SO LONG, BOB, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE KNOBS

The music world has lost one of the innovators.

Bob Moog, the man who made the first affordable, mass produced synth (the Minimoog), died Sunday at the age of 71, from a brain tumor he was diagnosed with in April. He died at his home in Asheville, NC.

If you've listened to music in the last 40 years you've heard this man's influence. From the early Moog modular units all the way to their latest line of effects and synthesizers (like the Minimoog Voyager, an update of the classic), the name Moog has been synonymous with electronic music.

There was Moog on "Abbey Road," and there were Moogs on a LOT of records that followed. When the Minimoog made its appearance in the early 70's, regular working musicians could finally buy a reasonably priced synthesizer, one that could travel to gigs and didn't take up an entire room. The instrument sold like crazy, and the Minimoog bass sound provided the bottom end for countless records through the 70's and 80's. Moog's Taurus bass pedals are still used live (everyone from Rush to the Police to U2 have had a set or three of these things on stage), and the name "Moog" on any piece of music gear denotes an instant classic. There's nothing like a Moog, and there was no one like Bob Moog.

A byline for an article Bob wrote in Keyboard magazine back in 1987 summed it up nicely. They called him "the man you can blame all the noise on." He was the Leo Fender or Henry Ford of synthesizers, and will be missed.