I think there’s something to be said about the flaws and characteristics of vintage analog. They’re hard to match so many say. And you’ll find numerous videos all over geared at comparing modern to vintage. Yes vintage sounds good on these. But there are cons to owning vintage.
On the other side of the medal, LP is modern, sounds absolutely gorgeous and is a much more full featured synth than vintage. You don’t find that many videos showing how good the LP can sound when vintage is asked of it, but I remember seeing one in particular where emphasis was making it sound Rogue alike, with a Rogue side by side, many kind of patches demonstrated. You’d be hard pressed to pick up which one is which without the visual.
If it’s advice toward purchasing LP vs vintage you’re after, my opinion is that you can’t go wrong with the LP, a wonderful piece of technology that sounds real good. Moog has all sorts of things to augment the grunginess of your LP if you like, but one is built right in as a matter of fact : the grunginess knob (commonly called Overload).
vintage sounds different. get vintage if you want that sound, but just be prepared to handle the consequences.
modern analog is cleaner, and has very stable oscs. the lack of 30 year old parts will also greatly impact the overall character of the sound. as to whether the sound of the LP is for you, test it out.
The Rogue and the LP are not the same machine, plain and simple.
unfortunately i live in a country where there are almost no synths for sale (bkk, thailand) and i can’t try them out
all my synthy stuff are shipped from the states … so far it’s only the rackmount variety or a modular (as, except for the cases, the modules themselves are quite light!)
now i’m traveling to hong kong and there’s a shop that sells the moog. the thing is, as you all know, the mighty GAS is all powerful indeed. i am certain that i would not be able to make reasoned judgment when standing in front of the LP and i’ll have to buy it for sure.
anyway, back to the original question. while i understand that the LP is not vintage by any means, still, would disabling the auto-tune function have any positive impact on the driftiness of the sound?
Man I think that you would be happy with the LP. I can’t say what would happen if youd turn the Temperature off, but besides the great analogue drift, you get ALL THE OTHER BENEFITS OF ANALOGUE.
It is reccomended a 30 minute warmup before recording, so how long are you wanting to play with the drift.
Ill bet that there are ways to simulate the drift through very subtle CV modulation.
Thailand eh? I know 1 person that lives there. His name is Boonjong. Id like to get in touch with him.
Seriously I think if you made that drive, heard it youd pick it up instantly.
The LP is modern, well built and a much better option for you in your situation i think.
You can easily program any drift you like by setting low amount of slow LFO on either OSC1 1 or Osc2 on the mod bus (vintage rogues can’t do that).
I can understand you are focused on vintage sound and drifts, but don’t go overboard on their reputation. My point is that the LP has plenty of good vintage to offer (including drifts), and then some, in a modern package with years of reliable worry and maintenance free operation.
Actually, the video you linked to was the one I was referring to. Upon revisiting it closely a couple of times, I find only the very first patch sounds different and real ‘moog vintage’ (and much better I must say). Others are so similar, with advantage LP in one case. That’s so far as one can tell from a small web video. Anyone will tell you… real live Moogs, vintage or otherwise don’t sound like YouTube.
To attempt to answer his original question, I don’t believe that the auto-tune feature is on all the time. I believe that it’s something that you run every once in a while, or as often as needed, in order to keep the oscillators in concert tune, and in tune with each other. Once run, I believe that you can then adjust the oscillators’ pitch to get them slightly off.
I like Portamental’s idea! If the LFO has a really slow cycle time, you could very slightly modulate one of the oscillators pitch to waver up and down very, very slowly in order to get that drifty goodness.
thanks for all the hearty welcome and the encouragement
it seems i would not be able to escape the GAS afterall
subtle modulation of the pitch seems to be the way to do it, but the thing is with only 1 LFO, that will not leave me an onboard LFO to do other stuff
that said, i do have a modular and i can an LFO or two into the pitch CV (one of the thing that makes the LP interesting to me are the CV inputs!)
also, on the auto-tune thing, i read in the manual and there is an option to turn it ‘off’. that’s why i figured that the default state is ‘on’.
@portamental: yes i agree to your comments on the video. besides the very first patch, the rest sounds very similar. i also think on some bass patches, the LP is more ‘full’. from that demo, i think the filter on the LP is more musical than the rogue.
If you have a modular it may be worth the expense to get an LP with the CV out modification. I don’t know if the store will have one, but they may be able to order it for you. They are available online, new with CV mod.
edit: It looks like a new LP with the CV out mod is currently an exclusive through Sweetwater www.sweetwater.com They are calling it the “Solar Edition”
The mod can be done at the factory to any LP, but being from overseas it may be difficult for you to get the mod done.
got the LP at last!
the sound is indeed very, very fat and substantial
worlds apart from my p08 which is really a good thing
not that vintage, but slap on modulating delay, and you’re half way there!
Congrats. You will like it. The patches that came with the LP are designed to offer a wide array of sounds, not that many of them vintage in the lot. In time, you’ll program your own vintage bank and you’ll see the LP can sound vintage. BTW, you can use (easy to find online) the user manuals for the Rogue, Prodigy, Micromoog, minimoog and try their patches. Some terms used are different, but an Osc is still and Osc and the low-pass filter still works the same.
LP Stage II has intentionally “not-vintage” sounds in the factory presets. If you are new to the LP and are looking for vintage sounds, you might prefer the LP Tribute Edition sound set: http://www.moogmusic.com/software/LP_TE_factorysounds.zip
Congrats on the Phatty! They are great instruments.
I used to have 2 micromoogs and a prodigy. I sold them years ago because they were starting to die on me and I really wasn’t using them. This was before I knew a good synth tech.
In any case, once I got my LP, I didn’t find myself regretting getting rid of my old synths.
They’re really something. Check out the Tribute Edition soundbank Amos mentioned.
Have fun in Thailand. Right now it’s about -12 up here in Toronto w/o the wind chill…
I’d like to know, like the OP (I’m asking again because I don’t see a ‘direct’ answer). Is the LP usable with auto-tune turned off? And how much effect does it have on sound. So:
A) No! It drifts way too much to be usable
B) YES! disabling auto-tune helps me get subtle drifting when I need it. It sounds great!
I understand that disabling auto-tune won’t make the LP sound like a 1974 Model-D. I’m still a bit curious about other things as the promo material for the LP mentions “ultra-stable” oscillators. Is that stability referred to when using the auto-tune or when it’s turned off?
As far as I can tell, tuning gets sharper and sharper as the LP warms up. Once, fully warm the tuning is stable. Not using auto tune does not produce a drift. The OSCs are stable. All you get is an out of tune instrument.
…not to hijack the thread, but I owned a Rogue for almost 20 yrs, so I might have an honest opinion on it…
I really did enjoy the, well, rustic-ness of it, and the random LFO… BUT, and this is big, the interface left a lot to be desired… those sliders just never felt great for live performance tweaking, and the pitch bend and mod wheels also not great. You have to remember that Moog was intentionally trying to keep costs down with this one, and it shows in many areas. However, the sync sounded great, and you could get the instrument configured very quickly indeed. Tuning was not a strong point, at least in my experience… those that wax poetic about this “vintage aspect” have never had to keep multiple analogs in tune for a long recording session. Not fun when you’re being paid by the hour to get it right the first time! I don’t believe the analog drifts the OP is/was looking for would be achievable with auto-tune off… maybe if you let it sit for 15 yrs first, maybe not. The quality of the components is probably too high in the LP to deliver that old sound you may desire.
…now, the LP is a class act in every way… the sound is ideal, to my ears anyway, and seems to be very flexible… AND, like the rogue, you can get it set quickly and tweak away… I only don’t care for the menu architecture, but, this is off-set by the ability to set the synth just the way you want for live performance…
…build quality of the LP vs. Rogue is honestly no contest. I sold my Rogue for a fair price (it was in perfect working order, and I included the power supply and manual) and a Korg Mono-Poly to finance the purchase of the LP… a very happy user here!
gotta say, though, that Rogue could take your head off if ya turned it up. To each his/her own!
