All this talk about synthesizers, now....inspired me to do a little
research. I can verify that Micky Dolenz of the Monkees was
the first to buy a Moog (rhymes with "vogue" BTW) from the
newly formed company in Sept of 1967. Other shipments:
Rolling Stones 9/68 (they never used it though)
Byrds 10/68
Beatles 1/69
George Harrison 2/69
Simon & Garfunkel 3/69
George Martin 9/69
Hendrix/Ladyland Studios 11/69
c Karma wrote:
> I hope some research will bear this out, but legend at my high school (Bronx
> Science) had it that Robert Moog began his investigation into the creation
> of the synthesizer as a project in what was then called STL: Science
> Techniques Laboratory. Or, our version of "shop." He later got some major
> grants and corporate financing to continue research and development, and the
> rest is history as he pioneered a new generation of electronic instruments.
I haven't seen mention of this in the brief bios I have seen, but he
was in the NY area in his early days.
Robert Moog began by selling Theremin kits in magazines in 1960.
He sold about 1000 kits, which one presumes gave him the capital to
make his first transistor based synthesizer in his apartment in 1963,
while an undergrad at Queens College in NY. He first showed it
publicly at the AES in 1964, then began working with composer
Walter (now Wendy) Carlos. In 1969 the "Switched
On Bach" album alerted the world to the sound of this new instrument.
Moog's work was predated by that of Donald Buchla, who
developed his version of the instrument in 1960. He received a
commision from composer Morton Subotnik and later a grant from
the Rockefeller Foundation. He made his first modular synth in
1963, and his first commercial one (after Moog's) in 1969.
Interestingly, the first oscillator-based instrument dates all the
way back to 1876, Elisha Gray's "Electroharmonic Telegraph".
Loudspeakers hadn't even been invented yet!
In 1899 it was noted that carbon arc lamps emitted a high
pitched noise, and someone developed the "Singing Arc" using
this principle.
Lev Termen produced his first Theremin in 1917 in Russia.
It used vacuum tubes to create the oscillators, and the capacitance
of the body-you moved your hands near a protruding antenna-
to control the pitch. This is the sound on The Beach Boys "Good
Vibrations". Recently Robert Moog has again begun producing
a transistorized version of the instrument.
Sure hope I get a good grade on this.
RR
Les Irvin wrote:
> At 5/13/2001 01:48 AM, someone wrote:
> >The Moog was hardly new in '75 when Hissing came out. Among it's
> >first uses in pop music was 6 years before.
>
> Actually, I can date it back to as early as mid-1967, when Micky Dolenz
> played it on the Monkees album "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and
> Jones".
