Moog Music Inc/Moog Custom Engineering "Dual Voltage Controlled Oscillators" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1979

Moog Music Inc/Moog Custom Engineering "Dual Voltage Controlled Oscillators" 1/4-page black and white advertisement from page 46 in the January 1979 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Like the first Moog Custom Engineering advertisement I posted, I decided to post the reseller ad that sits beside it. This time there is no real comparison I want to make, so maybe its because I haven't felt like writing too much lately and that extra little ad is a bit more of a diversion.

Unlike the first MCE ad, this one includes a few more layout elements. Like an actual title. And even paragraphs. Plus a photo!

The ad itself has a lot of good reference info about the Dual Voltage Controlled Oscillator.

• Master tune
• Pulse width
• Output level controls
• Sine, triangle, sawtooth, and rectangular pulse waveforms w/ individual waveform, octave, and on-off switches
• Oscillator 2 has its own tune control and sync switch

To find more up-to-date info, I turned to the InterWebz. MATRIXSYNTH has a September 2010 auction post with some good photos of the unit (front and back), and according to a few sources online like this Moog Music forums thread from 2006 the oscillators were well respected:

"These were made by Moog Custom Engineering in the late 70s (along with the 3-band Parametric EQ, Graphic EQ, 12-stage Phaser, String Filter, and Vocoder) and reportedly are close to Mini Moog D oscillators"

Wow - that's quite the oscillators to use as a comparison. Good company, indeed.

But its actually the first part of that quote that intrigues me most. It seems that lately, Moog Custom Engineering often gets associated not just with the more "alternative" Moog products like their modules or mods for existing gear like this Dual VCO, but also with the Moog signal processing gear like the Parametric EQ, Graphic EQ, 12-Stage Phaser or Vocoder.

My last post on a Moog Signal Processors advertisement that came out around the same time period clearly indicates that this is a straight-up Moog product - even including the Licolnwood, Illinois address rather than the Moog Custom Engineering Buffalo New York address.

Like I just mentioned above, it was also Moog modules such as the 1528 Sample-Hold that were clearly labeled under the Moog Custom Engineering brand. And not just in ads. The Sample-Hold appeared in the March 1979 Spec Sheet section of CK as a Moog Custom Engineering product:

"Moog Sample-Hold Module. The 1528 Sample-Hold module samples an applied signal under the control of an internal clock or external trigger. The internal clock is voltage-controlled with triangle, V-trigger, and S-trigger outputs. The external trigger inputs accept V- or S-triggers. The sample circuit has variable glide and is adjusted for zero offset. Gain is unity. The 1528 is the same size as the 900 series Moog modules and its signal levels are compatible, but it requires a +-20 vols to +-24 volts DC power supply @ 50mA for operation. Moog Custom Engineering. 2500 Walden Ave., Buffalo, NY 14225."

So, after noticing this apparent differentiation, I starting asking myself how Moog might have distinguished what fell under the Moog brand, and what would fall under the Moog Custom Engineering brand.

I emailed Roger Luther from the most excellent Moog Archives Web site about the two apparent Moog brands, and here's what he had to say:

"At the time of that ad, sales and marketing were being run out of Norlin in Lincolnwood, but everything else... production, engineering, service, etc., was still done at the Cheektowaga plant (just outside Buffalo).  By then orders for modular systems and custom modifications were very few and far between.  We were producing fairly good quantities of Minis, Multis, and Polymoogs, and several new models were in the works.  Building modular equipment on such a small scale just didn’t fit into a volume production environment, so it was handled in the engineering department... same building, different area.  It’s been 34 years, but as I remember, there was really no dedicated Custom Engineering Staff.  At that time a lot of the custom work was done by one guy, but all of it was done by engineers and production workers that spent most of their time on other projects."

The email reply is full of great historical info, and the one thing in particular that it suggests is that indeed Moog Custom Engineering - at this time at least - wasn't really a department of sorts. It was more of a "brand".

So, then why create a second brand when Moog is already such a huge, well respected name in the synthesizer industry? I have a guess  (surprised? :) Here's my thoughts - and one I'm still working on.

There were certain Moog products that only worked through modifications or customizations. And since production, engineering and service was still run out of Buffalo, it would make sense to push any orders or questions concerning these products directly to the staff that could answer them. On the other hand, questions concerning instruments like Minimoogs could probably be handled at the reseller level, so therefore the marketing department address was fine to use in normal Moog ads.

Okay. I know. Just a guess. But, no matter, splitting your brand isn't necessarily a good thing. It can lead to confusion in the short term until people figure it all out. Moog? Moog Custom Engineering? Buffalo? Licolnwood. Gah.

And I'm all about consistency. So you could see why I get all bajiggity about this stuff.

Anyways - that's the end of my ramblings. Am still researching and will post more as I learn.

I leave you with this YouTube video by VintageStuff2. A micromoog with the Dual VCO (and a few other juicy Moog products). It starts off a little slow... but still, only 76 views? WTF?!?!

Moog Music Inc. "Moog Custom Engineering" ad, Contemporary Keyboard 1978

Moog Music Inc. "Moog Custom Engineering" 1/4-page black and white advertisement from the bottom half of page 46 in the June 1978 issue of Contemporary Keyboard.

Originally I was only going to post the scan of the Moog Custom Engineering advertisement, but that Sam Ash ad sitting beside it also rawks so much and provides such a stark comparison to the Moog ad that I just had to include both. In no way should it take away from what I think was historically beginning to happen at Moog post Bob. 

If synth mags were any indication, customizing gear seemed to be starting to become more common around this time period. I'm not sure if it just seems that way with my limited knowledge of the past, or if it was just a fad, or if was around this time that enough Minimoogs and other gear had been sold that it just reached a tipping point where companies could make a bit of cash through mods. No matter, reading through these mags now just makes *me* feel that way. And my therapist always tells me my feelings are relevant. :)

I first started thinking about the rise in modding because I had pulled out and was flipping through the December 1977 issue of Contemporary Keyboard. Doing so brought up not one, but at least three references to two different companies that offered kits to modify Minimoogs.

The first was in Dominic Milano's Questions section on page 61 - "What's involved in the Valley Sound second-voice kit for the Minimoog?"

In his answer, he references John Glennon of Valley Sound, explaining that the second-voice circuit requires the installation of two circuit boards and a toggle switch that is installed on the lower left front panel of the Mini.Once installed, "with VCOs one and two on, if you press one key, both VCOs play that note. Holding a key down and pressing any key above the first key, VCO two plays the higher note. VCO three isn't affect at all and remains usable as a modulation oscillator. The second note depressed doesn't retrigger the envelope generators, and there is no second-voice memory." Interestingly, the kit won't work with "the original  Moog oscillator board", explaining you could distinguish the original boards by the nine trim pots on them. Cost for the kit was $105.00 and would only take about an hour with a good soldering iron. The company would also replace Minis with the old oscillator board to one compatible with the kit for $100. Not a bad price, even in the 70s, eh?

Then on the following page was a small 1/16th-page advertisement for Valley Sound's kit. hmmm... 

The second reference to Mini mods in that December issue was in the Spec Sheet section, for a modification by Professional Musicians Electronics:

"Minimoog Modification. The stock Minimoog is a single trigger instrument. This modification changes it to a multiple-trigger instrument  - new filter and volume envelopes are generated each time a note is depressed whether or not another note is depressed. Price is $125.00 Professional Musicians Electronics. 2830-D De La Vina, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.

Other magazines were mentioning mods too. For example, the April/May 1978 issue of Polyphony had an article titled Expanding the Patchability of the Minimoog by Marvin Jones. He introduces the article with this little gem:

"Anyone who works with electronic music in any way can't help but respect the Mini-Moog. Robert Moog and is concept of modular voltage controlled sound generation elements really threw the musical world for a loop. When acceptance of these "far out" gadgets came to the popular music market, it was primarily because of the development of the Mini-Moog."

 "Far out" is right. And right on!

Anyways, after a bit more of an introduction, he gets down to business pointing out that there are a "great number of patch points in the circuitry where jacks could be added to facilitate future expansion or 're-patching' of the Mini's normalization scheme". In this first of what was to be a series of articles, he focuses on what he believed were the two "most needed and most useful expansion jacks" - Keyboard Control Voltage Output and Standard Gate/Trigger Input/Output. The article includes step by step instructions and photos. Not too shabby.

Enough examples - my point being that it makes sense that with all these modifications going on, including Moog gear, that Moog itself would want to get in on the action. And so I think they did just that - pulling the Custom Engineering peeps out of the back room and giving them their own (albeit comparatively small) voice in advertisements.

The ad itself is very minimal, very technical looking. Whether on purpose or not, it looks very... very... "engineering"-like. Now check out that Sam Ash advertisement beside it, with its variety of fonts, logos and general fun and creative layout.

Looking at the two together is like looking at the brain itself - creativity on the right and logic on the left.

Some would say that Sam Ash ad might "drown out" the Moog ad. But for me, that Moog logo would be enough of a magnet, with that solid "o" in the logo would act like a bull's eye. That Moog logo was (and still is) so synonymous with quality and the Moog sound that I would guess anyone thinking about dealing with Moog Custom Engineering after looking at this ad would have know exactly what they would be getting.

Although I like to think of myself as pretty balanced between the creative and the logical, if I was being honest with myself I would have to say I lean more towards the logical. Yah, don't ask me to draw a dragon or anything.

But if I recall, even someone as logical as Spock played an instrument, didn't he?

So, there is hope for me yet...