A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Polyphonic Analog Synthesizer
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jfish930
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Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2021 8:45 am

A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by jfish930 » Sat Aug 21, 2021 8:55 am

Hello everyone,

Just joined! I am just about ready to pull the trigger and purchase the Moog One 16 next week; unfortunately for me to try one first involves a 10 hour RT drive, so that isn’t going to happen. I advised the salesperson ahead of time that there’s a chance I may return it and he said that’s fine not a problem. I wanted to be upfront about that just in case.

I look at the Moog One as a “lifetime synth” ; one in which I will spend my life (pleasurably) learning new things.

So, a couple of my concerns: Midi. I read a couple of places that midi to a daw or another keyboard can be problematic. I haven’t used a DAW before and that is one of my goals (will start by connecting and using my Fantom 8 first). So, is this a valid concern? My goal is to compose (and also have fun getting lost in sound creation)

My second concern is that I read one has to coax sounds from it; that it won’t sound great right out of the box. I do have knowledge of general synthesis and usually learn a synth by deconstructing presets; but is that a valid concern? I was planning on purchasing the Geosynth patches to get me started, but of course one doesn’t buy a Moog to use existing patches.

I most likely will make the purchase and try it for myself since I have nothing to lose. My choices have been narrowed down to the Moog or a Prophet 10.

Thanks everyone!

JFish

benabbiana
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2021 1:51 am

Re: A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by benabbiana » Mon Jan 24, 2022 2:19 am

The midi is a real problem. No doubt. People aren’t making this stuff up.

As far as the tone goes, it’s incredible. If you can’t get amazing sounds out of this, it’s not the Moog One’s fault. It can do clean and bright and straight to the point that it’s almost sterile. It can do warbled and munted like it’s taken lots and lots of LSD. The sky is the limit when you master the LFO behaviour.

The question I would put to myself is this: would I buy a phenomenally expensive synth that not only struggles to work well, would I buy it from a company that has basically left users with major issues, no apology, radio silence on bug fixes and a delay on those fixes now that is now measured in years?

I love Moog but they’ve been absolutely terrible in their customer service here.

Matthias Adloff
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2020 3:40 pm

Re: A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by Matthias Adloff » Sat Feb 05, 2022 9:12 am

Have you decided what to buy?
I'm late to the party, but between Prophet-10 and Moog One (16), there is no decision. I own and love both, but the Moog is literally lightyears ahead of the Prophet. It can do at least 1.000.000 things more. The only advantage of the Prophet 10 is that your ears really glue to the oscillators, where the Moog always presents himself a little bit more distanced.
But if you can live with only one voice, the Pro3 is leaving the Prophet 10 in the dust when it comes to directness... I admit, that wasn't the topic :D

For MIDI, it works quite well here. No, it works reliably, unless you use arp or seq or have too much going on in the MOD matrix on more than 1 synth engine. It seems the CPU is not powerful enough to handle the Moog completely. That's sad, yes, but not a bummer IMHO.

Last but not least, I wouldn't subscribe to the view that it doesn't come with good presets. This may have changed over time (I got mine in July 20), but today it comes with a lot of very cool presets. Just the bread&butter stuff is missing - but you can get these from GEOSynths and will never look back.

No no no, the Moog One 16 is the best existing poly synth as of 2022.

benabbiana
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2021 1:51 am

Re: A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by benabbiana » Mon Apr 11, 2022 5:06 pm

jfish930 wrote: Sat Aug 21, 2021 8:55 am Hello everyone,

Just joined! I am just about ready to pull the trigger and purchase the Moog One 16 next week; unfortunately for me to try one first involves a 10 hour RT drive, so that isn’t going to happen. I advised the salesperson ahead of time that there’s a chance I may return it and he said that’s fine not a problem. I wanted to be upfront about that just in case.

I look at the Moog One as a “lifetime synth” ; one in which I will spend my life (pleasurably) learning new things.

So, a couple of my concerns: Midi. I read a couple of places that midi to a daw or another keyboard can be problematic. I haven’t used a DAW before and that is one of my goals (will start by connecting and using my Fantom 8 first). So, is this a valid concern? My goal is to compose (and also have fun getting lost in sound creation)

My second concern is that I read one has to coax sounds from it; that it won’t sound great right out of the box. I do have knowledge of general synthesis and usually learn a synth by deconstructing presets; but is that a valid concern? I was planning on purchasing the Geosynth patches to get me started, but of course one doesn’t buy a Moog to use existing patches.

I most likely will make the purchase and try it for myself since I have nothing to lose. My choices have been narrowed down to the Moog or a Prophet 10.

Thanks everyone!

JFish

My experience is that my One doesn't synch with Pro Tools when sending clock data from Pro Tools to the One. It really blows as it's the main reason I bought it. I have no idea why it's happening and I've tried everything Moog suggested. Weird times.

Oxix52
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Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:03 pm

Re: A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by Oxix52 » Wed Apr 13, 2022 11:33 am

I have not had any problems clocking the Moog One from the DAW. As long as midi clock is being sent, it works fine. The only thing is that I have to start the sequencer on the Moog One first before hitting play on the DAW. But this is only at first. After the One gets the clock, it follows the start/stop as expected. I have done this in Ableton Live, Pro Tools, and Logic Pro.

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audiosampling
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Re: A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by audiosampling » Fri Apr 15, 2022 5:27 am

Oxix52 wrote: Wed Apr 13, 2022 11:33 am As long as midi clock is being sent, it works fine.
Not exactly. At first glance, it might. But once you are picky to details, sync is flawed. Try a dotted eight delay setting, synced to midi. Timing is off by 30ms or so, on every repeat. It makes synced delays blurry and unusable for professional use.

Oxix52
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:03 pm

Re: A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by Oxix52 » Fri Apr 15, 2022 6:23 pm

Yeah, I see what you mean about the delays. Maybe it's mainly a problem with synchronizing effects. The sequencer itself and midi synced LFOs seem to sync ok here.

taichber
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Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:17 am

Re: A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by taichber » Sat Apr 23, 2022 1:20 pm

I had the Moog One in 12/2020. I was happy with the sound but too many other issues (detuned in lower octaves, bugs). Sent it back within return period and bought a Prophet 10. Super happy with the P10.

I'm still interested in the One but I'm waiting until there is a new firmware release.
If there will be no new release I won't buy one. The last firmware update was almost 2 years ago!

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AlakaLazlo
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Re: A few concerns before I buy the Moog One

Post by AlakaLazlo » Tue Apr 26, 2022 5:33 pm

I got mine in the original batch. As much as I like the sound and the UI, if I knew then what I know now - how the promised fixes would take years (if ever); that there would be regular updates that stopped happening a few months in; that certain advertised features would actually work when they don't; and even that basic external midi control would function properly when it doesn't - I would not have spent the money on it. I would absolutely not buy one today unless and until a proper firmware update happens that fixes a large majority of the bugs. Damn shame.. this thing has so much potential. :evil:
Moog IIP, One 16V and MiniMoog, DotCom/FSFX/Moon/STG 110, Cubase 12Pro, Ableton Live 10/64, RME UFX+, 2xMR816, MioXL, Expressionist, Cirklon, Analog Rytm Mk II, Axon AX50, Customized Variax JTV69s (the Hexstainocaster), Strat, Godin ACS Slim, Helix.

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