Moog Retail Price List, June 28, 1980

Moog 2-page fold out Retail Price List from June 28, 1980.

What isn't to love about this price sheet?

A list of awesome Moog synths? Check!  Retail prices for those synth history buffs like me? Yup!  And last but definitely not least, Tom Schuman from Spyro Gyra. No wonder he is smiling, by the time this price list came out, the guy was still barely into his twenties and already had three albums under his belt.

AND he's playing a Moog Liberation keytar. That would definitely make me smile too.

click image for more info

If this photo of Tom appears familiar, it probably means you are old.

Or a fan of vintage synth ads.

Or both.

Because a full colour version appeared in a July 1980 Moog Liberation advertisement, around the same time this price list did. As mentioned in the blog post for that ad, 1980 really was the year that the Keytar broke out.

Which makes it a good year indeed.

As mentioned above, as a synth history buff, I love to see prices listed. Most ads don't include prices and its like a puzzle missing one of the most important pieces.  I've posted a few other Moog price lists (with more to come!) and its fun (and a little terrifying) to watch inflation unfold.

click image for more info

For example, The July 1, 1974 Moog Retail Price List contains some of the same products, and I've included a few of those below for comparison. 

Minimoog:
1974 - $1,595.00
1980 - $1,995.00

Percussion Controller:
1974 - $249.00 
1980 - $350.00

Ribbon Controller:
1974 - $295.00
1980 - $$395.00

click image for more info

Also, the March 1, 1976 Moog Professional Systems Price List gives us a good comparison for their modular systems.

System 15:
1976 - $3,845.00
1980 - $4,960.00

System 35:
1976 - $5,935
1980 - $7,980

System 55:
1976 - $9,675
1980 - $12,000

Time to look for more Keytar ads.

Moog Micromoog synthesizer reference sheet, 1980

Moog Micromoog synthesizer reference sheet from 1980.

Its been quite a while since I posted one of these Moog 1980 reference sheets I have kickin' around. I posted the Polymoog sheet and the Minimoog sheet in early 2010. I've even created a label called Moog 1980 reference sheet family since there are quite a few of them in the series.

Like the two sheets that I have already posted, I've seen scans of the front of the sheet on many sites around the Web, but not the back. And, as I've always said, it is the back of these sheets that contain all the juicy info!

And I'm not just saying that because I'm such a fan of wire-frame diagrams (of which I have to say I'm happy to see both the front and back panel of the instrument). For example, the back of the sheet also makes reference to the Micromoog's "open system" capabilities. Heck, Norlin even highlights this feature on the front of this sheet by underlining it.

According to the sheet, the Micromoog open system consists of "extended input/output capacity, allowing you to "interface several Micromoogs so their controls interrelate". Huh? What?

But on the back of the sheet, readers do learn more details about this system, such as the availability of S-trig inputs and outputs as well as a modulation input/output jack that "allows an external switch to turn modulation on and off" as well as "route modulation signals to external equipment or feed in modulation signal from external equipment". That's a little better...

But, interestingly, this really cool feature is never mentioned in the Micromoog ads from 1976 and 1977, and my guess is there were two reasons for this intentional oversight. The first is that Moog was positioning the Micromoog for its "simplicity and economy" in these ads. Trying to explain the "open system" would probably have just complicated things too much in an ad-copy format. The second reason is that back in 1976/77, not too many people were buying MULTIPLE synthesizers, which is what the "open system" was all about. Maybe they thought is was better to leave it out of the ads rather than risk alienating the more economic-ly inclined musicians that they were trying to connect with in the ads. Let the salespeople talk face-to-face with the professionals that have the cash, and explain to them how the synth can connect to their other more expensive Moog synthesizers. But again, that's just my guess. It could also be that early Micromoogs just didn't have this feature... didn't research that part yet... :o)

But in other aspects, this reference sheet tows the Micromoog party line first initiated in those earlier ads. "Human engineering" - one of Moog's favorite terms - is mentioned on the front of the sheet. As is the "temperature regulated ultra stable audio oscillators (heated chip technology)", that were initially positioned as "thermostated oscillators" in the synth's 1976 ad, and then dumped in the 1977 ad in favor of the more easily comprehensible "oscillator control circuit". And of course, the sheet hits on the fact that the Micromoog contains the same filter as the Minimoog to "give you that famous fat Moog sound".

But it's not just the reference info on the back of this sheet that provides interesting... er... reference info... . Its also the date at the very bottom. This reference sheet was apparently printed in 1980, but most Web sites, such as Wikipedia and synthmuseum.com have the Micromoog only manufactured until 1979. If Norlin was just clearing out the rest of the inventory, I doubt they would have included it in their 1980 reference sheet collection. They must either have had more than a few sitting around, or it was in fact still in production.

Also interesting is the fact that the Micromoog hadn't been advertised in Contemporary Keyboard since late 1977 - three years previous to this fact sheet coming out. There was a small Norlin ad that popped up in 1979 that included mention of the Micromoog, but nothing else Micromoog specific.

I guess my point is that although it hadn't been promoted by Moog (in CK at least) since 1977, and manufacturing may have stopped in 1979, the company still felt that it needed to be included in Moog 1980 family of reference sheets.

And that's family for ya!

Moog Micromoog, Contemporary Keyboard 1977

Moog Micromoog synthesizer ad from page 5 of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine, October 1977.

This is the second of two Micromoog ads published in CK during the Micromoog's lifetime. The first ad, which I blogged about back in August last year, ran from mid-1976 to early-1977 until this ad took over and continued to run periodically until the end of 1977. Interestingly, after stopping the promotion of the Micromoog in CK, the company took a breather from marketing synthesizers in CK entirely for about six months until the second half of 1978.

After blogging about the great placement of Oberheim's anniversary ad in my last blog post, I started to think about how I always noticed that certain company's ads showed up month after month on (or very near) the same page of CK. This practice seems to be quite common in many magazines, and this ad is a perfect example. Moog held on to page 5 - directly opposite to the Letters section- throughout 1977, and if it wasn't a Micromoog ad you saw, it was a Polymoog ad.

This ad is also one of the earlier Moog ads in CK to feature, front and centre, some great musicians' endorsements - Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. Synergies in marketing is everything, and using these two wasn't an accident. Chick Corea was a column writer for CK during this time period, and Herbie Hancock was the cover story the following month (which also featured the same Micromoog ad on page 5 again). That's some great Marketing 101.

One other thing I noticed was that although this ad does mention the lack of pitch-drift available with the Micromoog, it doesn't mention specifically "thermostated oscillator", a buzzword that was featured so prominently in their earlier ad. I thought the term was great marketing, but maybe it was just too scientific for the musician crowd.

Bob Moog - a blunt and totally biased view point, May 1977

-----

Update: Michelle Moog-Koussa from The Bob Moog Foundation has posted an excellent commentary on this ad on MATRIXSYNTH. From the comment:

"This is indeed a very cool ad on the face of it, but I can tell you for sure that this was not written by Bob Moog. To those of us who knew him well, this is evident in so many ways." ... "This ad has a slick marketing department's fingerprints all over it, not Bob's".

It explains why this ad is so different from other Moog ads that appeared before it and provides us with an insider's perspective... Seriously - read the whole comment.

Ms. Moog-Koussa - no disrespect to the Moog name intended. It was indeed a slick marketing department.

-----

Moog ad from page 26 and 27 of Contemporary Keyboard Magazine May 1977.

This rare 2-page centerfold advertisement from Bob Moog only ran once or twice, but it brings to light what I think was happening in the synthesizer market at the time: as synthesizer technology became more affordable and new companies and products started coming to market, competition was heating up.

Moog was, in no uncertain terms, defending their turf from the Axxes, Odysseys, CATs, and other synthesizers that were starting to pop up. Like any good leader in a turf war, or like me when I play the game Risk, Moog decided the best defense is a good offense.

And as any good Risk player knows, the best offense takes a multi-prong approach:

Name dropping: If you've read my blog in the past, you are aware that I've crowned ARP the king of name-dropping. In this ad, Moog hits back with a few heavy-weights of their own - including Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer and Walter (now Wendy) Carlos.

Promotion of their technology: Moog bluntly reminds readers not just that they started it all in 1964, but they were first with a number of technologies including:

• multiple waveform voltage controlled oscillator
• the balanced, voltage controlled amplifier
• keyboard with memory and glide
• four-part ADSR envelope generator
• polyphonic synthesizer
  

Promotion of their creative design: I've pointed out in a few posts that ARP was fond of the term 'human engineering' around this time period. Throughout this ad, Moog takes aim squarely at ARP by using the term 'musical engineering' multiple times.

Attacking rumors: I'm not sure when this pots vs sliders debate started bubbling to the surface - maybe there was ongoing rumors or debates in music stores or some of the industry mags at the time - but in this ad, Moog wanted to make it clear to readers that their engineers knew best. And is it just me, or does Moog throw a punch directly at ARP with the line "Just try to accurately tune and all-slider instrument!" ?

Reading this ad in 2009, Moog may come off as arrogant to some, but I think they got the tone just right. The ad starts off with a humorous tone but still lets you know right off the bat that this is Bob Moog's opinion [Update: the company's opinion]. Also, although Moog knows that they were the bee's knees of the synthesizer world, they take the high road and never actually mention any competitor's names in the ad.

That's class!

Moog Micromoog, Contemporary Keyboard 1976

Moog Micromoog from page 13 of Contemporary Keyboard magazine May/June 1976.

Coming across this ad got me thinking... I do quite like the term 'thermostated oscillator'.

Although my memory is starting to go, I can't recall my Micromoog ever drifting out of tune. The Micromoog operation manual even talks about its' super pitch stability' and its 'advanced temperature regulation' too. And best of all, the ad even throws out the temperature in celcius - and this ad is from '76. Whenever you see celcius involved in a US-based publication you know science must be involved.

But Google doesn't bring up any direct hits related to the Micromoog's thermostated oscillators. So, have I fallen for Moog's marketing trap of 1976? Or, is this just more proof that Moog was always ahead of their time?

Although you can't find much online specifically about the thermostated oscillators, there is a lot of general info on the Micromoog at the usual spots, including Vintage Synth Explorer. Also, a great site to check out for the Micromoog user manual, tons of schematics, links and images, is fantasyjackpalance (built by a guy not named Jack... see his faq for more info). Check out Google for more Micromoog links.

Let me say it one more time - 'thermostated oscillator'. Hee hee. Cool.