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Electronics

March 4, 1968
Consumer electronics - Moog music

It's doubtful whether the Beatles will be replaced by the Moog, an electronic music synthesizer, but before long they may be using one. In fact, such pop music groups as the Monkees and the Supremes are joining several university music laboratories and some composers of electronic music in jumping on the Moog bandwagon.

The synthesizer can be used by performers and composers alike to produce almost any sound or combination of sounds, from a cello's E flat to that of a sick cat.

Music synthesizers aren't new, but older systems have to be pre- programmed and rely heavily on tape editing and splicing. The Moog, ranging in price from about $2,800 to $6,200 can either be programmed by punched paper tape or manually controlled through a keyboard or linear controller to produce voltage changes.

Do-re-mi. As its inventor, Robert A. Moog, explains it: "You start with modules that produce raw noise, such as oscillators and noise generators, and connect them to produce raw sound material. Generators turn out sine, triangular, sawtooth, and square waveforms, and the voltage-controlled oscillators are driven by these waves.

"The relationship between the control voltage and the frequency is exponential," he goes on. "A 1-volt increase raises the pitch one octave. The raw sound material is then put through the modifiers and fed to a tape recorder. The tape can then be edited or spliced to produce the final composition."

Last laugh. The 33-year-old inventor developed his first synthesizer in 1964. "Everyone thought there was no market for this sort of thing, that it was ridiculous," says Moog. "But last year our sales soared to $150,000."

The synthesizer is available in three models. The smallest and least complex consists of two voltage-controlled oscillators, two voltage-controlled amplifiers, a white-noise source, a voltage-controlled filter, a reverberation unit, a fixed filter bank, a power supply, an envelope generator, and a keyboard and linear controller. Other modules, such as envelope followers, multichannel mixers, and filters, can be added to form more advanced instruments; specially designed systems are also available.

Seventy-six trombones? To use the synthesizer as a concert instrument, the keyboard can be preset to vary the voltage difference between the keys, thus varying the scale. In performance, as in composition, the synthesizer will pro- duce sounds varying from those of a single instrument to the sounds of an entire ensemble.

Moog, who became interested in electronic instruments in high school, put himself through graduate school by manufacturing and selling Theremins, one of the first electronic music-makers. His meeting in 1964 with Herbert Deutsch, a composer at Hofstra University, Long Island, N.Y., gave Moog the composers' point of view, which he translated into electronic equipment. "The idea of voltage-controlled instruments came out of the blue," Moog says. "Herb told me what he wanted, and voltage control seemed to be the answer."

The R.A. Moog Co., Trumansburg, N.Y., is currently working on a small-performance synthesizer that can be used by both instrumental and vocal groups, or even by a musician-composer at home, and will be priced at around $1,500.