The A-Z of analogue

Our definitive directory of every analogue synth in the history of the whole world ever. Included are keyboards, expanders and sound modules, readers are invited to expand upon or correct any part of the A-Z. Parts 1-19 may be ordered from the Music Maker hotline: (Contact Details)

Part 20 — compiled by Peter Forrest

Moog (continued)

• Micromoog

32-note (F-C) 1-VCO monosynth with suboscillator. 1975 - c.1979
Original price: £565 discounted to £449 (1976)
Target price: £150 - £200
Users include: Apollo 440, Richard Barbieri, Thomas Dolby (first synth he owned at the age of 15), Doubting Thomas, Wolfgang Duren, Front Line Assembly, Herbie Hancock, Chuck Leavell, Martin Ley, Jon Lord/Whitesnake, Patrick Moraz, Steve Nieve, Mats Oberg, David Sams/Heron, Mark Stanway (Magnum), Youth.

• Moog's follow-up to the Minimoog, aiming to appeal to entry-level synthesists by keeping costs low by only having one oscillator, using a moulded case instead of wood, and so on.
• Filter can be switched to act as second oscillator, and its sine wave can be ring modulated with the VCO. As a filter, it can be inverted, and has a fair amount of control possibilities, even if it is initially confusing.
• Envelopes are limited — only attack and release, with switches for VCF and VCA sustain and release — but actually quite usable. Sub-oscillator puts out square wave, one or two octaves below main VCO.
• Main VCO waveforms continuously variable from sawtooth to square to pulse-width — much better than simply switching between three or four choices.
• Possibly the first monosynth to have a (small) pitchbend ribbon as standard. Situated next to the mod wheel, pointing away from the player, it's not as easy to work in conjunction with the mod wheel as second wheel would have been, it's possibly more expressive.
• Pink noise mixable; portamento available.
• Expander module shown at NAMM winter 79/80.

• Midimini / MIDImoog

See Studio Electronics

• Minimoog

The classic original 3-VCO 44-note (F-C) monosynth. 1970 - 1981
Original price: $1495 / £660 (1972) / £700 (1975) / £775 (1976) / £1042 (1979) / £1150 (1981)
Target price: £500 - £900
Users include: 808 State, Benny Anderson/Abba, Don Airey (modified by Moog for footpedal cross-modulation), Apollo 440 (Keith Emerson's old one), Rod Argent, The Beloved (basslines), Tim Blake (Jerusalem), Michael Boddicker, Bronski Beat, Bob Casale/Devo, Vince Clarke, Billy Cobham, Coldcut, Chick Corea (with aftertouch modification), Steve Cunningham, Thomas Dolby, Geoff Downes, George Duke (encased in plexiglass, lit up, and slingable), Keith Emerson, The Enid (two), Tommy Eyre, Larry Fast, Baby Ford, Front Line Assembly, Lowell George, Dave Greenfield, Jan Hammer (part of the secret of his famous guitar sound), Herbie Hancock (plus 'Waves'; modified Minimoog), Paul Hardcastle, Heatwave ('Boogie Nights'), Steve Hillage (customised by Graham Wood), Hammy Howell / Darts, Michel Huygen / Neuronium, Incognito, Irakerre, J.J.Jeczalik, Mark Jenkins, Eddie Jobson (two) / UK, Howard Jones, Raymond Jones / Chic (with remote keyboard), Kraftwerk ('Neon Lights'), Die Krupps, Geddy Lee/Rush, Howard Leese / Heart, Level 42, Steve Levine, Ian Lynn, Jon Lord, Magma, Nick Magnus / Steve Hackett, Manfred Mann, Marillion, Linda McCartney, Hugh McKenna / SAHB, John McLaughlin (six driven by a 360 Systems guitar synth), Jason Miles, Bill Nelson (via Hagstrom Patch 2000 guitar), Gary Numan, The Orb, Bill Payne, Pere Ubu, Greg Phillinganes (including playing above his head), Don Preston, The Prodigy, Paul Raymond / UFO, Andy Richards, David Sams / Heron, Tim Simenon, Dave Sinclair / Caravan (x2), Klaus Schulze, Scritti Politti basslines, Bill Sharpe, Tim Souster, Startled Insects, Dave (Egg) Stewart, Tangerine Dream, Roger Troutman (with voice-box), Ian Underwood, Uriah Heep, Steve Winwood (basslines on 'Roll With It'), Bernie Worrell, Gary Wright (split), Rick Wright / Pink Floyd (Animals), Youth.

• The Minimoog could have been much more high-tech in appearance, with plastic moulded body, and computer-type styling, but market research showed a preference for a more traditional wooden case, so that was what was used. The standard Minimoog (the only one that went into production) was the Model D. The Model A had been made from standard Moog modules, with pitch/modulation sliders rather than wheels — and the need for some patch-cords, although the design was as simplified as possible. The Model B control panel was made from a single sheet of metal, and had switches for routing, so doing away with any patch-cords at all; the Model C brought in the hinged back panel, and the wheels for modulation and pitchbend; and from that evolved the Model D, the production model.
• First played in public in New York in Summer 1970. Then shown at AES 1970, and again at NAMM 1971 — to a very cold reaction from dealers. If it hadn't been for a 'close-that-sale', genius by the name of David van Koevering, who went round badgering dealers until they took one in their shop, the Mini might never have gone into full-scale production. Instead, though, played by high-profile musicians like Emerson, Wakeman, Jan Hammer and Chick Corea, it suddenly became the keyboard to own.
• It set the standard for analogue architecture from then on, so that the Prophet 5, for example, was a conscious attempt to make a polyphonic Minimoog. It also almost single-handedly sounded the death of patch-cords as standard on synthesisers. Unlike the ARP 2600, which came out around the same time, you could access all the possibilities of the Minimoog without any need to use a single patchcord except for audio out. (You could, though, link up with another controller via the S-trig, VCO, VCF and VCA inputs, and there was also a good little trick where you routed your signal out from the low level output back into the external instrument input, to thicken up the sound a bit.)
• Some of the electronics were adapted from the modular stuff, including the famous VCF, but other sections, such as the oscillators, were designed from scratch, in an effort to improve on the modular system's notoriously temperature-sensitive pitch. The envelopes aren't as versatile as they might have been, with ADS controls available, but no final release. Instead, a switch by the wheel section switches between instant cut-off and a release which is the same as whatever the decay setting is. This is actually quite good enough for nearly all situations, but there's still that occasional time when you want to have more control over release while keeping decay the same.
• The other occasional annoyance is in having to lose the third oscillator if you want an LFO. Again, two oscillators as powerful as the Minimoog's are quite enough to be going on with — and sometimes actually sound better without the phase-cancelling that sometimes happens with oscillators in unison — but there are still times when you've got a great sound out of the three VCOs, and you want vibrato as well. Rivera Music Services would modify your Minimoog to include a dedicated LFO, as well as oscillator sync, vernier tuning knobs, single and multiple trigger options, and a host more extras, all crammed into the front panel in a rather appealing way. Expect to pay well over £1000 for an RMS mod Mini in good nick. A useful A440 tuning tone could be switched in. Plus, for performance, you could easily mute the output to the PA while auditioning your next sound through headphones. Not quite the same as programmable memories, but a godsend nevertheless.
• For all its reworked VCOs, the Mini still wasn't very reliable at keeping in tune. This improved when new oscillator cards were announced at the NAMM Fair in the Autumn of 1978, and fitted in machines from serial number 10175 — and retrofitted to many other machines as well. Whether they sound quite as good as the original VCOs is debatable, but they are certainly a bit more stable.
• Around 12243 (serial numbers 1017 - 13259) were made. The last twenty-five were hand-made in walnut (like the earliest instruments), with a brass plaque for the serial number. The last ever was presented to Robert Moog.
• Not all Minimoogs are identical, even apart from the VCO changes. Moog Custom Engineering would, for a price, provide various customisations — a ribbon controller (like on the Micro and Multi) instead of the pitch-bend wheel, a remote keyboard, even a fourth oscillator in a wooden box, to bring you back to the full complement of three VCOs and one LFO; and in 1975 a Minimoog with a rotary accent control was shown at the British Music Trade Show. Some of the very earliest instruments will also have an R.A. Moog nameplate. This was then superceded (as Moog's original company got into financial difficulty and had to merge with Musonics) firstly for a short time in early 1971 by Moog Musonics, and then by Moog Music Inc., with the standard 70s Moog logo.
• Despite Robert Moog's protestations to the contrary, many people believe the earliest Minimoogs are the best, and so the R.A.Moog and Musonics instruments are very highly sought-after — though probably more by collectors (for their rarity and workmanship) rather than by active musicians.
• What makes the Minimoog such a classic?
  
  1. It's the first easily portable, genuinely playable synthesiser.
  
  2. Its design influenced practically every analogue synth that came after it — in fact practically every digital synth as well.
  
  3. It's genuinely easy to play; like a Rhodes piano just makes you play jazzy mellow chords, the Minimoog makes it almost impossible not to play the classic monophonic lines that seem to flow out of it.
  
  4. Ergonomically, it's a delight: The variable angle on the back panel, the clear legend, the uncluttered layout, the excellent colour scheme, and the smooth and satisfying knobs and switches make it just about the best designed synth ever.
  
  5. Above all, there's something about its sound, too, which has never since been equalled.
  
  
• The only instrument I've heard to equal it (and arguably beat it) is a Moog modular, with the third set of 901B oscillators ever produced. That, maybe, has even more of the warm squelch, solidity and power without a trace of harshness, that the Minimoog puts out. Apart from that, nothing quite hits the mark, even when it was a Moog instrument, like the Multimoog or Memorymoog or Source. Why should its sound be better than any other instrument? No-one has worked it out yet. Something to do with overdriving the filter, the subtle differences in each of the oscillators, the excellent attack time on the envelopes (quoted in the manual as 10 msec minimum, but actually closer to one or two)... who knows? All you can say is that if you put fifty rock keyboard players of a certain age into a darkened room, and played them the Minimoog and various other synths in a blind test, most of them would be able to tell you which the Mini was. (Especially if you'd hidden the drink and drugs first). Moog Custom Engineering produced various mods — eg. Optional ribbon controller to replace pitch-wheel, extra oscillator in wooden box, etc..
• Rivera Music Services, from 1980 onwards, also produced some far-ranging modifications, including a fourth oscillator to free VCO3 from LFO duties, sync, a beat frequency LED indicator, multiple triggering, and vernier VCO tuning knobs. They also added VCO and VCF output jacks to make the Minimoog even more useful within a big set-up. These mods would seem to make the Rivera version highly desirable.
• MT retrospective: Aug 85

This month, more samples from Peter Forrest's priceless collection of original Moog synths, including the Rogue and Prodigy