I’ve been ogling the little phatty for months but go back and forth between wanting one to thinking of finding a Roland SH101 on ebay or gettng something like the Korg microKorg or the new version the Korg R3…and I’m giving my self a headache.
I’m big into drum 'n bass music as well as blending electronic with traditional music liike Radiohead…
I realize I’m asking this question in the Moog forum, but thought I’d try just the same.
What do you want it for? For example I use my LP mostly for bass sounds. My Voyager for leads. I have an FS1R for pads and spacey/atmospheric sounds and a K2600 for non synth type sounds (drums, brass, strings, guitars, etc.)…So I guess what you need to do is figure out what you want the instrument to do and make your choice from there.
I’d say it’s a case of whether you’re just getting started or are looking into specialty items. If this is a first synth for you, I’d be looking for maximum flexibility. An SH-101 has great heart, but it’s fairly limited. Even The Little Phatty is rather limited, but it has that Moog quality, and you can save presets, and have direct analog control. The LP is superb for adding genuine analog leads. But if you’re looking for flexibility, I’d wait for the new Blofeld from Waldorf which is out in three months. It’s basically an updated MicroQ with 25 voice polyphony, I’m assuming 16 parts because the MicroQ was, probably 3 LFOs, 3 oscillators (with 128 waveshapes), 4 envelopes, 2 filters per voice, effects, and the ability to program on your computer via USB. Basically it’s your everything you need multi-timbral synth and it should be around $500.
I already own and frequently use an MF102 and the Murf either with my bass guitar or with a crappy radioshack keyboard running through them…
I love the immediate ability to make sounds that have a great presence, and after fiddling with garage band and reason Ive become a snob for the sound that moog products have.
I’d be using the LP for anthing and everything I could…leads, basslines, atmospheric…whatever, just to get the edge and be able to act on impulse and tweak while playing.
for dnb, the little phatty is seriously fun.. and considering that you already have a 102, you’ll have tons of new modulation capabilities available. at this point, i think it’d be a great bang for the buck. you could easily get a ms20 for the same price and do as much (plus you’d have a multistate filter), but then you need to consider longevity. let us not forget patch memory, and a whole slew of other nice benefits the phatty has. the new OS coming up is really what has sold me on what the LP is capable of.
Good luck, no matter how you choose. A few other great synths for me besides the ms20, were the sh-101, sh-09, and sequential pro one. they’re definitely a different sound than the phatty, in a good way. If I were in your position though, and had the phatty been available before i went hopping off to ebay, i’d have gotten the LP in a flash. It’s been seriously an awesome ride..
::edit:: another plus for the LP as far as tweaking goes, the OS will feature pot mapping, so you have control of any 4 parameters you want that can be easily stored on a patch to patch basis. 's more limited than a vintage synth that usually has a knob for everything, but small price to pay for the power and versatility that patch memory brings i think.
SH-101 is CV/Gate only. You will need to get a convertor.
The R3 is a VA. It’s going to be dated in 3 years.
The LP has both CV/Gate (in) and MIDI and is useful as a controller. The only thing it lacks
is an arpeggiator.
I don’t know whether the LP suits D&B music, but it can go very low and still sound coherent.
rachel
thanks for the help everyone.
I kinda thought that the murf and the ring mod have opened things up for me and thus the LP would probably add a whole other dimension onto that.
All the samples I’ve been hearing sound amazing, but are there even more past that that one can achieve?
have you checked out the moogspace audio files? there’s some great samples of what the 102 is capable of over there.
I don’t have a moogspace account…doesn’t it cost something?
first 60 days are free, after that i think its like a $12.95 annual fee. alot of people seem to be throwing a fit over it, but i think it’s totally worth it..