[Closed] The MiniMoog

Have a read of [i]Electronic and Experimental Music[/i] by Thom Holmes, not tons of stuff about the Minimoog, but enough and it will give you a good context to work within-you certainly wont find such good information on the web.

Basically it was one of the first small almost affordable synths, a mate had one in his home studio always fun to play with. Wasn't long after it came out that a whole load of companies responded with small analogue synths like the ARP Odyssey. I think EMS might have beat them to market with the VCS3 or Synthi A/AKS. Watch early 70's top of the pops and you'll normally see either a Mini Moog, ARP Odyssey or EMS.

Tom B, cheers mate, will dig that one out.

matt303uk, cheers but to be fair I know all that already... I've got to write about why it was so influential, and I know most of the reasons why, I just (as is the way these days) have to reference the whole bloody lot, so I need as many different sources as possible, with lots of content on how and why it was so influential.

I don't know if there's anything in it to help you, but there's lots about synth development in it; [i]Perfecting Sound Forever. The Story Of Recorded Music[/i], by Greg Milner, is a brilliant book, and anyone with any serious interest in music should own a copy. I read it on holiday last year, and it was fascinating.

Cheers CountZero, will give that a lookup. If there's anything, even just a page or two on it in there, then at least I'll be able to reference it, which is the key, cos I could probably write the best part of 3000 words as it is on the subject, but it's all got to be referenced (ie. I've researched and read it somewhere!!! Ballache!).

Here's a link to a library of 1970s electronic music magazines.
Interviews with the likes of Eno, Kraftwerk and Bob Moog. Loads of equipment reviews too so you can see what they were getting excited about at the time and what the benchmark kit was.

http://www.cyndustries.com/synapse/intro.cfm

This site is a good reference too;

http://www.vintagesynth.com/

As well as being portable, the main reason it was so popular was that it sounded great! Cut down size but not cut down sound. Three oscillators makes for a lot of variation, as well as phat.

[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Analog-Days-Invention-Impact-Synthesizer/dp/0674016173/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334563786&sr=1-1 ]Here, this might help[/url]

just type into Google any up to date electronic artist followed by "talking about Moog" they all seem to love them

My cat is called Minimoog. To the best of my knowledge, she has had little influence on modern synthesizer design.

Moog apps: [url= http://moogmusic.com/products/apps/animoog ]animoog[/url]

Guys, many thanks, this is helping nicely!

Any more for any more please... 😀

The was a good doccumentary on Sky Arts recently, [url= http://skyarts.sky.com/moog ]Moog[/url]

It maybe on sky plus anytime download jobby. It's worth a watch though.

Cheers Konastoner, almost certain that's the one I watched on youtube the other day... A little over an hour long, got quite a long interview with Rick Wakeman, Bob Moog and Bernie Worrell all together right in the middle?

Just had a look in 'Perfecting Sound...', and there isn't much about Moog's, really, it's more to do with time-sharing issues with a Moog at a university, and how they developed a digital synth in order to remove the analogue/digital issues they were faced with. Pages 308/9, if you want to check it out.
Still a terrific book, and one you ought to read.

remember to cite 'singletrackworld.com' as one of your refs 😉

Watch any artist of the period with a minimoog and you'll probably see them twiddling to try & keep the thing in tune as its components warmed up.

Why was it influential? Fashion, it made neat noises, it wasn't too expensive, it was portable, it was tough in the van, it was repairable...

Bowie liked his Circa Ziggy

I need to write about how, in essence, it changed the shape of things to come with regards to Synthesizers. Or in other words,[b] how influential it was[/b]

i think in 3000 words i'd be looking to include how influential it was in shaping people like Roland to emulate what they were doing and mass produce the idea.

come the renaissance of analogue in the late eighties early nineties, hardly any one was using Moogs in comparison to Junos or TB303s simply because there were so many cheap Rolands around (didn't last long i know). i don't think i've ever actually seen a Moog in the flesh but i've owned a whole raft of Rolands and Yamahas.

Cheers again guys.

trailmonkey, that's definitely part of the plan to talk about how the Minimoog shaped what other companies did, like Roland, Korg and Yamaha etc.

Just chucking this back out there... Anyone got anything else they can suggest/contribute?

Mainly online now, got 6 more days til I hand this in, sat reading through a copy of Analog Days I managed to find right now, have watched the Bob Moog Documentary, Synth Britannia, found copious websites etc... But if you've got some killer info somewhere, would be useful if you could share it!

Might be worth checking out back issues of [url= http://www.soundonsound.com/ ]Sound on Sound[/url] They may have some features on Moogs. They'll certainly have something about mini Moog plugins for soft synths.

Got anything in there about the Moog effects pedals from the late 90s, Mooger Fooger et al?

cheers uponthedowns, I've just searched, sure I'll be able to find something worth quoting on there from the loads of links that have come up.

Rich, how why and what were those effects pedals all about? Were they designed to be used exclusively in conjuction with a Minimoog?

Bit on Bowies thoughts on moot from potential new book

http://bowiemyths.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/bowie-object-exclusive-preview/

I remember a couple of them being released as I was repairing stuff at Turnkey at the time. They were standalone, ostensibly using electronics from the Moog design vault. Low pass filter and Ring modulator. Just googled and they were branded Big Briar because old Bob had sold his name 🙁

[url= http://moogmusic.com/legacy/big-briar-catalog-circa-2000 ]original MoogerFooger[/url]

Sounded nice IIRC. Was thinking you could tie those in with the music of the time being heavily influenced by the artists who'd used the Minimoog, and wanting to recreate that but not wanting to sell their kidneys to pay for original analog gear.

Geddy Lee from Rush
Rick Wakeman
ELP
Magnum
Deep Purple
All used Moogs in the day

Is that a plea for a time machine so we can erase Bob Moog from history, marco?

might find something new about something old in these links

http://www.moogmusic.com/legacy
http://www.symbiosis-music.com/moog.html
http://www.salon.com/2000/04/25/moog/
http://moogarchives.com/

Cheers again Rich, just listening to an interview with Bob Moog right now done in 2002, him explaining what the Moogerfooger does!!! 🙂

hilldodger, great links, cheers

Just thought I'd add, in case anyone is interested... Just reading through "Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer" at the moment, and WOW... What an enthralling read! Seriously... Proper interesting stuff if you're at all interested in music, musical instruments, engineering or even marketing (as they really struggled at first with products deemed almost unsaleable!).

Definitely recommend it to anyone, and it reads pretty quickly...