Moog Interface newsletter, Vol. 3 February 1982

Moog Interface newsletter, Vol. 3 February 1982.

Before you even ask... yes! Another Moog Interface newsletter! I just can't stop! You can find all the newsletters under this label.

Now, let's not waste any time and quickly dive into my usual top 10 list.

Top ten reasons this newsletter is awesome!

10. We have a logo change! The Moog Interface logo-type has changed to a font that resembles an LED watch. Bold move. I like-yyyyy!

9. The half-page devoted to the Moog Digital Sequential Controller (DSC). Although apparently never released, it didn't just make it into this issue of Interface, but also into advertisements in Keyboard Magazine. I'd love to know the backstory on that!

8. The feature article on the Memorymoog. Although not released until the last quarter of 1982, the Memorymoog seems to have popped up not just in this Interface newsletter, but also in that ad for the DSC and at trade shows.

7. If you haven't figured it out yet... The Moog Taurus II is also featured in the newsletter... AND in that same ad as the Memorymoog and DSC (link above). That's some good cross-advertising going on at Moog! 

6. At the end of that Memorymoog article is an interesting footnote about the author - Rich Walborn, Chief Engineer of Research at Moog. He started out working at the original RA Moog Company building some of the first Minimoogs, and went on to develop a number of other Moog products. Not in that footnote - he travelled with ELP for a year! 

5. The "Electronic Music in the Schools" article on the last page of the newsletter. Could you imagine going to a high school that had a studio with Multimoogs. Plural. MORE THAN ONE!  

4. We have a keytar! In a photo on page two being held by Ronnie Foster, who we learn will be playing along with Tom Coster at the Western NAMM show. More on Tom Coster below!

3. The Music with Computers article actually prints out an explains a short basic program. A lot of musicians must have been scratching their heads, but the techies must have loved it!

2. Looking at the Input-Output section (Q and As), it looks like someone else is as interested as I am in getting a Moog satin flight jacket. I WANT A FLIGHT JACKET. I'd wear it everywhere. For true!

1. That last question in that Input-Output section piqued by curiosity:
"I recently bought Tom Coster's album. On the credits he list a Moog Invader. What is it?"
The answer...? "Stop at the Moog Booth at the Western NAMM...". GAH!
So I googled away and soon found out. Its a patch! Tom Coster actually goes into some detail on it in a February 1982 article of Contemporary Keyboard, saying he listed it in the hopes that Moog would create an instrument with that name!

Side note: The February '82 issue of Contemporary Keyboard was misprinted on the cover as "February 1981" - so Moog Invader patch references to the magazine are often citing the incorrect 1982 date.

Fantastic newsletter. Read it!

Moog "The finest new Moogs you've ever seen" family ad, Keyboard 1982

Moog "The finest new Moogs you've ever seen" black & white advertisement including Memorymoog, Taurus II and DSC (Digital Sequential Controller) from page 55 in the January 1982 issue of Keyboard Magazine.

Just in the process of filling in a few embarrassing holes in my early 80s Moog ads - and this is a big hole. 

It all started when I woke up the other morning and was reading the Synthesizer Freaks Facebook group. Someone had posted this Moog advertisement and I got excited to add my 2 cents because I recalled that it was actually the first in a pair of ads - the second "reveal" ad appearing in the following February issue. I went to the blog and found the second ad, but oddly, that post didn't reference the first ad. When I went too find this first ad it became apparent that I NEVER POSTED IT!!! What the heck?!?!

Well, fixed that! And glad I did. I enjoy this short series of ads a lot.

First, looking at the both side by side you can see they have that Wizard of Oz thing going on - first ad in black & white - second ad in colour. Like Moog has just dropped their new products onto the Wicked Witch of the West.

Next - the descriptions for the three hidden items make me drool as much now as it probably did when I read the ad the first time. Especially the low-cost pedal synthesizer with DETACHABLE electronics. Yum.

Also, the reference librarian in me likes any advertisement that specifically references other events occurring around the time the ad is published. In this case - Winter NAMM show, Booth #409, February 5-7. 

Well, happy to tie off that loose end!

Moog 1982 Product Catalog

Moog 1982 Product Catalog featuring the Memorymoog, DSC, The Source, Taurus II, Liberation, Opus 3, The Rogue, and the System 15 and 55 modular systems.

I thought I would try something a little different today and post a scan of a product catalog that I haven't seen around online too much - hopefully you will find it as enjoyable as I find Moog's 2009 catalog.

As always, you can click on the images above to view each page. I've also tried something else a bit different - I've put all the pages into a PDF for those that want to download and view all the pages in one document. Let me know if you have a preference.

This four-page catalog is great - it contains photos and some good descriptive text for each instrument. But what I find most interesting are the list prices. This helps me really understand how good we have it today. For example, the Memorymoog listed for $4,195 in 1982. That's around $7,800.00 in today's dollars.

Here's the others in today's dollars:

• DSC $1700
• The Source $2600.00
• Liberation $2700
• Opus 3 $2400
• The Rogue $900

The best example is the Taurus II. In 1982 it listed for $895 - the equivalent of around $1700 today. Moog recently announced a limited run of 1000 Taurus III's that will be faithful to the Taurus I sound, and also includes MIDI and CV, 48 programmable presents, and an arpeggiator for only $1,995. Seriously great stuff.

For the record, Moog isn't paying me for any of this... I doubt they even know this blog exists :o)

I also have an emotional attachment to this particular piece because it was one of the first Moog catalogs that I ever held in my hands.

I distinctly recall being in a friend's basement years ago where he was showing off his ever-expanding home-built modular. While noodling around with the machine I mentioned that I had recently bought a Pro-1 and, due to his generous nature, he immediately turned his attention to a nearby box to find a copy of a manual.

As he dug deeper and deeper into this container of wonders, more and more synthesizer manuals, catalogs, and magazines started appearing like rabbits out of a hat. The amount of synthesizer history that came out of that box was almost comical, and a copy of this catalog was among the treasure. If my memory is not mistaken, he mentioned that he received the catalog along with some other manuals during a gear trade with another member of the Analogue Heaven email list.

I remember spending hours in that basement reading material out of that box. Then, years later, a copy of the catalog fell into my lap. And I obsessed over it - all over again.

End note: This same friend retrofitted the Pro-1 I mention above with a blue LED while it was at his house for a good cleaning and check-up. Blue LEDs were very rare in synthesizers at the time, I think due to their cost, and his thinking was that if it was ever stolen and used on stage, I would be able to easily identify it as mine. A sincerely generous and thoughtful dude.

Moog Memorymoog, Taurus II, and DSC, Keyboard 1982

Moog Memorymoog synthesizer, Taurus II bass pedals, and DSC sequencer (Digital Sequential Controller) from page 39 of Keyboard magazine Feburary 1982.

1981 was around the time I first started reading Keyboard, so this 'family photo' is etched in my brain almost as deep as the real family photo that hung in my parent's kitchen directly opposite to where I ate three meals a day growing up.

It was actually a follow-up ad to Moog's January 1982 advertisement where the gear was covered up.

Ads for the Memorymoog continued to pop up in Keyboard magazine well into 1983-84 (see my 1983 Memorymoog ad post) with later Moog ads suggesting more and more that the Memorymoog was the equivalent of six Minimoogs, as well as the promotion of the Memorymoog Plus (adding MIDI and two sequencers). I'll post more of those ads in the near future.

Lots of Memorymoog information is available online, including Cary Robert's excellent Memorymoog Web site that contains a 1984 Moog liquidation flyer (What? - A Moog Source for $199?)! Vintage Synth Explorer and Wikipedia also contain useful info.

The Taurus II pedals were also promoted in ads as late as 1983, and you can find most of the basics online, including the Taurus page on Wikipedia and Vintage Synth Explorer.

I wasn't able to find much information on the Moog DSC, although the Audities Foundation has a page with some great close-up photos . Please post links if you have more information.