Robert Moog
7 quotes
Biography
Robert Arthur Moog was an American electronics engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964.
"The more you get into material and matter, all you realize is in matter, there is energy. There is a blur between energy and consciousness. All material is conscious to some extent or another. All material can respond to some extent or another to vibrations of energy that is different to energy you learn about in physics. There are all sorts of reliable information now on people and animal being able to be able to effect the operations of machines—even of computers—and I think that has great implications for what goes on between a musician and his instrument. There is a level of reality where there is no time, and there is no space, there is just energy. And we have contact with that through the intermediate layers, so, if the right channels—if the right connections are established, I don’t see why a piece of matter, a piece of broken glass or and old record can’t make contact through this very high level of reality that has access to everything past and future. I suppose my instruments do retain some sort of memory of me. I know that when I’m working on them I feel (not explicitly, I don’t hear voices in my head or anything) that I’m making a connection with it. The circuit diagram, that is then converted into a circuit board, which then becomes a part of an instrument is something that is a record that I made. So I guess in that sense it is something that is certainly a memory."
"I happen to think that computers are the most important thing to happen to musicians since the invention of cat-gut which was a long time ago."
"To those of you who are wearing ties, I think my dad would appreciate it if you took them off."
"My training as an engineer has enabled me to design the stuff, but the reason I do it is not to make music but for the opportunity to work with musicians."
"The point is that I don't design stuff for myself. I'm a toolmaker. I design things that other people want to use."
"Leon Theremin's original designs are elegant, ingenious and effective. As electronics goes, the theremin is very simple. But there are so many subtleties hidden in the details of the design. It's like a great sonnet, or a painting, or a speech, that is perfectly done on more than one level."
"I was never worried that synthesizers would replace musicians. First of all, you have to be a musician in order to make music with a synthesizer."