Moog Music Forum

I wasn't originally a fan of Moog but rather interested in the Oberheim and EMS gear!

FWIW, I wrote a bigger explanation here but it was wiped out with a stupid key click!

I'll fill in the blanks but I'm curious when you knew you needed to get a Moog synth?

basically when I found out what was making all the crazy sounds on the records my dad used to play when I was a kid was this thing called a synthesizer. So I sold a bunch of fx pedals I was using to make my guitar sound like synth, bought an electribe, got bored with the sounds and started to research synths more. I kept coming across one name over and over (moog obviously). Then I got a chance to play with the mf103 at sam ash, I was hooked. I scoured ebay for the most affordable moog I could find, got my micro moog and then realized the quirks of vintage synths And spent about as much on repairs and maintenance as I did on the synth it self

ColorForm2113 wrote:And spent about as much on repairs and maintenance as I did on the synth it self

Very very common - the price of admission to owning vintage synths

When I first heard Lucky Man and Switched-On Bach--I'm sure lots of folks here have a similar experience.
About a year later I was fortunate enough to play around in Vladimir Ussachevsky's lab a time or two. The big Buchla, lots of Moog modules, tape machines, etc. Three years later I was working in a studio that had a Moog modular--I spent many nights on that machine. Then it was working retail music--I sold everything from Satellites to Polymoogs.

I now own a modular and a Source. A forty year love affair with no end in sight.

Yes, Switched-on Bach changed my life. I attempted to build the various electronics kits, which I found very difficult and disappointing (random tuning, dc on vca output, hum and noise issues and not always my soldering fault). Could never have afforded any kind of synth. Then I forgot about synths altogether for decades. I bought a few midi romplers in the '90s and now am full circle but with brand new commercial analog synths. I can now afford (not easily) a Voyager or full on modular. But it was the sound of switched-on bach that started it all...

BTW I'm not really that interested in the lead sounds of the Voyager. Its the thick multi oscillator sequences with that filter I like. If I played a Voyager in a store without the Moog mystique, I probably would think "only one note?" and walk out. Its the almost modular abilities of the Voyager which seal the deal for me.

Isao Tomita of course.

He was able to squeeze a symphonic orchestra out of a System 55... and combined it with abstract synthetical stuff from the same instrument. Gorgeous. "Snowflakes are Dancing" changed my life.

Carsten
Furher aspects on http://www.analog-monster.de/index_en.html#intro

a friend of mine mentioned that Keith Emerson is playing an instrument called "MOOG SYNTHESIZER" on Tarkus. An instrument which have access to every sound you can imagine or even you cannot imagine. So this was first. Then I was hypnotised by the Luck Man finale which I recorded many times separately from radio stations whenever I could reach the red record button on the tape recorder. And thirdly I was magically attracked by the J.S. Bach model and the wonderful arrangement behind and on the floor of male rectangular structures mixed with female round shapes indicating an infinite amound of power to rule the empire of sound on the Switched-on Bach cover from Wendy Carlos.

I tried Arturia Minimoog V, and it was the first vsti which i couldn't make ugly
sounds with.

prpellerhead rebirth > Korg Microkorg > Moog Little Phatty

sound!

Bernie Worrell/Parliament Funkadelic hooked me on the Moog sound. When I deceided I wanted to learn synthesis a couple of years back, the little phatty was at the top of the list of high quality entry level synths available. Since then, having played several other synths it amaizes me how perfect the LP was to learn subtractive synthesis on.

The Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue liner notes in 1977.

manfred mann's music and being confronted with: first the difficulties to get exactly to the sweetspot of my korg ms20 when tweaking, thereafter finding the borders in thickness of the roland analogs , and finally earning enough money to buy me a multimoog. thereafter it was moog after moog after moog

I remember coming home from school as a lad before anyone else was home, pulling out ELP's debut LP, and CRANKING Lucky Man. The end solo gives me chills to this day. Then I got eventually got Brain Salad Surgery and the ball really started rolling..

I got a record in highschool called "Commit This To Memory" by Motion City Soundtrack. The inner booklet credited a member of the band for playing the Moog, and I had no idea what it was, but I liked how it sounded, and I thought the name was pretty neat too. So I googled this weird "Moog" thing, and six years later, here I am. Addicted.

My father had a Micro that was given to him that used to sit atop his Rhodes. One day, he programmed the "Jet" preset from the manual and let me hear that and it always sounded awesome when he would play it. I learned the correct pronunciation of Moog early on.

The learning curve associated with Synthesis was such that I waited until I got a bit older before I could stomach the manual. My interests were piqued when I hooked it up to the bassamp and saw the windows and my eyeballs shake. That is when the romantization of the name began for me; my friend and I began to riff on the ideas that it could possible break glass, or that with enough power, crumble mountains. Then it became clear that the walls of Jericho were brought down not with trumpets, but with a Moog.
Obviously we took the romantization a bit to far....as someone on the forum once said "...take man/machine love a bit too far"

I was lucky to have cut my teeth on an instrument with as fine a name as Moog.




Eric