After decades out of production, the most famous synthesizer in music history is about to be re-released. Moog Music has announced it will start selling a revamped version of the Minimoog Model D, an ubiquitous analog keyboard that can be heard in countless pop, rock, hip-hop, and techno tracks from the 1970s, '80s, and '90s.
The company showed off a pilot version of the new Model D earlier this year. Now, Moog Music says, the assembly lines are cranking.
The original Minimoog came out in 1971. It used a uniquely expressive sound-shaping filter, which could make everything from blistering, funky bass blurps (Thriller, Devo, P-Funk) to spacey whistle lead tones (Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, Rush's "Xanadu"). Just as important as the sonic palette was the Minimoog's portability and accessibility---small enough to cart on stage, easy enough for anyone to tinker with. Here's a video Moog Music made as part of this announcement that serves to illustrate the little synth's historical significance.
Minimoog production stopped in the early 1980s. Company founder Bob Moog designed a new synth based on the same platform called the Moog Voyager in 2002, but that's as close as anyone's come to recreating the original until now. Moog Music's engineers rebuilt the Model D's classic analog circuit design using modern components, but the company says it was able to faithfully recreate the signal path and tonal character of the original. Of course, it gets some 21st-century upgrades too: nicer keys, modern MIDI capabilities, and a new "overload" modification that lets you make harsher, more overdriven sounds. (Hello dubstep!)
The MSRP is $3,749, but you can expect to see them on sale at Moog dealers for around $3,500. The company is making these by hand in its North Carolina factory, so the keyboards will probably be pretty tough to find for the first few months.
