Moog modular synthesizer

An electronic instrument made of separate modules (oscillators, filters, envelope generators, amplifiers) that the player connects with patch cables to build sounds. It was developed by engineer Robert Moog from 1964 onward and introduced voltage control, in which one module’s output voltage sets another’s pitch, tone or volume. Moog’s 24 dB/octave ladder filter became its signature sound. Wendy Carlos’s Switched-On Bach (1968) brought it to a wide audience, and it was adopted by artists such as Keith Emerson and Tangerine Dream. Its design led to the portable Minimoog (1970) and shaped subtractive synthesis as a whole.