Inventor of Moog synthesiser dies

ROBERT MOOG, whose self-named synthesisers turned electric currents into sound and opened the musical wave that became electronica, has died.

Moog died Sunday, aged 71, at his home in Asheville, according to his company’s website. He had suffered from an inoperable brain tumour, detected in April.

A childhood interest in the Theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, led Moog to a create a career and business that tied the name Moog tightly to synthesisers. In 1964, Moog marketed the first commercial modular synthesiser.

The instrument allowed musicians, first in a studio and later on stage, to generate a range of sounds that could mimic nature or seem otherworldly by flipping a switch, twisting a dial, or sliding a knob.