Taurus 1/Taurus 3 shootout

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peterkadar
Posts: 327
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:04 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Taurus 1/Taurus 3 shootout

Post by peterkadar » Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:30 pm

Hi everyone,

Recently, I had the chance to hang out at a buddy's house where he had a recently serviced Taurus 1. I lent him my T-3's over the holidays so he could make a comparison. The results were interesting.

He told me that the T1's seemed to be darker and have more instability and character.

I was worried that my T3's were inferior in some way. After I got back into town, I decided to pay him a visit, have a beer, and see for myself.

It turns out that he didn't have the parameters set up identically on the two instruments. He's a bass player without much experience with synths. Specifically, he had the filter slider down quite a bit on the originals, which explained much of the difference in tone. Once I had them set up identically, there was no difference in sound between the two, except for the following:

1) The noise floor was MUCH HIGHER on the vintage T1's.
2) The T1's also had a slightly quieter output (about 2-3dB difference) compared to the T3. We made sure to carefully adjust levels on the mixer accordingly.
3) The beat frequency would change on the T1's. Sometimes the beating would be large, sometimes, it'd be almost a perfect unison. I would attribute this to be the result of either aging components, or less stable VCO's.
4) The tuning in general was more unstable on the T1's.

I'd say these differences do not contribute any positive desirabilty to the T1's, for either live or (especially) studio purposes.

I'd have to chase the beat frequency of the T1 to match it on the T3, but once that was done, there was no difference between them at all. When you consider the higher price and aging components of the original, coupled with the progammability, MIDI, USB, arpeggiator, superior look, feel, and construction of the newer model, there is no doubt in my mind that Taurus 3's are the way to go.

For the sake of completeness, I feel inclined to describe the gear and monitoring environment:

Taurus 1 - recently serviced
Taurus 3 - #218
Behringer mixer - I know, a POS, but they're not too bad as long as you gain stage correctly and never touch the EQ. At least they were both going through it and being coloured in the same way, if at all.
Matching speaker cables.
Mark Audio Speakers (I don't know which ones, but they're really hi quality powered speakers)
Mark Bass 2x12 Cabinet (my bass player friend is a rep for Mark Audio - he's got some really good bass & audio gear at his disposal)

The studio was a large room with high celings. The wall opposite the speakers is a glass surface, but at least it isn't parallel. In short, we felt we had a reasonably consistent, if not acoustically pure listening environment. It wasn't as pure as a good recording studio, but it was much better than any live venue of similar size you'd be likely to find yourself in.

In closing, I have to congratulate Moog, and give them my thanks for releasing such a great update to an iconic instrument. The enhancements in no way detract from the sound that made the original so loved and sought after. Taurus 3 owners can rest easy knowing that they made the best choice possible. Those on the fence - like my bass player friend - can safely purchase the new instrument and not have to worry that they are missing out on something magical by not getting the original. Anyone who owns or purchases a Taurus 3 is getting everything that was great about the Taurus 1, without all the noise, and maintenance issues associated with a 30 year old instrument.

Happy stomping,

Peter K.

Toronto
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Taurus Shootout Jan 2011 #3.jpg

HB3
Posts: 446
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:36 am

Re: Taurus 1/Taurus 3 shootout

Post by HB3 » Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:47 am

Hey, thanks. I'm surprised the T3 seems smaller than the T1.

sunny pedaal
Posts: 544
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 2:42 pm
Location: netherlands

Re: Taurus 1/Taurus 3 shootout

Post by sunny pedaal » Wed Jan 26, 2011 11:43 am

i've been playing synth's for over 32 years now and my first impression on the t3 was :
yes this is a very good sounding synth , special, with a lot of body.
so...
i'm not so surprised that the t3 is as good as it's precender.

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