Good point. Well taken, at my end.
At least, if it still contains patch memory storage, just make a 2-digit LED display.
re issue the source. It was pretty much perfect apart from lack of midi.
shall we make a petition or would that be pushing mr. moog to his limits?
That could probably push Dr. Moog to his limits. However, it’s better to make Bob aware of what his greatest admirers would like to see him do.
At least, it’d be known. There’s no real telling if he’s aware this board even exists.
http://www.rlmusic.co.uk/mals_site/extras_02.html
This is an interview from last year. He starts out by saying they are (or at least at the time) considering a basic monosynth. You can tell he really doesn’t want to make a new Taurus, which is fine by me.
And please don’t do a petition, thats just rude. A petition is a demand. Write them a nice email! I know they read them.
Well, when you put it that way, OKAY!
I’m personally glad that you’re up on this.
To be more accurate, he doesn’t want to reproduce the Taurus case and pedals because they would be very expensive. He did not however rule out reissuing a Taurus in some form, because when RL told him there were a line of people waiting for the vintage item that got Bob’s attention, as he wanted to know what asset of the Taurus appealed to his buyers. That asset was the sound of the pedals.
I got seven Moog synths here, and my Taurus pedals have the beefiest bass of any of them. I don’t have anything that sounds like those pedals. If only they had MIDI…
To MC,
Just go with a Kenton kit, man. If you could use the same kit that was made for the Source, you might be able to have 512 memory patches . . . if that kit includes a return MIDI signal.
I never really understood the draw of the Taurus, but I guess I’ve never used one. You know if they made a new Taurus it wouldn’t sound like the old ones. Even if it did people would say it doesn’t! It would probably sound similar to the Voyager.
Wouldn’t you rather have some sort of rackmount version of the Taurus, then you can buy your own MIDI pedals?
agreed on the beefy sound of those original Taurus pedals.
As a guitarist, I miss writing with them.. I’m not much of a keyboardist. so as a guitarist, you can play your 3 to 6 note chords, and change the chord and add more possibilities when you use your feet as well… this is very helpful when trying to write songs quickly.. it’s a much closer to improvising, than when I have to slowy work out chords on the piano.
I guarantee you, if they brought these out at next years NAMM show… and had a band work them in, ala YES or GENESIS … and these things kick in through a couple of cabinets with 18 inch speakers… Folks would remember right away, why they loved this low beefy sounding Moog Taurus pedals.
and Midi is essential… 
I’m curious what Keith Emerson’s done with those pedals. He was the only one to own a Moog Constilation system, which included the first version of the Taurus pedals. I’ve always imagined that Emerson made use of the pedals onstage, so Greg Lake could play guitar. That’s parallel to Geddy Lee’s techniques.
A new set of Taurus (Leo!) pedals doesn’t have to be all that expensive - the trick is you don’t have to recreate the Hammond-style organ pedals and cabinet. You can get better (and cheaper) results by simply mounting footswitch contacts in a keyboard format (white key, black key, etc.). Check out those eBay listings for a $39 MIDI pedal controller from Howard Cano … he shows an example. Put a simple Moog filter/oscillator/envelope in there, and you’ve got all you need.
I use MIDI pedals now, but to tell the truth, I would much rather have everything in one box, with an AC power cord and every function having one toeswitch. None of that “hit the program button, then tap in the program change number by striking the proper sequence of pedals …” Who has time for that when you are playing live?
And as far as the velocity sensitive organ-style pedals … don’t really need 'em.
It seems like a recreation of the Taurus Pedals wouldn’t really fit in with Moog’s current mindset…it’s a bit too novelty and I think the company wants to put things out that have a wider range and scope.
In my opinion, a portable monosynth in the $1000 range would absolutely rule the market. It would give everyone the opportunity to have something with the Moog logo on it, and it would ultimately serve as an amazing live synth. I don’t take my Voyager out of the studio because of its weight and worth, but something smaller and cheaper would be perfect to take out.
Two oscillators, memory, midi, cv/gate ins and outs…something basic but effective.
A step sequencer for the Moogerfooger line would be great as well.
Hey, has anybody gotten to use the MuRF, yet? Those demos from this site’s main page sound pretty impressive. It’s supposed to function kind of like a step sequencer, but with filter cut-offs. How does it seem to work “in the flesh?”
Kenton’s current product is not good enough for me. I don’t want to interface via v/hz signal. Kenton used to make an interface specifically designed for the Taurus that was much more reliable and more useful - discontinued long ago.
I may have to roll my own interface.
I can get behind that!!!
It’s great - it produces a wide variety of interesting and unusual filter effects. The filters can really sound really lush and wet and there is plenty of variation possible thanks to the envelope, rate, lfo and sliders. It can produce that stepping filter sound, but it is also capable of creating swept modulation effects and even textures that sound like granular synthesis…
Cool! Can the envelope controls be used to create funky reverse delay sounds?
Well, sort of. It’s not a delay so you there’s no regeneration in it, but when the envelope shape is inverse (i.e. long attack) and you set the sliders and rate right it does produce textures that I can best describe as stretched. if the source material is suitable it will sound (somewhat) reversed and certainly different from merely setting a long attack on the sound itself…
Since this has basically become yet another thread for the longing of Taurus pedals, I’ll bring this up. Sometimes, just for fun I do a kind of live on man band thing. I do this by playing an acoustic guitar (Yamaha FG-110) with my hands, controlling a drum machine (Siel MDP-40) with my left foot, and playing the bass pedals of my organ (Thomas Californian-263) with right foot. The problem is I can never take this show on the road because I can’t haul a full size electric organ anywhere. I was wondering if A) There is some sort of SIMPLE foot-bass system that can be purchased B) Or if thats not available, some sort of SIMPLE bass-brain that can be controlled via midi C) Or if that isn’t available, if there is some sort of way to buy a cheap, thrift-store organ and remove only the parts that make up the bass and output section.
I hope you guys can help…maybe this should have been it’s own thread…