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Building the Moog Voyager Synthesizer The sounds may seem like they're from outer space, but Moog synthesizers are grounded in handcrafted assembly. From "Handmade Music" episode DHMM-313

	Today's Moog Voyager, the company's most popular instrument, is an updated version of the classic Mini Moog.

What do The Beatles, Yes, Parliament, Herbie Hancock, Beyonce, and Eminem all have in common? The answer: All of those artists have used and embraced Moog synthesizers.

This installment of DIY's Handmade Music travels to the Asheville, North Carolina facility where Moog (pronounced "moag") synthesizers are built. Yes, that's right — they're American made.

At the Moog Music facility, these electronic keyboard-based instruments are individually assembled by hand, in a production process known as demand flow technology. In that scheme, each individual involved in the creation of the instrument is responsible for a discrete set of tasks, and therefore becomes expert on a certain part of the production.

In addition to synthesizers, Moog Music is also one of the few companies that manufactures theremins, the first — and one of the most unusual — of all electronic instruments.

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So What's A Synthesizer Doing On Handmade Music?

Though an electronic instrument like the synthesizer — with its oscillators, circuit boards and myriad dials — may seem a strange bedfellow to the other instruments featured on this series, the ones built by Moog, in a way, fit right in. That's because of the strict adherence to a tradition of individual hand assembly of each and every instrument. That tradition goes back to principles put in place by company founder Bob Moog.

The Moog Music facility in Asheville, NC

Today, Moog Music shuns modern production trends and continues to hand build each instrument at their Asheville plant. Every instrument is also hand tested, by real humans, before it leaves the facility.

What's more, in an increasingly digital age, Moog continues to build instruments that, although electronic, still rely on analog technologies. The embracing of analog is a source of pride for employees like product development specialist Steve Dunnington.

"We may not be using the most absolutely cutting-edge technology, " says Dunnington, " but that's okay, because we're not designing stuff that's going to be obsolete. We're designing instruments that you play."

The result is an instrument that, though electric, produces a wide range of sounds that aficionados describe as "organic."

	Synthesizer pioneer and visionary Robert Moog
	Moog Music president, Mike Adams

Moog History

Moog synthesizers really burst onto the music scene in the late sixties when Moog Music's founder, Dr. Robert Moog, introduced the Mini Moog. In it, Moog not only created a keyboardist-friendly instrument, he inspired musicians throughout the world with a tool that would create a new form of music.

In rock and roll's evolution, it's probably safe to say that Dr. Robert Moog carried the toolmakers' torch first ignited by fellow trailblazers like Leo Fender and Les Paul.

The most popular instrument that Moog turns out today is the Mini Moog Voyager. According to Moog Music president Mike Adams, it's an instrument that has its roots in the "Moog Modular" synth, invented by Bob Moog in the early '60s, and which subsequently evolved into the "Mini Moog" in the '70s. The Voyager is an updated version of the Mini Moog.

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