The Bob Moog Foundation – an independent non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of electronic instrument pioneer Bob Moog – shared this ‘lost’ video that captures a once-in-a-lifetime panel discussion, featuring Bob Moog, Tom Oberheim, Dave Smith, Marcus Ryle and Roger Linn.
The Synth Legends symposium, held April 19th, 2005 was not just a historic event, but it was also the last public appearance of Bob Moog, who died later that year.
Here’s what they have to say about the event:
“This historic event, originally organized by Russ Jones of AudioMIDI, brings together synth pioneers Bob Moog, Tom Oberheim, Dave Smith, and Marcus Ryle, with Roger Linn moderating. For the first time ever, the full 1-hour and 38-minute symposium will be broadcast in its entirety.
Note: the original audio recorded at this 2005 event was only captured on the camera mics and is not studio-perfect. We’ve worked to make audio enhancements, including painstaking audio mastering by Harold LaRue, to make this once-in-a-lifetime conversation as clear as possible. We suggest turning on closed captioning in order to not miss any of the content.”
You can find out more about The Bob Moog Foundation, the Moogseum and their mission at the organization’s site.
So good!
Man that’s awesome. Meanwhile I’m still waiting for the Michelle moog documentary from the I dream of wires directors. Took everyone’s money on kickstarter and scrammed. Appreciate people who don’t gate-keep synth history.
Wow, what a surprise – yet another Moog Foundation post… 😉
Leslie – thanks for the feedback!
We cover the Moog Foundation regularly, and donate banner ad space to them, too, because they’re a cool non-profit, and probably the most important synth-related non-profit around.
They preserve Bob Moog’s legacy. This means preserving his papers and gear for history, research, etc. They also run the Moogseum, where you can go see the history of synths, learn about the physics of synthesis, see historically important instruments and play synths and theremins. And they run STEM programs in the region, where grade school kids get to learn about the physics of sound using electronic music gear.
I’ve seen what they do and it’s cool stuff. It may not matter to you, but what they do provides value to a lot of people that are deeply interested in synthesis and its history.
There are other very cool electronic music related non-profits, too.
The ARP Foundation is a counterpart to the Moog Foundation. They aren’t as well-established as the Moog Foundation, but they’re already doing a lot of cool things. We try to help raise awareness for them, too.
Another cool non-profit is Forgotten Futures, which is run by Wally De Backer (Gotye). They focus on electronic instruments that have been sidelined by the success of mainstream synths. For example, they’ve restored a bunch of rare vintage Ondiolines, and released albums of music performed on forgotten electronic gear.
So, yeah – we cover the Moog Foundation and other non-profits. And it means that there are some new piano virtual instruments, minor software version updates and rumors that we don’t cover. It’s the right thing to do, even if a few readers like you couldn’t care less.
If you’d like to see us cover more of other things, we encourage you to step up and make a suggestion via our Feedback link. It’s at the top of every page of this site.