What would YOU like to see in an LP Stage III?
Seeing as how my Stage III thread has done so well, I’ve decided to take some of the best ideas from there and put them into a poll. So, what do we want?
Personally I think a sequencer would be the coolest addition. And hopefully it could be totally software implimented so that us stage 2 owners could just upgrade OS’s and get in on that.
http://www.moogmusic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6228&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=75
Just in case anyone missed CTRLSHFT’s awesome mock-up two posts down on page 6. 
My vote is for Sequencer as well. CV is already done and yeah, it would be great to have an expander and 20 1/4" ins & outs on the right panel but it’s just not practical. The CV out mod is adds great utility for those that want it.
Poly just isn’t practical on such a small keyboard and I don’t think it could be easily integrated due to the lack of controls on the front. And the menu structure is already fairly complex and difficult to easily/quickly navigate.
If you really want additional analog voices, drop the dough on a RME for some simply poly, or add one or more FreqBoxes, or wire up to your Voyager via CV or midi and tune to 3rds or fifths or whatever floats your boat.
One of the guys here dropped a series of pictures of how a sequencer might be implemented and it made all the sense in the world… great design and from an implementation perspective the notestack data structure of the arp could be reused (all that would need to be added was a ‘rest’ capability).
For those that want it, maybe a screened overlay that Moog could sell for $29.99 which could highlight the difference or multi-use of some of the controls but a dancing light ‘blip’ sequence is likely out of the question.
I bought my Phatty as NIB Tribute off eBay, expanded to the 2.20T and CV-out. With the add of the Arp, S+H, etc. this thing is twice the keyboard that it was when it was originally designed.
Other than that? A few fixes in the code and as far as I’m concerned this beast has reached it’s full potential.
I’m a Product Management for a technology company in my day job and I can tell you that the drafts and release schedule of systems often have a ‘targeted end-state’ that is never achievable. If Moog would have drew up a picture of the original Tribute with all that the platform offers today, I don’t think anybody would have believed that it were possible.
And here we are… great work whether or not they add this ‘one more feature’.
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just give me a three voice expander… or i’ll take a extra oscillator
I’m in the camp who’s still holding out for something like this:
or this:
A self-contained mini-synth would benefit Moog two-fold:
Provide a standalone, one-osc wonder to introduce new users to the world of Moog in a format that is easily digestible, and very affordable.
Provide an affordable expansion route to existing LP users who don’t really want to sell the LP and buy a Voyager just to get another osc and a lfo.
I’m talking a cute, MIDI/USB/CV-GATE ready Mighty Mouse synth with
1 osc variable from tri to skinny pulse (32’-2’ range), with coarse and fine tune.
1 lfo, probably only 1 ADSR env gen
2/4 pole LPF
maybe noise +s&h like on the cp-251
CV IN for PITCH, GATE, FILTER.
CV OUT for LFO, ENVELOPE.
AUDIO IN / AUDIO OUT.
Size? CP-251 style enclosure.
Cost? ~$500 if they can swing it.
…and yeah the LP could use a sequencer. I won’t get my hopes up, but if they employ legato glide with a seq, we’re talking Moog Acid Heaven.
I’d like aftertouch with additional modulation & a 3rd osc., while still keeping the price less than 1/2 that of a Voyager, if possible.
And I’m with CTRLSHFT - I want to see a Moog mini-modular “Dark Energy”-style synth, and maybe even a big brother to it, one similar to the Tom Oberheim SEM.
Voted for sequencer myself. Bonus points would be awarded if the sequence could be saved as presets.
However I’d love to be able to buy a voice expansion unit which would allow poly. A unit with four voices, like DSI’s Tetra, would be absolutely ideal.
If only Moog would have designed the board as a 2-piece (smaller form factor for re-use to squeeze into a 251 size box) I haven’t been in the LP but my sense is that the equiv of the Voyager analog board runs near full length and likely there is another controller board that the fancy pots plug into.
Looking at the Dark Energy or that MFB device, they are tailor made for a small form (ie. primarily knobs). It would be tough to squeeze a Phatty into that and if they went with the display (which I think is essential and center to the design), they would risk making something nearly unusable like many of Dave Smith’s desktop boxes.
Don’t get me wrong DSI does some great great work, it’s just that many of them are so complex, good luck playing live (the original Evolver comes to mind, tons of power but you need a PhD in it to brink up parameters for tweaking, etc).
Products designed at the start for either modular use, rack use, or embedded within the keyboard stand the best chance of being released in the various flavors (ie. re-use of parts very important to bottom line and viability in the market).
Hoping to see something new soon.
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I responded with the aftertouch w/ mod bus destination.
Especially with multi keyboard rigs, sometimes my other hand is busy playing chords or whatever to be able to reach up and hit a mod wheel. It’d be great to be able to introduce some extra modulation through aftertouch. Especially because of the limited number of knobs on the LP as compared to the Voyager.
Another thing that I think would be REALLY cool would be an envelope follower. I’d love to be able to sync my Phatty up to a drum loop without having to emply the Env Follower of my Freq Box
However, I would love to see a Dark Energy/SEM type of unit in a CP-251 or even 2x CP251 style box that could be rackmounted or tabletop. Maybe people could polychain them via MIDI to build a basic poly synth without going to buy a ton of Voyagers for la zillion bucks…
Finally, FWIW, while I could see the Evolver desktop as being pretty impenetrable, I find the Tetra to be pretty cool for most things. A Moog product like that would be really cool.
Sorry gang, just realized my last post was a bit OT, but I was responding to some of the other ideas being passed about…
I think if they employ the use of the smaller cp-251 sized knobs, or perhaps the even smaller moogerfooger “drive” knobs (not in all places), they could definitely make it happen. SMT goes a long way towards that goal.
I choose sequencer for lack of understanding what most of all the other mods do.
Although it is easy enough to midi sync to another sequencer so it isn’t really a big priority.
Come to think of it I’d actually want a way to do poly. (with out getting an RME)
I think a sequencer is pretty much a necessary given.
I just hope Amos et al. are willing & able to add a sequencer to the TE.
My idea for a poly expander/poly synth (that IMHO would me more commercially viable than a poly synth) is have a moogerfooger oscillator. This would address the issue of the polybeast being redundant pricewise with the voyager, and increase the voyager-phatty gap. (worse for us poor consumers, but better for Moog) . If you control them exclusively by cv, the voyager already has them, and it would encourage lil phatty owners like meself to get the cv upgrade. Also, they could offer adsr and vca moogerfoogers to allow true poly. The voyager has already 3 oscillators, 2 filters, 1 vca ( only need to buy 1 filter and 2 vca moogerfoogers for 3 note poly), while the phatty has 2 oscillators, 1 filter, 1 vca (1 oscilllator, 2 filters, and 2 vcas for 3 note poly). My $.02.
something else… extra LFO.. and an option to set a default depth other then zero!
a lot of my patches are only good when mod wheel is fully open, some standard modulation would be nice.. like putting LFO 2 at a fixed depth (user definable) and assign LFO1 to the modwheel.
Ow..and option to put velocity to amplitude as well.
But all of these can be ignored if they add my biggest wish.. a keyboard length 3 octave pressure sensitive ribbon controller!
Or just tune the LP properly.. even after tuning I have to adjust it slightly clockwise to have it in tune with the rest.
I think JWaltman brings up a very good point about the modulation!
I have to say that it seems many of the things people want - other than the sequencer - are found in the Voyager. I’d still want Moog to be able to sell Voyagers. Whatever they decide - if they decide to do anything, it’s important to bear in mind that the Phatty is an entry level synth for Moog. And, many of the things we’re talking about, myself included, are things that are possible by getting a CP-251 and/or a couple o’ Moogerfoogers. Which, to me, is also half of the fun 
Thanks 
I was thinking, maybe this is pretty easy to implement it this way.. an “invert mod depth” option.
So when the mod wheel is down, the LP acts if it’s fully up, and vice versa. Of course this is preset assignable.
This way it can even be easily done in a simple software update
dunno how useful it’d be (esp since lfo has saw up and down), but it’s a fun and probably very easily implementable idea.
I think you misunderstood me.. not the waveform but the amplitude depth should have an option to be reverse controlled by the mod mod..
Max amount when mod wheel is down. and the amount to zero when the mod wheel is turned entirely up.