For the Love of Moog

Nat Sound: Wilson talking, sounds of moog organ. Track: The stairs leading to David Wilson’s apartment are cluttered with keyboards. He’s scattered circuits across just about every free surface… and he has to walk sideways to get from room to room, squeezing between broken amplifiers and racks of semi-functioning synthesizers. In other words, he’s surrounded by what he loves. AX 1: When I was listening to music when I was growing up, the Moog Synthesizer and its many copies, the sound was just so wonderful and so enthralling. Track: But what started as a curiosity quickly turned into a full-blown fascination. Wilson has as much passion for synthesizers as anyone this side of the late Doctor Robert Moog (MOW-g), the man responsible for the first keyboard-controlled synth. Wilson’s vanity plate reads, “Synth One,” and his second floor apartment in Nashua doubles as the New England Synthesizer Museum. Request an informal tour of his museum and this is what you’ll encounter. Nat Sound: Wilson playing ARP 2600 (8-10 seconds, then under AX) AX 2: People love these old synths. Find an old ARP 2600 and get it running. It’s got awesome capabilities. Track: Wilson programs computer software in his day job… but he speaks of synthesizers as though they’re his first priority. AX 3: I’ve got my computer over there where I do my programming so I cover the museum’s expenses. And I’ve got a stack of keyboards here. These are much more modern keyboards… Track: He especially loves the dinosaurs – monophonic analog synths like the ARP 2600 and his original mini-Moog, both pioneers and signature instruments for their respective manufactures. The strange looking instruments – keyboards connected to panels covered in knobs, shifters and connector wires – are prominently placed among Wilson’s collection. Nat Sound: Wilson on Mini Moog (5 seconds and under track) Track: He can talk for hours about the obscure details of synth history, especially as they relate to his native New England. He delights in the fact that the ARP synthesizer company — defunct for the last 25 years — spent the length of its 10-year lifespan in Lexington, Massachusetts… and that Moog virtuoso Wendy Carlos, whose 1968 recording of Bach brough the instrument into the main stream, was born in Rhode Island. But trivia aside, it’s the sound that gets Wilson excited. AX 4: Part of the reason this museum is such a good thing for so many people is that the older synthesizers, for all that they have obsoleteness, they still have a sound — you still can’t duplicate it with the latest digital technology. There’s a feel, warmth, a life! The sound is alive. And the digital synthesizers have a great deal of trouble doing that same thing. Track: Richard Boulanger (Boo-Lan-jay) started making music on synthesizers when he was 10, and he recently recovered and repaired the synth he used in junior high, rescuing it from a dusty closet. It’s currently in his office at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he’s a professor of music synthesis. Nat Sound: Boulanger playing his old synth Track: Boulanger says he and Wilson are members of a surprisingly large club of analog afficiandos, sound buffs enchanted with the unique waveforms produced by old synths. Boulanger said the instruments fell out of favor in the 80s as computers took their place. For a long time, musicians viewed old synthesizers as unwieldy, but the old synths are coming back in a big way. AX5: In the mid 80s to mid 90s, everybody was getting rid of their old analog gear. It was big, itwere clumsy, they did have to be calibrated, it was difficult to record; They were a little noisy. Well, music changed too, and we got interested in noise. Track: David Wilson has sees the rising interest in the form of regular visitors to his museum, and analog appreciation sites have been popping up and proliferating across the web. But what do the people living next door to Wilson’s museum think of the weird sounds wafting from his place? AX 6: I’ve never had a neighbor complain, but I would say I keep it under control. But today, in the daytime, I’ve got the volume up rather a bit. And I enjoy doing that. Nat Sound: Synth noise, fade under out cue. Out cue: I’m Dan Trudeau.