The story of the modern synth has come a long way since Harald Bode’s Audio System Synthesizer. From modular to semi-modular, to hybrid-modular, analog, digital, and virtual synths, it is fascinating to trace the evolution of the synthesizer from the 1950s to today.

Notably, one of the best-known teams in the universe of synthesizers is Moog Music, Inc. Beyond any brand affiliation, Moog was responsible for introducing the world to the first performable, inspired, and market-conscious roster of synthesizers. When you think “legendary Moog”, the Minimoog may be the first instrument to come to mind. If you are new to the world of Moog, know that the Minimoog rocketed the brand to the top of the charts and must-have gear lists for studios and musicians throughout the 1970s and 1980s—and indeed, the Minimoog was one of the first commercially viable synthesizers altogether, with the very earliest version of a "synthesizer marketplace" largely coming into place around its very existence.

Officially the Moog Minimoog Model D, the Minimoog was released in 1971, but had been in prototype since 1970. Now, after decades of fanfare, modern reissues, a handful of third-party reimaginings, and competitive virtual recreations, the Minimoog is surely a legendary instrument.

The Legend of the Minimoog

The Minimoog is the de facto standard for the monophonic synthesizer. Its warm and strong analog tone is legendary for iconic leads and bass voices. It was the king of the seventies and the lead horse in Moog’s line of monophonic synthesizers. Internally, the Minimoog measured the cloth from which many of Moog’s monophonic synthesizers were cut.

The overarching goal of the Minimoog’s design was always clear and specific—take the sound of the '60s Moog modular and place it in a cabinet, pre-patched behind the front panel, in a package which could be as mobile as any other on-stage instrument. At its introduction, the Minimoog had an almost divine penetration into the sound of the 1970s through icons like Sun Ra, Pink Floyd, Gary Numan, Herbie Hancock, Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, and more.

[Above: a Minimoog Model D from the 1970s]

The brainchild of engineer Bill Hemsath, the Minimoog was prototyped first as the “Min A”. The Min A featured six modules (two oscillators, filter, envelope generator, and more) from the Moog Modular 900 Series, a three-octave keyboard with mod slider, and a wooden case. The Min A made its debut at Cornell University in 1969 thanks to one of the first synthesizer ensembles ever put together, a collaboration between Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company and Robert Moog.

The Model B prototype, the MiniMoog, brought engineer Jim Scott into the fold, adding a third VCO, a front-mounted power switch, and Robert Moog’s key ask—it fit in a suitcase format. The instrument was almost immediately adopted by Sun Ra, who worked closely with Robert Moog to secure a touring rig and essentially field test the device. Famous Moog evangelist Dick Hyman also employed the new Moog gem at the Eastman School of Music Arranger’s Holiday on August 5, 1970, featuring Chuck Mangione. It was obvious that the design was onto something and Robert Moog gave the green light for the third prototype—the Model C.

This new prototype would be the first that Bob himself would work on, and it got the Moog treatment. The Model C still followed the original Moog modular path, but the Model C was truly a new instrument. The front panel also got an upgrade by way of new rocker switches, dual left-hand sliders for pitch and modulation, and buttons to control glide and decay. The final version of the Minimoog, the Model D, included final, market-ready upgrades via better construction resources, new wood trim design, and iconic red rockers. The Model D was completed and shipped in November of 1970.

Launching a Legacy

Moog’s first self-contained, non-modular instrument needed to create its own market using proprietary Moog alchemy, acute engineering, and groundbreaking sound. Like…the story of Moog and Taco Bell.

It all starts with Minimoog serial number #1018, owned by the eclectic salesman David Van Koevering. Amongst other things, Koevering was a Moog early adopter and threw one of the first electronic music festivals ever. The event was called The Island of Electronicus, and featured three nights of mind-bending electronic music played by Koevering himself on the new Minimoog.

Glen Bell, who was looking to go national with Taco Bell, found the opportunity to work with innovators of lasting quality too good to pass up, and let Koevering throw the event on his land in Tierra Verde, Florida. Bell, inspired by the Moog instrument and David’s moxie, supported Van Koevering performing at schools (given he handed out vouchers for TB); Van Koevering was even able to perform with his System 10 outside his nearest Taco Bell to drum up business and promote electronic music to the public. The larger event though—the Island of Electronicus—was one part music experience, one part synth petting zoo: an all-ages event aimed to wow listeners into bringing home a Minimoog.

In 1970, Moog was purchased by a company called muSonics. The Moog/muSonics merger saw the release of an extremely rare muSonics Minimoog and the design for a new semi-modular duophonic synth, the Sonic V. With the Minimoog at the helm, Moog’s monophonic future would be the future of the entire company.

All that history in mind, let's take a look at where Moog's monophonic synthesizer legacy has taken them across the ages.

Moog Sonic Six

The first wonderful sight beyond the Minimoog rainbow was the Moog Sonic Six.

The final version of the muSonics Sonic V, the Sonic Six came out in 1972 and featured three distinct voicing options—duophonic (both oscillators at once), monophonic (a single oscillator at a time), and monophonic with a drone.

The Sonic Six’s strong suit is its general flexibility. It was designed with an internal speaker and suitcase rigging, perfect for education and performance alike. Its internal signal path is quite varied, allowing for many unusual and experimental configurations well beyond the purview of the no-nonsense Minimoog.

Notably, the Sonic Six was designed by Bill Waytena, one of the engineers that cracked automobile anti-radar technology, and folded into the brand via the muSonics merger. Don't fret—we'll cover the Sonic Six in greater detail in a future article.

Moog Satellite + Minitmoog

Moog would take a trip out of their orbit with their next monophonic synth, the Moog Satellite: a less customizable, more stage-ready, portable performance synthesizer.

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The Moog Satellite was a monophonic, preset synthesizer released in 1973. The single VCO analog synth took the convenience of self-contained synthesizers to the next level with almost no modulation options, instead offering a “soundbank” of 12 presets from which to choose. Preset synthesizers come with predetermined signal paths and parameter sets which can be switched between easily on the front panel.

Featuring discrete preset, effect, and modulation switches mounted under the Satellite’s keybed, the synth came with brass, reed wind instruments, an “electronic” voice called Lunar, and bell voices, as well as an LFO with a selection of waveforms, and a basic voltage-controlled filter (VCF).

Soon after, in 1975, Moog would release another preset synthesizer with extra features missing from the Satellite.

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The Moog Minitmoog built on the palette programmed into the Satellite and expanded players’ horizons with two totally new voices, Taurus and Aries, added to the futuristic tone of Lunar—and piano and guitar sounds added to the brass and woodwind section from its predecessor.

Featuring effects like sync-sweep and customizable VCO tunings, the monophonic synth could achieve thick dual VCO tones. Most notable about the Minitmoog was its aftertouch capabilities, allowing the performer to interact with the filter, sync-sweep, pitch, or modulation control through key pressure.

Moog Micromoog + Multimoog

Also released in 1975, the Moog Micromoog was an alternative to the Minimoog, postured as a budget monophonic performance instrument. However, this budget-friendly release comes with the original Minimoog filter, can process external audio, and implements a ribbon controller.

The Micromoog was much more customizable than the previously discussed Moog monophonic synthesizers. Designer Jim Scott’s Micromoog aimed to create the biggest sound using a “minimal number of functional building blocks,” complemented by what Tom Rhea dubs the Moog “open system” of inputs and outputs, making the tiny synth even more powerful. The Micromoog owner’s manual is a great read—I suggest digesting as much Tom Rhea as possible! (Side note: Rhea’s perennial Keyboard Magazine column Electronic Perspectives is now available in book form.)

Notably, Steve Roach, who goes into his early synthesizer setup in a great interview over at the long-standing recording magazine Tape Op, added the Micromoog to his collection of ARP monophonic synths and two EMS Synthi As. Other players include Kraftwerk, Jimmy Edgar, Richard Barbieri, Chick Corea, Add N To (X), Herbie Hancock, and Apollo 440.

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Scott would push the Micromoog even further with his next Moog contribution—the Multimoog.

The Moog Multimoog was released in 1975 as the “big brother” to the Micromoog; and while there are only a few tweaks, not even a new manual, the Multimoog was built out to be even more hard-hitting than its predecessor with an additional VCO, upgraded aftertouch, and an extra octave of keys (44 instead of the Micromoog’s 32).

Moog Prodigy + Liberation

In 1979, Rich Walborn and Tony Marchese’s monophonic omen—the Moog Prodigy—would be released from the workbench of Moog Music under Norlin Music.

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The Moog Prodigy is a dual-VCO monophonic synth known for its unrivaled bass tone, two envelope generators, perfect front panel design, and a surplus of routing capabilities. It surely is a step away from the preset synthesizers of the early '70s and towards a better, more mobile performance synthesizer.

Living up to its name, the Prodigy was also the first Moog synth to use digital automation in production. In an article on the Moog Foundation, August Worley says each Prodigy tester bench was equipped with a Tandy TRS-80, a testing utility which used a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, to sequence the Prodigy circuit board QA.

The Prodigy is iconic in the world of early techno and electronic music: it had the looks and the tone to be a hit for artists like Depeche Mode, 808 State, Prodigy, The New Deal, Fatboy Slim, Jimmy Edgar, Überzone, Cirrus, Astral Projection, and more.

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The Prodigy would get a facelift in 1980 in the Moog Liberation.

The Liberation was Moog’s first keytar—and the second modern keytar to hit the broader market—but it was also the Prodigy packaged in a mobile new body with additional bells and whistles thanks to the Liberation’s catchy and innovative left-hand neck control and added ring mod and noise generators.

Moog Source

In 1981, Moog released one of its most cutting-edge synthesizers yet—the digitally controlled monophonic Moog Source. The Source stands out as an innovative, future-thinking (and fitted) synth which built off of the Prodigy, and Moog’s iconic monophonic legacy, to produce one of the coolest Moog synths ever.

The Source was the first Moog with a microchip—the mainstay Zilog Z80, a common microprocessor used in home computers, musical instruments, and basically every industry in the early 1980s. The introduction in the Source’s owner’s manual reads:

"You’re not afraid of what could be called a ‘computer-controlled instrument’; rather, you’re ready to work with the advantages presented by a microprocessor-based synthesizer."

The Source workflow centers around a massive controller knob which offers control over most of the synth’s functions. Instead of switches, the Source uses orange, blue, and yellow membrane panels and features two sequencers, an arpeggiator and sample & hold function, an auto-trigger function, and a Moog first: 16 preset locations where players could store their own sounds.

It looks like something from a sci-fi movie (“use the Source, Luke”) and brought so many new features that it made a perfect cap for 10 years of Moog monophonic instruments.

Moog Rogue

The heyday of the Moog Music monophonic domination would be completed with another iconic synthesizer—the Rogue.

The Rogue was released in 1981 and represents the Moog monophonic synth in its most stripped-down state. More or less a bare-bones Prodigy, the Rogue is the Minimoog’s distant cousin, capturing those classic Moog sounds, but at the lowest price-point ever (though still more expensive, and less featured, than the nearly identical Moog-licensed, Radioshack Concertmate MG-1—a story for another day).

The Rogue offers two VCOs (and only two waveforms), a single filter, takes external audio input, and offers a single VCA with attack and release control.

The Rogue would be Moog Music’s last hit monophonic offering until 2002.

A New Season Turns

In fact, the 1980’s would be the final decade of Moog’s twentieth-century output—in 1987, the company would claim bankruptcy. In the meantime, the company's namesake—Dr. Robert Moog—had left the company, and among other things, began marketing new musical instruments with a different company, Big Briar, Inc. By 2002, though, the Moog trademark was back in Bob Moog’s possession—and with it came the release of the new millennium’s own Minimoog, the Minimoog Voyager.

The Voyager is an extremely modernized Minimoog with three VCOs, 128 slot preset memory, comparably numerous control options, an XYZ touch pad, an integrated MIDI control. This was not an affordable offering by Moog’s monophonic standards: and indeed, in the early 2000s, it was a radical offering altogether. In a time when most analog synthesizer companies had been long defunct, Bob Moog saw the opportunity to introduce a new, high-quality instrument to an audience hungry for the tactile, hands-on experience of real knobs on a real analog instrument.

The Voyager was a huge success, putting Moog Music, Inc. back on map as one of the best-respected makers of electronic musical instruments: an honor rightfully deserved.

Modern Moog

The monophonic Moogs of the aughts and twenty-teens alternate between three distinct format trends, all of which bring that iconic Moog monophonic sound in different packages. With more modern control options and in-depth modulation features, Moog’s modern line of small footprint monophonic synths bring Moog quality in the vein of the Rogue and Prodigy.

The Moog Little Phatty, Sub Phatty, Sub 37, Subsequent 37, and Subsequent 25 are a family of unique synths that evolved after the Voyager, which offer a Moog keyboard experience at 37 keys or less. Unlike the earlier Moog monophonic instruments, these modern synths do not need to avoid modulation options by adhering to knob-per-function usability, which means deep menu diving, but extremely large sounds from relatively small instruments.

Moog desktop modules have also added a new dimension to the Moog Music legacy with 2012’s Minitaur and 2019’s even more rare Sirin The Analog Messenger of Joy (limited release, 2500 made for the 2019 Moog House of Electronicus in LA), both of which borrowed inspiration from Moog’s legendary Taurus line of bass pedal-format synths.

Later, Moog would return to form with the Grandmother, the most recent Moog semi-modular monophonic synth with a keyboard—the Grandmother is designed on vintage signal paths and parts, which really adds value to the colorful instrument.

Most recently, Moog introduced the Messenger—a completely new design that brings aspects of many other designs into a focused, flexible, and unprecedented instrument. Messenger is truly a monosynth for the 21st century, with complex parameter sequencing, extended sound design capabilities, and performance features that rival some of Moog's most high-end offerings.

Future Fit

The early 2000s trended “small format” across the synthesizer market. Moog was conspicuously absent from the Eurorack modular synthesizer scene as it first started to gain momentum, but not for long: they soon brought their own new instruments to semimodular and Eurorack lovers alike.

No monophonic Moog has ever offered a more conservative footprint than 2015’s Mother-32 and 2022’s Mavis—both Eurorack-ready, semi-modular monophonic synths which bring Moog musicality and technical depth in stackable, rackable, and backpack-packable formats.

Featuring classic Moog hardware and bringing modern playability and packaging, the Mother-32 (part of Moog’s semi-modular lineup) and the Mavis (which comes with some assembly required, a more DIY-minded pitch) still offer a true Moog VCO, each with two waveforms to choose from, with mix and sweep controls that give these monophonic synths the same multi-waveform depth of the very early Moog instruments. Of course, Moog's semi-modular lineup has expanded to include the DFAM, Subharmonicon, Labyrinth, and Spectravox as well—extending their sights toward an extremely open-ended musical future.

From the Minimoog to the Mavis, Moog monophonic synthesizers have been the backbone of the Moog Music legacy. While they may not carry the same extreme price tag as Moog’s modular and polyphonic offerings, these more affordable, ultra-accessible, single-voice icons are some of the most widely used Moog synthesizers in their singular roster of history-bending instruments.