"I happen to think that computers are the most important thing to happen to musicians since the invention of cat-gut which was a long time ago"

Robert Moog places computers beside catgut, the centuries-old material that enabled the violin family, as epoch-making technologies. Catgut didn’t just improve strings; it unlocked reliability, pitch stability, and expressive nuance that reshaped instruments, composition, and ensemble practice. By invoking it, Moog points to changes so deep they alter the very grammar of music-making.

Computers bring a parallel transformation. They are not merely tools for recording; they are environments where composition, performance, sound design, editing, and distribution fuse. With digital audio workstations, non-destructive editing, and vast libraries of instruments and effects, musicians can sculpt sound with a precision and recall that rivals written notation. Barriers to entry tumble: a laptop becomes a studio, a stage, and a press plant. Global collaboration, remote session work, and instant publication redraw the economics and communities of music.

As instruments, computers host synthesis, sampling, and physical modeling, entire families of timbre previously unimaginable or prohibitively complex. Algorithmic and generative techniques, live coding, and real-time processing extend musicianship into the realm of systems and feedback. MIDI and expressive protocols like MPE capture microgestures; automation and modular routing turn intention into reproducible structure. The result is not just more sounds, but new ways of thinking about form, harmony, and rhythm.

There are trade-offs. Screen-centric workflows can homogenize aesthetics and valorize presets. Yet standardization also followed catgut, which codified timbres and techniques across Europe. The enduring question remains artistic: how to turn capability into character. Hybrid setups, analog circuits guided by laptops, tactile controllers that reclaim nuance, suggest the future lies in complement, not replacement.

Moog’s insight frames a shift from vibrating matter to manipulating information. Where catgut made the violin sing, computation makes sound itself programmable. That pivot is as foundational as any material breakthrough, and the next centuries of music will likely be judged by how imaginatively musicians wield this universal instrument.