1/1/2023 0 Comments Bob moog soundsource problme![]() ![]() Actually EVERYthing Bob built always looked slick and professional, even the kludges. It was an enjoyable project, part of a flurry of work completed in a few short, hectic years.Ī t the end of the adventure, by the Spring of 1968, the first custom velocity and depth sensitive keyboards (something I was particularly involved with: physical construction, reworking, final adjusting) were kludged together. Fortunately I'd saved a lot of amusing brief "learning pieces" that Summer which came in handy to show off what these new instruments could do. Bob asked me to fly up to Trumansburg to work with him on the script, then I rushed back to assemble something for the Fall 1967 AES Convention. BOB MOOG SOUNDSOURCE PROBLME PROFESSIONALAs a struggling young composer with few funds, I was able to "barter" my time and skills in recording, composing, and assembling a professional Moog demo LP, toward the purchase of additional synth components. It doesn't seem to work that way much anymore, and more's the pity.īob realized he needed an effective demonstration disk for his company's new customers. From the beginning it was a balanced yin/yang relationship between a maker of musical tools and the artists who used those tools. We, on the other hand, deferred to Bob on all engineering decisions and designs. In any event, we quickly worked out what was still missing and probably important (don't know for sure until you try.), allowing our ideas to jump back and forth, while zeroing in on what would permit genuinely "musical" electronic music to be made.Įver modest, Bob always deferred on musical matters to those of us who came from that side of the art/tech equation. Several chapters of a book can easily be inserted here to cover the years from 1966-68 (there's a lot of the story in the liner notes to most of the "Switched-On" albums, particularly the comprehensive booklet found in the " Switched-On Boxed Set "). ![]() Pretty modest now, but in the mid 60s this was cutting edge! ( Here's what the final synth grew into ten years later. These were in addition to what seemed a good starting point: three oscillators (a magic number, or five later on, since two or four don't blend as well), a white noise source, a few envelopers, a few filters, amplifiers, power supply, and so on. It was a lot more than I expected, a gorgeous walnut cabinet with many additional adjunct devices and wiring. We carried it up together from his station wagon. This first modest design Bob eventually delivered himself, to my tiny walkup studio apartment on West End Avenue near 79th Street. By early 1966 we were making plans for an initial custom instrument. Soon I was to become one of his early customers, after composer Herb Deutsch, who was crucial to the development of the modules, Alwin Nikolai, an experimental dance guru, and Eric Siday, a composer and commercial music hero I befriended a couple of years later, thanks to Bob. It felt like a meeting of simpatico minds, like he were my older brother, perhaps. It was a perfect fit: he was a creative engineer who spoke music: I was a musician who spoke science. It didn't take long to establish a budding friendship. Then I spotted a small booth that had something called "Moog Synthesizer Modules." And sunuvvagun, there they were: voltage-controlled oscillators, filters, envelopers, controllers - things the still primitive world of electroacoustic music long needed! I must have made noises, for suddenly I saw a figure stir and rise up to greet me.īob looked tired but friendly, and we chatted briefly, traded phone numbers and addresses. There were mikes and consoles and tape machines of all sorts, all pretty impressive. So I took a break between classes to subway down to midtown, and was gawking around during a slow early afternoon, when most people were off to lunch. One of my professors at Columbia, Vladimir Ussachevsky (who also knew Bob), had suggested that as one of his more technically curious graduate students I might enjoy wandering around the 1964 exhibit for a few hours. BOB MOOG SOUNDSOURCE PROBLME FREEThe Moog Company had setup an exhibit at one of the yearly AES conferences (the Audio Engineering Society was a LOT smaller back then, and more informal - even the tech papers were free and handy, open to anyone attending the exhibits). He was taking a much needed nap on a banquette on the Mezzanine of the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel, in NYC. That sounds incomprehensible now, but there you are. He was surrounded by his family and died so gradually and peacefully you couldn't be more exact than to say it was around 2 PM.īob and I were friends for about 41 years. Bob Moog lost his battle with a brain tumor on August 21, 2005, at his home in Asheville, NC. A good friend and wonderful human being is no more. ![]()
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