Shaping Sounds: Stevie Wonder, DEVO, the Synth Revolution, and My Life Behind the Music

In Shaping Sounds, visionary music producer Robert Margouleff (Stevie Wonder, DEVO) shares the story of how he pushed the boundaries of musical innovation, art, and technology and helped create some of the most iconic sounds of our time.

Beginning on the set of his first film, Ciao! Manhattan, with Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick, Robert Margouleff captures the tragic beauty of New York’s East Village and Warhol’s Factory while he discovers a powerful new way to score his movie: the Moog synthesizer. This discovery leads him to meet a studio engineer who would become his long-time partner, Malcolm Cecil, whom he would collaborate with to invent the world’s largest analog synthesizer, TONTO (The Original New Timbral Orchestra). Together, Cecil and Margouleff used TONTO to help unleash Stevie Wonder’s genius on his era-defining albums, Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fulfillingness’ First Finale.

In legendary studios like Electric Lady and the Record Plant, Margouleff became a pioneering producer and engineer for artists like Billy Preston, Jeff Beck, DEVO, The Isley Brother, and David Sanborn. A true sonic innovator, he was an early adopter of immersive audio and surround sound, developing new mixing techniques for home theater that brought some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters to life.

Shaping Sounds is so much more than a chronicle of music history. It’s a story about creativity, collaboration, and artistic courage. Margouleff interweaves his personal experiences with the teachers, friends, mentors, and influences who shaped him, revealing how empathy and curiosity fueled his life’s work. This memoir is a rich and entertaining chronicle of a key period in music that will bring readers deep into the world of record and film production and inspire new generations of music makers and dreamers.