Robert Moog

In 1953, Moog produced his own theremin design, and the following year he published an article on the theremin in Radio and Television News. In the same year, he founded RA Moog, selling theremins and theremin kits by mail order from his home.[2][5] One of his customers, Raymond Scott, rewired Moog's theremin for control by keyboard, creating the Clavivox.[4]

A Moog synthesizer

At Cornell, Moog began work on his first synthesizer modules with composer Herb Deutsch.[6] At the time, synthesizers were enormous, room-filling instruments;[7] Moog hoped to build a more compact synthesizer that would appeal to musicians.[6] He believed that practicality and affordability were the most important parameters.[6]

In 1964, Moog began creating the Moog synthesizer.[6] The synthesizer was composed of separate modules which created and shaped sounds, connected by patch cords.[2] One innovative feature was its envelope, which controlled how notes swell and fade.[4] Moog debuted the instrument at the 1964 Audio Engineering Society convention in New York.[7] It was much smaller than other synthesizers, such as the RCA Synthesizer introduced a decade earlier, and much cheaper, at $10,000USD compared to the six-figure sums of other synthesizers.[7] Whereas the RCA Synthesizer was programmed with punchcards, Moog's synthesizer could be played via keyboard, making it attractive to musicians.[7] New Scientist described it as the first commercial synthesizer.[8]

Moog's development was driven by requests and suggestions from musicians including Richard Teitelbaum, Herb Deutsch, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Wendy Carlos.[2] His other early customers included choreographer Alwin Nikolais and composer John Cage.[6] Moog described himself as a toolmaker, designing things for his users, not himself.[2] Universities established electronic music laboratories with Moog synthesizers.[2] The synthesizer was followed in 1970 by a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history.[9][10][11]

Though commentators have praised Moog's engineering abilities, they described him as a poor businessman.[4][6] He only patented his filter design; David Borden, one of the first users of the Minimoog, felt that if Moog had patented his pitch wheel design he would have become extremely wealthy.[12] According to Sound on Sound, if Moog had created a monopoly on other synthesizer ideas he created, such as modularity, envelope generation, and voltage control, "it's likely the synth industry as we know it today would never have happened".[13]

In 1971, following a recession, Moog Music took on investors, merged with another company, and moved to "less than ideal" premises in Buffalo.[6] Moog sold the company to Norlin Musical Instruments, where he remained employed as a designer until 1977.[2] He said he would have left earlier if his contract had not required him to remain employed there for four years to cash his stock.[6] By the end of the decade, Moog Music was facing competition from cheaper, easier-to-use instruments by competitors including Arp, Aries, Roland and E-mu.[14]

A mural depicting Moog in Asheville, North Carolina

In 1978, Moog moved to North Carolina and founded a new electronic instrument company, Big Briar.[2] He also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research at Kurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988.[7] In the early 1990s, he was a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.[15] In 2002, he renamed Big Briar to Moog Music after buying back the rights to the name.[2] In later years, he designed electronic instruments including a piano operated by touchscreen.[4]

On July 18, 2013, Moog's widow Ileana Grams-Moog said she planned to give her husband's archives, maintained by the Bob Moog Foundation, to Cornell University. The foundation offered her $100,000, but Grams-Moog said she would not sell them. She said Cornell could provide better access for researchers, and that the foundation had not made enough progress toward a planned museum to be worthy of keeping the collection. The foundation responded that it had sufficiently preserved the collection and made efforts to improve storage, though it could not yet afford to build the museum.[20]

In August 2019, the Bob Moog Foundation opened the Moogseum, a museum dedicated to Moog's work, in Asheville, North Carolina. The displays include rare theremins, prototype synthesizer modules, and Moog's documents.[21]