RSSSynthesizer Pioneer Moog Dies at 71
By Ed Oswald | Published August 22, 2005, 5:50 PM
The pioneer of the modern synthesizer, Robert Moog, passed away on Sunday in his North Carolina home at the age of 71.
The sound of a Moog (pronounced Mohgue) synthesizer is unmistakable. It gave The Doors their unique sound, and since then has been used by the likes of the Grateful Dead and even modern acts like Dr. Dre and Wilco. The rise of the Moog synthesizer signaled the rise of electronic music as an art form.
A childhood interest in electronic instruments let Moog to begin a career in creating them, and the first commercially available Moog synthesizer was created in 1964.
While other synthesizers had been on the market for years before Moog's, it caught on due to its relatively small size and versatility.
It's timing was also perfect. During the late 60s and early 70s the Moog arrived just as music began to take a more psychedelic turn. The Beatles used it for their later albums, and the synthesizer was responsible for creating the music behind Stanley Kubrick's thriller "A Clockwork Orange."
The list of other users of Moog's products is equally impressive: Yes, Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Parliament/Funkadelic and modern groups like Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Beck, Phish, Sonic Youth and Widespread Panic.
However, Moog was modest about his notoriety. "I'm an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers," he said in 2000. "They use the tools."
A public memorial has been scheduled for Wednesday.
How could anyone forget Superstition by Stevie Wonder?! That was the Moog in full force. Also Frankenstein by Edgar Winter.....!
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|Also we can credit him for a return of the Theremin.. and in typical Moog fashion it was avalible as a kit as well as premade..
He was an engineer as well as a musician.
For an explanation of a Theremen
http://www.electronicmusic.com/education/5337.html
Website devoted to it as well as more details about Moog..
http://www.thereminworld.com/
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|Moog changed the world of music sound.
Rest in piece Robert.
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|Who cares.
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|A lot of people here, since he was a genius, a pioneer of electronic music, and probably just a great guy to know. At least have a little respect for the dead.
http://www.spreadshirt.c...p;article_id=778225#top
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|RIP Moog. Big respect.
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|"Moog plays Abba" sounds a zillion times better than U2 evr will, and of course so does the cool tune that took the Moog to the top of the charts, "PopCorn" by Hot Butter (what else?)
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|In his memory, everyone may now get the AxelF / Crazy Frog ringtone stuck in their heads. RIP, Mooger.
Do do, do do de do du, do de do do dah de do, do de dah de dum da do do da dahh... (repeat ad nauseum)
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|You could say that Walter/Wendy Carlos's "Switched On Bach" put the Moog synthesizer in the dictionary, so to speak. I wonder what Mr. Moog would have created with the now available technology.
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|The Doors most certainly did *not* use a Moog, well...prominately. It made an early appearance in Strange Days, but for the majority Ray Manzerek used a Vox Continental organ and a Fender Rhodes piano bass.
A good example of a Moog in action...the bass riff in ELO's Turn to Stone.
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