Robert Arthur "Bob" Moog was an American pioneer of electronic music and popularly known as the inventor of the Moog synthesiser, which was one of the earliest electronic musical instruments. His innovation has been implemented in various synthesisers such as the Minimoog Model D, Minimoog Voyager and Little Phatty.
Born on May 23, 1934 in New York, Bob Moog had a Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell University. He began his career in building electronic musical instruments as a teenager and later went on to found two companies, Moog Music and Big Briar for manufacturing electronic musical instruments. The first Moog instruments were modular synthesizers.
In 1971 Moog Music began production of the Minimoog Model D which was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers.
He also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research at Kurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988, helping to develop the Kurzweil K2000. In 1999, Moog partnered with Bomb Factory to co-develop the first digital effects based on Moog technology in the form of plugins for Pro Tools software.
Moog's work was recognised and honoured with a Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1970 and a Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award and an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music in 2002. Moog died of brain tumour at the age of 71.
Today on his 78th birthday, Google honours this creator and inventor with a unique doodle featuring a digital replica of the Moog electronic music synthesizer.