"It should eventually end up in a museum": The true story behind Hans Zimmer and his giant Moog is even more extraordinary than the original photo of them together, and it turns out the monster modular could be the most important synth ever made

Zimmer Moog.

There's a great photo of Hans Zimmer with a synth the size of a wall doing the rounds that has, for quite some time now, set the internet ablaze with all sorts of rumours: like it was shot in 1970 when Zimmer was just 13, and that it's a Roland and not a Moog synth. 

However, a 1982 interview with Zimmer reveals another story behind the photo: that he was 23 and had bought the Moog modular system from Tangerine Dream. But there's more, a lot more, and it turns out that the huge synth beast in the picture could be one of the most important synthesisers ever made.