In memory of a pioneer of squelch

The pioneer of analogue synthesisers, Bob Moog (rhymes with vogue), has died at the age of 71 from a brain tumour.

To say that he had an influence on modern music is like saying the pope is a bit religious.

He developed his first voltage-controlled synthesiser with composer Herman Deutsch whilst studying for a PhD in physics at Cornell University in 1964. By the end of that year, the legendary MiniMoog was unleashed onto an unsuspecting world.

It wasn't the first commercially available analogue synthesiser but it was smaller and lighter than its competitors and came with a plethora of knobs and dials that allowed unprecedented control over the timbre of the sounds it generated.

Anybody who is anybody in rock and electronic music has used a Moog either in its original wood-panelled form or in its most recent virtual synth incarnations.

So raise you glasses, ladies and gentlemen, and join me in a toast to a true visionary pioneer. Now grab that cut-off dial and make your Moog squeel like a pig.

Cheers Bob.