The Epic Odyssey of the Moog IIIp

The Moog IIIp
The late seventies helped give the synthesizer its eventual break. One of the greatest pioneers and most influential figures in its development was without question American Robert Moog, who presented the first playable and configurable synthesizer at the 1964 Audio Engineering Society Convention. It was the beginning of the golden age of the Moog brand as it appeared on concert stages and recording studios across the world. However, one model had a very different history: the Moog IIIp, serial number 1095.

Even the Beatles on the other side of the Atlantic became aware of Bob Moog's new electronic instrument.

Yet the Beatles would soon be history, even if they stayed together. It was doubtful the Moog IIIp would ever be used again. John Lennon for example (pictured here with his wife Yoko Ono) found the device too complicated and after finishing the recordings in 1969 sent it back to Bob Moog in Trumansburg…

…and where a blue plaque on the curbside has commemorated the workplace of the pioneer of the synthesizer since 2016. Around that time in 1969, Main Street in Trumansburg was also the destination of German composer Eberhard Schoener. The 31-year-old who had just set up a lab for electronic music in the Bavarian Film Studio in Munich was so inspired by Wendy Carlos's album Switched-On Bach that he absolutely had to have a Moog synthesizer too.

Schoener had borrowed 60,000 marks, but the chances of getting a Moog synthesizer were still low. Bob Moog explained to him at the headquarters that he was actually busy just with manufacturing pre-orders over the next two years. However, he still had one specimen left. A Moog IIIp—the same one that had just been sent back from London by a certain four-man band.

The special feature of the Moog IIIp, besides the fact that it had just been played by the Beatles, was that it consisted of multiple individual electronic functional units, or modules. These could be connected to each other with cables as desired. For this reason, the analog-modular synthesizer offered the greatest possible flexibility but was also difficult to use. The Moog IIIp that Schoener acquired was made up of four cases, each one 25 inches tall, 18 inches wide, and 9.5 inches deep. This case, for example, most importantly housed the sequencer which was responsible for sequencing pulses.

A detailed look at the control next to the keyboard: the No Glide/Glide switch determines whether the change from one tone to the next should happen abruptly (No Glide) or with both tones crossing over (Glide). The portamento control determines the crossover time.