The 2013 NAMM Show was the first in which the Bob Moog Foundation celebrated Bob Moog’s modular legacy by sharing an original vintage Moog modular. NAMM attendees were confronted with a staggering wall of modular knobs and lights: most of Erik Norlander‘s massive “Wall of Doom” Moog modular synthesizer.

The Wall of Doom in the Bob Moog Foundation NAMM 2013 booth, with Bob overseeing.

Erik Norlander is a progressive rock musician, a songwriter, a producer, a recording engineer, a sound designer, and the keyboard player for Asia Featuring John Payne.

His Wall of Doom is a Moog modular that began its life as a Moog IIC with modules dating back to 1967. Erik bought this system in 1995 and continually added modules until 2001, when it was repackaged as “The Wall of Doom.”

It became a substantial Moog modular with 22 oscillators, 6 voltage-controlled filters, and many more modules from different years and systems… almost literally a wall! Erik created a modern design for the console panels of the synthesizer that employ the original 1967 (pre-CP3) circuit topology, but with expanded functionality.

The model of Moog modular that Erik used as the basis for the Wall of Doom.

Erik Norlander in his studio with the Wall of Doom–in wall form.

In 2010, Erik joined forces with the Bob Moog Foundation to have this historical synthesizer made “more accessible to fans and students alike” by reconfiguring it from its “wall” case to six large rack-mount cases that Erik could take on tour or take into schools to teach modular synthesis. Read more about this undertaking here.

BMF Rockstar Volunteers (and engineers) Amos Gaynes and August Worley work to reconfigure the Wall of Doom.

The Wall of Doom in the form it was presented at NAMM 2013.

In 2013, Erik loaned four of the six cases which contained the Wall of Doom to the Bob Moog Foundation for its NAMM booth (only so many could fit in the booth!). This was an exciting reintroduction of the Moog modular to NAMM.

Our Archive and Education Specialist Marc Doty gave scheduled educational demonstrations of the synthesizer to NAMM attendees, focusing on the various aspects that were foundational in the development of modern synthesizers.

The presentation of the device at NAMM served as an educational and inspirational demonstration of the power of the legacy of Bob Moog. And that was just our first year with a modular at NAMM…