Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer

T. J PINCH, Frank Trocco

Harvard University Press, Nov 15, 2004 - Science - 368 pages

Though ubiquitous today, available as a single microchip and found in any electronic device requiring sound, the synthesizer when it first appeared was truly revolutionary. Something radically new--an extraordinary rarity in musical culture--it was an instrument that used a genuinely new source of sound: electronics. How this came to be--how an engineering student at Cornell and an avant-garde musician working out of a storefront in California set this revolution in motion--is the story told for the first time in Analog Days, a book that explores the invention of the synthesizer and its impact on popular culture.

The authors take us back to the heady days of the 1960s and early 1970s, when the technology was analog, the synthesizer was an experimental instrument, and synthesizer concerts could and did turn into happenings. Interviews with the pioneers who determined what the synthesizer would be and how it would be used--from inventors Robert Moog and Don Buchla to musicians like Brian Eno, Pete Townshend, and Keith Emerson--recapture their visions of the future of electronic music and a new world of sound.

Tracing the development of the Moog synthesizer from its initial conception to its ascension to stardom in Switched-On Bach, from its contribution to the San Francisco psychedelic sound, to its wholesale adoption by the worlds of film and advertising, Analog Days conveys the excitement, uncertainties, and unexpected consequences of a new technology that would provide the soundtrack for a critical chapter of our cultural history.

What people are saying

Review: Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer

User Review  - David - Goodreads

Nice overview of the early days of analog synthesizers. I would have liked more pictures, especially since the writing doesn't go too deep in to any one subject. I'm reminded of how much I can't stand ...

Review: Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer

User Review  - John - Goodreads

An extremely interesting story about the origins of the synth in the 60s and early 70s; does a nice job of letting you know about the people involved, and the weirdly intersecting influences they all ...

Contents

• Subterranean Homesick Blues: 12
• Buchlas Box: 32
• Shaping the Synthesizer: 53
• The Funky Factory in Trumansburg: 70
• HaightAshburys Psychedelic Sound: 89
• An Odd Couple in the Summer of Love: 107
• SwitchedOn Bach: 131
• In Love with a Machine: 155
• Music of My Mind: 171
• Live: 186
• HardWired the Minimooq: 214
• Inventing the Market: 237
• Close Encounters with the ARP: 257
• From Daleks to the Dark Side of the Moon: 276
• Performance: 302

About the author

Trevor Pinch is Professor and Chairperson of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University.

Frank Trocco is Assistant Professor of Adult Baccalaureate Studies, Lesley University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer
• Authors: T. J PINCH, Frank Trocco
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2004
• ISBN: 0674016173, 9780674016170
• Length: 368 pages
• Subjects: Music / Genres & Styles / Electronic; Science / Acoustics & Sound