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Synthesizer Pioneer Bob Moog Dies
Sigalarm writes "CNN is reporting that synthesizer pioneer and all-around vanguard of electronic music Bob Moog has passed away at age 71. Dr. Moog built his first electronic instrument -- the theremin -- at age 14 and made the MiniMoog, 'the first compact, easy-to-use synthesizer,' in 1964. He was the first to bring the electronic synthesizer within reach of most musicians, and his MiniMoog is still highly praised and often emulated, to this day."
Since Moogmusic is ./'d to hell, try
Moonarchives
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
FYI, proper pronunciaction of Moog is 'Moag', like 'moat' with a 'g', and not like 'Moo'-g, like a cow would say it.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
The following is link from his biography on the same website:
The Man Behind the Machines
What would the world of modern music be like without the inventions of Bob Moog? One answer would be: very boring. Bob Moog's namesake analog synthesizers have affected popular music in ways he might not have expected back in 1954 when he began building theremins with his father. But 50 years later, Bob's musical instruments have catapulted so many styles of music into the future, and his contributions to both players and technicians grow even more profound in retrospect.
Where would R&B, rap and hip-hop be if groups like Parliament and Funkadelic hadn't used Moog keyboards? Where would rock and roll be if groups from Yes to the Beatles hadn't used Moog keyboards? Would jazz music have branched off into fusion without Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea using Moog keyboards? And would classical music have enjoyed such resurgence without Wendy Carlos and her modular Moog synthesizer? The questions are hypothetical, of course, because synthesizers have infiltrated every style of music, and so many companies have tried to recreate that analog sound. But above all the copycats and spin-offs, it always comes back to one name: Moog.
After ten years of making theremins, providing unearthly sounds to science fiction movies and avante garde musicians, Bob Moog met experimental composer Herbert Deutsch, whose search for electronic sounds inspired Bob to create the first Moog Modular Synthesizer. Though Bob took on the project just for fun, when he premiered it at the Audio Engineering Society Convention in October of 1964 the response was immediate and Bob started taking orders on the spot. By the time he received a graduate degree (PhD in Engineering Physics, Cornell University) in the summer of 1965, the R. A. Moog Co. had delivered several modular synthesizer systems, mostly to academic and experimental composers. But it would be a few years later when public awareness of Moog synthesizers would leap ahead beneath the nimble fingers of Wendy Carlos.
Carlos' renowned album "Switched-On Bach" was released on Columbia Records at the
end of 1968, achieving immediate success. The album went on to sell over a million copies, creating a sharp demand for Moog modular synthesizers throughout 1969 and early 1970. Many "switched-on" records were produced during that period. By the end of 1970, the now incorporated R. A. Moog Inc. introduced the Minimoog®, a compact performance synthesizer based on the technology of Moog modular products, enabling keyboardists to take the Moog on the road. And that began a decade of music that would be forever altered by the Minimoog and its incomparable sounds.
R. A. Moog Inc. officially changed its name to Moog Music Inc. in 1971 and became a division of the now defunct Norlin Music in 1973. Moog synthesizers were widely used by professional musicians and the "Sound of the Moog" became an integral part of our musical culture. The list of songs is far too long to print here, but from rock to R&B, from jazz to classical music, the Moog sounds were everywhere.
At the end of 1977, Bob left Moog Music and in 1978 founded Big Briar for the purpose of developing and building electronic musical instruments with novel player interfaces. Actual Moog keyboards were made for the better part of the next decade by Norlin Music, but with the heart and soul of Moog gone, Moog keyboards ceased production by 1986. Though gone from his namesake company, Bob's interest in synthesizers and instruments could not be quelled. From 1978 to 1992, Bob operated Big Briar on a small scale and kept building custom instruments. He was also representing Synton, a Dutch manufacturer of modular equipment, and providing consultation services to other music technology manufacturers. In addition, Bob served as Kurzweil Music Systems' Vice President of New Product Research from 1984 through 1989, and taught music technology courses at the University of North Carolina at Asheville from 1989 to 1992.
A documentary about Robert Moog, called simply "Moog", came out last year, directed by Hans Fjellestad. A site about the movie is here:
http://www.zu33.com/moog/
While the movie doesn't work for everyone (it's a little arty and a little weird), it has a lot of interview footage with Bob Moog and his unique outlook on life. It's well worth getting and a very dreamy, very loving portrait of the man.
How lucky we are that Fjellestad took this project on.
FYI, Bob didn't invent the theremin, but rather it was his work building and marketing them that led to his innovation of the modern synthesizer.
As far as I know, the original article is wrong. Moog synthesizer in 1960's were modular. They were indeed easier to use than the competition because at least they included normal musical keyboard (oddly enough, Bob Moog was one of the rare engineers who understood that musicians want to play their synths just like piano or Hammond organ). Minimoog was the compact one, but it wasn't released until around 1970.
Switched on Bach by Wendy Carlos, especially the last track (Initial Experiments). You can hear Wendy working with a prototype Moog pressure-sensitive keyboard, trying various settings and arrangements. Wendy's narration provides great background to the experiments. As a geek, it is (by far) my favorite track on the CD.
RIP, Bob.
Wikipedia article on Robert Moog.
How many fulltime jobs can one man have?
The Man Behind the Machines
What would the world of modern music be like without the inventions of Bob Moog? One answer would be: very boring. Bob Moog's namesake analog synthesizers have affected popular music in ways he might not have expected back in 1954 when he began building theremins with his father. But 50 years later, Bob's musical instruments have catapulted so many styles of music into the future, and his contributions to both players and technicians grow even more profound in retrospect.
Where would R&B, rap and hip-hop be if groups like Parliament and Funkadelic hadn't used Moog keyboards? Where would rock and roll be if groups from Yes to the Beatles hadn't used Moog keyboards? Would jazz music have branched off into fusion without Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea using Moog keyboards? Where would Rob Malda be without all of the handjobs he gave to Moog? And would classical music have enjoyed such resurgence without Wendy Carlos and her modular Moog synthesizer? The questions are hypothetical, of course, because synthesizers have infiltrated every style of music, and so many companies have tried to recreate that analog sound. But above all the copycats and spin-offs, it always comes back to one name: Moog.
After ten years of making theremins, providing unearthly sounds to science fiction movies and avante garde musicians, Bob Moog met experimental composer Herbert Deutsch, whose search for electronic sounds inspired Bob to create the first Moog Modular Synthesizer. Though Bob took on the project just for fun, when he premiered it at the Audio Engineering Society Convention in October of 1964 the response was immediate and Bob started taking orders on the spot. By the time he received a graduate degree (PhD in Engineering Physics, Cornell University) in the summer of 1965, the R. A. Moog Co. had delivered several modular synthesizer systems, mostly to academic and experimental composers. But it would be a few years later when public awareness of Moog synthesizers would leap ahead beneath the nimble fingers of Wendy Carlos.
Carlos' renowned album "Switched-On Bach" was released on Columbia Records at the
end of 1968, achieving immediate success. The album went on to sell over a million copies, creating a sharp demand for Moog modular synthesizers throughout 1969 and early 1970. Many "switched-on" records were produced during that period. By the end of 1970, the now incorporated R. A. Moog Inc. introduced the Minimoog®, a compact performance synthesizer based on the technology of Moog modular products, enabling keyboardists to take the Moog on the road. And that began a decade of music that would be forever altered by the Minimoog and its incomparable sounds.
R. A. Moog Inc. officially changed its name to Moog Music Inc. in 1971 and became a division of the now defunct Norlin Music in 1973. Moog synthesizers were widely used by professional musicians and the "Sound of the Moog" became an integral part of our musical culture. The list of songs is far too long to print here, but from rock to R&B, from jazz to classical music, the Moog sounds were everywhere.
At the end of 1977, Bob left Moog Music and in 1978 founded Big Briar for the purpose of developing and building electronic musical instruments with novel player interfaces. Actual Moog keyboards were made for the better part of the next decade by Norlin Music, but with the heart and soul of Moog gone, Moog keyboards ceased production by 1986. Though gone from his namesake company, Bob's interest in synthesizers and instruments could not be quelled. From 1978 to 1992, Bob operated Big Briar on a small scale and kept building custom instruments. He was also representing Synton, a Dutch manufacturer of modular equipment, and providing consultation services to other music technology manufacturers. In addition, Bob served as Kurzweil Music Systems' Vice President of New Product Research from 1984 through 1989, and taught music technology courses at the University of North Carolina at Asheville from 1989 to
Terry Gross interviewed Robert Moog back in 2000. The interview is available online here:
y Id=1113447
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
"He's like an Einstein of music," Carlini said. "He sees it like, there's a thought, an idea in the air, and it passes through him. Passing through him, he's able to build these instruments."
Wow, deep stuff, man, but don't bogart that joint. At first sight, I though Mr. Carlini must be some hack that CNN tapped for a quote. Turns out, Carlini is a force in the NYC entertainment industry -- http://carlinigroup.com/pdf/bio.pdf. Sorry for the PDF.
Let me join the rest of the music world in wishing Dr. Robert Moog peaceful journeys. Without his genius, we might never have experienced music as we know it today.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Speaking of obsolete analog in a digital world, these guys still make DIY analog synth kits (and other stuff). They've been around since the late 60s, early 70s.
If you have it somewhere: I Feel Love by Donna Summer. Baseline is Giorgio Moroder and the classic MS-10/SQ-10 pair. Must have been the first introduction to a sequencer for most people. Little did they know.. He will be missed.
That riff is not thanks to Mr. Moog but rather to Paul Tanner who built the electro-theremin, which was of course based on the traditional hands-waving-in-space theremin.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
Moving from valve oscilators and mixers to digital music synthesizers and samplers...
He was thinking "...and back". Lots of contemporary electronica/trip hop bands actually use analog synthesizers (Moog included) for many reasons. If you don't understand these reasons, just listen to groups such as Air.
Arturia, for those of you with a few hundred bucks to spend, has a software model of the both the Minimoog and the wall sized Moog Modular. It's one of the best ways (that i've found) to get warm, analog synth goodness out of my machine. Bob Moog will surely be missed - and his contributions to the electronic world will live on, with or without the original, gargantuan equipment.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
Though Bob Moog was obviously a genius of electronic instrument design, he is often credited with being the first to develop the voltage-controlled oscillator and voltage controlled filter. Actually the credit should go to Dr. Freidrich Adolf Trautwein and his Trautonium, a vacuum tube behemoth constructed in Germany in 1930. The VCOs were thyratron tubes (similar to solid state SCRs) that were used as relaxation oscillators, which were tuned by applying a negative voltage to their control grids. There are schematics available for similar tube synth circuits available at Metasonix, which also has tube synth modules for sale.
The theremin wasn't invented by Bob Moog, he just built one when he was 14.
A russian, Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Leon Theremin) invented the theremin in 1919, 45 years before the Moog prototype was made.
Actually, MIDI is all about being a language of messages and control, not about actual sound signal itself. MIDI is actually what seperates the performance from the sound generation.
kurzweil_freak
5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student
Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.
What's really sad is how persecuted those who enjoy electronic music are. Just last weekend a rave in Utah was broken up by the national guard. Hundreds of peaceful dancers threatened with guns, and dozens beaten and arrested. This was a fully licensed event, and the police simply ripped up the permits and waved their guns. Here is a video of the raid, and some first hand accounts.
The government is waging war on its own citizens under the guise of the war on drugs, now blatantly violating the constition. It's clear that if you are not a good christian who drinks beer and watches football, you're a second class citizen. I'm just glad nobody died.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
actually - the first Rock single to use a Moog synth (as an instrument - not as a noise machine) was The Monkees' "Star Collector".
[Connection closed by foreign host]
Actually, MIDI is all about being a language of messages and control, not about actual sound signal itself.
The entire control aspect of MIDI, the entire frequency range and "note" aspect of MIDI, all of MIDI's timing, and every other control or signal is quantized, perfect, reproducable, and digital.
You can't -continuously- vary the tempo, the frequency of gate signals, the frequency of any oscillator, the resonance value of any filter, etc. Oh, sure, you can get 16 bits or more of resolution on these digital settings in MIDI and you can send those signals at some divisor of 31 kHz (or whatever MIDI's rate is), which is fairly fast and fairly smooth, but it's simply not analog or continuous control.
If you've ever heard classic MIDI "zipper" noise when controlling a filter or oscillator, you'll agree. And when you don't hear such digital artifacts during MIDI control, it's simply because a smart engineer has kept those artifacts below a reasonable level of perception. I'm not saying MIDI control is worse or evil, but it's not what Robert Moog pioneered, nor was it what he was best at, nor what is what most people will remember him for.
MIDI is actually what seperates the performance from the sound generation.
MIDI is one way to do it. Analog sequencers and analog patches are another. Where MIDI requires a distinction be made between an audio signal and a control signal (MIDI addressing only the latter, and only digitally), analog does not. Signal is signal and there's nothing to stop you from (and everything to encourage you to try) taking an "audio" output and sending it to a "control" input or vice versa.
Sweep one -10V to +10V oscillator (audio) with another -10V to +10V oscillator (control) and you'll be doing something that MIDI just can't do. When a jack says "output" on a patchable analog rig, you can treat it as control or audio. It's really quite elegant. And nasty.
Dr. Moog was perhaps the best at bridging the gap between artists and technology. He'd be the first to admit he was not the first synthesizer inventor, but he is widely regarded as the synthesizer pioneer because he worked closely with musicians to bring the technology out of the lab and into the studio. Many of his modules are the direct result of trial-and-error testing: he would build a module, say a coincidence switch, then have for example W. Carlos try to work with it and get feedback on what it did well and what needed improvement. It was several years of this sort of engineering->field use->feedback cycle that resulted in the Moog 15, Minimoog and so on. This was Bob's true skill: being able to turn the desires of the musician into something they could actually use.
Bob's booth at NAMM was a dozen feet from ours from 2001-2003. Bob was such a low-key guy, he often did what lots what other highbrow names in the music industry wouldn't do: he would do things himself. I still remember when he was there alone in the booth, tweaking one of his Minimoog Voyagers, and needed to borrow a soldering iron. Our booth's boss--who like the rest of us staffing the booth became EEs and synthgeeks *because* of the affable white-haired Doctor--had one when Bob walked over to politely ask to use it:
http://www.oldcrows.net/synthshop/moog_setup.jpg
That picture is what Bob was all about. Always tweaking, never afraid to do whatever was needed himself, even when it was showtime.
Goodbye, Bob--you were a great teacher but an even greater friend.
I'm not saying illegal things didn't happen there. But illegal things happen at every concert and club in the world. Electronic music fans are particularly singled out.
Now as for the permits, they were destroyed by the police. If you don't believe it, we'll find out when it all goes to court. The police just didn't care that this event was as legal as an Allman Brothers concert. The linked article is extremely poorly researched, and deliberately biased towards the government.
Anyway, if you've ever been to a rave you'd know that there's almost never any trouble. Ravers are peaceful friendly people. Most all raves are well planned with security and medical. The only "problems" that happen are people consuming drugs of their own volition. Illegal yes, but does that justify waving assault rifles in their faces?
Besides, if you care so much about law and order, you should be concerned that this raid happened in a lawful manner. It wasn't.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Polymoog wasn't his. David Luce designed that one.
I read a David Luce paper in Journal Of The Audio engineering Society. Nice measurements of musical instrument spectra, completely faulty mechanism for describing how they changed with amplitude.
Here's a link to a good history of Moog Music, including how Luce was chosen to run the outfit after Moog left.
http://www.synthmuseum.com/moog/
CBS Music never owned the Moog trademark. In the 1970/80s it was owned by Norlin, who also owned Gibson guitars, Lowrey organs, Maestro FX pedals, Pearl Drums, among others.
The Moog trademark lapsed by the mid 90s and was snatched up by Don Martin. After promises of reissued Moog products, accepting 50% deposits, and very little product delivered, Don was forced into bankruptcy and the assets were liquidated. Bob Moog stepped in to reacquire the trademarks to his name and the instruments, and operated as Moog Music since 2002.
Bob's 21st century Minimoog, the Voyager, is an outstanding product. I have one of the early Voyagers and it is a high quality product, as is the other Moog products they currently make.
We lost a great man this weekend.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
looks like the video link is gone.
I found more info at wikinews with links to videos.
-metric
That doesn't really do justice to it:
Source: From the account of one of the headline DJs
Other choice quotes:
Spread the word."the first compact, easy-to-use synthesizer"
Having used a Mini-Moog, I can tell you it is far from compact, and it is certainly not easy to use. Other than that, the Mini is nothing short of brilliance. Two VCOs form the basis of its authoritative sound. It falls short of a full blown ADSR, but it gets the job done.
One interesting thing I read is that there was a club that used to have jam sessions where guys would bring out their Minis and set them all to the same EXACT settings and exhibit completely different sounds.
The digital reproductions can't hold a candle... but those analogs could NEVER stay in tune...
That would make for an awful tribute, in my opinion. Moog pioneered and championed analog, imperfect, and continuously variable signals. MIDI is all about crisp, quantized, digital, perfectly sequencable and recordable signals.
That's not entirely acurate actually, Bob Moog is invaluably connected to MIDI. It was Bob who actually published the first public article detailing the MIDI standard (developed by Yamaha, Roland, and a consortion of other synth companies from 1980-83) in Keyboard Magazine, in 1983. This was, as it was meant to be, the final call, making MIDI the universal interface standard. The man himself was so reveared that when he said that there needed to be one universal interface standard, and that MIDI was that standard, everyone simply had to listen to him. If he hadn't done so, it's quite possible that no one interface standard would have been solidified, and synths would be no more compatable than today's computers.
So, the man is almost as important to MIDI as he is to the synthesizer. He invented neither, but in both cases brought them into a stage where they could be much more usable and commercially viable.
- EricMultiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.