Moby Selling Massive Drum Machine Collection for Charity

Moby is selling nearly 200 analog drum machines from his personal collection to raise money for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The sale starts next Thursday, October 11th, on Reverb.

“I’ve always been a little obsessed with drum machines,” Moby said. “In fact, I’ve always been a lot obsessed with drum machines. Over the years, I presumptuously believe that I have come up with the largest collection of analog drum machines in the world. There are hundreds of them and I loved each and every one of them. I hope that if you buy them, you love them as much as I did. Please take care of my babies.”

Moby shared a video in which he detailed some of the stand-out items from the sale, including two Chamberlin Rhythmates, which the DJ/producer said were his favorites out of the entire collection. Built in the Fifties, the Rhythmate was one of the first electronic drum machines ever produced and, instead of using circuits, used tape-loops with pre-recorded drum sounds. “It’s a beautiful piece, and it’s arguably the rarest, most valuable drum machine ever made, because it’s the first,” Moby said.

Other vintage items include a Seventies MXR Drum Computer, an array of classic Univox drum machines and a late-Fifties Wurlitzer Side Man, which is believed to be the first commercially available drum machine that generated sound electronically.

Moby also singled out a Roland TR-909 as the piece of equipment he was most hard-pressed to part with. “The 909 really is the core drum machine for early rave records, techno, etc,” he said. “There’s the 808, which is a wonderful drum machine – I actually never owned one – but the 909, every early rave and techno record was made with the 909.”

Earlier this year, Moby hosted two other massive sales on Reverb: In April, the musician parted with over 100 pieces of musical equipment, while in June he sold his entire record collection.