Robert Arthur Moog (/moʊɡ/ MOHG; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer.

In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history.

Among Moog's honors are a Technical Grammy Award, received in 2002, and an induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

By 1963, Moog had been designing and selling theremins for several years while working toward a PhD in engineering physics at Cornell University.

He developed his synthesizer in response to demand for more practical and affordable electronic-music equipment, guided by suggestions and requests from composers.

In 1978, he founded the company Big Briar, and in 2002 he renamed it Moog Music after reacquiring the rights to the name.

Scott rewired the Moog theremin to be controlled by a keyboard, dubbing his creation the Clavivox.

[2] Previous synthesizers, such as the RCA Mark II, had created sound from hundreds of vacuum tubes.

[13] Instead, Moog used recently available silicon transistors with an exponential relationship between input voltage and output current.

With these, he created the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which generates a waveform with a pitch that could be adjusted by changing the voltage.

[16] At this time, Moog and then Fred Cochran constructed the so-called Moogtonium for the composer Max Brand.

[2] In 1970, Moog released the portable fixed-architecture Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history.

[3][11] Moog had pursued the development of his synthesizer as a hobby, stressing that he was regarded as a businessman but had not known what a balance sheet was.

[11] By the end of the decade, Moog Music was facing competition from cheaper, easier-to-use instruments by competitors including ARP, Aries, Roland, and E-mu.

[22] In 1978, Moog moved to North Carolina and founded a new electronic instrument company, Big Briar.

She felt that Cornell could provide better access for researchers and that the foundation had not made enough progress toward a planned museum to be worthy of maintaining the collection.

The foundation responded that it had sufficiently preserved the collection and had made efforts to improve storage, although it could not yet afford to build the museum.

The displays include rare theremins, prototype synthesizer modules and Moog's documents.