Moog synthesizer
The term
Moog (
pronounced /moʊg/ to rhyme with "vogue", not /muːg/)
synthesizer can refer to any number of
analog synthesizers designed by Dr.
Robert Moog or manufactured by
Moog Music.
Moog synthesizers were one of the first widely used
electronic musical instruments. Robert Moog created the first subtractive synthesizer to utilize a keyboard as a controller in
1964 and demonstrated it at the
AES convention. It sometimes took hours to set up the machine for a new sound.
Robert Moog employed his
theremin company (R. A. Moog Co., which would later become Moog Music) to manufacture and market his synthesizers. They were shipped with an organ-style
keyboard as the standard user interface. The Moog was not necessarily considered a performance instrument, but rather a sophisticated, studio-oriented professional audio system which could be
used as a musical instrument; the keyboard was simply a convenient and familiar way to control it. Particularly because of the pitch instability of its oscillators as well as the atonal nature of electronic music of the time, the original Moog synthesizer was designed for creating recorded electronic music. Later modular Moogs would have much-improved oscillators and were better suited to real-time musical performance.
The first Moog instruments were
modular synthesizers. In
1971 Moog Music began production of the
Minimoog Model D which was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers. Unlike the modular synthesizer, the Minimoog was specifically designed as a self-contained musical instrument for keyboard players (besides the extremely user-friendly physical design, it also stayed in tune reasonably well) and was the first to really solidify the synthesizer's popular image as a "keyboard" instrument. The Minimoog became the most popular
monophonic synthesizer of the
1970s, selling approximately 13,000 units between 1971 and 1982.
Another widely used and extremely popular Moog synthesizer was the
Taurus bass pedal synthesizer. Released in
1975, its pedals were similar in design to
organ pedals and triggered synthetic bass sounds. The Taurus was known for a "fat" bass sound and was used by musicians such as
Genesis,
Rush,
U2,
Yes,
The Police,
Pink Floyd and many others. Production of the original was discontinued in 1981, when it was replaced by the
Taurus II.
Moog Music was the first company to commercially release a
keytar, the
Moog Liberation.
The last Moog synthesizers were manufactured in 1985 before the original Moog Music declared bankruptcy in 1986. In 2001, Robert Moog's company Big Briar was able to acquire the rights to the Moog name and officially became Moog Music. (See
Moog Music.) Moog Music has been producing the
Minimoog Voyager, modeled after the original Minimoog, since 2002.
In March of 2006, Moog Music unveiled the
Little Phatty Analog Synthesizer, boasting "hand-built quality and that unmatched Moog sound, at a price every musician can afford". The first limited edition run of 1200 will be a Bob Moog Tribute Edition with a Performer edition soon to be announced.
According to the
American Physical Society, "The first live performance of a music synthesizer was made by pianist
Paul Bley at Lincoln Center in New York City on December 26, 1969. Bley developed a proprietary interface that allowed real time performance on the music synthesizer."
It is believed that the first
phonograph record to feature a Moog synthesizer was
Cosmic Sounds by
The Zodiac. The first popular music album to feature the instrument was 1967's
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones, Ltd. by
The Monkees.
Wendy Carlos (formerly Walter Carlos) released major Moog albums in
1968 and
1969:
Switched-On Bach and
The Well-Tempered Synthesizer. The former earned Carlos three
Grammys. Also in
1969,
The Beatles used a Moog throughout the
Abbey Road album. It was also featured prominently on
Emerson, Lake & Palmer's song "Lucky Man,"
Keith Emerson's Moog solo at the end making it arguably the group's most popular piece. Another famous use of the Moog was in
Tangerine Dream's electronic landmark album
Phaedra in 1974.
Glenn Tilbrook, a member of the new wave band
Squeeze, was also known to use the Mini Moog with regularity.
The success of Carlos'
Switched-On Bach sparked a series of other synthesizer records in the late 1960s to mid 1970s. These albums featured
covers of songs arranged for Moog synthesizer in the most dramatic and flamboyant way possible, covering
rock,
country and other genres of music. The albums often had "Moog" in their titles (i.e.
Country Moog Classics,
Exotic Moog with Martin Denny, etc.) although many used a variety of other brands of synthesizers and even
organs as well. The kitsch appeal of these albums continue to have a small fanbase and the 1990s band
Moog Cookbook is a tribute to this style of music.
One well known use of the synthesizer was in the 1971 movie
A Clockwork Orange, in which Carlos wrote all the original music for the Moog, along with several Moog versions of classical music, creating a very eerie mood that was considered very successful at expressing the strange society of the movie.
A popular Moog user (and programmer) is
Stevie Wonder who won numerous Grammy awards in 1973 for his synthesizer rich
Talking Book and also in 1974 where he grabbed the 'Album of the Year' award with yet another Moog-tinted album
Innervisions.
Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric is a musician who continues to use only the moog to record his interesting brand of electronic music.
Popularity surged in the 1970s, then declined in the 1980s as
digital synthesizers gained traction in the market. By the mid-1990s, analog synthesizers were again highly sought after and prized for their classic sound. As of
2004, more than 15 companies are making Moog-style synthesizer modules.
*
Moog modular synthesizer (1963–1980)
*
Minimoog (1970–1982)
*
Moog Satellite (1974–1979)
*
Moog Sonic 6 (1974–1979)
*
Micromoog (1975–1979)
*
Polymoog (1975–1980)
*
Minitmoog (1975–1976)
*
Moog Taurus (1976–1983)
*
Multimoog (1978–1981)
*
Moog Prodigy (1979–1984)
*
Moog Liberation (1980)
*
Moog Opus-3 (1980)
*
Moog Concertmate MG-1 (1981)
*
Moog Rogue (1981)
*
Moog Source (1981)
*
Memorymoog (1982–1985)
*
Moogerfooger (1998–present)
*
Minimoog Voyager (2002–present)
*
Little Phatty (2006–present)
*
Synthesizer Resource*
List of Moog synthesizer users*
Robert Moog*
Moog Music
