William Waytena Inventor, Businessman, Entrepreneur
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spacerWilliamsville Company Acquires Moog Music Synthesizer Firm

A Buffalo-area company has purchased R. A. Moog Inc. of Trumansburg, N. Y., manufacturer of the well-known Moog electronic musical synthesizer.

William L. Waytena, Chairman of muSonics Inc., Academy St., Williamsville, said muSonic acquired the Moog company for an undisclosed price.

R. A. Moog Inc. was purchased from Dr. Robert A. Moog, who founded the business in 1965. Dr. Moog has been named director of research and development for the Williamsville company.

IN LINE with the purchase, Mr. Waytena said muSonics has changed its name to Moog muSonics Inc., and has started manufacturing the music synthesizers in the Academy St. plant.

Moog muSonics now has 15 employees at its plant here. There are 20 employees at the Trumansburg facility.

“It is anticipated that employment will exceed 100 people here by the end of this year," Mr. Waytena said.

Dr. Moog described a synthesizer as an "integrated system of modular instruments, each of which performs a single function in the generating, modifying and shaping of the resultant musical tone or sound."

He said the sounds thus produced are synthesized–they are whole entities assembled from their parts.

"The synthesizer enables the creative musician to create and control new types of sound material that would be difficult, if not impossible, to produce by traditional means," Dr. Moog said.

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WILLIAM W. KOHLER, a management consultant in the Buffalo area and previously executive vice president of the' Hard Mfg. Co., joined muSonics earlier this year as president and retains that post under the new setup.

The Williamsville company was formed last year by Mr. Waytena for the purpose of designing and manufacturing a portable electronic synthesizer for the music education field as well as for live performance.

Mr. Waytena said his company recently introduced the Sonic V Synthesizer and will market this product with the complete line of Moog synthesizers, which range from the Mini Moog, a compact, miniature synthesizer, to the Moog Synthesizer IIIc, designed for music studios.

Moog muSonics also will continue the custom designing of electronic music studios which was carried out by R. A. Moog Inc., for universities and the recording industry.

"Plans call for additional products to be added to our business," Mr. Kohler said, pointing out that they include books and other teaching aids for the education field and additional instruments for the professional musician.

PRODUCTS FOR the amateur musician also are in the works. Distribution of all products will be on an international basis.

Prior to forming muSonics, Mr. Waytena was a founder of the Kistler Instrument Corp. and Radatron Inc. and also had owned the former Hotel Worth in Buffalo.

Dr. Moog has a doctorate in engineering physics and has written numerous articles and lectured extensively on electronic music and synthesizers.

"Switched-On Bach," one the best-selling classical records of all times, was produced with Moog synthesizer equipment.

In 1970, Dr. Moog received an award from the Nation Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in recognition of his contributions to the development of electronic musical instruments.

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