The key to electronic music is the Moog Synthesizer.
It changed the world of music. Even if you don’t listen to pure electronic music, its influence is still around.
I never really got far with my gift of the Moog synth in Brisbane, it was just too far beyond my electronics skills for the time, also the fact that it did not have have diagrams or any information at all did not help. (Oh for the internet when I was a kid).
Bottom line, you start with an oscillator connected to a keyboard. The keyboard causes the different frequencies to come out of the oscillator (or tone generator).
From there, the rule book is thrown out the window. Dr Moog had a way of doing things differently than everyone else at the time and it made a difference. A big difference.
Here is a nice little doco about the history of the Mini Moog.
Hes the thing, they were analog synths. Digital was not a thing back then (well, it was, but it was not mainstream enough to be affordable).
And here is the key. No digital synth has managed to make a really good analog sound.
Even when its sampled.
No, this is nothing like the argument that people make about valve amplifiers sound better than solid state amps.
I totally agree that a valve guitar amp would sound different from a solid state one, is it better? No, its just different.
Same with analog and digital synths. One is not better than the other, they are just different.
Mike and Michael both used analog synths in their early albums, the ones I grew up with, and I thus have a real soft spot for the unique sound that only they can make.
(And yes, analog synths are making a comeback in today’s electronic music).
