22 August 2005
R.I.P. Robert Moog
¶ 11:30 AM 
Robert Moog has passed away. His contributions to the development of the synthesizer have changed music forever. They have also allowed me to spend hours in my bedroom twiddling knobs and pretending to be a great composer.
As a Ph.D student in engineering physics at Cornell University, Moog -- rhymes with vogue -- in 1964 developed his first voltage-controlled synthesizer modules with composer Herbert Deutsch. By the end of that year, R.A . Moog Co. marketed the first commercial modular synthesizer.
The instrument allowed musicians, first in a studio and later on stage, to generate a range of sounds that could mimic nature or seem otherworldly by flipping a switch, twisting a dial, or sliding a knob.
