New Scientist interviews three pioneering inventors of electronic music technology. Bob Moog invented the Moog synthesizer, Dave Smith is the father of MIDI, Peter Vogel co-founded digital sampler trailblazer Fairlight Instruments. From the conversation with Vogel:
How did you come to work in electronic music?I was interested in electronics. In a way, being interested in music and not being able to play was a big motivator for me to come up with an instrument that you could make music on without having to do the hard yards at the keyboard. It was sort of advanced laziness. It transpired it would have been a lot easier to learn to play the keyboard, but that's the benefit of hindsight…
What are you working on now?
I'm working on a system for recording TV without the commercials. There will never be any chip you can put in your TV to do this because it's too complicated and expensive. What is required is a signal that is transmitted via a different medium. Our Intelligent Content Engine is now being integrated into recorders and set-top boxes so that when you buy a personal video recorder you can get one that automatically removes the commercials. [The system was launched in Australia in March.]
