Moog Interface newsletter, Vol. 1 Dec. 1980

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Moog Interface newsletter, Vol. 1 Dec. 1980.

Talk about luck! A Moog fan recently emailed a request to upload more of the company's '80s newsletters. AND it's been busy at work and I keep a couple of Moog newsletter scans on hand especially for those busy times. (Plus, for some reason I feel less guilty about blogging a bit less when I upload multi-page scans. :o)

Where do I begin...? Another classic Moog newsletter!

I created a 'Top-10' list when I blogged about the September 1980 Moog newsletter I uploaded back in February, so it seems fitting (and convenient) to keep the format consistent.

Top Ten reasons this newsletter is awesome

10. Ronnie Milsap playing a Moog Liberation on tour? Okay, time for me to rethink my whole music collection.

9. Announcement of the winner of the September 1980 newsletter's Moog satin flight jacket contest. And a new Moog satin flight jacket contest. Satin rocks.

8. 'Interface' font (yeah, it was #6 in my last top 10 - but you have to admit it is excellent. I used the same font for a bunch of gig posters in the mid-90s!

7. A photo of Rory Kaplan's Moog Modular. Larger photo next time please!

6. A price list of the Polymoog upgrade/modification kits available during this time period. Old price list reference information is even better than satin flight jackets.

5. Wire frame outline of the control panel of the Opus-3. I've recently blogged about how great wire frame outlines are. Moog included one with the Liberation article in the last newsletter, and has also included them in a few of their reference sheets that came out around the same time period, including the Minimoog sheet.

4. Cat/synth photo! Nothing is cuter than seeing a furry little feline curling up with some Taurus pedals. Well, except for a dog/synth photo. But that's just me. Still, the Catsynth blog would be proud.

3. Apparently the coolest music education program administrator ever is Bob Kruger at Northport High on Long Island. Who, in 1980, "soon hopes to be able to offer a course in the school which introduces the concepts of computer music". IN 1980!!!

2. A Devo photo makes another appearance in this newsletter (this time in the input/output section) after they appeared on The Midnight Special. Of course it was Bob 2 playing the Liberation. Geez.

1. 'Everything eventually fails' - David Luce (then Vice President of Engineering for about seven or eight years) makes good on his promise of following up his September 1980 article 'Synthesizers Sense and Sensibility' with more information on quality, reliability, and servicing with an article entitled 'The Battle of Cost vs. Quality'. The article makes up the main guts of this newsletter and does an excellent job of explaining why everything does...

eventually...

fail.

Like the original battery in my 909 finally did last weekend. Now that is quality!