Dr Robert Moog

Synthesiser pioneer Dr Moog dies
Dr Robert Moog
Dr Moog made his first electronic instrument aged 14


Synthesiser pioneer Dr Robert Moog has died at his North Carolina home aged 71, four months after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

Born in the New York district of Queens, his instruments were used by The Beatles and The Doors among others.

Dr Moog built his first electronic instrument - a theremin - aged 14 and made the MiniMoog, "the first compact, easy-to-use synthesiser", in 1964.

He won the Polar prize, Sweden's "music Nobel prize", in 2001.

Synthesiser hit

It was Wendy Carlos' 1968 Grammy award-winning album, Switched-On Bach, which brought Dr Moog to prominence.

Carlos played renditions of Johann Sebastian Bach compositions on a Moog analogue synthesiser, making electronic music popular and Dr Moog a household name.

Fatboy Slim
Fatboy Slim is among the recent musicians to use Moog synthesizers
Before long many musicians and groups, including the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, were using Moog synthesisers.

The Moog sound fell out of favour in the early 1970s, however, but Dr Moog remained a respected musical figure.

In recent years many musicians, including Brian Eno, Frank Zappa, The Cure, Fatboy Slim and Stereolab have kept the Moog sound alive, even as analogue synthesisers were superseded by digital instruments.

Dr Moog had received both radiation treatment and chemotherapy to help combat his brain disease. He left a wife, Ileana, and five children.