till.com Electronic Music Articles
Moog Synthesizer Resources
J. Donald Tillman
21 February 2000, updated 24 May 2005

This is a collection of Moog synthesizer resources, online and otherwise, as well as my reviews of some Moog patents.  I've been a fan of Robert Moog's work for a long time.  He has had a tremendous influence on electronic music, combining engineering skill, creative approaches to solving problems and musical instrument building.

Contents:

Moog Web Resources
Don's favorite Moog resources on the web.
Moog Articles
Some articles written by Bob Moog.
Moog Patents
Don digs up all the Moog patents and reviews them.



Moog Web Resources

These are my favorite Moog web sites.  This collection is not meant to be complete; it only includes select technical, historical, and practical resources.  (Suggestions are welcome, of course.)


Technical:

[Moog Patent Reviews] Moog Patent Reviews
Don Tillman reviews all the Moog patents he can find.


Historical:

[Audities Sound logo] The Audities Foundation
A non-profit organization dedicated to preserving electronic musical instruments.  Check out the Moog instruments under the Audities Collection, and Bill Hemsath's notes, and Jim Scott's article on the development of The MiniMoog.
[Moog Archives] Moog Archives
Photos of the old factories, some early instruments, people at Moog, advertisements, serial numbers, oddities, postcards, etc.  A very impressive site.
[SynthMuseum logo] The Synthmuseum Moog Room
Information on several Moog models and most of the Moog article from Keyboard Magazine.
[Vintage Synthesizers logo] Vintage Synthesizers by Mark Vail, published by Backbeat Books.
A must-have for synth fans, this book contains three chapters devoted to Moog synthesizers as well as a couple other chapters written by Bob Moog.
[120 Years logo] 120 Years of Electronic Music's Moog Page
History and Moog products from the 120 Years of Electronic Music web site.
[Music Machines logo] Music Machine's Moog Site
Some resources from those wacky ravers at Analogue Heaven.


Support:

[Archive Sound logo] Archive Sound
Rebuild kits for Pratt-Read keyboards.
[FM Music logo] FM Music
Fred McNiff's Moog keyboard parts and service.
[Lintronic logo] Lintronics
The advanced MemoryMoog beef-up.
[MemoryMoog logo] MemoryMoog Users Group
Schematics, service bulletins, patches, sound archives, links.

Manuals:

[MemoryMoog.com logo] MemoryMoog.com documents library
From Cary Roberts.
[FTP MiniMoog logo] FJP's MiniMoog documentation
PDF version of the MiniMoog operation manual, and other stuff.
[DIY Archive logo] Moog Documentation from Tony Clark's Synth DIY Archive
MemoryMoog users manual and upgrades, MiniMoog schematics, Moog Modular schematics, Prodigy service manual, Rogue service manual, Moog Source notes.
[UCSC Electronic Music Studio logo] UCSC: Using the Moog Synthesizer
The University of California, Santa Cruz, Electronic Music Studio has a really fine online modular Moog user's manual.


And of course...

[Moog Music logo] Moog Music
Bob Moog's company, and maker of the MiniMoog Voyager, MoogerFoogers and great Theremins.


Articles

Voltage-Controlled Electronic Music Modules
Preprint 346, 16th Annual AES Meeting, Oct 1964
AES Journal, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp 200, July 1965
(Copies available from the Audio Engineering Society for a minimal fee.)

Bob Moog discusses voltage controlled modules in geneneral and the design of the 901B VCO and the 902 VCA in particular.

A Voltage-controlled Low-Pass, High-Pass Filter for Audio Signal Processing
Preprint 413, 17th Annual AES Meeting, Oct 1965
(Copies available from the Audio Engineering Society for a minimal fee.)

A description, including schematics and theory of operation, of the Moog 904A voltage-controlled low-pass filter, the Moog 904B voltage-controlled high-pass filter and the Moog 904C filter coupler.  A companion to US Patent 3,475,623.

A High-Accuracy Frequency Shifter for Professional Audio Applications
Harald Bode, Robert Moog
Preprint 865, 42nd AES Convention, May 1972
AES Journal, Vol. 20, No. 6, p453, 1972
(Copies available from the Audio Engineering Society for a minimal fee.)

A block-level description and theory of operation of the Bode Frequency Shifter, Moog Module 1630.  A companion to US Patent 3,800,088.

The Human Finger - A Versatile Electronic Musical Instrument Component
Robert A. Moog
Preprint 1304, 58th AES Convention, Nov 4-7, 1977
(Copies available from the Audio Engineering Society for a minimal fee.)

An introduction to finger interfaces, the electrical properties of the human finger and a description of a sensor that can capacitively detect finger pressure and position in two dimensions.

Robert Moog
by Robert Houston at Salon.com.


Copyright 2000-2005, J. Donald Tillman
Email: don@till.com
Web page: http://www.till.com