Time & Perspective Quote by Robert Moog

Moog’s line lands like a deadpan mic drop: the biggest leap for musicians since catgut strings is... computers. He’s not just praising a tool; he’s quietly rewriting the origin story of modern music. Catgut evokes the preindustrial craft world, where sound was tethered to animal fiber, luthiers, and physical constraints. By choosing that oddly specific benchmark, Moog compresses centuries of incremental change into a single punchline, then vaults over it with “computers,” a word that carries cold, corporate connotations. The joke is the provocation: the most “human” art form has been rerouted through machines.

The intent is partly evangelical and partly defensive. As the inventor synonymous with synthesizers, Moog spent his life watching “real musicianship” get policed by gatekeepers who equated authenticity with wood, breath, and calluses. Computers, in his framing, don’t sterilize music; they widen the instrument itself. They turn composition into an editable medium, transform performance into something that can be designed, and let timbre become as malleable as melody. That’s a radical shift, closer to inventing a new musical anatomy than adding another gadget to the studio.

The subtext is a gentle taunt at nostalgia: stop treating technology as an intruder when it’s been part of the bargain all along. Strings were once the disruptive tech. Moog is asking musicians to see computers the same way - not as a threat to “real” playing, but as the next material that sound can be made from.