Robert Moog

Inventor
Date Of Birth:
23 May 1934
Date Of Death:
21 August 2005
brain tumor
Place Of Birth:
New York City, New York
Best Known As:
The guy who invented the Moog synthesizer

Robert Moog was a pioneer in electronic music, the inventor of synthesizers that changed the course of popular music. While a graduate student in engineering in New York, Robert Moog wrote a magazine article introducing do-it-yourself kits to build the electronic musical instrument known as the Theremin. In 1954 he founded a company that sold Theremin kits, and he began to dabble in electronic circuitry to create and modulate electronic sounds. The result was the Moog synthesizer. In 1968 Wendy Carlos (then Walter Carlos) released the Grammy-winning album Switched-on Bach, played entirely on a Moog. The synthesizer quickly became a significant instrument for pop musicians, played by groups like The Monkees and The Beatles (who used it on Abbey Road) and contributing to the amped-up sound of the disco era. Robert Moog continued to manufacture and sell electronic musical instruments until his death in 2005, and his company, Moog Music, continues to be a force in musical electronics.

Extra Credit:

Moog rhymes with “rogue”… Robert Moog held a PhD in engineering physics from Cornell University… He was the subject of a 2004 documentary, Moog… His son, Matt Moog, is a marketing expert and author who founded the product review service Viewpoints… Robert Moog was the subject of a Google Doodle on May 23, 2012, which would have been his 78th birthday. The doodle was a playable synthesizer with the Google logo worked into the knobs.

2 Good Links
See also: