Moog Music has recently announced a move to cut jobs at its Asheville, N.C. manufacturing center, terminating more than half of the existing positions at the facility. The instrument-making company was globally accredited for creating Moog synthesizers–an instrument that helped shape sound in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

Founded almost 50 years ago by inventor and sound engineer Dr. Robert “Bob” Moog, his instruments were popularized by musical icons like The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder and more. Following the company’s headquarters move to Asheville, N.C., in 2015, all of the company’s synthesizers were manufactured at the center. 

The decision to slash jobs at the company’s base comes only three months after the international audio electronics company inMusic bought out Moog Music. The publicly contested acquisition added Moog Music to the audio electronic’s long roster of companies, including Akai, Alesis, Denon, M-Audio and more.

Although there has not been an officially released statement about the layoffs, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports that more than half of the jobs at the manufacturing center that have been cut include most of the workers who built the instruments. There is talk that the Asheville, N.C. location will remain open but only for the manufacturing of “a limited number of higher-end” products. At the same time, the production of the majority of Moog instruments will be moved to manufacturing centers in Asia.