Moog Modular Synthesizer

Andrej Smirnov
Switch on, Bob

The Modular Moog synthesizer, created by Robert Moog (1934–2005), was an innovation rather than an invention for it emerged over a period of time from a thousand different design decisions and numerous conversations.¹ Since his childhood Bob Moog was very much involved in electronics. In 1949 at the age of 15 he built his first theremin. Since that time his connections to the theremin were so strong that he continued to build them for the rest of his life. In the 1950s he tried to start commercially manufacturing theremins. The project was cancelled, since Clara Rockmore – the best and the only theremin virtuoso - refused to promote Moog’s instruments. She wanted to remain faithful to her favorite instrument, built for her personally by Leon Theremin – Moog had to continue his small-scale production of theremin kits.

The real moment of conception of the future Moog synthesizer took place in 1963 when Bob Moog met Herb Deutsch, who was very interested in electronic music and became one of his best friends and collaborators. From the start they discussed a future portable electronic music studio. They didn’t call it “the synthesizer” yet. Once Moog asked: “You know, what you want to be able to do, Herb?” Deutsch replied: “Well I want to make these sounds that go wooo-wooo-ah-woo-woo.”² He was frustrated with the fixed pitch generators and wanted to add extra control to other aspects of sound - and that’s exactly what the final outcome was.

The next key insight was the way of control. Moog had noticed, that the most musically meaningful parameters of sound tend to follow the exponential law. Since the newly invented silicon transistors have the same exponential relationship between input voltage and output current, this technology could be used as a basis for the new generation of voltage-controlled sound-generating and sound-processing modules. It enabled Moog to design all modules around a single volt-per-octave standard, which allowed him to connect all modules in any combination.

The first unexpected success came in 1964 when Moog was invited to present a small set of his basic modules at the annual convention of the Audio Engineering Society. “I was thirty, … never thought of myself as a member of an industry, I was going to make kits after that. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing there.”³ But the system turned out to be a success, Moog got several commissions and he has been doing it ever since. His first customers were Eric Siday, Alwin Nikolais and Lejaren Hiller. They represented a spectrum of needs and were thus very valuable to Moog as guidance in refining synthesizer components. When Eric Siday ordered the first large modular system for 1,400 dollars, it took almost half a year to put together ten or twelve modules – voltage-controlled oscillators, amplifiers, filters, envelope generators – in a special cabinet with a keyboard.

At about the same time Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick were collaborating with electronic specialist Don Buchla to develop new devices for making electronic music. Buchla came up with his invention without any knowledge of what Moog was doing on the East Coast. The two inventions were very similar with one significant difference: Buchla was against a standard keyboard, providing special touch sensitive pads instead, while Moog built his system around a standard keyboard. As a result, Moog synthesizers were a big commercial success among rock and pop musicians, while the Buchla Box became very popular in experimental and electroacoustic music.

By October 1965 Moog had standardized the different modules, which became known as the 900 series. In 1967 Moog published for the first time a catalog with a complete “synthesizer.” He offered three different models. The all-time greatest commercial success was achieved with the release of Switched-on Bach, recorded by Wendy (Walter) Carlos in 1968. It made the Moog synthesizer famous.

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