WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The MOOG Story (Part One) 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.800 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.320 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.159 and how the Tech area. It is time for a 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:25.680 classic episode. This episode is called the Mog or Moog Story, 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.240 Part one, about you know, the Moog or moge synthesizer. 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.640 I've heard it pronounced both ways. I've been led to 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.760 understand that mog is more correct, but I'm sure I'm 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:38.760 always going to get it wrong. Uh. This episode actually 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.880 is a little bitter sweet for me because last year 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.159 in late twenty two, Herbert Deutsch, one of the co 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:51.240 creators of the Mog synthesizer, died at the ripe old 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:55.480 age of ninety. So, yeah, this is a story about 0:00:55.560 --> 0:01:00.520 that synthesizer's genesis and evolution. And as I said, it's 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.200 part one, so we know what we're getting next week 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.240 on Friday. But sit back and enjoy this classic episode 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:12.640 from February third. So yeah, we're gonna talk about mog synthesizers. 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:14.920 And when I brought this up, I gave Joe a 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.720 list of potential topics. These were all ones that were 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.319 suggested by by listeners. So thank you guys for sending 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.760 in your suggestions. That's awesome. I really appreciate it. And 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:30.880 Mog synthesizers are kind of amazingly cool, Jonathan, they are 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:35.920 not cool, they are cool. Okay, that's fair. Yeah. For 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.560 the longest time, I thought it was Moog. I thought 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:40.880 it was Moog too. And when I told my wife 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:42.840 Rachel that I was going to be recording an episode 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.360 with you on on Mog, she was like, what's that 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.840 And she was like, is it not Moog? And I 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:50.720 was like, yeah, I used to think the same thing. 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:56.080 But apparently we're just all super ignorant because MOG is 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:01.040 not an acronym for something. Doesn't stand for massive open 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:12.520 online gorillas or modular organic oh led garage. I don't know. No, 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.320 it doesn't stand for anything. It's it's a person's last 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.200 name rights the last name of old Bob Moog, who 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:22.959 not Moog Bob move. It's a hard habit to break, dude. No. 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.840 I remember I did a podcast with Chris Palette years 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.360 and years and years ago, and I think I said 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.960 Moog synthesizer and that, and I was get some angry, 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.640 angry letters. I was. I was thrashed about the neck 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.480 and wrists with a with a ruler, which Chris kept 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.680 on him. Chris, Yeah, I mean, well, he's a percussionist 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.600 for one, and you know he's been in bands. You know, 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.880 he opened for he opened for for Indigo Girls. I mean, 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:53.799 he's like, we're talking serious musician here, um, And I'm 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.280 only slightly ripping him because that's all true. But no, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:02.120 he he was very kind actually to point out my paw. Now, yeah, 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.240 I don't remember many Indigo Girls songs being big on 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.480 the Moges. No. I was just using that as a 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:13.400 way of establishing Chris is uh musical chops in the 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.359 sense that he was an established musician, not so much 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:22.280 to specifically put him in a mog camp. I would 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.720 like to attend Mogue camp. I bet it would be fun. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:28.440 But we wanted to start off before we get into 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:30.320 the nitty gritty of mog We wanted to talk a 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.400 little bit about electronic music, because part of the story 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:41.280 is how electronic music wasn't always an acceptable musical format 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.360 to the general public, but of course now it's it's 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:49.040 an incredibly huge, uh genre of music. Well, despite being 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.800 really popular among some people. I mean there are lots 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.600 of people who love electronic music and that's their favorite 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.720 genre of music. There is still sometimes you'll see a 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.160 kind of I don't know what you call it, a 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:05.800 kind of acoustic elitism snobbery that that isn't so much 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.080 at electronic music itself, though you do encounter that a 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.880 little bit, like like explicitly electronic music, but a lot 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:16.680 of times I see it at music that is that 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:23.159 uses electronically generated tones in conjunction with traditional arrangements and instruments, 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.800 so like pop songs that have synthesizers in them. Is 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:32.760 that there are like snobby, elitist opinions against that, and 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.159 I wonder why that is. I mean, I know there 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.560 is there's sort of a general idea that electronically generated 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.000 tones are fake, which is, you know, they're like it's 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.520 almost like they're not real sound. Yeah, when you get 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:48.880 down to it, when you really peel away all the 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.680 layers of this onion, you realize how ludicrous an argument 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.880 that is. Because a musical instrument is a construct we 0:04:56.040 --> 0:05:01.080 use to generate sound. It it doesn't necessarily have any 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.359 electronic components to it, but it's still a tool that 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.440 we're using to create these musical notes, like there's nothing natural. 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.839 You don't go to the violin tree and pluck a 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.240 violin off the viol injury, right, I mean, these are 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.720 all tools and well, it's sure, but my wardrobe broke 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.320 down like three years ago, so I'm not going to 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:26.480 go to the old school violin maker who makes fake violin. Yeah, exactly, 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.080 Like you should be arguing like, well, you're not singing, 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.719 so you're just doing You're just faking it, Like unless 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.400 you're using the human voice and tapping upon your own 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:38.719 barrel chest for percussion, you, sir, are not a musician. Well, 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:41.040 this is a concept we're gonna have to revisit throughout 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.880 the episode today because I think it is a central 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:48.360 theme of the career of Robert mog But I thought 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.200 it would be good to start just by asking you, 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.479 what is some of your favorite electronic music. You don't 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.880 have to be moge centric here because that might be 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.479 kind of limiting. If if I just say, played on 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.599 a mogue right with electronically generated tones, what do you like? Okay, 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.440 So I'm just gonna run through these pretty quickly because 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.840 I mean, obviously we could we could have an entire 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:11.919 podcast dedicated to music effect. We used to have a 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.160 music oriented podcast from How Stuff Works. Haven't done it 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.080 in ages. It was stuff from the B sides. I 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.040 would love to see that come back sometime. But here's 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.960 some First of all, have to mention daft punk obviously, 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.760 like that's like the kind of clear front runner of 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:32.720 electronic music as far as mainstream awareness is concerned, outside 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.520 of just the electronica fans, who are of course their 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.440 knowledge runs far more deep than mine. Um. I could 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.039 also just lump in pretty much any band that was 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.520 part of the new wave movement, because new wave was 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.360 very electronic heavy and in certain parts of that uh 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:55.880 that movement. Yes, the the the post punk new wave movement. 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.360 I love that that genre of music as well. UM, 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.760 the soundtracks the original Tron movie, I love it. I 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.520 also like Tron Legacy, which again goes back to daft punk. 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:08.760 But I love the soundtrack to the original Tron movie 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.040 Fight for the Users. Yes, and that was scored by 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.560 Wendy Carlos, and Wendy Carlos is very important in the 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.400 history of mog because Wendy Carlos also did an album 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.560 called Switched on Bach, which was an early album that 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:28.120 really uh pushed mog into the limelight like it. It 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.040 was a very popular album. It hit top twenty charts 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.560 and I own this on vinyl. It is at my 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.880 house right now. I have a vinyl copy of Switched 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:40.760 on Bach. Now did that album actually make an appearance 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.480 in the movie A Clockwork Orange? Or was that that 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.400 was Wendy Carlos scoring? When Carlos scored music and that 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.559 oh wait, that was Beethoven, wasn't it Beethoven was the piece? 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:55.560 That was the music? That was That's right, the lindvig Van. 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.320 But Wendy Carlos scored Clockwork Orange. She also scored the 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:02.000 Shining Um. And then also, I like the soundtrack to 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.640 Lady Hawk. I don't know what that is. You don't 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:06.720 know what Lady Hawk is. Lady Hawk is a fantasy 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.560 film from the mid eighties and it starred Matthew Broderick 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:14.080 as a thief. No, no, he was a thief named mouse. 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:19.960 Rutger Howard played a no. Rugger Howard was a a 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.960 like canthrope who was in love with a a young 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.280 lady played by um By Lady Hawk. Well, she was 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.720 the Lady Hawk, but the name suddenly escapes me, and 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.520 that's terrible but anyway, and it will kill me. People 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.559 right in and tell me who was Michelle Phifer. Michelle Phiper, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.120 she was Lady Hawk. Uh. So, the story goes that 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.800 he turns into uh, a wolf at night, she turns 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.560 into Rugger Howard. She turns into a bird in the daytime. 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.040 They are in love with one another, but they can 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.680 never be together because as one is transforming into human, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.959 the other one's transforming into animal. And it's this kind 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:02.079 of story of tragedy as they as Rutger, Howard's character 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.560 is looking to enact revenge upon the the person who 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.640 has cursed them to this existence. Howard has so many 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.680 time related struggles. He wants more life. He needs to 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:18.560 be a day wolf. Yep. So the The soundtrack is 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:24.520 a mixture of orchestral uh and pop scynth, rock and uh. 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:28.920 Some people absolutely detest it. I love it. I love 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:31.800 it because it is very much a thing of its time. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.280 It would not fit in any other time period. Like 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:36.120 if this movie remain in the nineties and it had 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.200 that soundtrack, you would be scratching your head wondering why. 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.320 But in the eighties it was right there at the 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:46.080 forefront of this pop scynth score movement that some people 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.520 hate but I love also. I mean I mentioned switched 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.920 on Bach. Have you ever heard of the Disney's Main 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.839 Street Electrical Parade. I know, I don't know what you're 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.079 talking about. So it's a parade that was very popular 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.520 at Disney World and Disneyland. Don't know if they still 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.920 do it. Parade and actual parade. Yeah, you would go 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:07.800 and and find a spot on Main Street and wait 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:09.880 and the floats. It was at night, and the floats 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.840 were all lit up with various led lights. I think 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.959 they are originally like incandescent lights when it was first going, 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.400 because that's how old the parade, sure, and uh, the 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:26.800 the but the music was all electronic music and very peppy, 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.839 and it included motifs from various Disney films like Mary 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.280 Poppins and Pete's Dragon and that kind of stuff. And um, 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.280 and I had that on vinyl. It's a little uh uh, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:43.280 a little uh tiny um, which is great. There was 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.920 an album called The Moge Cookbook. Did you ever hear this? So? 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.560 I didn't hear this came out in the mid nineties. 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.160 The mog Cookbook is a cover album. Uh. The cover 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.480 the songs are all like from the mid nineties but 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.560 covered with folks. So you've got like, wait, is it 0:10:57.640 --> 0:10:59.839 not the Moke Coke Boke. No, it's not the Mo 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.280 Coke Boke. It's the Mo Cookbook. I looked it up. 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.920 Uh yeah, it included a black Hole Sun, Buddy Holly, 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:11.280 basket Case, free Fallen, Smells like teen Spirit, and several 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.200 other songs. Wait, it included the artist Buddy Holly or 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.600 the song Buddy the song Buddy Hollybyewheezer, because they were 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:21.960 all from that that general era. And I also have 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.760 an un ironic love for the music of sticks, in 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:31.040 which keyboard solos often play a pivotal role. Well, it 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.520 can't fault you there some of my own favorite electronic music, 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.000 like you. A lot of the electronic music that came 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.280 to mind was from soundtracks. Of course. I think of 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:44.480 the Doctor Who theme, which is a wonderful early electronic masterpiece. 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:48.800 It was composed in the BBC Audio Workshops by somebody 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.600 named Delia derby Shire, or actually I think it was 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.760 composed originally by somebody else as a piece of written music, 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:59.240 but realized electronically in a fascinating and wonderful way. By 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.600 By Derby Shire at the BBC then, so much so 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.200 that the original composer actually said, at this point, this 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:08.360 music is not really my own anymore. It's it's Derby Shire's. 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:12.360 And not that that. It wasn't wasn't distancing from the music. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.120 It wasn't saying like this is a bad thing, but 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:18.280 this is a remarkable thing. Yeah. And also I would 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.440 have to mention the electronic compositions of one John Carpenter. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:28.160 For example, I cannot get enough of the soundtrack of 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.480 Halloween three Season of the Witch, a movie with much 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.600 better music than it deserves. Now did they use the 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.120 same motif as the Michael Myers motif and Halloween's one 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.280 and two? It's been a lontestis and it's different. It's 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.720 got it's got some of some kind of similar themes 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:46.880 weaving in and out, but but it's its own thing. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.640 You should dun dunt dun dundu dun mean that shows 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.079 up a little, But you should just listen to the 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:55.839 Halloween three soundtrack. It's great electronic musical. I'll have to 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.240 take a listen. Yeah, I love the John Carpenter stuff 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.559 like I love this stuff from Big Trouble, Old China 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.880 and and uh, you know, like even some of the 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.679 things that are are he's playing songs that are more 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:09.800 guitar driven, but you can tell them instead of guitar 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.920 they're using a synthesizer, which is kind of cool. That's 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.000 a kind of different thing once you start talking about 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:20.040 digitally edited together music. But also, earlier today, because I 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.440 knew we were going to do this, I asked my 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.079 co host, one of my co hosts from Stuff to 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.840 Blow Your Mind, Robert Lamb, about his favorite old school 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:33.079 SyncE stuff and he recommended a guy named Mort Garson, 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.360 who had never heard of before, but who performs under 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:41.120 the He did perform under one name. Lucifer was the 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:46.000 performer artist's name, and there was an album unreleased under 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.000 the artist name Lucifer. That's just great. I listened to 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.800 it earlier today and I loved it. It's very moogie. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:54.840 I don't know if it was actually done on a mook, 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.560 but it it sounds like it's got that old school synthesizers. 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:02.240 Sounds analogue. Um, but what we should get to the 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.840 origin of the Moog story. Moog the mogue. We should 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.559 get to the origin of the Moge story. So who 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.600 was Bob mog Yeah, and and keep in mind, like 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.760 when we talk about the Moge story and we're talking 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.360 about the birth of the analog synthesizer, there were other 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.320 groups also working on synthesizers at the same time as Moge. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.600 But Mogue's name has sort of become iconic in this 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:33.000 idea of the analog physical circuitry synthesizer for multiple reasons. 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.840 So who was he, Well, he's he was born in Queens, 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:41.400 New York on May and as a kid, he became 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.239 really interested in electronics, just thought it was a fascinating 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:48.440 thing and so he really kind of dove into it. 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.080 And he also was really interested in the idea of 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:56.120 using electronics to make music. I think it's called mosic maybe. Uh. 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.080 He however, was not um a musician himself or or 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.240 mosician if you prefer. He was not a musician himself, 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.920 but he liked the thought of creating the instruments that 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.520 would be you know, would allow someone else to make music. 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.360 And one of the first things he really became interested 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:18.680 in was the thereman, which we have covered on tech 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.600 stuff before. The thereman had been invented back in the twenties, 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.040 so he was that had already been around for quite 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.600 some time before Mogue was even born, but Mog got 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:29.720 interested in it. And in case you don't remember what 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.240 a thereman is, just imagine a box that has a 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.360 pair of antenna. Typically you have one vertical antenna and 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:40.960 one horizontal antenna poking out of this box, and the 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.600 antenna rely on radio waves around them, and as you 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.240 move your hands closer to in a way from you 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.600 start to interfere with the waves that are around this antenna. 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.240 You never make contact, or you don't. You're not supposed 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:55.040 to make contact with the antenna. You don't have to. 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.320 It's just by bringing your hands closer and moving them 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.240 further apart, you can change a tone that is generated 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.160 by this device. Now, what does the thereman sound like? 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:10.200 Just imagine in your head all of the goofy bad 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.520 horror and sci fi movies you saw in the nineteen fifties, 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:20.120 especially sci fi yeah that was big, like yeah and 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:22.760 uh and typically like not. Typically, the way it would 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:26.720 work is that one of the antenna would would change 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.680 the pitch as you moved your hand closer and further away, 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.240 and the other one controlled the volume. So as you're 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.120 one is one is how high the flying saucer is 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:37.520 often and the other one is how close it's coming 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:39.520 towards you, yeah, or whether it's moving towards you or 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:42.400 away from you. All Right, so I like, oh, it's 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:46.360 getting closer because Doppler effect. Uh so, yeah, it's It 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:52.280 was a really interesting and odd musical device, and mog 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.680 was really interested in them. He built his first one 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:57.520 when he was either fourteen or fifteen. I've seen reports 0:16:57.560 --> 0:16:59.720 that site one age or the other. But right in 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:04.960 that friend that a four that he's well, no way, 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.680 I think that's when he said he sold his first one, right, 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.160 So he started building them when he was still a teenager. 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:12.560 By the age of nineteen, that's when he started a 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:17.159 business them. Yeah, he actually and he didn't just sell thereman's. 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:19.679 He did do that, but he also sold kits and 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.400 partially constructed ones. So in other words, he was helping 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.520 other d I Y enthusiasts. I assume that if you 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.280 wanted a completed kit, and that would obviously be more 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.800 expensive than just buying the parts from him and then 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.080 the instructions and putting them together yourself. Um, And he 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.479 and his father kind of created a business together and 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.240 it was the r a MO company. Uh. He then 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.080 would go on to attend college and go on to 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.600 graduate school at Cornell and while he was there he 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.000 was studying physical engineering and in nineteen sixty three he 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:55.440 met a guy named Walter Sear who was a tuba manufacturer. Manufacturer, No, 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.200 how many times are we going to do this? You're 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:04.040 not the one who gets the email Joe yea? But yes, 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.200 how many people have that job? At least one a right, 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:13.120 at least oneacturers operate in the world at the same time. 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:17.320 You do wonder what the you know, how tuba's have 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.639 to last a long time? Right, there's gotta be a 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.320 major resell expired. I gotta check it out. Tending to 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.080 go buy a new tuba? Uh so, Yeah, he met 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:30.120 Walter Seer, and Seer thought that Mog was an interesting 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.400 guy and said that Mog should go to the New 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.119 York State School Music Association gathering, And while he was 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:42.359 there he met another guy named Herb Deutsch, and Deutsch 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.160 was part of the experimental music movement that was starting 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.880 to really kind of play with the idea of what 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.119 is music and what what can be music and what 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.880 can music do? Like really pushing the boundary going beyond 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:59.920 just the simple construction of a song and and get 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.679 really weird stuff. And Mog talks about how it was 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.159 his meeting with Deutsch that sort of really got him 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:10.080 interested in electronic music and wanting to build equipment that 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.199 would help us create new kinds of sounds. Yeah, the 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.919 two of them kind of agreed that this would be 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:19.199 a really interesting prospect, the idea of building a device 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:24.520 specifically to create new sounds for music. And so, with 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.840 Deutsch's urging, that's what Mog set out to do, and 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.800 he created a shop near Ithaca, New York, UH and 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:36.240 began to experiment using silicon transistors as the basic components. 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.760 Transistors were kind of a game changer at the time, right, absolutely, Yeah, 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.080 totally changing what you could do with electronic equipment. Well, 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.439 it certainly changed, yes, And the main reason is because 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.240 they took up less space and generated less heat than 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.040 the alternatives, right, because it would be vacuum too exactly. 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:55.359 We'll be back with more about the Mog story after 0:19:55.440 --> 0:20:08.480 this break. So there were certainly electronics before transistors, but 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.560 they were larger and they generated way more heat. And 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.760 so if you wanted to have an electronic device that 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.520 was a musical instrument before the invention of the transistor. 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.800 You're looking at some pretty unwieldy equipment. It's gonna be 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.520 bigger and hotter than what you would find later on 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.720 once you switched over to transistors. So he began to 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.800 look at transistors to be the basis of the circuitry 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:42.240 he would use to create a Mogue musical instrument. And uh, 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.360 he found that he could alter the pitch, like as 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.720 long as he created frequencies that were within the range 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.080 of human hearing, he could alter the pitch by changing 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:55.440 the voltage in various circuits before sending that signal out 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.200 to to allowed speaker. So as long as you keep 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.600 the frequency betwe say twenty hurts and twenty thousand hurts 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.679 that's the range of human hearing, then you can do that. 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.000 If you go beyond that, obviously, then you most people 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:12.400 are unable to perceive it. And obviously not everyone has 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:15.800 exactly that range, right, Some people start, especially as you 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.479 get older, you start to lose the ability to perceive 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.240 at the higher end, which is why I no longer 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:25.000 hear children. Oh yeah, I remember those stories about the 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:27.880 cell phone tones that only kids could hear. Because they're 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:29.840 too high pitch for adults to hear. Was that true 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:31.760 or was that that I hope? I don't know. I 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:37.240 heard a similar story about how how like um gas 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:41.040 stations were employing loudspeaker systems that would play that pitch 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.000 at a high volume because adults couldn't hear it, and 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.720 it discouraged kids from loitering. Man, that's that's that's that's 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:49.600 another story I heard, But I don't know if that's true. 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:54.120 If you wanted to be a really cool uh synthesizer musician, 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.800 you could create a musical instrument that only plays in 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:01.119 the frequency range that adults can it here, and so 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.560 you couldn't have stodgy adults coming into your concert and 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.640 just well I guess you could have them just they're pretending, 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:09.760 or they would or they just say like, I don't 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.240 understand the music these days, uh, or yeah, yeah I 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:15.199 hear it. Man, you go a step further and you 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.160 just make music for dogs. You know you could do that. 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:23.040 So so Moe created a circuit. One of the one 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:25.240 of the music stores I go to here in town 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.520 called Decatur c D. If you go in there, there's 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.480 an album they sell. They've always got in stock that 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:35.399 I think is called music for dogs. There might be 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.400 called like music dogs love. I've never listened to it. Yeah, yeah, 0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:41.560 just be a bunch of cats melling. I don't know 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:44.280 what it is, maybe maybe a doorbell occasionally. Have to 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.240 ask about it next time. Well, Moe created a circuit 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:50.199 that produced a pitch and then with an increase of 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:55.000 one vault, that pitch would go up one octave. That's convenient, right, 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:57.200 And then the pitch would change back and forth using 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.040 different types of wave forms, which I will cover it 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:02.160 are on in this episode, so I'll explain all about 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:04.480 the different wave forms because that's an important part of 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:07.080 what makes a mogue sound the way it does, and 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:11.240 other analog synthesizers as well. Um, and it would create 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:14.320 the sort of weird vibratos sound. And he gave the 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:19.640 instrument his own last name, possibly following the lead of Thereman. 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:23.840 Therreman was named after the guy who invented it. It's 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.080 not a word that was made up for the device. 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:28.600 It's actually named after the inventor. It sounds like a 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:32.240 made up word, it does, but it was somebody named 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.840 like like Jeff Thereman. Yeah, it was exactly that. It 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:40.359 was Jeff thereman, it was not, but at any rate, no, 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:43.800 it's he decided to name it after himself. You know, 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:49.880