Dave Rossum has been an important figure in both the early days of modular synthesis as co-founder of E-mu Systems, and today with his current company Rossum Electro-Music.
When we were researching the History section of Patch & Tweak, Dave was very generous in sharing with us how E-mu Systems was born, up through the early years of that company. Here is the timeline in Dave's own words:
E-mu Systems Timeline
Spring 1970
“A small group of Caltech students in Dabney House get interested in building a synthesizer when Bob Land decides he wants to learn how to play one. I am interested but not much progress is made.
October 1970
“Having graduated from Caltech in June 1970, and now going to graduate school in molecular biology at UC Santa Cruz, my PhD advisor Harry Noller invites me to help the music department in College V unpack their new Moog Model 10 synthesizer. I catch the synthesizer bug, help teach the music students how to use the Moog, and study the schematics that came with it.
