I was thinking about what my ultimate Moog synth would be.
A keyboardless desktop unit, with a classic wood and metal case.
The Little Phatty analog engine, with added noise, ring mod, and a small switch-based modulation bus.
A knob/switch-per-function.
Analog VU meter or a small CRT oscilloscope, or an output tube stage - something to give it some visual fun, besides the usual backlit LCD panel.
Add your own MIDI keyboard, and let it rip.
That would, IMO, be a very desirable MOOG box.
Ted,
Yeah, not a bad concept… Not sure about the oscilloscope, as it would add cost with no true function except for looks, but it would be fun.
I like having a built in keyboard, as in my mind, a proper synth should have one, but it, too, adds cost and when you get right down to it, who really needs another keyboard these days? The box would probably be plenty.
Your comments got me to thinking…what they really need to do is build a Moog version of the ARP Odyssey with an extra oscillator. That was a great little synth, and I miss mine, except it never sounded as good as a Moog, and the attack and decay were too short on the EGs. But when you get right down to it, they already have done this. It is called the Voyager. The things that the original Model D was missing in relation to the Odyssey have now been added to the Voyager (does the Voyager have a ring modulator??). You can always add a fooger.
I hate to see Moog start adding synths to their line just to add a synth. You know, introduce a new one with one added feature, then introduce another one with some other feature. When you think about it, short of introducing a new modular, the two synths that they have (Voyager and LP) pretty much cover what they need in a monosynth.
They are missing a polysynth and a sequencer in their line.
Analog Poly - that would be a nice next synth for Moog. Besides the complex and daunting Andromeda, is there a new analog poly on the market? For everyone paying for second-hand Polysixes and Junos, I bet quite a few would pay for a new analog poly, and Moog is the gold standard for sound quality. A $2,000 6-voice, 2-osc per voice analog, with streamlined but nice features…
What really got me thinging about a desktop module Phatty is the Creamware MiniMax and the RME Voyager. I really like the concept of a knobbed-out analog box, and the Phatty is only missing a couple of minor synth features and a few more knobs to be the ultimate 2-osc analog synth.
The Odyssey was a great design - but I always liked the Korg MS series of semi-modulars. All the knob fun of the Minimoog series, and the patchable routings of the Moog modular series - with a very weird filter combo. Something half for the stage, half for the lab.
As for sequencers - in this day of computer MIDI DAW, I think a 8 or 16-step analog sequencer is an expensive affectation. People in 1979 would have killed to have a tenth of the sequencing power and storage of a 10 year-old PC. Some innovations (like Solid State amps over tube) were a wash - but some innovations (like modern MIDI software) make the old stuff nothing but paperweights and novelties. I know there are companies producing analog sequencers, but I can’t begin to understand why.
I want to see a poly module, based on the LP design, that could be controlled natively
from the front panel of the LP. A five or six oscillator design, perhaps, that loaded the LP’s
patchset and so between the 2 become an integrated poly synth!
The module could still be used as a standalone of course.
A module like the at wouldn’t have much of a control surface on it though, so the menu
layout would have to be different.
It would also have to support RAC over MIDI, which I don’t think would be possible!
Whatever, now the 1.02d update has fixed the hanging notes, the LP is a terrific little controller -
I am using it to drive all my MIDI analogues!
rachel
With the exception of the VU/Oscilloscope aren’t you more or less describing a Voyager RME?
The DSI Poly Evolver KB comes close, with 4osc per voice (4-voice polyphony/16-osc mono/etc). retail is not far off from about $2k.
Versatility, variability, no quantization, cv glides (little phatty can sound like a tb-303 with the help of a good sequencer, for instance.). Past that, with a multiple, you can distribute CV in ways MIDI cannot do as efficiently.
That said, I’m not denying that with MIDI you can definitely get some automation going on, but CV is still very validated in current music production; it has the luxury of being real voltage, versus being, well, MIDI.
You can hear the difference.
Just another opinion: for me an analog sequencer isn’t as much of an affectation as it is more of a luxury. I feel like you can do most anything on a software/digital sequencer as you would on an analog cv sequencer. The difference is that the analog sequencer is just better at some things (just as the digital seq. is better at others). As a compositional tool the analog is more immediate and ergonomic. Of course, you can easily find hardware midi controllers that will simulate the pots and switches on the analog. But midi (to my ears) is slower at note firing and triggers differently. Plus, it is just easier(to me) and quicker to patch physical cables and route cv signals from an analog machine than enabling the required routing on simulation software. Which is, naturally, less satisfying-- and makes the analog better as a compositional tool for certain kinds of writing. This makes the rare analog machine an expensive and luxury in the age of cheap and ubiquitous midi software. But I wouldn’t call it an affectation-- it has it’s advantages to me.
The limitations of analog sequencing force creativity, if in fact, you use sequencing as a major part of your recording process. I think sequencing was probably never intended to dominate entire recordings when it was first implemented, but there is a lot of subtlety to be explored by using it carefully and sparingly. Or not. Entirely new styles of music came from sequencer dominated recordings, but I personally always like to get back to the roots of an instrument, and analog sequencing puts you in a different frame of mind than just playing into a MIDI sequencer.