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Around the Con Edison System

October 1969
THE SOUND OF MOOG MUSIC

If you were to drop in on Robert Moog (rhymes with vogue) as he as tuning one of his Moog Electronic Synthesizers, chances are you'd be "turned on" by a new sound. Bob is the son of George Moog, an assistant general superintendent at the Astoria Transformer Shop. He has invented the Moog Synthesizer, a system of oscillators, amplifiers, envelopers, filters and saw tooth generators that produces the ultimate in electronic music.

When Bob was younger, father and son made radios, sound mixes, amplifiers and other equipment in the basement of their Flushing home. Bob took piano lessons for twelve years, and George recalls that "he had talent, although it took a lot of parental persuasion to get him to practice."

Piano lessons were forgotten when Bob became a teenager. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science and later from Columbia University with a BS in electrical engineering. Then he went on to Cornell for a Ph.D. in engineering physics.
While at Cornell he was introduced to avant-garde electronic music by Herbert Deutsch, who collaborated with him on his first synthesizer. Five years ago Bob went heavily into debt to start production of Moogs in his storefront workshop, near Ithaca, New York. Since then he has sold 150 Moogs, mostly to universities and music schools, but also to the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Prices range from $3,000 to $10,000-quite reasonable compared with synthesizers made before the Moog.

Both The New York Times and the Saturday Review featured recent articles on the Moog, praising it as an innovation that takes electronic music out of the laboratory and into the public domain. One record album in particular titled "Switched-on Bach" (Columbia, MS 7194) has stirred up quite a clamor among music lovers. Created and played by composer Walter Carlos with the assistance of Benjamin Folkman, the album consists of ten works of Bach performed entirely on a Moog. The Times' article reads in part, "On the record are heard sounds that appear to come from reeds, bass violins, flutes, bells, percussion and horns. In reality all those sounds reposed within the electronic innards of the Moog ..."

"Robert Moog, who designed this equipment, calls the record the 'most stunning breakthrough in electronic music to date,' and he probably is right. He has invented an instrument of unparalleled virtuosity and flexibility..."
In addition to the "Switched-On Bach" album, the Moog has been used in commercials for Coca-Cola, Schaefer Beer, Campbell's Soup and a number of other products.
Moogs were used this summer for the first time in a live jazz performance
at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. One reviewer wrote that "the satisfaction of the evening came from sensing that it could be the beginning of something important."

These days Bob has more orders than he can fill. However, he sets aside time to walk in the woods near home in Trumansburg, New York, with his wife and three daughters, "listening to the beauty of natural sounds."