Moog Modular

Ask GForce’s Chris Macleod about his time with Keith Emerson’s modular behemoth and he’ll tell an entertaining story.

“It was always breaking down and he only really used it for a few sounds in the show. From a roadie point of view, I saw it as something that could be dispensed with so I went to him with the idea and suggested that instead of lugging this beast around, I would sample the necessary sounds into an E-Mu and, hey presto, we’d be several kilos lighter on the truck, and less reliant on the dedicated Moog tech who was along for the duration of the tour, regularly fixing it.

Of course he was right to tell me to bugger off and that it was an essential part of the show, but it was worth a try” Chris half jokes.

Tour stories aside, in their various guises, the Moog Modulars sat like big buddhas on the path to synth enlightenment and in the form of the venerable Walter Carlos and his Switched on Bach album the foundations were firmly laid. Out of interest we read recently that Switched On Bach outsold all previous classical releases and infuriated classical purists because it sounded so good.



Much has been written about these monsters and from Carlos to Tomita and Emerson to TONTO’s Expanding Headband, it seems that wherever the modular went it created, not just ripples, but big, undulating waves.

GForce’s Dave Spiers first met Bob Moog at the opening of the Museum of Synthesizer Technology in the mid 90s. “It was an amazing day. Bob had been flown over to the UK but not allowed to see the collection in advance. After the opening ceremony, as part of the film crew, we had to lie in wait for him to come in and then capture the look on his face as he saw the ‘Moog corner’.

When he realised how big the Moog corner was, his face lit up in total surprise and he then talked at length about in the various instruments in the collection and what it was like in those early years. I was the sound engineer and everything he said was riveting stuff. He was talking about building hardware on his kitchen table and at one point he looked at one of the modules and mentioned that it was likely he did build that very one on his kitchen table back in about 1968. If it had been, he continued, it would probably be signed by him somewhere on the rear of the plate. We unscrewed it and, sure enough there was his signature in pencil. It was one of those magic moments.”



Dave “Trust me, I know what I’m doing”


So there you have it, a couple of stories in place of what should really be some kind of critical review. However, to anyone who’s played one a proper, full-blown modular Moog is almost beyond reproach - even if it does need a lot of careful and regular maintenance.

Oh and if you’re tempted to try and buy one, unless you’ve got very deep pockets, don’t bother. The last one we looked at, which was in average condition, the owner was asking for just over £25,000 for it.

As much as we considered selling our remaining grandparents, we didn’t and just walked away.

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