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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
Where would haunted houses be without the theramin?
And where would boardwalks be without haunted houses? Childhood as we know it would collapse.
I'll have to listen to all my Wendy Carlos CD's that are encoded on my iPod in a memoriam.
...a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. I found out he had a brain tumour a few weeks ago. Hope he died surrounded by friends and family.
I am NaN
As a tribute, I'm queueing up one of the first mainstream albums to use a Moog: The Beatles' "Abbey Road".
So long, and thanks for all the samples!
--- question = 0xFF;
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.
Someone should posted a MIDI version of Taps.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
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.
...Makes ya think, is he really gonna settle for just playing a harp 'up there'?
So long, and thanks for all the BASS.
respect,love, and continuation,
jamesr.
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.
I remember meeting Robert Moog at a music technology convention in 1981. He was still designing new instruments, but was in the paradoxical position of not being able to put his own name on them...thanks a lot CBS Music.
He was able to get his trademarks back and his designs, and a new version of the Minimoog came out at the most recent NAMM convention in California in January. Here's a non-sponsored link to it.
He was a geek's geek, and put the tech in techno. He will be missed.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
As a friend said "...that guy was a legend.
Robots, Computers and Satan would have nothing to dance to if it weren't for him."
"Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
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.
powered by +/-12V DC, with lots of silver toggle switches, red LEDs, black plastic knobs, and a big patch panel of jacks for audio and Control Voltage in/out.
Oscillate wildly, Robert Moog.
See also: Robert Moog Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia article on Robert Moog.
How many fulltime jobs can one man have?
"Whose synthesizer is this?"
"It's a sampler, baby."
"Whose sampler is this?"
"Bob's."
"Who's Bob?"
"Bob's dead, baby. Bob's dead..."
Join Tor today!
Or, for the /. crowd:
It's pronounced "moag", as in, "Worf, son of".
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.
I think what we think of as "modern music" would not sound the same without it.
Keith Emersons' heart stopping sounds at
the close of the single "Lucky Man" was
probably my first exposure to synthesizer
music. I later heard Switched on Bach as
well as many of the electronic german bands
who specialized in synthesis.
Some synthesizer-predominant artists
such as Tangerine Dream, Synergy,
Kraftwerk, Michael Hoenig, Klaus Schulze,
Ash Ra Tempel, Vangelis, Wendy Carlos,
and SFF among many, many others simply
wouldn't sound the same OR actually
sound at all without them.
I think of an interview with the canadian
band Saga who at one time owned "one of
everything" that Moog made and was offered
an endorsement deal from Moog and they said
"why bother? We already own everything you
make!" That's a ringing endorsement.
And the secret to the Moog sound was the filters
in those instruments. Every synthesizer made
had their own unique sound. But everyone tried
to copy the Moog filter sound and didn't quite
succeed.
I bet they will still be buying Minimoogs' in
100 years - something about that design and
sound with tweakable knobs urges playing.
Small wonder that in the 80s when synth
makers went to touch panels or increment and
decrement buttons players liked them less
even though the sounds were unique because
the interface made you play a certain way.
The sound was more alive when you could
manipulate the sound with knobs while
playing.
Notable makers who used the "knobs as sound
shaping devices" were Wolfgang Palm of the
venerable PPG (and later Waldorf) as well as
Roland who resurrected the "plethora of knobs"
idea with their JD800. Knobs work and Mr.
Moog must have just understood this. Some
others did too.
But the Moog sound was instantly identifiable.
And it is still used today. And very likely
100 years from now. That Minimoog voyager
with blue LEDs is an object of lust for more
than just a few.
Bon Voyage, Robert:
Let's hope he'll rest in peace or spend eternity
driving God insane with giant filter sweeps on
the biggest modular in the universe.
beeep boop booooooop beeep boop booooooooop beeep boop booooop, beeep boop boooooop, beeep boop booooop...
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
I'm going to have to listen to my Walter Carlos version of "Switched on Bach" - on vinyl.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
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.
...in tribute to Bob Moog:
bweeep boop bweep
/me queues up some Rush out of respect.
"Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone..."
Well, the AC got modded as troll, probably because of his wording. But I'll rephrase his point of view and present the opposite as well:
Pro-electronic music: synthesizer and samplers are instruments, just like a harpsichord or a bassoon. Instruments are just tools that channel the creativity of composers and performers. Therefore you still have to be a good composer or performer to make good music with electronics.
Against electronic music: synthesizer and samplers sounds very good with little to no effort or talent. Therefore, a whole generation of people without talent, or the ability or patience to learn to play an instrument through years or practice, started to spew out what they think is music, but really isn't much more than a cold, soulless collection of sounds at best.
My opinion is: yes, both.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
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.
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.
Bob Moog proved that the term "honorable businessman" is not an oxymoron, at least not in his case.
Bob had the occasion to visit Raymond Scott in his studio, and see one of Scott's secret inventions-- the sequencer. Scott unfortunately, was very protective of his ideas-- so much so that he undoubtedly took many of them to his grave. Scott didn't want his secret invention to get out-- though apparently needed some confirmation from someone qualified to appreciate it, else why would Bob be seeing it in the first place?
Consequently, the Moog Synthesizers did not have sequencers until the competition came up with them and started beating Moog up in the marketplace, so finally Scott let Bob off the hook and allowed Bob to manufacture sequencers for his synthesizers. Bob probably could have just stolen the idea, though in fact it's likely he would have arrived at it independently, but because Bob was honorable, he didn't use the sequencer concept without Scott's OK.
Just one of a wide variety of great stories. They don't make them like that anymore...
I got to meet Bob briefly in L.A. at the unveiling of the Fairlight CMI in the 1970s (or was it early '80s, I forget)-- he was involved in some of the PR of the instrument. It was a small group, and Bob gave a nice talk on music technologies. Great guy...
The Moog VCF is still being emulated (along with most of his other components) in digital "virtual analog" synthesizers today. I had a chance to pick up a classic Moog modular setup in the '70s for about $500. I still kick myself for passing it up. (big darn thing though, I had an Arp 2600 at the time (still have) and preferred the convenience of it, but while the 2600 has increased in value, not nearly as much as an original Moog modular-- plus the coolness factor now of a big 1/4" jack patched synth would now be pretty hard to beat)...
When it came to technology and art, Bob Moog actually "got it" compared to nearly everyone else in the IT world. (See my Slashdot profile for my statement about why I believe technology exists) He knew that he was the engineer (a brilliant one at that) and not the musician. He knew that the musician was the one with the "magical connection" to the instrument. This is what seems to be lacking in the rest of IT when thinking about the end users. He "got it" and nearly everyone else doesn't.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
The basis of electronica is the Darmstadt electronic compositions of the 1950s, when Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti were active, some years before Moog became known to the public.
Born in 1934 in New York City, Moog paid for his studies at Queens College and Columbia University by building and marketing theremins, which are played by passing the hand through and around vibrating radio tubes. Theremins were used create the spooky "eww-woo-woo" sounds on the soundtracks of science fiction films such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
Um, no. Theremins are not played by "passing the hand through and around vibrating radio tubes."
There are two ANTENNAS protruding from the cabinet and you wave you hands around the antennas.
FFS, how can someone be so blinking ignorant?
I saw an old film of the Theremin being played by Termen and I fell in love with it. I have found schematics and other instructions to build one with tubes. I'm currently scrounging around garage sales for the stuff I need to build one as they were originally designed.
I've read that the tube based ones sound much better than the IC based ones..
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]
Aren't we forgetting the hordes of technically talented guitarists, bassoon players and whatnot spewing out album after album of bland chords and scales with no artistic content?
The synthesizer (or actually the sequencer) disconnected technical quality from talent, but to this day creativity has very little to do with neither electronics nor fast fingers.
Then consider this: guitars and drums make anyone look cool playing them, thus no need for worthwhile music being played. Synths (or laptops...it's the 2000s now ya'know) on the other hand, look so geeky that the creative output will be judged (more fairly) by ears alone.
There's no 'on' position on the Slacker switch!
From this link (or Google cache,
just change the wikipedia entry, and then he will have it right.
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.
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/
From 1968 to 1973, I worked with Robert Moog.
... along with Bode ring oscillators, third-octave vocoders, two flat-plate echo chambers, and a handful of multitrack Ampex tape decks.
... a creative engineer, artistically aware, supportive of everyone from egocentric musician to a hopeful but uncertain technician.
I was just an undergraduate, assigned to maintain the synthesizer at the University/Buffalo; Bob would often visit and show me nifty wrinkles and hacks for the system. It was a time when your fingers were likely found on a sliderule, an oscilloscope probe, or the cork of a soldering iron.
For his large synthesizers, Moog's circuit cards were etched and soldered by hand, and fitted into a wood frame work, with a spiffy black anodized front panel. The potentiometers were a constant headache: even milspec pots developed noise after a month of hard use by musicians.
Bob standardized on one volt per octave for his voltage controlled oscillators; my job was keeping these working
A visit from Bob Moog might mean experimenting with nonlinear mixers, measuring how an audio expander could minimize apparent noise, or the Fourier transforms of trumpets and coronets. With patch cords hanging around his neck, Bob helped rewire my homebrew Theramin to minimize drift, using a 2N107 germanium transistor as a thermal sensor.
Thirty five years later, I've been an astronomer, computer jock, writer, lecturer, and Klein Bottle mogul. But I'll never forget Bob Moog
- Cliff Stoll 2005/8/22
there's a great documentary on the life of Leon Theremin called Theremin - an electronic odyssey, in which Bob Moog is featured prominently. It also has a hilarious interview with Brian Wilson, who appears to be stoned out of his gourd. A definite must-see...
"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...