in the warehouse, we found the last MiniMoog to roll off the production line and one of the early modulars. In future emails, we'll send you pictures of these historic items.

While we have begun the lengthy process of moving items to a climate-controlled, secure warehouse it is slow work and we are limited by a shortage of staff and funding. Some extraordinary volunteers have stepped in to help, but it's not enough.

We're determined to save the archives. We need your help.

Make a donation using our secure online credit card system.

In the next month, you'll be hearing from some other Moog fans. You might just recognize some of the names...watch your inbox."

So there it is. The BMF took my money on a promise. They have had 6 years to produce these scans and I have seen nothing but broken promises. At least at Cornell, I will finally have the chance to look at and study what I made donations to see.

[Sweep]

The level of ignorance coupled with strong assertion present in this thread is really astounding. Really, truly astounding...

I note that the several other equally arrogant and patronising comments that followed this one were unsupported by any hard evidence.

I agree 100% with CZRider. Perhaps you'd like to reply to his questions.

I'd also like to ask: Is your aggression and monumental arrogance representative of the BMF as a whole, or is it just you?

[thealien666]

If you'd like to actually learn literally ANYTHING about this situation, please talk to me.

I, too, would have liked to have seen documents made available for public access online earlier. In this day of virtual worlds, why couldn't the Moogseum have been a virtual one first ? Much less costly to operate then a physical one, and much more accessible to everyone around the globe. It could still be possible, with Cornell physically storing and preserving all that stuff properly, and the BMF hosting and maintaining the virtual Moogseum with donations, maybe ?

Edit: BTW Marc, with your comment you could have taken the opportunity to give us your take on all this, instead of leaving us to our assertive and prejudiced imaginings as you put it ?

[CZ Rider]

And Marc,
If you have the time and resources, could we please get the drawings and schematics on the following R.A.Moog modules;
901D Variable Output Stage
902A Bandpass Filter Adapter
906 Impulse Generator
913 Triggered Envelope Generator
982 Two Channel Mixer
701 Drum Synthesizer (have seen low rez scan of this at BMF)
702 Percussion Synthesizer
Polyphonic Oscillator Bank (Wendy Carlos system)
Minimoog Oscillator Bank Conversion (Wendy Carlos system)
Modular Programer (As used in Keith Emerson system)
Custom Sample/Hold (In Keith Emerson system)
Or any other non-documented R.A.Moog modules like that Red Noise Filter.

As I'm sure you know Bob kept a seperate file for all the schematics on the Carlos, Emerson, and Max Brand systems. Long overdue to show these to the public.

I'm most interested in the 901D and 906. I have all the Vector boards and probably most of the parts to start building these. All I need is the plans. Would love to study the schematic for the 901D to see how Bob designed the variable clipping. I have some vague ideas how this could be done, but Bob's drawings would be the authentic way to do it. This is a unique module, even today. Any infos on that 906 Impulse Generator would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks if you can help out!

[MC]

[EMwhite]

This is the best thread on the forum . Like the Truman Show, I can't wait to see how it ends ...

But I do have a few sensible question (asking Marc since he offered, but I'll take any feedback) and these are sincere questions, not meant to be rhetorical, I'm hopeful that there will be few good responses. (please...)

- Is it the fact that a portion of the Archive (paper based) is organized and possibly cataloged but not yet indexed or scanned in any way as to facilitate retrieval. If so, what is the measure? The high level structure of the Archive would be good to know (or progress towards have it structured for retrieval in mind). I have as much of a curious interest as any as it relates to the evolution of Bob's work and synthesizer technology, but I am also interested in how it is organized and the plans for search/retrieval (my day job had me spending a fair amount of time researching Full text indexing, scanning, retrieval/document management systems and to that end, I'd be curious to see what the plans 'were' or maybe that it was a box on the list of work to be done, not yet begun.

- CZ's request above is rather detailed and only those in the know (likely a few of the folks here, not me!) will ACTUALLY know what the heck they are looking at, even if it's to identify a document as pertinent to suit any particular query. Does BMF have access to folks which possess this knowledge? Certainly many of us have a detailed historical and 'working knowledge' of much of the Moog Modular lineage; eager to know what sorts of folks are on staff and (per below) if the opportunity exists to fulfill any of his asks (I am sure you will respond to him on each item).

- And if you can say, is the nature of the donation to Cornell such that large trucks are already moving articles to New York or if they've sent folks to investigate and catalog (at high level) the collection? The obvious suggestion is, if the opportunity exists to begin to scan docs en mass (for tagging at a later date), it would be great for BMF to rent some equipment and expertise to try and capture some of the key bits of the archive before they vanish for what I fear will be an indeterminate period of time.

My general comments are that I've always believed in the mission of BMF, I think that your web site is surely fancy as is the proposed Museum (if not overly ambitious) but am disappointed that the community has become so divided as this thread has shown. I've seen your booth at AES and at Moogfests and have dropped in to say "hi". Seems like having a presence at major synth get-togethers is one measure of success and you've done that. Should you have been left to go at it on your own, the museum may have been open two years from now or five years from now and that you would not have had too much to answer to... but it didn't happen for you, and here we are.

I don't think anyone will disagree that it's high time for folks to either band together and produce SOMETHING useful to a) preserve the legacy and b) serve the community, or to just go home defeated. In either case, it would be good to spend a bit of time detailing where everything stands and how we got here. If nothing else, it will calm some of the fears and allegations which have been strewn across the net for permanence of a different sort, vis-a-vis the Internet Archive.

[Kevin Lightner]

I agree with many of these recent posts.
Some very good thoughts expressed.

One thing I would ideally hope is that Cornell might be able to hire Michele K. Moog as some sort of consultant or adviser.
The woman shouldn't lose her job and income over this and collective compromises and coordination might spell a win-win for all.