Wed Sep 29, 2004 5:47 am by Indy11
The Moog Synthesizer Makes a Comeback
By DAVID BERNSTEIN
Published: September 29, 2004
Robert Moog, the eccentric electronic pioneer whose name is practically synonymous with the synthesizer - and hence with rock music's psychedelic era - is back in vogue.
In this decidedly digital age, more and more contemporary musicians and rockers are rediscovering the space-age, analog sounds of the Moog synthesizer.
Techno enthusiasts, who generally like to experiment with sounds and manufacture original noises, have reignited interest in the Moog (rhymes with rogue), which can synthesize any sound imaginable. A growing number of hip-hop musicians and producers have also fueled the phenomenon, trying to recapture the rich grooves of Stevie Wonder, Parliament-Funkadelic and other soul and funk masters. Some of today's critically lauded rock bands, like Wilco, are also part of this Moog revival.
"The instrument crosses all kinds of music," said Money Mark, a turntablist who tours with the Beastie Boys. "There's no color boundary or genre boundary with the Moog."
So it is timely that a new documentary, "Moog," opened Friday in New York (at the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village) and Seattle. A wider release for the documentary, which is distributed by Plexifilm, is scheduled for later this fall, and a soundtrack featuring new songs by Stereolab and They Might Be Giants, among other artists, was issued Sept. 14 by Hollywood Records.
Hans Fjellestad, 36, the film's director, said Mr. Moog helped start a musical revolution. "I'd put him right up there with Les Paul and Leo Fender, definitely," Mr. Fjellestad said, referring to the founding fathers of the electric guitar. "He embodies that sort of visionary, maverick spirit and that inventor mythology."
Mr. Fjellestad, whose first feature-length documentary, "Frontier Life" (2002), explored the cultural identity and electronic dance scene of Tijuana, Mexico, said his new documentary tracks more than the life and work of Mr. Moog.
"It's not really a biography," he said. "I was more interested in focusing on Bob's ideas about creativity, about the interactivity of man and machine, and about his spiritual beliefs, which may or may not be related to music specifically."
Mr. Moog started building electronic instruments at the age of 14. In 1954, Mr. Moog, then 19, and his father, George, formed their own company, R. A. Moog, and sold mail-order kits for theremins, the earliest kind of electronic instruments, out of their bungalow in Flushing, Queens.
"I didn't know what the hell I was doing," Mr. Moog recalled in an interview. "I was doing this thing to have a good time, then all of a sudden someone's saying to me, 'I'll take one of those and two of that.' That's how I got into business."
Mr. Moog introduced his synthesizer in 1964. Though it quickly caught on with experimental and avant-garde musicians and makers of science-fiction movies, it was not until the psychedelic rock movement in the late 1960's that mainstream musicians embraced it. Then, Mr. Moog was building instruments for some of the biggest musical acts of the day, including the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
Artists and experts said that he understood better than other electronics pioneers that musicians make emotional connections with their instruments, and that Mr. Moog sought out the players' feedback and responded to their needs.
"Arguably, before the Moog synthesizer, you'd have to go back to the invention of the saxophone by Adolphe Sax in the 1840's for an instrument of similar impact," said Trevor Pinch, co-author of "Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer."
"In the psychedelic era, the Moog was just what these musicians were looking for," Mr. Pinch said. "They were searching for new forms of sounds, weird effects. They all had big advances from record companies. They were all stoned. They all said, 'We've got to have one of these.' "
But it was a classical music recording that brought Mr. Moog's synthesizer to the masses. Wendy Carlos's 1968 album "Switched-On Bach," a collection of synthesized interpretations of Bach classics, was the synthesizer's first commercial success, selling more than 1 million copies and spawning a flood of copycat albums.
Hans Fjellestad said that in his documentary on the inventor and the instrument, he was interested in exploring how man and machine interact.
If Ms. Carlos helped introduce the sounds of circuitry to listeners' record players, Keith Emerson, the former keyboardist for the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer, showed musicians and music fans that the synthesizer was more than an odd studio instrument; it could be an exciting performance instrument.
Mr. Emerson's towering, 10-foot-tall, 550-pound "Monster Moog," as he called it, was an indispensable part of the group's concerts, even though it was often unreliable and difficult to play. He said he had to tune it repeatedly as he played and sometimes had to cover it with tinfoil because it picked up police radio traffic during performances.
By the early 1970's, interest in exploring electronic sound waned among mainstream musicians. What's more, a second generation of more user-friendly synthesizers offered by ARP Instruments and Electronic Music Studios came to dominate the market, replacing the classic Moog.
"Suddenly we went from a nine-month or a year backlog to having no backlog and no orders," Mr. Moog said. "I ran out of money at the beginning of 1971."
Mr. Moog sold a controlling interest in his struggling company and, more important, rights to the Moog Music name to a venture capitalist, who sold it a few years later to the now-defunct Norlin Music. In 1978, he moved to Asheville, N.C., and started a new company, Big Briar, building custom instruments and sound-effect boxes. After a lengthy legal battle, Mr. Moog reclaimed the rights to the Moog brand last year and began selling instruments bearing his name for the first time in more than two decades.
Mr. Moog, who turned 70 this year, is still inventing. The company, renamed Moog Music, offers a variety of new products: an anniversary-edition Minimoog Voyager; various types of analog sound-effect boxes, called Moogerfoogers, used with guitars, basses or keyboards; and the Piano Bar, a device that turns ordinary acoustic pianos into electronic keyboards. And he continues to build theremins, his "first love."
Sales are strong, Mr. Moog said, adding that revenues have grown to $3 million from $1 million in the last two years. Pieces of his new and vintage equipment are fetching large sums on eBay.
Mr. Moog has even gone digital, sort of. Last year, Moog Music and Arturia, a French company that specializes in digital sound software, released software that emulates the analog sounds of Mr. Moog's synthesizers on computers.
Meanwhile, Mr. Emerson, the musician, says his son Aaron, 34, now plays a vintage synthesizer. "The wheel has turned full circle," Mr. Emerson said.
I was doing a couple of sound courses at uni (Electronics with Music Technology, and Electronics with Audio Systems Design), so I got to play and dismantle moogs on a regular basis.
which probably explains my final grade