Robert Moog, whose synthesisers turned electric pulses into sound and transformed modern music in the process, has died aged 71.
Moog, who had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, died on Sunday at his home in North Carolina.
A childhood interest in theremins, one of the first electronic musical instruments, led Moog (the name rhymes with vogue) into a career and business that bound his name closely to electronic music.
As a PhD student in physics at Cornell University, Moog developed his first voltage-controlled synthesiser modules in 1964 with composer Herbert Deutsch. By the end of that year, RA Moog marketed the first commercial modular synthesiser, the MiniMoog.
Tributes to Moog, who is survived by his wife Ileana and five children, can be left at www.moogmusic.com.
Since nobody else is going to put in a tribute to Moog, I will.
In my line of work, Moog is right up there with Les Paul or Leo Fender for shaping modern music.
Where I work (South Asia) the electronic synthesizer is more prominent than the electric guitar.