The Moog synthesizer ( ) is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer and established the analog synthesizer concept.

The Moog synthesizer consists of separate modules which create and shape sounds, which are connected via patch cords. Modules include voltage-controlled oscillators, amplifiers, filters, envelope generators, noise generators, triggers and mixers. The synthesizer can be played using controllers including keyboards, joysticks, pedals and ribbon controllers, or controlled with sequencers. Its oscillators produce waveforms, which can be modulated and filtered to shape their sounds (subtractive synthesis) or used to control other modules (low-frequency oscillation).

Moog developed the synthesizer in response to demand for more practical and affordable electronic music equipment, guided by suggestions and requests from composers including Herb Deutsch, Richard Teitelbaum, Vladimir Ussachevsky and Wendy Carlos. Moog's principal innovation was voltage control, which uses voltage to control pitch. He also introduced fundamental synthesizer concepts such as modularity and envelope generators.

The Moog synthesizer was brought to the mainstream by Switched-On Bach (1968), a bestselling album of Bach compositions arranged for Moog synthesizer by Carlos. Mort Garson used the Moog to soundtrack the televised Apollo 11 moonwalk, associating synthesizers with space in the popular imagination. In the late 1960s, it was adopted by rock and pop acts including the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. At its height of popularity, it was a staple of 1970s progressive rock, used by acts including Yes, Tangerine Dream and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. With its ability to imitate instruments such as strings and horns, it threatened the jobs of session musicians and was banned from use in commercial work for a period of time in the United States. In 1970, Moog Music released a portable, self-contained model, the Minimoog.

Development

thumb|[[Robert Moog in the 1970s|alt=|250x250px]]

In the early 1960s, electronic music technology was impractical and used mainly by experimental composers to create music with little mainstream appeal. In 1963, the American engineer Robert Moog, a doctoral student at Cornell University who designed and sold theremins, met the composer Herb Deutsch at a New York State School Music Association trade fair in Rochester, New York. Deutsch had been making electronic music using a theremin, tape recorder, and single-pitch oscillator, a time-consuming process that involved splicing tape. Recognizing the need for more practical and sophisticated equipment, Moog and Deutsch discussed the notion of a "portable electronic music studio".

Moog received a grant of $16,000 from the New York State Small Business Association and began work in Trumansburg, New York, not far from the Cornell campus. Moog hoped to build a more compact instrument that would appeal to musicians. Learning from his experience building a prohibitively expensive guitar amplifier, he believed that practicality and affordability were the most important parameters. Instead, Moog used newly available silicon transistors – specifically, transistors with an exponential relationship between input voltage and output current. With these, he created the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which generated a waveform whose pitch could be adjusted by changing the voltage. Moog designed his synthesizer around a standard of one volt per octave, and used voltage to control loudness with voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs). For example, after Deutsch suggested Moog find a way to fade notes in and out, Moog invented an envelope module using a doorbell button as a prototype. In 1989, the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan acquired Nikolais' 1964 Moog synthesizer for their permanent collection. The museum director said it was "to the music world what the Wright Brothers' airplane is to aviation". low-pass filter is particularly distinctive, with a "rich", "juicy", "fat" sound. It was much smaller than previous synthesizers, and much cheaper, at US$10,000 compared to the six-figure sums of other synthesizers. The ladder filter has been replicated in hardware synthesizers, digital signal processors, field-programmable gate arrays and software synthesizers.

Early adopters and Switched-On Bach

Most Moog synthesizers were owned by universities or record labels, and used to create soundtracks or jingles. By 1970, only 28 were owned by musicians. The Moog was first used by experimental composers including Richard Teitelbaum, Dick Hyman,

The composer Mort Garson recorded the first album on the West Coast to use the Moog synthesizer, The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (1967). Moog attended a recording session for the album, which helped convince him of the synthesizer's commercial potential. Garson also used the Moog to write jingles and soundtracks, which helped make its sounds ubiquitous. In 1969, Garson used the Moog to compose a soundtrack for the televised footage of the Apollo 11 moonwalk, creating a link between electronic music and space in the American popular imagination. (one of the first to be produced, with serial number 004) through his friend Bruce Hatch. McKechnie was one of the first musicians to use the instrument for live performances. and performed live with the band at Bay Area gigs as well as at the Altamont Free Concert (1969). McKechnie used the Moog for a performance of Terry Riley's In C at the San Francisco Opera House (1969). and the first ever concert at the Berkeley Art Museum. In the same year, the Monkees used a Moog on their album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. Robert Moog was critical, saying the sequenced bassline had a "certain sterility" and that Summer sounded like she was "fighting the sequencer". In later decades, hip hop groups such as the Beastie Boys and rock bands including They Might Be Giants and Wilco "revived an interest in the early Moog synthesizer timbres".

Successors

thumb|The [[Minimoog, a portable, self-contained Moog synthesizer]]

In 1970, Moog Music released the Minimoog, a portable, self-contained model, and the modular systems became a secondary part of Moog's business. In 2018, Moog released the Grandmother, followed by the Matriarch in 2019; parts of the circuitry used in these instruments were inspired by the Moog synthesizer.

Clones and emulations

thumb|A Behringer clone of a Moog modular synthesizer

After production of the original Moog synthesizers stopped in 1980, some manufacturers, such as Synthesizers.com, created their own modules and clones of Moog modules. Moog modules, known as the "dotcom" or "5U" format, are still available but have been superseded as the dominant synthesizer format by Eurorack. Since 2020, Behringer has manufactured clones of Moog modules in the Eurorack format, also sold in configurations based on the original Moog systems.

The Moog synthesizer has been emulated in software synthesizers such as the Arturia Modular V. In 2016, Moog released the Moog Model 15 app, a software emulation of the Model 15 initially for iOS and later in 2021 for macOS.

See also

  • List of Moog synthesizer players

References

  • Moog archives  (site top)
  • The Moog Synthesizer
  • The Rebirth of Keith Emerson's Moog Modular