Hello guys!
I just discovered the Moog with Motion City Soundtrack and I really like the sound of this instrument. So now I want some informations and advices about Moog: what kind of product I have to buy (from the keyboard to maybe a cab, tell me everything!!!).
Jesse Johnson from MCS is using a Realistic, can you tell me more about this instrument?
Thanx!!! Rom
This is the very source of cheap Moog bass! It is a lot like the strap-on Moog Liberation in its design and architecture and also looks and sounds very much like the Moog Rogue. The MG-1 was built by Moog for Realistic (Radio Shack), and was designed specifically for the home market. Very basic and easy to use, this is a nice cheap way to get your hands on Moog sounds!
The MG-1 is a 2-VCO monophonic/polyphonic analog synth with a genuine 24dB/oct Moog filter, however the overall sound is thin. On the MG-1, the VCOs are referred to as ‘Tone Generators’. It can produce sawtooth, square and pulse waveforms, and the oscillators are detunable and syncable. A simple ASR (attack, sustain, release) envelope called ‘Contour’ can be applied to both the amp and the filter. The LFO section provides triangle or square wave patterns as well as Sample-and-Hold. Additionally there is a simple Ring-Mod effect called ‘Bell’.
Unique to the MG-1 is a slider on the far right side of the keyboard which controls the volume of a simple 10-voice polyphonic organ sound. This feature makes it at least a little more versatile than the Rogue. There are RCA inputs and outputs (the input is routed straight to the output for playing along with music from your stereo system) but no external speakers as in most other home marketed synthesizers. There is also no sign of Midi or patch memory on the MG-1. It is used by Peter Gabriel, 808 State, Remy Shand, and KMFDM.
*from wwww.vintagesynth.com (audio samples to be found there)
Basically, it’s a synth invented by the infamous Dr. Robert Moog, for the use of Realistic (Radio Shack). Not a bad little synth. Beginners love it. For a little more worthwhile investment, you might shoot for the Moog Rogue, but of course its more expensive.
When you talk about a system do you want personal system, or a system for use with a band? For use by yourself, the synth and a pair of decent headphones will be enough. For playing with a band you will need to the two parts of an amplification system: Amplifier, Speakers. If you don’t need to play really loud, you could easily get these in a bass, or keyboard combo amp (amp and speaker cabinet built together). DO NOT USE A GUITAR AMP. You can pick a relatively nice old bass amp for about $100-$250 depending on quality and where you live. Check some consignment shops, and then try ebay, compare and contrast. Have fun.
-Tyler2000-
Thanx Tyler2000! Now I have to find it! It cost 300 euros (around 350$) here but it’s very hard to find it… Thanx again!
zzz, rom
Your Welcome
-Tyler2000-
Ah, but was it?
Does it not hail from the Prodigy-era of moogs designed by other people?
HRx
I’m pretty sure it was. I wouldn’t have much justification as a moog anything if wasn’t designed by bob AND wasn’t manufactured by Moog. But I’m usually wrong about everything.
-Tyler2000-
Ah…
But the Prodigy wasn’t designed by the Good Dr.Moog you see! Nor was the Sonic Six in its entirity.
Just guessing that neither were the MG-1 and Rogue.
HRx
The Prodigy, Sonic Six, MG-1, Rouge, Liberation, Micro, Multi, Memory, Poly and Source were all made after Dr. Bob left the company. He didn’t design any of them. The Crumar Spirt is technically more “Moog” than any of them.
Moog Music manufactured the MG-1, but Bob did not design it. It was designed by Dave Luce, being a cheaper derivative of the Liberation. Paul Schreiber of MOTM worked for Tandy at the time when Dr. Luce demo’d the MG-1 to Tandy, he was there for the demo.
During the Norlin/Moog Music era Bob did very little synth design. The 921 VCO modules, Satellite, and Minitmoog were Bob’s design while Micromoog/Multimoog was largely Jim Scott and Polymoog/Taurus I was Dave Luce. Bob also designed the Synamp and the rackmount signal processors (para EQ, graphic EQ, phaser, vocoder, string filter). Norlin lured him away from synths and had him design Lab Series guitar amps, Maestro effects pedals, Gibson RD Artist electronics, and other non-synth designs. Bob left Moog Music in 1977 after enduring four years of unhappy work with Norlin.
The MG-1 appeared in Radio Shack catalog five years (1982) after Bob departed Moog Music. I remember the year well because I was in college at the time. The salespeople at RS had no clue how to work the thing. When I was in the store I used to set up a wild effects patch and just left it like that. The silliest plug of all time had to be Elton John posing with an MG-1 in the catalog (he never even used it, they just paid him to pose for the picture), I wished I had saved that catalog.
Crumar what !!?
ugh!!
By the time Bob left Moog Music the sonic six, micromoog, multimoog, satellite, minitmoog, minimoog, taurus, and polymoog were in the catalog. Bob designed the 921 VCO module, satellite, minitmoog, minimoog, and the aftertouch in the multimoog was clearly the work of Bob’s PhD experience. Bob also designed the Synamp and the signal processors before he left.
All three of the Minimoog oscillator boards were Bob’s design. The 3046 based VCO became the core for the prodigy, mg-1. rogue, and source after Bob left, and the filter in succeeding synths has changed little from Bob’s design.
So Bob helped develop the Lab Series guitar amp? Those were outstanding amps. BB King used one (or still might) for many years even after they were no longer in production.
Its actually a cool synth, lots of cool features. Arpeggiator, XY controller, ring mod, HP, BP, LP filters, extrenal input …
What?
The Crumar Spurt?
Ah…I meant the Crummy Sprite…or was it the Crying Squirt? I’ve had a few of both of those 
The Sonic Six, if I’m not mistaken, was designed by Bill Waytena and the Musonics Clan, after the Sonic Five. However, Bob was still at Moog when it was released, and often toted it with him as a demonstration.
Bill Waytena couldn’t change a light bulb, it was Gene Zumchak who designed the Sonic Five. Gene worked at RA Moog in Trumansburg; he and Bob didn’t get along too well so Gene left Moog to go design the Sonic Five for Bill Waytena who was starting Musonics.
The Sonic Five came out and wasn’t selling at all, so Waytena bought RA Moog when they were having financial trouble and changed the company to Moog-Musonics, bringing Bob and Gene back together again for a short period before Gene was given his walking papers again.
Mind you, Gene was pushing for a portable synth at RA Moog and Bob didn’t believe in the idea at all. That’s why the Sonic Five came about. Moog-Musonics was changed to Moog Music and the S-five evolved into the Sonic Six using a suitcase design originally proposed for the Minimoog. All the S-Fives and early S-Six used a diode ladder filter before they changed it to the Moog transistor ladder filter.
The point I was responding to was that the Sonic Six was designed after Bob left the company, which was not true. My point about the Sonic Five was that it was from Waytena’s company, not meaning to suggest he was the specific designer (whom I didn’t know was the Gene Zumchak everyone seems so angrily passionate about).