CYBERTRON  BIO  PAGE

maintaining the original mood setting qualities, while providing more 'audience-pleasing', melodic properties

In 1968, W. Carlos had released 'Switched On Bach'... but though highly touted,  the general public wasn't hearing these new sounds all that much, or perhaps, it was that the mid to older generations weren't accepting these new sounds as music. The younger people, however, saw this new instrument 'The Moog Synthesizer' as the 'coming thing'. It had a cool name, and a certain mystic. After hearing Dick Hyman's "The Minotaur" in 1969, used on a local TV station as the news theme music is what smacked-down and grabbed Rich's attention... it wasn't 'classical', it could be used for just about any type of music... (well... about Country...) (nevermind). That simple square-wave sound... which was what all of the police cars where switching to, was just so cool... hearing it echoing through the city. What ya gotta understand is that, in that era, by and large, the public saw this and other similar 'electronic' sounds as very new, and futuristic. In many areas of the country, police cars had just made the change from the old air/vacuum driven sirens, to the new 'electronic' and 'voltage-controlled' sirens... in or around 1967 or '68 (+/-). 

At any rate, Rich was hooked, and set out to learn all he could regarding this new 'monster' of an instrument. Now remember... this was 'pre-internet'... 'pre-home computers'... and television had only been on the air for around 20 years, so gathering information was a bit slower... like writing Moog Music to request a catalog. Rich's real break came when a friend of his mother spoke of her son Mark, who just happened to be an engineer at a local recording studio, and that this studio actually had a "Moog Synthesizer"! Receiving a phone call and invitation from Mark to come to the studio and sit-in on a session, was the life-changing event.

Walking into that control room and seeing all of those faders, knobs, switches, buttons, patchcords, and various outboard gear felt like coming home, after never having seen 'home' before. And then, over in one little nook of the control room... there it was... a real, in-the-flesh Moog Synthesizer! (model 2-P). For a young teenager, it was like meeting a hero... no... like meeting God, face to face... (and God had patchcords for hair).

After the session was over, Rich's newfound friend, Mark, asked if Rich would like to stay and play around with the Moog.... (Duh?!!!) It was almost unbelievable that a 'kid' would be allowed to even touch it, much less, actually tweak, twiddle, and patch it, and make sounds... and hearing those sounds on a state-of-the-art sound system, and cranked-up to a gazillion decibels.... well... it was better than sex. Much better!

Mark had told Rich that no one on the staff really knew anything about the Moog... how it worked... how to patch it to get the sounds needed... and so on, and that only one person was allowed to actually use it during sessions. Pete Pederson (also sometimes said to be 'the world's best harmonica player'), was an excellent writer, and also a Vice President of the company, which it's main income was from producing radio and TV jingles. But Pete didn't really understand the theory behind the synthesizer. He had used a label-maker to number each and every jack... and when he stumbled onto a sound that he liked, he'd write down # 57 goes to # 31... and # 23 goes to # 79... and 'X' knob is set at 5... and so on. But he didn't understand how or why anything worked the way it did (very few people did, at that time).

For some reason, Rich was able to simply 'visualize' a patch... any patch, and very quickly, from the studio's point of view, have it tuned, up and running within a minute or two... and in the high-dollar, 'time-is-money' recording studio business, he was asked if he'd like to do this... AND get paid for it.

So... Rich got started professionally by patching and programming the Moog Modular Synthesizer (model 2-P) in a local Memphis recording studio, which specialized in radio and TV jingles. He did the sound effects and musical patch for the very first "Weed Eater" television commercial, back in the early 70's. From that point on, he received a pay-rate of $52/hr (not bad money for a kid in the '70s) from the studio whenever they needed the Moog for session work, which was relatively new, increasingly popular, and- there weren't very many 'synthesists' around, back in those days... or for that matter, not many studios which could afford to buy Moog's.

When ARP began producing it's ARP-2600 model, that was something that local music stores could carry, display, and sell. So, several times a week, Rich could be found spending hours playing with, and patching the 2600. You'd think that the music stores would get annoyed... but actually, this drew-in people, and sometimes crowds. They were actually getting someone to demo the 2600's... someone who knew more about them that their salesmen, and sometimes, even the ARP reps. .... and all for free. The price tag for a 2600 in the early-mid '70s was still pretty steep for most musicians, but Rich's demonstrations actually convinced, and 'made the sale' numerous times.

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Rich began recording his own music under the name of "Cybertron" in 1974 and 1975. The name came about from the logical fusion of the words 'Cybernetic', and 'Electronic'... ergo 'Cyber-tron'. Although Rich had been in several bands over the years, he has always continued to compose and record his own solo, 'one-man-band' material as 'Cybertron'. (And yes, this predates the cartoon and/or action figures, also called Cybertron). Rich attended and graduated from the very first Recording Engineering College in Tennessee. 'Tennessee College for the Recording Arts' was located in what was a historically famous local Memphis studio... "Sounds of Memphis" recording studios, on Rayner street. In it's day, it was one of the hit-making hot-spots, and even boasted of having George Harrison's old Moog-modular.

Beginning in 1978, Morby was hired to work in a brand-new, VERY state-of-the-art planetarium (now known as 'Sharpe Planetarium') as the audio technician/engineer. But the planetarium's Director was particularly interested in Rich because of his music compositions, and 'synthesizer sound', which was precisely what he wanted for the planetarium shows. So, Rich also composed and recorded theme and show music, space-music, and sound effects for the planetarium, and bought an ARP-2500 from another local studio. Armed with the ARP-2500, an ARP-2600, a MiniMoog, a Moog 3-C, and a MiniMoog, Morby was able to crank-out tons of all sorts of music, 'mood-setters", and sounds used by the planetarium for the in-house show productions, TV and radio jingles, 'canned-shows', the planetarium sold to other planetariums, and even music, segues, and 'bullets' for the planetarium's 'Laser light-shows', where Rich was also a "Laserist" performer. Even though the Apple II had emerged, and was a part of the planetarium's stock, Rich preferred to use analog controls... and sometimes, control-voltages from synthesizer modules and controllers. Every show was different, and was a constant 'draw' for the planetarium, and was promoted by Memphis' local FM Rock radio station.

In the meantime, Morby continued to work on the side as a synthesizer programmer/consultant for numerous studios in Memphis, as well as for many individual recording projects for bands, and free-lance producers.

Finally, having been a 'staff engineer' for a newly-built, top-notch studio on historic Beale Street, Rich got quite spoiled... every new piece of gear, keyboards & synths, recorders, shielded and acoustically tuned and isolated studio, booths, and control-room... clean and regulated 'tech' power receptacles throughout... first, a Soundcraft TS-24, and then a Neve recording console... if it was new and 'the latest and greatest thing'... the studio owners bought it. And that, of course, meant lots and lots of sessions. After going for weeks without a day off, and working 16-18 hours days non-stop... the 'burnout factor' raised it's ugly head. Rich quit the studio... sold all of his home studio gear and synths (except his MiniMoog and Korg Poly-61), and completely dropped-out of the music world. He didn't even listen to ANY music for over two years. But then- as one might expect... once it's in your blood, your hooked. So, after a major relocation, and then a major divorce episode, he bought a cute little Yamaha 'arranger' synth... just something to play around with. No big deal... no big bucks... no amps or studio monitors... just a nice little 5-octave keyboard, with onboard speakers, effects, and sequencer. And so, it began... again. Like a 'Feringi' with a pocket-full of latinum, Morby got on the internet, and started searching 'modulars'... and discovered "Synthesizers.com".

So, these days, having escaped from the rat-race of the big city, legally disposing of the old 'ball & chain', and having successfully raising his kids to adulthood, 'Morb' composes music in his home 'synthesizer studio', which includes two modular-systems made by Synthesizers.com- a monster 3-cabinet, 5-tier studio system, and a custom-designed 2-cabinet portable system, along with numerous other digital synths, gear, and digital recording workstation. 

There is no certain genre that Cybertron's music will fit into. Nearly all of it is a mixture or fusion of several genre, including Progressive-rock, Symphonic-rock, Classical, Funk, R & B, Jazz, Electronic, Space-Music,  and probably everything in between. A great deal of it comes about from experimental patching sessions, which often evolve and grow into multi-track compositions.

In 2004, Morb had 'the chance of a lifetime... to meet two of his musical heroes at the same time. And that was at the first "MoogFest" in New York City, for the 50th anniversary of the Moog Synthesizer. Read about this experience, and see some of the photos, on the "MoogFest" page.

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