Archives - 1978
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Contemporary Keyboard
January 1978
Specmanship, PartII: Impedance & Dynamic Range
Bob Moog
When an audio signal is applied to an input, a current (actual movement of electrons in a wire) flows in via one conductor of the cable and out via the other conductor. The stronger the signal (voltage), the greater the current.
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Contemporary Keyboard
February 1978
String Tone Simulation, Part I
Bob Moog
Some people think that synthesizers were developed primarily to imitate orchestral instruments. Others hold the view that there is something basically dishonest about using electronic instruments to simulate acoustic instrument colors-timbral thievery, as it were.
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Contemporary Keyboard
March 1978
String Tone Simulation
Bob Moog
Last month's column showed the frequency and phase response graphs of a multiple resonance filter array. Shortly after I wrote that column, an oscilloscope camera found its way into our lab. I took some pictures of the waveform produced by our experimental multiple resonance filter array while it was being fed with a sawtooth wave.
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The Buffalo News
April 2, 1978
Moog Wizardry Has Given World The Synthesizer
By Cindy SKRZYCKI
The high priest of electronic music has equal reverence for the measured restraint of baroque melody and the hot, heavy sweat of jazz and rock.
Bob Moog, 43, the silver-haired man who has made synthesizer a household word in musical circles, is the highly venerated inventor who patiently soldered thousands of circuits to produce the first practical, marketable electronic sound machine.
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The New York Times
April 23, 1978
Norlin Seeks to Scale Up profits
By Stan Luxenderg
Even by the eclectic standards of today's conglomerates, the Norlin Corporation is an unlikely mix. It is a Panamanian holding company with head- quarters in New York, and last year it grossed $238 million on a product line that includes Ecuador's best-selling beer, a clutch of high-technology switching devices that turn up, among other places, in commercial and military jet planes- and an assortment of electronic organs, pianos, Moog synthesizers, drums and guitars that made Norlin the biggest manufacturer of musical instruments in the United States.
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Contemporary Keyboard
April 1978
Vocal Sounds, Part I
Bob Moog
A vocoder is a complete analyzer-synthesizer system that breaks down (analyzes) a vocal or other audio signal into a series of adjacent frequency bands, and then uses the amplitudes of the frequency bands to build up (synthesize) a signal that is similar in certain respects.
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Contemporary Keyboard
May 1978
Vocal Sounds, PartII: Vocoder
Bob Moog
When an audio signal is applied to an input, a current (actual movement of electrons in a wire) flows in via one conductor of the cable and out via the other conductor. The stronger the signal (voltage), the greater the current.
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Contemporary Keyboard
June 1978
Vocal Sounds, Part III: Practical Simulations
Bob Moog
In my April '78 column I listed the array of synthesizer functions that would have to be assembled in order to simulate all speech sounds: a voltage-controlled oscillator, a noise source, four programmable filters, at least one voltage-controlled amplifier and contour generator, and a fairly elaborate sequencer.
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Contemporary Keyboard
July 1978
Principles Of Voltage Control, Part I
Bob Moog
This column begins a series on the basics of voltage control, the technical principle underlying the design of most synthesizers. Voltage control can be discussed in either technical or musical language. I hope to help you understand how these two languages are related.
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Contemporary Keyboard
August 1978
Principles Of Voltage Control, Part II
Bob Moog
In last month's column I explained that the gain of a voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) depends on the magnitude of one or more control voltages. By selecting and shaping the control voltages, the musician determines the envelope or contour of whatever signal happens to be passing through the amplifier's signal path.
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Contemporary Keyboard
September 1978
Linear And Exponential Control Modes
Bob Moog
In my last two months' columns I discussed some basic principles of voltage control, using the voltage-controlled amplifier as an illustrative device. I defined the control mode as the mathematical relationship that tells how the voltage-controlled parameter (amplifier gain in the case of the VCA) changes as the control voltage increases.
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Contemporary Keyboard
October 1978
Principles Of Voltage Control, Part IV
Bob Moog
In last month's column I reviewed the characteristics and advantages of the exponential-mode VCA. In this column I will show how exponential-mode VCAs can be used not only for gain determination but also for timbre shaping.
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PTM World of Music
November 1978
Moog Analyzes The Evolution Of The Synthesizer
by JOHN NORTON, Associate Editor
One of the most volatile facets of the music industry is the synthesizer.
According to statistics provided by AMC, synthesizer sales have been the highest
ever recorded. In recent years the percentage of sales has even topped that of
the piano and guitar. This phenomenal growth and expansion is one that has made
many dealers in the country sit up and take notice.
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Contemporary Keyboard
November 1978
Principles Of Voltage Control, Part V
Bob Moog
MY LAST COLUMN DEALT WITH the exponential control mode of voltage-controlled oscillators. Exponential control gives oscillator pitch changes that are directly proportional to control voltage changes. Thus musical scales, transpositions, and pitch patterns such as trills can be produced by generating and combining corresponding patterns of voltage change.
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Contemporary Keyboard
December 1978
Control Voltage Routing
Bob Moog
ONE OF THE GREAT MUSICAL advantages of voltage control is its inherent flexibility. In principle, any control signal source, or combination of sources, can be used to vary any voltage-controlled device (receptor). Similarly, a control signal or combination of control signals can be applied in any proportion to any number of receptors. My past five columns provide many illustrations of the musical efficiency and versatility that is directly attributable to voltage control's interconnection flexibility.
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