KVR Interview: Peter Gorges speaks Moog, Vox Humana, and the Gorilla Engine

It's is really amazing what you can get for $20 these days. So, if you happen to have $20 and you want to have a great sounding PolyMoog 280A plugin (The synth used by Gary Numan for "Cars" and other tunes) you should definitely consider Vox Humana from UJAM. You will also get the warm and fuzzy feeling that goes along with a contribution to a great cause.

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Peter Gorges, co-founder of UJAM, has been developing plugins since the beginning of VST. His passion for synthesizers and samplers led to the founding of his first plugin company, Wizoo. There was an unexpected encounter with master composer Hans Zimmer at the 2003 NAMM show, and the acquisition of Wizoo by Digidesign (now Avid), that led in part to the talented team he works with today. In this interview he delves into the origins of UJAM and a second working relationship with Mr. Zimmer, the development of the powerful Gorilla Engine, and the heartwarming collaboration with the Bob Moog Foundation on the Vox Humana virtual instrument.

You have been involved with synthesizers and samplers for quite a long time. How did UJAM start?

Manfred, Hans, and Peter 

Long story - please bear with me. The trajectory starts with me meeting Hans Zimmer in 2003 at the NAMM show. As I learned later, this had been orchestrated by my then-mentor and friend Manfred Ruerup (co-founder and ex-CEO of Steinberg), who already knew Hans. I had a booth with my first company, Wizoo, and suddenly there was this guy tapping my shoulder going “Hi, I’m Hans, do you remember me Peter?” 

You can imagine that I was completely speechless because naturally I idolized this guy. A company called Creamware had gone bankrupt at the time. The Creamware development team was in touch with Hans because he was using their Scope system at the time and thought highly of the team. So, he said, “Hey Peter, here’s an idea:  I’ll invest in your company, you hire the Creamware team, and build me a sampler.” 

How do you say no to that? So that’s what we did, we hired the guys from Creamware, and together with our existing team at Wizoo, we started building a big sampler system to Hans’ specifications - pretty much the ultimate orchestra system.

As sample playback tech was moving to computer platforms…

Roland S-760

Yes. Hans had started with Roland S-760 samplers.  He had one device per instrument at the time. It was completely impressive that someone could have that many S-760s working together. In the meantime he had upgraded to GigaSampler and that's what I saw when I visited him the first time. He had a whole server room just for his personal orchestra sampler machines.

Less than two years into our development project for Hans, I was approached by Digidesign’s CEO, Dave Lebolt, who offered to buy Wizoo. I wanted to do it because it meant a big step up for me privately and professionally, and while Wizoo was getting by, we were all getting a bit tired of making ends meet every month, so I gave Hans a call and said, “Digi wants to buy us, but they’re not going to keep developing your sampler.” And he said, “Look, Peter, do what you think is right for you. I’m going to be fine.” 

That’s a selfless gesture…

Hans and Peter in the days of Wizoo

And that’s Hans for you. So, we sold Wizoo to Digi and Hans waived his rights to the sampler. A few years passed and I wanted to start something new. In 2009 we were at Hans’ house, I told him I had decided to leave Avid and he said, “Peter, I’ve always asked you why you want to be an employee in such a corporate company. I know you’re not cut out for this.” And he was totally right. And on a whim, we decided to start something new together with no idea exactly what we were going to do. We literally shook hands on his terrace, and that was the first inception of UJAM. 

And later you started building the Gorilla engine from scratch…

UJAM co-founders Peter Gorges (R) and Axel Hensen

That came after a few years we spent in Silicon Valley trying to build UJAM studio, our idea of a “Twitter for music” which eventually lead to a fallout with our venture capital investors in spite of having collected over a million users. So, to keep the team together we decided to go back to what we knew we were really good at, and that was Virtual Instruments. 

Gorilla Engine development was actually started when Ernst Nathorst-Böös (founder of Propellerhead – now Reason Studios) asked us if we knew someone who could write what he called a “Kontakt-like sampler for Reason” - Kontakt was a synonym for software sampler at the time - and I said, “Yea, of course.” Paul Kellett, who is our main instrument architect, wrote the first Gorilla Engine in a month. He could pull that off because he’d written several engines in our times together with Steinberg and in Digidesign. Anyway we retained the rights to Gorilla Engine and Propellerhead licensed it from us, which turned out to be a very good decision because our Engine is now in many major manufacturers’ virtual instruments, although white-label so it’s pretty unknown.  

I told Hans about it and he said “Look Peter, could you guys just rebuild my SAM system with Gorilla Engine?” Hans had created SAM with Mark Wherry who had done a brilliant job. It was very reliable for about 15 years and ran some of the biggest movies and thousands of audio channel compositions, but Mark had moved on and there was no one to maintain the code.

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We built and tested a replacement. Hans is largely agnostic to the backend behind his orchestral system, so one day they just made the switch from the old to the new system and for him it’s all been the same, because Gorilla Engine also talks to his remote surfaces. Because its modern code, Gorilla Engine is sustainable, and we can add cool features for him. And it’s much more efficient, so their per-seat cost has gone down by 90%, and believe me, that’s a substantial figure even from a Hans Zimmer point of view. 

And the Gorilla Engine was also used to create Vox Humana for the Bob Moog Foundation. How far back does your relationship with Bob Moog and the Foundation go?

Korg MS-20

My relationship with Moog goes all the way back to when I was 14. I knew of Moog at that age, though my first synth was actually a Korg MS-20 because it was what I could afford at the time. As soon as I was able to afford it I bought a Moog Multimoog, which I kept for 30 or 35 years until it got lost during its return shipment from a restoration—a total heartbreak. So, Moog has been part of my life as a brand and as an instrument ever since that first purchase.

Did you ever have a chance to meet Bob Moog?

Peter's wife with a deity

Yes, a couple of times. It was like meeting a deity (laughs). One meeting was at my first NAMM show in 1998, shortly after we started UJAM. I still have a photo of him with my wife on the NAMM floor. I wanted him to write a series for the German Keyboards magazine, but unfortunately that never came to pass.

And how did your relationship with Michelle Moog-Koussa and the Foundation evolve?

That's a fun story. Michelle posted a quirky photo on Facebook, something like a modular snowman. I made a sarcastic comment—not too mean, but not exactly friendly. She messaged me back, incredibly graciously, asking me to explain what I meant. I was so embarrassed! We ended up becoming great friends. We talk often and see each other socially. I think it’s been about seven or eight years now.

The Bob Moog Foundation is deeply grateful for UJAM's support in bringing this project to musicians and producers all over the world. The funding generated through Vox Humana will be of great assistance to our important work in education, archive preservation, and the operations of the Moogseum.

Michelle Moog-Koussa - Executive Director, Bob Moog Foundation

Let's talk about Vox Humana. How did that collaboration with the Foundation come about?

About a year ago, I saw a Facebook post from the Bob Moog Foundation that they had released a Vox Humana Kontakt instrument. It was a basic multi-sample library and not particularly impressive. I reached out to Michelle and said, "Why not make a real plugin with effects, filters, and so on?" She loved the idea. 

Vox Humana

We didn’t have time to build it ourselves, but we offered the Gorilla Engine SDK. Marcus Ryle took it on, and with a bit of support from one of our engineers and UI design by Axel Hartmann, the whole thing came together quickly. Alex Ball, who had done the sampling, also waived his fee.

And the response?

It has been great. We donated a UJAM launch month, took no money, and the Foundation received all the proceeds. So far over a 1,000  copies were sold, bringing in around $20,000 to the foundation. Many people supported it simply because it benefited the Foundation. It was fun, easy to do, and successful for everyone.

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Are there plans to do more Moog-based virtual instruments?

One way or another we’ll of course build on that success. I told Michelle we could probably do 50 of these if someone samples the gear. It’s simple for us to build them with Gorilla Engine. The actual instrument itself just takes a few hours with our current setup.

Is the Gorilla Engine available to other developers?

Not the Gorilla Engine

Gorilla Engine is currently used by a few dozen companies under a white-label model. It’s not publicly available yet because each partnership requires onboarding. However, we aim to launch it publicly this year. Then, anyone can download the SDK, sign a licensing agreement, and create their own instruments. Our business model only takes a share if the developer earns revenue.

So it could be used by indie or beginner developers?

That’s the goal. So far, we’ve catered toward the established company who has full stack developers and their build pipeline and all of that. For the public launch, we’re going to add a second persona if you will – the sound designer who is skilled at capturing and building a great instrument but not necessarily coding. Also, our business model is very friendly: no upfront payments, no prepaid serials—just share in what you already earned. It’s very approachable.

What's next for UJAM?

We’re not focused on one single thing right now, we‘re rather embracing how music creation shifts in our favor. Like, making music on computers and mobile is going through major changes right now — it’s all becoming more accessible, affordable, and inspiring new tools emerge left and right - not just AI, but it‘s a huge driver. We’ve always been about making music easier, even when the trend was to focus on pros. So this shift really suits us and we‘re in for the ride.

It's truly amazing what you can do with $20 these days. You can find other plugins that support the Bob Moog Foundation here.

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