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Minimoog
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The Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. Released in 1971 by the original Moog Music, it was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers.
ts most basic, the Minimoog control panel can be broken up into 3 sections:
To produce a sound, the musician would first choose a sound shape to be generated from the VCO. The VCO provides a choice of several switchable waveforms:
The sound then travels from the VCO to the VCF (voltage-controlled filter) where it can be shaped and sculpted, adding resonance.
Next, the sound travels to the voltage-controlled amplifer (VCA).
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Encyclopedia
The Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. Released in 1971 by the original Moog Music, it was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers.
Design
At its most basic, the Minimoog control panel can be broken up into 3 sections:
To produce a sound, the musician would first choose a sound shape to be generated from the VCO. The VCO provides a choice of several switchable waveforms:
The sound then travels from the VCO to the VCF (voltage-controlled filter) where it can be shaped and sculpted, adding resonance.
Next, the sound travels to the voltage-controlled amplifer (VCA). The term "amplifier" can be a bit misleading to novices who might be thinking of a stereo amplifier with a single volume knob. In a modern synthesizer, a VCA actually has 4 separate volume knobs that control four different stages of the sound. For example, the first knob - the Attack volume - controls how loud a sound is when the key is first pressed: does it start immediately like a string being plucked? Or does it fade in gradually like a violin being softly bowed? (See the "Sound Basics" section of the general synthesizer article for more information on this.)
Part of the appeal of this instrument over the early modular Moogs was the fact that the Minimoog required no patch cables. While this imposed the signal flow limitation outlined above (VCO -> VCF -> VCA), there are ways to tweak the sound. For example, in reality, the Minimoog has six sound sources. Five of these sound sources pass to a mixer with independent level controls:
And the VCF can itself be made to oscillate, thus comprising the Minimoog's sixth sound source.
The voltage-controlled filter (VCF) and voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) each have their own ADSD envelope generator (or Attack-Decay-Sustain-Decay). Musicians who are familiar with more modern synthesizers might expect the last letter to be R for "Release" (as in ADSR). However, on the Minimoog, the envelopes are ADSD as the Decay setting also sets the time for what's regularly known as Release. In other words, there are 3 knobs to control 4 sections of the sound (most modern synths have 4 knobs, one for each section) -- a "shortcoming" that doesn't seem to diminish the Minimoog's popularity in any way. There is also a switch above the pitch and modulation wheels to engage the final decay stage as well as a switch for engaging the glide circuit.
The VCF is of transistor ladder type, a design patented by Moog music and even defended in court.
The output of the third oscillator and/or the noise generator can also be routed to the control voltage inputs of the filter and/or oscillators. The amount of pitch or filter modulation thus realized is controlled by the modulation wheel, which is the right one of the two plastic disks located to the left of the keyboard. In this way the third oscillator is frequently used as a low-frequency oscillator to control pitch.
The Minimoog can be controlled using its built-in, 44-note keyboard, which is equipped with modulation and pitch-bend wheels or by feeding in an external one-volt-per-octave pitch-control voltage and triggering the envelope generators with an inverted trigger.
External pitch control does not pass through the glide circuit, nor is presented to the VCF tracking switches and thus, the external inputs were not designed for external keyboard control. The lowest note played on the keyboard determines the pitch, a condition that is referred to as low-note priority. The envelope generators do not retrigger unless all notes are lifted before the next note is played, an important characteristic which allows phrasing.
The modulation and pitch-bending wheels were an innovation that many instrumentalists found to be extremely playable. The pitch-bend wheel is on the left of the modulation wheel. It is normally kept in the centered position. It is not spring-loaded; the player must return it to the centered position to play in tune. There is a delicate detent mechanism to help the player find the center position tactually. In sharp contrast to later synthesizers that also have pitch-bend wheels, there is no deadband near the center of the wheel's travel; the wheel produces minute changes in pitch no matter how slightly it is moved in either direction. The wheel can therefore be used to introduce slight vibrato or nuance, as well as accurate pitch changes.
However, Moog later recommended adding a deadband mod and published this mod in their factory service notes. The detent mechanism can be somewhat adjusted in its strength.
Clones & Emulators
Usage
David Borden, an early associate of Moog, has said that the Minimoog "took the synthesizer out of the studio and put it into the concert hall". Jazz composer and bandleader Sun Ra used one of the first Minimoogs, a prototype lent him by Moog in 1969: "We loaned it to him and Sun Ra’s way of working is that when you loan him something you don’t expect to see it back."
Keith Emerson was the first musician to tour with a Minimoog, in 1970, during Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Pictures at an Exhibition shows. Many essential pitch-bending techniques were first demonstrated by him, and many keyboardists learned how to pitch-bend by following his example. He immediately adopted it as one of his main instruments.
Keyboardist Rick Wakeman says of the Minimoog's invention "for the first time you could go on [stage] and give the guitarist a run for his money... a guitarist would say "Oh shit, he's got a minimoog" so they're looking for eleven on their volume control -- it's the only way they can compete" (a reference to the film This is Spinal Tap). Wakeman said the instrument "absolutely changed the face of music."
Due to the design of its 24dB/octave filter, its three oscillators, and tuning instabilities which tend to keep the oscillators moving against one another, the Minimoog can produce an extremely rich and powerful bass sound. Despite the advent of low-cost digital synthesizers and samplers, the Minimoog remains in high demand with producers and performers of electronic pop and electronic music.
The Minimoog was highly popular in 1970s and 1980s electronic music and has been used by several artists. For an incomplete list, see List of Moog synthesizer players.
Notable recordings
- Rick Wakeman's albums "The Six Wives of Henry VIII", "Journey to the Centre of the Earth (album)", "The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table", "White Rock" and "No Earthly Connection" feature great examples of many of the Minimoog's characteristic sounds.
- Yes - many recordings by Yes are notable for use of the minimoog, such as the album "Close To The Edge", "Starship Trooper: Wurm" from "Yessongs" , "The Revealing Science of God" from "Tales from Topographic Oceans", both "The Gates of Delirium" and "Sound Chaser" from "Relayer", and "Future Times".
- Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Keith Emerson used a minimoog on many Emerson, Lake & Palmer songs such as the basslines for Karn Evil 9 1st Impression.
- Pink Floyd's 1975 song Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 6) has Minimoog solo performed by Rick Wright.
- The Zodiac's only album Cosmic Sounds which is claimed to be the first album to feature the moog synthesizer.
- Jeff Beck's album Wired, on which Jan Hammer demonstrates pitch-bending technique using the wheel.
- Kraftwerk's 1974 album Autobahn, which was a revolutionary record in the development of electronic music.
- Synergy's Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra, recorded with a Minimoog, an Oberheim expander module controlled by an early Oberheim DS-2 digital sequencer and a Mellotron. Also, the second album, Sequencer has several Minimoog and Moog 15 modular synthesizer-based compositions.
- Devo used a Minimoog heavily on their first three albums and early singles, notably on the songs Mongoloid and Jocko Homo.
- Gary Numan's 1979 album Replicas (under the name Tubeway Army) is essentially built around the Minimoog. His follow-up releases The Pleasure Principle (1979) and Telekon (1980) also heavily feature the instrument.
- Manfred Mann's Earth Band made the Minimoog an integral part of their sound, especially in their mid-1970s recordings. Keyboard player Manfred Mann used the pitch control to create a distinctive, plaintive sound.
- Geddy Lee of Rush used a Minimoog on several Rush albums, from 1977's A Farewell to Kings to 1982's Signals. On the live release Exit... Stage Left, Lee can be heard manually "tweaking" the dials to produce unusual sounds in the space between songs The Trees and Xanadu.
- Tony Hymas used the MiniMoog quite a lot on the Ph.D. album "Is It Safe"
- Funkadelic and Parliment used MiniMoog in many albums starting with America Eats its Young in their distinctive P-Funk sound.
See also
External links
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