Nice story from Moog's "Chief Technical Alchemist"

[latigid on]

From the website:

Every instrument has a story…

The Taurus 3 story starts for me at the 2006 NAMM show just months after Bob Moog’s passing, when we were secretly showing Little Phatty prototypes to a select few. This was my first NAMM show and I was a newcomer to the world of electronic musical instruments.

The first day, I stood leaning against the wall across from our booth, watching a blank poster with a picture of Bob quickly fill up with adoring messages and tributes to someone who had touched so many lives. It was an incredibly moving experience and quite a surreal way to take in the responsibility that had been passed on to us.

Many, after writing a goodbye note to Bob on the poster, told me about “the time I met Bob” or how Bob’s instruments had changed their lives. Invariably, the question followed, “When are you guys going to make another Taurus?”

At the time I didn’t have an answer but this became a much-debated question among folks at Moog Music as the requests continued. Should we release the Taurus again? What exactly would it be? Would people really want to buy it? And most importantly: What made the Taurus 1 such a coveted instrument?

Over the last few years we have repeatedly asked these questions until Mike Adams proposed last year that we put this to our customers. It was a simple proposal and one that I think truly reflects on the vital relationship between you, our customers, and us here at Moog Music. The proposal was that if enough of you committed in advance to purchase a new Moog Taurus, we would begin the task of designing such an instrument.

Personally, I was skeptical about how many people really wanted a Taurus but I’m used to being wrong about these things! The response was overwhelming and the excitement the announcement generated was incredible. Thus, the genesis of the Taurus 3 began…

I began an exhaustive study into every aspect of the Taurus 1 sound engine: measuring, listening, analyzing, and most importantly, trying to get inside what I consider the “soul” of the instrument. At the same time, we began the process of determining what a new Taurus 3 should be. As most of you know, at Moog we continually strive to create something new and unique while capturing the essence of what Bob started over 50 years ago.

Last week, I sat in the control room of the beautiful Echo Mountain Recording Studio in Asheville with my partners Steve Dunnington and Amos Gaynes and Taurus afficianado Michael Caloroso. We listened critically to Michael’s Taurus 1 and our Taurus 3, making sure the T3 shared every detail and nuance of the original.

The results are stunning. The Taurus 3 not only captures the original sounds of the Taurus 1 in full, but instantly expands upon its capabilities and offers many new dimensions to its sonic palette including LFOs, external CVs, and transposable arpeggiators. We are extremely proud and excited for you to begin making music with this instrument!

In the Echo Mountain studio we confirmed that this new instrument has its own personality and soul, something you can only know for certain when you feel it. Creating such instruments is the essence of what we do.

As we prepare to ship the first Taurus 3 pedals, this is really only the very beginning of the story. We are waiting for you to continue it…

Thank you to all the early adopters who made the commitment to us at Moog to go forward with this project. Your faith in us allowed us to create this instrument, and your enthusiasm, comments, suggestions and discussions were all essential to its successful development. We consider ourselves to be the luckiest company in the world to be blessed with you all.

I am deeply proud of what we have produced in the past few years. It’s been a whirlwind of continued improvements to our existing product lines as well as innovations such as the Little Phatty, the MultiPedal and the Moog Guitar. Our inspiration lies in what you do with these innovations. Our job is to provide you with tools that you fall in love with, tools that have an inexhaustible vocabulary and work to expand our sonic universe.

The Taurus 3 fits the bill. We hope you enjoy it immensely and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Cyril Lance
Chief Technical Alchemist

(if I need to have a title: “Senior Engineer” is good, but better still “Chief Technical Alchemist”, ha!)