Moog Liberation

The Moog Liberation was the first commercially produced keytar synthesizer released in 1980 by Moog Music. The instrument is comparable to the Moog Concertmate MG-1 and the Moog Rogue but it is most closely related to the Moog Prodigy; however, as a keytar the Liberation was designed to be played in the same posture as one would play a guitar.

The Liberation featured two monophonic voltage-controlled oscillators and a polyphonic section that could play organ sounds. Both oscillators could be set to triangle, sawtooth, or square waveforms and switched over a 3-octave range. The keyboard was aftertouch-sensitive and on its neck featured spring-loaded wheels for filter cutoff, modulation, and volume as well as a ribbon-controlled pitch bend. The Liberation had a single voltage-controlled filter and 2 ADSD envelope generators. A 40-foot cable connected the Liberation to its rackmounted half which housed the power supply and CV/Gate output sockets.

Jean Michel Jarre plays a Liberation on his recent DVD release of Oxygene Live In Your Living Room, and it also appears in the bonus section with Jarre describing the instruments.