Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

Thomas Dolby Wins 2012 Moog Innovation Award + Tours US + Releases New Video for "Mulu the Rainforest"

Moog Innovation Award

A big congrats to Thomas Dolby who won the Moog Innovation Award award this year. Past winners were DEVO in 2010 and Brian Eno in 2011.

Dolby is a self made man, synth pioneer, and mad scientist.  Like Bob Moog, Thomas Dolby’s quest for knowledge and desire to sculpt the world around him led him to the world of electronics, where he designed his own synths, founded his own software company, and charged head long through the world of pop music and into America’s consciousness.  To say he was blinded by science would be doing him a disservice, for science has been his guiding light, and technology his namesake.  For expanding the sonic boundaries of the new wave movement and for fearlessly embracing the future, Moog is proud to present Thomas Dolby with a custom Minimoog Voyager XL, in honor of being the 2012 Moog Innovation Award winner.

He’ll receive the award at Moogfest this year which is October 26th & 27th. I won’t be there so if you end up going take some photos :^).

US Tour – See You At the Denver Show
Thomas Dolby is also touring the US to support his new album “A Map of the Floating City”. He'll be playing Denver on October 23rd at 8:00 pm at the Bluebird Theater. I’ll be at the show so if you come down say hi. Below is a screen shot of his upcoming tour dates. Visit his tour page to get tickets.

New Video for Song “Mulu” With Cool Quadcopter Shots

Here is the brand new video for the 1983 song “Mulu the Rainforsest”. I’ve always loved this track so it’s great to see a video for it after all these years.

• The song "Mulu the Rainforest" from Thomas Dolby's classic album "The Flat Earth".
• Shot and Directed by Chad Johnson in August 2012
• © Lost Toy People / Chad Johnson 2012
• Shot with a GoPro attached to the XP2 quadcopter: ‪‪http://xproheli.com/affiliate/25/quadcopter/xp2-rc-aerial-video-quadcopter‬‬
• This video was shot in the Rockefeller Forest in the Giant Redwoods of Northern California.

Thomas Dolby Links:

• Official Web Site
• Twitter
• YouTube Channel
• Facebook Page
• Flick Stream
• Thomas’s Page on Moogfest Site

More Modulate This! Articles on Thomas Dolby Here

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Photos of My Recent Tour of Moog Music Factory While at Mountain-Skies Electro-Music Festival #celebratebob

A few weeks back I was in Asheville, NC to do a play and attend the Mountain-Skies festival. On Friday morning  May 11th, the participants of the festival were invited to tour the Moog Music factory. I thought I’d share I’d share my photos to help celebrate what would have been Bob Moog’s 78th birthday. A big thanks to Greg and Hong Waltzer for setting up this tour.

Of course this is something I’d always dreamed of doing so I'm wearing my "kid in a candy store" grin as I entered the showroom. The showroom is filled with Moog products that you can try hands-on.

We also got to go behind-the-scenes into the factory. Below is a photo of Moog Voyagers being burned in.

Note that ALL Moog products that ship world-wide are made in this one factory and are hand-assembled. So running at full production that means about 4 voyagers a day. Of course they run at much higher rates of production with smaller less complex products.

The tour then takes you through shipping and the loading dock through to the Moog Studios where they film all those groovy promo videos.

The whole touru took about 45 minutes and I took quite a few photos of the whole experience which you can view the set on flckr or via the embedded player below. See photo titles for a description for each picture (“Show Info” when running the player full screen). Enjoy! Oh and, don’t forget, you can help keep Bob Moog’s legacy alive by contributing to the http://www.moogfoundation.org/.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Moog Chief Engineer Shows How to Use Google Doodle #celebratebob

In celebration of Bob Moog’s birthday, Google has released a Moog Synth doodle. Moog just released a video of Moog’s Chief Engineer Cyril Lance discussing a bit of history and the doodle.

In celebration of Bob Moog's Birthday Google created a web based synthesizer for the world to enjoy. Moog's Chief engineer, Cyril Lance, overviews the doodle' s capabilities to help you get started crafting sounds. Now everyone can explore the wonders of subtractive synthesis and express their creativity by sculpting sounds. Remember, experimentation and learning will reward you with a lifetime of rich synthesizer experiences.

 View embedded video.

Don’t forget, you can help keep Bob Moog’s legacy alive by contributing to the http://www.moogfoundation.org/.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

New Video by Experimental Synth - Orphion and the Moog Voyager Touch Surface

Chris Stack of www.experimentalsynth.com just released another fantastic video.

Playing the Orphion iPad app through a Moog MF-102 Ring Modulator and MF-104Z Analog Delay. Moogerfooger parameters are controlled with the Moog Voyager Touch Surface CV outputs.

Links

• www.experimentalsynth.com
• Experimental Synth on Facebook
• Experimental Synth on Twitter
• http://orphion.de/
• http://www.MoogMusic.com

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.ModulateThis.com
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

Happy Birthday Bob Moog Video Goes to 11 as Taurus 3 Pedals Blow Out Candles

Watch embedded video

I grew up playing organ - you know, left hand, right hand, feet. I've always thought it would be cool to get a hold of some Taurus pedals. Anyway, Happy Birthday Bob - your birthday video goes to 11!

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
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