The Experimental Music Studios at the University of “I”

In November 2024 I traveled from Hamburg to Chicago, then to Champaign, IL to accompany my Continuum Fingerboard to its maker’s lab.

Biking through the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign–on a racing bike of Lippold Haken’s–I came across expansive lawns, historical buildings,…

…and chanced upon the School of Music.

Some research taught me that this building was the home of the renown Experimental Music Studios and I immediately contacted Maxwell Logan Miller, the head of the EMS.

Thankfully Max got back to me on very short notice and arranged to meet up and give me a tour of the facilities, founded in 1958 by composer Lejaren Hiller, Jr.

Onward into geek central 🤓 Here is a vintage Roland Studio System 100M.

Next up a large Buchla system.

Early MIDI…

And an EML-200 mystery box I had never even heard about.

Most of the acoustically treated rooms are equipped with a high end stereo or surround monitoring system (one stereo, several 5.1 and one 8.1) and one had a speakerdome for immersive content, Ambisonics and 3D-audio projects.

Occupying the sweet spot 🤓

I even got the chance to meet the EMS’s director Eli Fieldsteel for an informal chat. Looking forward to a return and the possibility of doing a lecture in this amazing space 🙏