It may very well be the Moog modular that you’ve heard the most in your life, even if you’ve never heard of it.

The Michael Boddicker Moog modular synthesizer.

Michael didn’t waste any time getting into music. With stats like “started playing the accordion at 2 years old,” and “working on composition and orchestration at 12,” it was pretty evident the boy was going to be a musician.

The work of Wendy Carlos (Switched-On Bach) and Dick Hyman (The Minotaur) in 1969 inspired him to pursue electronic music studies at Coe College. In 1971, he began full-time collegiate studies, while still completing high school. 1972 saw him taking contemporary songwriting at Coe, and jazz studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach

In 1973, Michael purchased an ARP 2600, a powerful portable modular synthesizer.

The ARP 2600 from the Bob Moog Foundation Archives.

Michael’s first exposure to a Moog modular synthesizer occurred in 1973 when he was taking 20th century composition at the University of Iowa, which had a Moog system. A less collegiate exposure to the device was when he snuck backstage during an Emerson Lake and Palmer concert that year, and hid in Keith Emerson‘s dressing room. From that vantage, he studied how Emerson performed with his Moog modular.

Keith Emerson playing his modular.

During this time, Michael had been writing music, and some of it for paid gigs. He even wrote music for Bill Cosby‘s album. In 1974, Michael moved to Los Angeles, began auditioning and haunting music business buildings, and very nearly starved to death.

In this challenging time, Michael was mentored by none other than Paul Beaver, the man who was largely responsible for exposing the West Coast to the Moog synthesizer: Paul introduced the Moog synthesizer at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and played the Moog on some of the first rock records to feature the device. Paul would loan Michael his Minimoog for gigs and for study.

Michael used the manuals for the ARP 2600 and the ARP Odyssey and translated patches for those synthesizers to the Minimoog. This process gave him a greater understanding of the Minimoog.

Paul Beaver with his Moog modular

Michael’s musical ability and synthesis prowess led him to a variety of session and writing work that took him from near-starvation to success.

In 1975, Michael was able to purchase his own Minimoog and a Moog System 15 modular synthesizer. As a result of his purchase, a dialogue began between Michael, Bob Moog, and Dave Luce, inventor of the Polymoog. This dialogue led to Michael being asked to demonstrate the new Moog polyphonic synthesizer, the Polymoog, at the summer NAMM convention.

The Moog Polymoog Synthesizer

The Moog System 15 modular

Bob Moog with Dave Luce looking at the Constellation system

Summer NAMM 1975 featured Michael Boddicker demonstrating the new Polymoog. At one of these demonstrations, Bob Moog and Les Paul walked in and sat down. It wasn’t easy for Michael to perform for such esteemed guests, but he did. This convention was the beginning of a friendship between Bob and Michael Boddicker.

Bob Moog with Les Paul

Michael had famed Moog engineer Rich Walborn modify his Minimoog so that it could be somewhat modular and control his System 15s. This combination of Minimoog and System 15 was often what he would carry to recording sessions. The arrangement inspired the purchase of another System 15.

Moog engineer Rich Walborn

In 1976, Michael bought an expanded Moog System 55 modular that was hand-delivered by Bob Moog, and even featured a personalized panel.

The Moog System 55 synthesizer

Bob would borrow Michael’s modular for various engagements. When Bob was in town, he would stay at Michael’s beach house, and they would often have dinner together. Some cherished memories from this time for Michael included going for walks on the beach with Bob, and even going for a swim together.

Around the time of his work with David Shire on the soundtrack for Apocalypse Now, Michael purchased the Bode/Moog Vocoder and the Formula Sound Multiple Resonance Filter Array from Bob.

Bob was responsible for some of the first efforts in taking the communication device that was the vocoder and converting it to a musical instrument. In 1968, he built a vocoder for the University of New York at Buffalo, and in 1970, he helped convert part of Wendy Carlos’ modular into one.

In 1979, Moog Music took Harald Bode‘s vocoder design and created the Moog vocoder. Michael’s personal vocoder, used on many well-known songs, will be present in the Bob Moog Foundation booth at NAMM 2015.

The Formula Sound Multiple Resonance Filter Array

The Moog Vocoder

The Multiple Resonance Filter Array was a device made to generate resonances in various sounds, and was especially effective as a “string filter,” a device that applied the resonances of strings to synthesizer sounds, making them sound more string-like. Michael’s personal Multiple Resonance Filter Array will also appear at the Bob Moog Foundation booth at NAMM 2015.

Michael’s compositional work, his session recording work, and his synthesis work continued to become more popular. Today, his fingerprints are all over many of the most famous songs and movies from the late ’70s and ’80s (and more). His modular is one of the most historically significant electronic instruments of 1970-1980, and we are honored to share this instrument at NAMM.

Michael Boddicker is a living embodiment of the power of Bob Moog’s innovation, and his work is an enduring pillar of Bob Moog’s legacy. Through his musical gifts and skills, his mastery of the process of synthesis, and through the incredible catalog of his popular and culturally relevant work, Michael is a prime example of how Bob Moog’s legacy can inspire creativity and innovation, and drive success.

Much of his work below involved the Moog modular synthesizer on display in the Bob Moog Foundation booth at NAMM 2015. Here’s an abbreviated list of the artists he has recorded for and recordings and movies which used Michael’s modular system, Minimoog, vocoder, and/or string filter:

The Jacksons, The Jacksons

“I Heard That,” Quincy Jones

Roots (the television series)

“Lido,” Boz Scaggs

Saturday Night Fever

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The Deep

King Kong

The Black Hole

“Lost Without Your Love,” Bread

“Short People,” Randy Newman

“Totally Hot,” Olivia Newton-John

The Wiz

Off the Wall Michael Jackson

“Surrender,” Cheap Trick

“On Top of the World,” Cheap Trick

“Shake Your Body Down to the Ground,” The Jacksons

Battlestar Galactica original television series theme

Apocalypse Now

Xanadu

Heaven Can Wait

“99,” Toto

“Let’s Groove Tonight,” Earth Wind & Fire (vocoder)

“He’s So Shy,” Pointer Sisters

“Suddenly,” Olivia Newton-John (vocoder and string filter)

“Magic,” Olivia Newton-John

“Physical,” Olivia Newton-John

“We Got the Beat,” The Go-Gos

“Gloria,” Laura Branigan

Thriller, Michael Jackson

“You Are,” Lionel Richie

“Imagination,” Laura Branigan (Michael Boddicker composer [Flashdance][Grammy])

“I Love LA,” Randy Newman

“All Night Long,” Lionel Richie

Buckaroo Banzai (Michael Boddicker Composer)

“Sunset Grill,” Don Henley

“Footloose” Kenny Loggins

Theme from “The Natural,” Randy Newman

“Dancing on the Ceiling,” Lionel Richie

“We are the World,” various artists

“Somewhere,” Barbra Streisand

Fatal Attraction’s infamous rabbit scene

Bad, Michael Jackson

The Mosquito Coast

No Way Out

Hunt for Red October, “clunking sounds”

Milo & Otis (composer)

Dangerous, Michael Jackson

And more…

The post Bob Moog Foundation Modular Legacy at NAMM: in 2015, the Michael Boddicker modular synthesizer first appeared on The Bob Moog Foundation.

In the fall of 2007, I was fortunate enough to attend the Mix Foundation Tec Awards that are held each year in conjunction with the AES show in New York City. I was fortunate enough to be invited as the guest of my  friends at Steven’s Institute of Technology . As luck would have it,  I wound up accepting the award for Technical Achievement in Musical Instrument Technology on behalf of Moog Music, Inc. for the Little Phatty. It was a great evening all around, but the highlight for me, after receiving the award, was meeting Les Paul, inventor of the electric guitar and multi-track recording.

I already got a sense of who Les was from his time  up on stage presenting the Les Paul Award to Al Kooper. Les was more interested in the attractive brunette holding the award than the happenings on stage. When he got up to the mic, he said something along the lines of “I feel like a broken flag pole standing next to her”. The whole room erupted in laughter — at 92 years old, the guy had an incredible amount of spunk.

I was sitting with Steven’s talented faculty, of which guitar wizard Carlos Alamar was a member. Carlos offered to introduce me to Les, so up we went to the front of the room. Les initially looked a little distracted with all of the commotion going on in the room, but when Carlos said “Les, this is Bob Moog’s daughter, Michelle” Les’s face lit up, he gave me a huge smile and a hug and said “Oh, I just loved your dad.”

Dad and Les knew each other quite well from their years under Norlin Industries, Inc. Norlin was an umbrella organization that owned several music companies in the early to mid-70s including Sennheiser, Lowery Organs, Maestro Foot Pedals, Moog Music, Inc. and Gibson Guitars. Apparently, neither Dad nor Les were too fond of the way their parent company handled things and they bonded as two inventors facing the realities of being part of a large corporate organization. At one point around 1975 Norlin asked Moog Music, Inc. to make a guitar amp, the LAB Series Amp, to go with some of the Gibson guitars. Dad was in charge of designing that product, the prototype of which is part of his archive.

In the fall of 2008, I was in NYC on business and met up with a friend to go see Les perform at the Iridium Club in Manhattan. His set was a mixture of music, humor and nostalgia. At 93 years old he still had the chops of a virtuoso, the spirit of an innovator and the heart of gold. I went back stage to see him we spent some time talking about music and Les’s fondness for Dad. People wandered in and out to pay their respects to Les and he was always warm and animated. I was struck by his humility and open spirit, two things people always tell me they admired about my father. I could certainly see that Les and Dad had easily been kindred spirits.

Commenting on the link between the two men, Colby Cosh recently wrote:

“Two men, Les Paul and Bob Moog, stand above all others as creators of the musical environment in which our brains are all now marinated.”

Les invited me to come interview him at his home the next time I was in town; I was really looking forward to that. I’ll be in NYC in October for AES once again, but this time my second favorite music pioneer will be playing a tune somewhere else………hopefully in the company of my father.

Les Paul was a brilliant maverick inventor, a great musician and a hell of a nice guy. He is deeply missed by many here at the Bob Moog Foundation and around the world….

The post Remembering the Genius and Soul of Les Paul first appeared on The Bob Moog Foundation.