I am one of the “early buyers” of the Taurus 3, and I’m happy to see photos of this new machine.
Some comments about:
It looks aesthetically slimmer (“aerodynamic”) than the Taurus 1, which is nice.
The wooden sides do not have the aluminum trimming of the T1. This IMO may not be very good. Wood on the floor will get damaged very quickly. I was a Taurus 2 owner; when I bought it the wooden sides of the pedal controller were almost destroyed. I got a friend to refinish them and kept them under best care possible, but because they’re wood and it’s on the floor there were inevitable scratches happening regardless. Those panels should have been at least of strong plastic like the Little Phatty’s sides.
The switches seem to be straight stompbox pedal switches… I thought that the strong plastic button-like pedal switches of the T1 would be preserved…
The T1 had two strong pedal sliders for volume (Loudness) and filter control. The new T3 has lighted wheels. Although these lighted wheels look nice and spiffy, they may be delicate. Once again, this is a floor unit to be controlled by foot. The pedal sliders of the T1 allowed to lean on them if necessary onstage in order of not losing balance adjusting the parameter (especially when wearing a big heavy Gibson doubleneck!). I don’t think that one could lean on those lighted wheels of the T3 if happening to lose balance.
Two features of the Taurus 2 which I hoped would be included in the T3 maybe weren’t: The Auto Trigger and the Sample & Hold. The Auto Trigger would allow for a note to “get stuck” forever, and it could be changed by pressing other notes. This was a nice feature for a band using it as stage entrance while having the low rumble sounding in the background. The S&H on the T2 was quite bizarre capable of going random. I would wait to see the User Manual for the T3, maybe these two features are available?
The connectivity features of the T3 are quite nice, this is definitely an improvement.
At first glance, the panel of the T3 resembles the one from the Little Phatty. Curious analogy indeed, since the Taurus 2 was the module of the Rogue.
These are first impressions after looking at the photos. I would like to read the User’s Manual to have a better outlook. Many thanks to Moog Music for reissuing this fantastic synthesizer, and can’t wait to try out mine!
Those wood panels are elevated off the floor by a couple of inches. I don’t plan on taking mine anywhere so this isn’t an issue for me.
I am awfully glad that they didn’t go the Phatty side panel. I had but one request and that was to make them resemble the Foogers/Voyager, which it does very nicely.
I agree on the footwheels, I would have rather seen gas pedals there myself. I don’t know, do most bass pedal players play with their right foot? I think it would have been better if the programmable wheel was on the left side so your left foot sweeps the filter while the right foot plays notes. I intend on using mine as a slave device so this doesn’t affect me really.
The auto trigger is a feature that I absolutely love about my MicroMoog. I wish the Voyager had it. Im pretty sure that the Taurus will have some kinf of sample and hold, or else it will be easy to send a voltage there to get that sound (at least for synth/cp owners).
Imm eagerly awaiting the manual, perhaps we will see it after Namm, which is January 15-18 I think.
Plastic on a floor unit = bad in my books. At least if the wood does get damaged you can probably get some new ones made in 20 years time - or maybe we’ll be able to buy some off Moog and keep them in storage.
Again plastic = bad on a floor unit. Stomp box switches do two things: 1. Work for a long time 2. When they do get knackered are easily replacable.
Well finally something that is plastic. Difficult to say how sturdy they are till we get them, they may be fine, although it wouldn’t hurt for people to treat a $2000 investment with a bit of respect (all my stomp boxes look fine - some people’s look as if they’ve been through wars - why?)
Well there’s an arpeggiator, which has a latch mode. Hopefully it will have Random mode as well as the usual Up&Down etc. If not it could well be added in a firmware update. Also there is an LFO - no S&H but again maybe that could be added in software if enough requests come in.
Those wood panels are elevated off the floor by a couple of inches. I don’t plan on taking mine anywhere so this isn’t an issue for me.
I am awfully glad that they didn’t go the Phatty side panel. I had but one request and that was to make them resemble the Foogers/Voyager, which it does very nicely
I guess I’m the opposite, as I do plan to take my Taurus 3 to gigs. Yesterday I was trying out a Phatty for a very long while, and again noticed the rubberized plastic on the sides. In my opinion and for my purpose, those sides are sturdier to be used on the floor, and I don’t see that they’re bad looking. I must clarify that I use synths for prog/fusion and real-time playing and not sequencing/dance etc.
Moog could later on offer an option to swap the wooden panels with plastic panels. I personally don’t like any of the wood used on the new Moogs or Moogerfoogers. I own a Musonics Mini, and its wood is very simple yet much nicer looking.
I guess that Moog did a compromise on the premise that there would be quite a bunch of Taurus customers using it as a tabletop unit rather than a floor unit, to which the wheels make sense. Its photos still resemble the Phatty in many ways. To me, the Phatty sounds like it would have pillows in front of it.. and I think that the T3 will follow that path, especially comparing it with the T1. The old Moogs have a sound so clear it’s unbelievable. But that’s another different issue. We’ll see how it sounds when I receive it.
I was thinking that because of the lack of pots that it specifically WASN’T suited for tabletop usage.
I have long advocated for a wood exchange program. The upgrade to a rubberized panel would be a good idea.
Im hoping that the rubber on the wheels will not want to seperate from the wheel.
I purchased mine hoping that it would be ideally suited for external control via a midi keyboard and CV. Im really wanting duophonics out of my Voyager.
My whole musical existance right now is primarily in the studio. Ive been debating about if I woudl ever want to gig with my Moogs.
Maybe if I knew that Id make enough money to replace whatever was lost or damaged.
Ill buy something like a gun strictly as a “plunker” and then never want to shoot it. Ill play the Voyager Rhodes whatever but I don’t know if I woudl want to take it out of my carefully controlled studio environment.
I was initally disappointed to see the solid wood side panels, as I do plan on heavy gigging with these, and I was worried that the wood would not hold up very well. I did spring for the road case, and that should help. The real godsend, however, is that I have a friend who is a master craftsman, and he believes it will be very easy to build a few extra side panels for me, and I will use those & keep the originals safe in a box at home. We were thinking about which woods would look unique and handsome on the T-3s - walnut, quilted maple and burled poplar were some of my suggestions, and then my friend said “Why don’t we make you some side panels out of clear acrylic? You could see the interior electronics, and we could even install some L.E.D. lighting to really make it stand out.” I will post pictures of the electro-illuminated beastie when it is completed…
Oh, man, that’s friggin’ EPIC! Sounds like something I would do. Except I won’t. I’ll just switch out selected LED’s with blue ones, and perhaps change the color of the wheel lights. Also, perhaps get some coco bolo sides made with brass Moog logo inlay…to match my LP, of course.
Voltor, you & I are on the same page. I’ve seen the video of your Phatty after you re-did the wheels, and I thought that was a very cool mod. Funny you mentioned doing a brass Moog logo - we were discussing potential things that would look cool engraved or routed into the new wood sides, and after the acrylic choice was made, we realized that we could do the same thing with the clear sides. If we mask off the acrylic, expose the logo by carefully cutting & removing the tape from that area & then giving it a light sandblasting, the logo will appear as a frosted image on the acrylic. I’m still trying to decide what (if any) logo I would do. I’m thinking either the round “music note” Moog logo, or maybe the Rush “Starman” logo from their 2112 album cover. Hmm…
looks good, but not sure about those rubber wheels since im used to the sliders on the T1. Has anyone ever seen the volume roller on the Boomerang phrase sampler? I think something like that would have been WAY better than the wheels, which looks like they would break if you applied too much pressure to them.
Sounds like something I would do. Except I won’t. I’ll just switch out selected LED’s with blue ones, and perhaps change the color of the wheel lights. Also, perhaps get some coco bolo sides made with brass Moog logo inlay…to match my LP, of course. 
