Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (Hardcover)

by Frank Trocco (Author), Trevor Pinch (Author), Robert Moog (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
The sleek digital synthesizer of today is so easy to play and so ubiquitous in the world of popular music that its presence is often taken for granted. In this well-researched, entertaining, and immensely readable book, Pinch (science & technology, Cornell Univ.) and Trocco (Lesley Univ., U.K.) chronicle the analog synthesizer's early, heady years, from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s. The authors give preeminent pioneer Robert Moog due prominence, but they also chart the achievements of other luminaries from this era, such as rival inventors Donald Buchla and Alan Perlman, composers Wendy Carlos and Pauline Oliveras, and rock stars Keith Emerson and Mick Jagger. American readers will be interested to learn details of a lesser-known British entry in the analog synthesizer field-the VCS3-which became the preferred tool of many rock stars of the 1970s. The authors are especially effective in exploring the cultural, sociological, and economic sides to the synthesizer revolution. Throughout, their prose is engagingly anecdotal and accessible, and readers are never asked to wade through dense, technological jargon. Yet there are enough details to enlighten those trying to understand this multidisciplinary field of music, acoustics, physics, and electronics. Highly recommended.
Larry Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
The sleek digital synthesizer of today is so easy to play and so ubiquitous in the world of popular music that its presence is often taken for granted. In this well-researched, entertaining, and immensely readable book, Pinch...and Trocco...chronicle the analog synthesizer's early, heady years, from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s...Throughout their prose is engagingly anecdotal and accessible, and readers are never asked to wade through dense, technological jargon. Yet there are enough details to enlighten those trying to understand this multidisciplinary field of music, acoustics, physics, and electronics. Highly recommended.
--Larry Lipkis (Library Journal 20030111)

How many retrowavey, electroclashy hipsters really know the true roots of the sound they're preening and prancing to? We're not talking about '80s swill like Human League or Erasure--we're referring to Robert Moog, the inventor of the eponymous sound-generating device that, more than any other single contraption, made the whole electronic-music world possible. Analog Days, penned by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, is a richly detailed look at the early days of synthesized sounds, and is quite fascinating. (Time Out New York 20030201)

On the subject of discovery, Analog Days covers with polished authority the invention of the electronic music synthesizer by Robert Moog and its usage, between 1964 and the mid-'70s by such sonic explorers as Wendy Carlos, the Beatles and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, as well as the work done by electronic music pioneers Morton Subotnik, Don Buchla and Vladimir Ussachevsky, detailing the battle to use or not use the keyboard which so affected popular music.
--Brad Schreiber (Entertainment Today 20030113)

Pinch and Trocco interview the engineers and musicians who fashioned the new devices, and build up a satisfying picture of the one technology that caught the imagination of the "counterculture" of the 1960s and 1970s...[The authors] have a fascinating story to tell. Today, it is hard to recall what music was like when sounds were restricted to those made by blowing, plucking or hitting things. Music is ubiquitous as never before, and so are synthesized sounds: the two facts go together. So Analog Days is more than a chronicle of an encounter between old arts and new technology: it illuminates a defining technology of our culture.
--Jon Turney (New Scientist 20030221)

Through a series of detailed interviews with people associated with the Moog's development, ranging from Bob Moog himself to assorted technicians, sound gurus, marketing people and musicians who had input into the Moog's development, they reconstruct, with the care of anthropologists studying the habits of some obscure tribe, how exactly it was that the Moog became a significant force in musical culture in the 1960s.
--Marcus Boon (The Wire )

[Pinch and Trocco] have a fascinating story to tell. Today, it is hard to recall what music was like when sounds were restricted to those made by blowing, plucking or hitting things. Music is ubiquitous as never before, and so are synthesized sounds: the two facts go together. So Analog Days is more than a chronicle of an encounter between old arts and new technology: it illuminates a defining technology of our culture. (New Scientist )

In Analog Days, Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco tell the story of how the Moog synthesizer came about. They discuss how synthesizers reflected and reinforced cultural aspirations for transformation and transcendence, which were so prevalent in the 1960s. And they explore how this particular synthesizer--developed by Robert Moog and colleagues in a funky storefront in Trumansburg, New York...managed to beat out a host of competitors for commercial success and popular acceptance...Pinch and Trocco have crafted an informative and entertaining account of the complex process by which new instruments and inventions come about, and they analyze the relationship among inventor, user, and general public that leads to widespread acceptance of a new medium or tool...The book is crammed with wonderful stories and details about the many colorful scientists, musicians, salesmen, and cult figures...whose lives intersected through the lure of new musical possibilities...This is a story well worth telling, and Pinch and Trocco do it well.
--Tod Machover (Science )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (October 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674008898
• ISBN-13: 978-0674008892
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,217,945 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly, yet entertaining..., December 27, 2002

By	T.G. (Newcastle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Published by Harvard University Press, this is unquestionably a scholarly and serious work... yet at times it reads almost like a novel. Kudos to Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco for making this material educational, accessible and enjoyable in all the right ways.

As a "serious" collector of Moog LP's (from "Switched on Bach" onward through the late 1970's) with a lot of interest in the history of the Moogs (specifically) and analog synthesizers in general, I found this book to be enlightening in a number of ways, clearing up many things I'd been wondering about. For anyone interested in "the invention and impact of the Moog synthesizer" (and analog synths in general), this book is a must. Highly recommended.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Moog It They WILL come, May 11, 2003

By	Mark D Burgh "Music, Writing, Art, Film, Hist... (Fort Smith, AR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

From the first moment I heard Switched-On Bach, I was hooked. I loved the sounds, the technology, the possibilities of electronic music. I even saved up and bought a Minimoog when I was thirteen; no greater love have I ever had. The early days of electronics shook many people like it did me. The synthesizer was not just a collection of dials and patch cords, but a way into a sonic universe.

Trever Pinch and Frank Trocco's new book, ANALOG DAYS, recaptures that feeling of celestial expectancy. Describing the development of the Moog synthesizer from kit-built theremins to the ubiquitous and glorious Minimoog, the book mainly concentrates on pre-polyphonic modalur synths and how the world embraced them, and then turned them into cheese-making devices a-la "Switched-On Whatever" albums.

Pinch and Trocco give us other ways to look at synths: they discuss women synthesists like Suzanne Ciani who never are mentioned in other histories even though Ms. Ciani's synthesized commercial work is probably the heard electronic music ever. Though Moog-centric, the book gives us the background of the Buchla box, a sort of sprout-and-wheat-germ rival to the Moog modulars. While Moog turned the synthesizer into a keyboard instruments, Buchla kept his machines free of established interfaces, and established musical norms.

As a sythn-freak, I couldn't put this book down, even though much the material is duplicated in Mark Vail's Vintage Synths. Vail, however, choose to be only a technical historian, while Pinch and Trocco aim for a more cultural view of the events surrounding the shifting of musical boundaries.

All your favorites are here; the unexpectedly successful Dr. Moog; the victorious but hubristic ARP company; the offhand eccentricities of EMS and their wonderful VCS3 named by Tristam Cary, son of Joyce Cary, the novelist. Don Buchla haunts the pages too, half Kesian merry-maker, half NASA sub-contractor with his silver, red and blue synths bleeping in the Haight. And good old Keith Emerson's here too, flailing his ribbon controller across the arenas of America.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in electronic music, anyone interested in why their microwave talks to them, anyone interested in the history of 1960's.

Analog Days also has a really cool cover.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for Any Electronic Music Fan!!!, May 12, 2003

By	Louie Bourland (Garden Grove CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Frank Trocco's book "Analog Days" chronicles the full history of an invention that would change music as we know it today. That invention of course is the synthesizer created by Dr. Robert Moog. This book is loaded with historical information dealing with how the instruments were manufactured as well as details about the artists who were among the Moog synthesizer's first prominent users. Moog pioneers such as Walter/Wendy Carlos, Keith Emerson, Beaver and Krause, Margouleff and Cecil, Mother Mallard and countless others are mentioned in this book. This is definitely THE book to own if you're doing research on the history of electronic music or synthesizers. There is so much information, there's bound to be something new each time you read it. Not only is it a perfect research tool, it's just a plain great book to read. The person writing this review doesn't like to read very much so, for me, this is saying quite a lot.
"Analog Days" is a book that does not disappoint and it will be one that you'll want to read over and over again.