MOTM

I've owned two minimoogs and a memorymoog plus.  I also own at 
present two Studio Electronics SE-1s which is sort of a mini in a 
rack with programming.  (I've probably owned more synths than 99% of 
the people in this group.)  One of the mini's sounded substantially 
better than the other.  The older one of the two definitely sounded 
better, but it was also less stable.  I didn't think the memorymoog 
sounded nearly as good as either mini.  The SE-1s are close to the 
mini sound, but not quite there either.  I also have had experience 
playing the big moogs and other modulars such as buchlas amny years 
ago.

I would say that you absolutely can replace a mini with a MOTM.  I 
recently recorded a mini style lead part.  I used 3 300s mixed with 
an 830, into 2 440s in parallel controlled by two 800s, into a 
second 830 and then into a 110 controlled by a third 800.

The MOTM has ballz!  It is fat (phat?)  It has that growling 
snarling low end that so many synths lack.  It sounds way better 
than any of my digital synths, better than the SE-1s, better then 
the Andromeda.  

I sold all my moog stuff a few years back and I often regretted it 
until I got my MOTM.  Although I would probably use the SE-1s in a 
live situation strictly because of the ability to rapidly switch 
between patches, in the studio the MOTM is the first choice.

Paul Haneberg (A hoosier with 200 acres but no cows)

Hi,
 I own a Mini as well. I wonder sometimes exactly how much synth to synth 
variation exists within these old beasts. My Mini's sound really does not 
impress me all that much, but I think there may be something wrong with it. 
Either that, or it's just one of the Minis that got the short end of the 
stick while being shoved through the production line. ;) 

 In contrast to Paul Haneberg's preference with his Mini and Memorymoog, I 
feel that my Memorymoog sounds much better than my Mini. Even just doing a 
filter sweep sounds more pleasing on the Memorymoog (shrug).  In fact, even 
the Moog Source seems to have more of that powerful, thick, and warm "Moog 
sound". 

  I don't really know the reason for this. I do notice that when tuning the 
oscillators on the Mini that I can hear a subtle (what sounds like) soft sync 
happening. Maybe this is part of the reason for the shortcomings in sound? I 
have installed an earlier version osc board, but it didn't seem to improve 
things much. 

 I'd love to be able to get this Mini up to speed someday... I'll just have 
to find out what the problem is in the first place! ; )

 Andrew


In a message dated 8/6/02 9:56:19 AM Central Daylight Time, phaneber@... 
writes:

> I've owned two minimoogs and a memorymoog plus.  I also own at 
>  present two Studio Electronics SE-1s which is sort of a mini in a 
>  rack with programming.  (I've probably owned more synths than 99% of 
>  the people in this group.)  One of the mini's sounded substantially 
>  better than the other.  The older one of the two definitely sounded 
>  better, but it was also less stable.  I didn't think the memorymoog 
>  sounded nearly as good as either mini.

I used to work on synths as well, many years ago I was the service 
manager of a chain of music stores.  Some minis sounded really good 
and some did not.  The circuitry was exactly the same.  I would say 
that the filter was the main component in the sound but there were 
certainly other factors as well. 
 
On the ergonomics issue, I think the MOTM is very user friendly.  
The controls are well labelled and the jacks are out of the way 
except of course when draped with patchcords.  Many of the older 
modulars, by contrast, were illogically laid out and there was 
almost nothing to differentiate one function from another visually. 
 
I think what some would like to see is a layout where signal flow 
was obvious visually.  While this works in the mini and many other 
nonmodular synths, the very nature of a modular synthesizer 
prohibits this as signal flow could go anywhere.  I have found that 
it helps to cluster like modules into groups, but some may prefer to 
scatter VCAs or EGs, mixers and the like because they can be used 
anywhere along the signal flow, but really almost any module can be 
placed anywhere in the signal path.

In comparing the MOTM to a mini, one of the things I like about the 
MOTM is that every oscillator sounds the same and as some know I 
have gone to extremes to make sure they all track the same as well.  

It might be possible to make a sort of monster mini with programming 
by laying out a large panel as logically as possible, tying the 
controls to A/D converters, and replacing the pots and switches in 
the circuitry with analog switches and voltage controlled resistors 
controlled by D/A converters.  The whole thing could be 
programmable, you could have presets, and you could have a very 
logical intuitive layout as well, but it would no longer be a 
modular synth and I certainly wouldn't want to tackle the design, 
although it is interesting to think about.  Kind of like the 
Andromeda, but single voiced and with more controls to play with.

As usual, people are too caught up in whether one synth 
can be made to sound exactly like another. An MOTM 
modular has a lot more resources than a Mini does, so it 
can sound better than a Mini if need be. That should be 
the more important point. You just need to patch up a 
sound to the point where it sounds great. Whether a Mini 
can or can't duplicate it is a non-issue.

And I agree with the other guy, my MOTM sounds bigger 
and better than my Andromeda too.

However I can also understand wanting to use a pre-wired 
synth for sounds where you don't need the flexibility of 
a modular.  I'll never get rid of my Multimoog.  
However, if that synth is as limited as a Micro, I've 
never quite understood the appeal of super-limited 
synths with a single oscillator, single EG, and stripped 
down features, such as the Micro, SH-101, Junos, etc. 
They're easy to program, but all you get is bland and 
boring sounds.

For anybody who needs to know, my new e-mail address is 
elhardt@.... After 8 years I finally got out of AOL 
hell.

-Elhardt