Everyone says “A Phatty can’t sound like a Voyager and a Voyager can’t sound like a Phatty”.
I have owned both instruments and I’d like to confirm this. The Voyager is more complex and diverse in its sonic capabilities, yes. Something that ought to be common knowledge, however, is that the Phatty has a rough, punchy tone that the Voyager can’t touch.
I love the lush, creamy tones I can craft on my Voyager and think it more than worth the money I spent, but sometimes I lay awake at night remembering those thick, kick-in-the-mouth Phatty bass tones that are just plain old badass. That Phatty bass has indeed soaked up so much of my mental activity that I have come to the conclusion that I do not wish to live my life without that sound stomping, biting, bashing, and burning its way through the music I write.
I have never used a Minitaur but I understand it is quite the beast when it comes to the lower-range. My dilemma: Slim Phatty or Minitaur? Why? Anyone care to share their opinions?
Note: An argument may be cast in favor of SP’s patch storage. This is irrelevant. I don’t care about patch storage.
I say if you want in your face bass, go wth something in the Taurus family…then buy an Ampeg or G-K bass head and matching 8x10 cabinet.
Warning: My advice cannot be held responsble for structural damage to your or other’s property. Nor can I be held responsible for your neighbors rallying to throw you out of the neighborhood, even though that could happen if you follow my advice.
I think I would get a Minitaur. You don’t know it so it’s an opportunity to get to it, and you can re-sell it for a Phatty in case it’s not your cup of T(3).
Plus the v2.0 is able to store patches, although you don’t care about patches
Well, patch storage is convenient, and I’ll use it if it’s available, but it is not going to sway my decision one way or the other. I should have put it that way. I guess the main reason I’m considering the Phatty along with the Minitaur is that the Phatty has full osc range. Minitaur cuts off at C5, which limits what you can do with it quite severely. Phatty can do bass and leads.
I’d don’t know guys. I’ve got all four and I’m a huge fan of Minitaur, but I think Phatty is most versatile for musical Basses. If you want to rattle china off the shelves or shatter glass, certainly Taurus.
Something about slightly overdriving the filter and somehow (I’m not sure about this), the envelopes seem more punchy on the LP. Certainly a more fully functional LFO than on either Taurus. And don’t forget OSC sync.
If you had $1,500 and that was it, my choice would be a used Phatty and 104M.
Kenneth, I think we’re all sort of saying what your heart already knows and what your wallet doesn’t want to hear.
Get both.
They’re fairly affordable, for Moog gear anyway. If you don’t have enough cash for both at once, flip a coin. ha. Or, go with the minitaur first, maybe it’ll satisfy your needs. If not, pick up a slim later.
I bought your album and recommended it to several hundred people , hopefully that’ll get you closer to owning both sooner.
btw, I have a voyager and a slim, and yes, once my poly needs are met, I’ll be getting a minitaur as well.
That’s exactly what I DIDN’T want to hear! Though eventually it would be great to own both… It’s difficult to decide which would prove most useful to have sooner. On the subject of polyphony, I bought an Alesis Ion a few days ago. The thing sounds amazing, and the sheer scope of what is possible with the synth is astounding. That’s exactly what throws me off about it though. I think I’m understanding myself more and more as a musician every time I buy a piece of gear. I’m learning about what kinds of interfaces work with me, and I think the best instruments for me are the most straightforward. I’d rather have a separate instrument for each function instead of one thing that does it all. I think I’m going to sell the Ion. And give up on a polysynth until further notice…
Thank you for supporting my music, namah! It means the world to me to be a part of a community that feeds its members. I appreciate you getting behind the album.
The Omnichord is indeed polyphonic! And awesome. Best $25 I ever spent.
Nothing is wrong with the Ion. Just a little too much density for my workflow. I feel like I just won’t use most of the functions in the Ion. It’s an intensely powerful synthesizer, and I’d rather have something like a Juno 6 or JX-3P that is good at producing specifically the types of sounds I need
Phatty owner for about 6 months and recent Minitaur owner here.
The Phatty leaves the Minitaur standing in terms of sound palette, even for basslines. The VCO sync opens up a whole new world of percussive, tonal rich basslines (and leads obviously).
The Minitaur has a completely different sound all together. VCO phase re-trigger is a Godsend for constant transient content and saves from the time consuming process of having to choose the best notes from the Phatty.
Now in terms of phatness, the Phatty comes second, especially for square wave basslines and the Minitaur with its VCO phase re-trigger is a proper precision basssynth. But, I like the timbre of the Phatty better, if only it had VCO phase re-trigger, that would truly bring happy days.
I hope that can be made available with a future software update.
Having both, I would still start with the Phatty. It punches like a mofo and the range of sounds on it are bound to keep you interested for a long time.
The Minitaur is a very limited, yet great sounding, bass synth. I also think the Minitaur is overpriced compared to an SP and the USB noise on it is unacceptable and has me doing the annoying task, of wiring in and out the USB cable when programming VCO phase sync and MIDI clock LFO times on patches.
Hey, thanks for the detailed report, nectarios! Like I said: I used to have a Little Phatty, so I’m very familiar with its tonal possibilities and I’m glad I was able to get the attention of someone who had a Minitaur as well so I could get a decent comparison. I’m definitely leaning more toward the Slim Phatty at this point. Another question: I’ve never seena Slim in person. Are they small enough to fit in an average backpack? This is a huge factor for me, as I’m looking to put together an “on-the-go” rig, which is another reason why I’m looking into this in the first place.
Having said all that and although I love the Minitaur’s sound, I am still considering creating a big multisample library with its VCF at different velocity settings and selling/swapping it to get a Eurorack case and start building a new modular. The VCO phase sync has struck a nerve with me as it is very important for the kind of music I make. But a day or two, focusing on building a nice multisample library and then I can part ways with it and still be more than happy with just my Moog Slim Phatty and my Moogerfoogers.
The Minitaur is just to expensive for what it is…add the USB hum/noise to it and note limitations at that asking price and the decision is made.
I own the Little Phatty and the Minituar. After spending a lot of time with both, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Minitaur is indeed the king of bass. It uses linear VCO’s (just like the Taurus 1 did,) so it definitely has that raw, earthy, tuba like fat sound that reminiscent of Taurus 1. Minitaur’s filter is classic moog, but “special” as well (from what I understand.) It’s filter can open up wide and get super bright yet it stays together. Crank it back and you get smooth low end air and it’s all very fluid. Now, LP/SP (as you know) do incredible bass as well. I used to prefer the LP/SP bass over my MT until I really started digging in to my MT. The Minitaur is really a beast at the low end. You get a lot of original and important Taurus 1 DNA in there too Last night I was playing “Clocks” by Steve Hacket and “Xanadu” by rush on my Minitaur. It just delivers the goods man. Now, the LP/Slim is really great as well, but you’ll be missing the…well if you’re going for bass splatter, fatness, tightness, etc…go Minitaur. It’s 1 knob/function is really aweseome too, plus it’s potentiometers use standard metal shafts, instead of the nylon shafts of the LP/SP, so you can crank away at the knobs withough worrying about toy-like wobble and ultimately breakage (my only issue with my LP.) For BASS SOUND, ergonomics, and quality, the MT beats the SP.
A few of the “under the hood features” of the Minitaur are really awesome for bass as well. I’m thinking specifically of VCO 2 Beat! It’s amazing how you can change the attack and punch simply by changing that around! The square wave on the MT is super killer as well! I really like how you can simply pick one genuine waveform (saw/square) on the MT as well, but this is comming from someone who’s not really a fan of the variable waveshapes found on LP/SP/Voyager. Of course, I’m sure you’ve read all the horror stories about the SP’s tuning issues (I can’t say because I’ve never owned a SP.) That being said, my LP doesn’t have tuning issues like that at all, but I can say that my MT’s tuning is solid…constantly.
I just recorded a whole record of Slim Phatty Bass lines!
So what can I say?
We all know that programing a good bass sound is not easy. When you want that every part of a song gets that special
something on bass you end up with almost full patch memory just for one record. Well, I actually didn’t do that, but now I’m
very sorry. I just can’t get some bass sounds that I recorded. I have some templates that are the starting point, but for
real thing, It is all about all that micro changes, that bring that something extra special… bla,bla…
I can say that I’m really happy with the result.
But I believe that playing bass lines with phatty and tweeking the knobs to get that sound you search is not that easy.
Maybe it will take me 5 years to master this instrument, but I wont give up, because this synth is an inspiration to me.
Now I fell like I have discovered a whole new world called a Bass Synthesis!
I believe that Taurus is more instant beast. I have a feeling that is much easier to program a bass sound on a Taurus.
Phatty is so complex in VCA end VCF. If you drive your VCOs at full level, you get that feeling of two beasts fighting in arena.
Fining is unstable and sometimes I thing that this two beasts will jump out of the synth.
This is a damn good thing!!!
If you gain control over this, you get constant movement in timbre and flow.
But as I said… sometimes I spend a whole day just to get one good sound that I was looking for. So it is a complex machine.
Forget about LFOs and Sync and CV ins… I’m only talking about VCOs, LPF and VCA.
One thing I really like abut Phtty is filter boles. For me, this the most useful function on Phatty!
One thing I’m using allot is PWM. I can’t imagine Bass synth without is. And that is my only concern about Taurus.
And only thing I miss on Phatty is VCO reset.
I would love to see CV in for PWM on phatty, so I could use LFOs from my multipedal to control that and leave LFO on phatty for extra modulations.
Last night I was playing “Clocks” by Steve Hacket and “Xanadu” by rush on my Minitaur. It just delivers the goods man. Now, the LP/Slim is really great as well, but you’ll be missing the…well if you’re going for bass splatter, fatness, tightness, etc…go Minitaur. It’s 1 knob/function is really aweseome too, plus it’s potentiometers use standard metal shafts, instead of the nylon shafts of the LP/SP, so you can crank away at the knobs withough worrying about toy-like wobble and ultimately breakage (my only issue with my LP.) For BASS SOUND, ergonomics, and quality, the MT beats the SP.