Robert Moog

Robert Moog (May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American electronics engineer who pioneered electronic music. He founded Moog Music and created the first commercial synthesizer, which launched in 1964. In 1970, his company released the Minimoog, widely considered the most famous and influential synthesizer ever built. Moog received a Technical Grammy in 2002 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Born in New York City, Moog grew up in Flushing, Queens. His mother insisted he study piano as a child, and his father, an engineer for Consolidated Edison, took him to Manhattan’s Radio Row and worked on electronics projects with him. At age 14, Moog built a theremin from a magazine plan. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1952, earned a physics degree from Queens College in 1955, an electrical engineering degree from Columbia in 1957, and a PhD in engineering physics from Cornell in 1965.

By 1963, Moog had been designing and selling theremins for years while pursuing his doctorate. He founded R.A. Moog Co. in 1954, building theremins and kits from his parents’ home and selling them by mail. In 1956, composer Raymond Scott bought a Moog theremin and modified it to be keyboard-controlled. Moog continued selling theremin kits from his own home in Ithaca before opening a commercial space in Trumansburg, New York, in 1963.

At Cornell, Moog began working on synthesizer components with composer Herb Deutsch. Existing synthesizers were enormous and expensive; Moog aimed to build something more compact and affordable that musicians would actually use. His 1964 modular synthesizer used separate modules connected by patch cords. Instead of vacuum tubes, he employed silicon transistors to create voltage-controlled oscillators, which adjust pitch via voltage. He also introduced voltage-controlled amplifiers, envelope generators, and the pitch wheel. The instrument debuted at a 1964 Audio Engineering Society convention. It cost about $10,000—far less than the six-figure price of earlier synthesizers—and could be played with a keyboard and programmed with knobs and cables, making it appealing to musicians. Moog described himself as a toolmaker who designed for users, not himself, and his innovations were guided by composers’ requests.

Moog’s only patent was for his transistor ladder filter design. He is regarded as a poor businessman who pursued his work as a hobby. Commentators note that he might have become extremely wealthy had he patented his other innovations, but leaving them in the public domain helped the synthesizer industry flourish.

In 1971, Moog sold Moog Music to Norlin Musical Instruments, where he stayed as a designer until 1977. He founded Big Briar in 1978, and in 2002 he renamed it Moog Music after regaining the rights to the name. In later years, he taught at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and continued designing instruments for the revived company. He died at age 71 in Asheville from a brain tumor.