Interested In A Moog Synth?

Moog synth is a common name to all analog synthesizers made by Dr. Robert Moog, or those produced by his company Moog Music, and Moog synth has become a sort of generic name for digital and analog synth. Moog synth is a take off from the transistors which were invented in the 1950s, enabling researchers to design music systems which are smaller, compact and cheaper when compared to the vacuum tube music systems.

Moog synth became popular in the music industry after its performance in the Monterey Pop Festival during 1967, while commercial Moog established through the recordings made in 1968, the earliest one being Switched-On Bach, the runaway seller of classical records during that time, even as its success gave birth to a number of synth records being produced in coming years.

Later versions of Moog synth had number of improvements, some of which include simplified designs, so that the unit can be easily played during life performances. The most popular of their analog synth is known as the Minimoog synth, which is a monophonic synthesizer, which became very popular during 1970s, and was adopted by many rock music groups.

Moog synth was developed by Robert Moog, after his meeting with composer Herbert Deutsch both of whom together brought out the first ever synth adopting modular voltage control.

Moog synth had two important features which included the systematization of the electronically produced sounds, and breaking down the sounds into a variety of blocks, which were handled by the modules of standardized nature. This analog synth uses a standard voltage scale for all electrical signals, which control various aspects of the working of the modules like the oscillators, keyboard, etc. The keyboard in particular made use of a standard pitch control progress of a single volt per octave.

Moog synth received the breakthrough in the marketplace when a music composer Wendy Carlos, introduced it to public through their demonstration of the unit’s propensity in music. Brining along a number of refinements and improvisations to the modules, Carlos working closely with Moog during 1967-68, suggested many improvements and refinements to his modules, even as he composed and produced music for a demonstration record for the Moog Company. It was he who built the state-of-the-art eight-track multi track recorder and recorded a number of selected compositions by Bach, which were composed wholly on the Moog synthesizer, assembling with great diligence each part at a time on the multitrack tape.

This album was brought out by CBS records, titled as Switched-On Bach, which became a rage during the times, and sold the highest number of records ever, even as Carlos went on to win 3 Grammies. Moog synth had arrived, and there was no looking back, even as the company went on to introduce Minimoog and other products, becoming a synonym with synthesizers. Minimoog is a compact three-oscillator keyboard monophonic analog synth which due to its portability and cost effectiveness captured the imagination of the people. This was a self contained instrument which was perfectly suitable for live performances. Though the Minimoog Moog synth had very limited sound capability, because of its user friendly design, portability and capability of creating effects, it became widely popular.