Minimoog
The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popular with progressive rock and jazz musicians and found wide use in disco, pop, rock and electronic music.
Minimoog
1970–81, 2016–2017, 2022-present
in 1974: US$1,595.00 (equivalent to $9,854 in 2023)
3 VCOs, white/pink noise
Oscillator 3 can function as LFO (original and 2016 reissue), dedicated extra LFO (2016 reissue only)
24dB/oct, 4-pole lowpass filter
with cutoff, resonance,
ADSR envelope generator,
keyboard tracking
ADSR envelope generator
Frequency modulation
using oscillator 3/noise
44-note, low-note priority
Pitch bend and mod wheels
Production of the Minimoog stopped in the early 1980s after the sale of Moog Music. In 2002, founder Robert Moog regained the rights to the Moog brand, bought the company, and released an updated version of the Minimoog, the Minimoog Voyager. In 2016 and in 2022, Moog Music released another new version of the original Minimoog.
Impact[edit]
According to TJ Pinch, author of Analog Days, the Minimoog was the first synthesizer to become a "classic".[4]: 214 Wired described it as "the most famous synthesizer in music history ... a ubiquitous analog keyboard that can be heard in countless pop, rock, hip-hop, and techno tracks from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s".[2] It was also important for its portability.[2] David Borden, an associate of Moog, said that the Minimoog "took the synthesizer out of the studio and put it into the concert hall".[12] According to the Guardian, "Tweaked now so that the synthesizer could reliably perform as either a melodic lead or propulsive bass instrument (rather than just as a complex sound-generating machine), the Minimoog changed everything ... the Moogs oozed character. Their sound could be quirky, kitsch and cute, or pulverising, but it was always identifiable as Moog."[13]
The Minimoog changed the dynamics of rock bands. For the first time, keyboardists could play solos in the style of lead guitarists, or play synthesized basslines.[1] Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman said: "For the first time you could go on [stage] and give the guitarist a run for his money... A guitarist would say, 'Oh shoot, he's got a Minimoog,' so they're looking for eleven on their volume control - it's the only way they can compete." Wakeman said the instrument "absolutely changed the face of music".[14]
The Minimoog took a place in mainstream black music, most notably in the work of Stevie Wonder.[4]: 8 Its use for basslines became particularly popular in funk, as in the Parliament track "Flash Light".[1] It was also popular in jazz, and Sun Ra became perhaps the first musician to perform and record with the instrument (on his 1970 album My Brother the Wind).[1] Herbie Hancock, Dick Hyman and Chick Corea were other early adopters.[1]
The Minimoog became a staple of progressive rock. In the early 1970s, Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer added the Minimoog to his modular 'Monster Moog' as an occasional part of his performances.[4]: 200–212 Wakeman used five Minimoogs on stage so he could play different sounds without having to reconfigure them.[1] It was also used by electronic artists such as Kraftwerk, who used it on their albums Autobahn (1974) and The Man-Machine (1978), and later by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Gary Numan.[1] In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, it was widely used in the emerging disco genre by artists including ABBA and Giorgio Moroder.[1]
In 2012, to celebrate Bob Moog's birthday, Google created an interactive Minimoog softsynth web application as its Google Doodle.[15]