Opus 3 - a possible future purchase

[Boeing 737-400]

The Prophet-5 looks familiar for some reason.

[mee3d]

Adam

I think Richard sold my prophet 5 rev3.1 straight away . . . I think you got someone elses - is yours a rev3.1?

On the Prophet label abover the keyboard (now a sticker and not a metal plaque), is there a small verticle scratch to the sticker in the lower left corner? and on the mod/pitch wheel panel is there a rubber grommit cover in the centre abover the wheels?

If so you have my old prophet!

Mal

[gd]

I am curious about your Chroma, I haven't heard one of those in over a decade. I remember being told that they were great for bass lines but not for high notes, and also remember them weighing a ton but sounding very cool.

[Boeing 737-400]

Adam

I think Richard sold my prophet 5 rev3.1 straight away . . . I think you got someone elses - is yours a rev3.1?

On the Prophet label abover the keyboard (now a sticker and not a metal plaque), is there a small verticle scratch to the sticker in the lower left corner? and on the mod/pitch wheel panel is there a rubber grommit cover in the centre abover the wheels?

If so you have my old prophet!

Mal

I believe mine is a rev3.2, but I don't have it in front of me, I'm still holding it on a deposit. I have a picture of it in my avatar, which my friend took with his camera phone, from what I can remember it had a metal Prophet-5 plaque so I definately don't have yours. It just looks similar.

[mee3d]

Adam

Don't you think it's a little 'off' to have a picture of a Sequential Circuits Inc. Prophet 5 in your profile (it being the one keyboard moog could not fight off with their polymoog or even memorymoog) on THE Moog forum?

Mal

[Boeing 737-400]

I suppose its not right, but I can't find anything else that will fit there.

[mee3d]

gd

It's going to be some while before i get to hear my Chroma but what i remember of them (I sold my last one in 1991) is that they are not great in the bass range . . . being an arp there is a tendency to be slightly thinner . . . although I remember getting to a point where I could program up an OK bass patch, which was some work given the amount of parameters and veriations . . . and the "one slider does all" editing approach (unlike other poly's of the time the Chroma's internal signal path is not fixed (like VCO to VCF to VCA etc) and can be re-arranged almost like a modular system allowing for some great modulation and FM like klang.

I do remember a very cutting sound which on it's own might be perceived as thin but put in a mix with other analogs it actually sounds great (like the Yamaha CS range does), cut right through without EQ, great for solos and arpegios etc.

The other parameter which is weird, which I had forgotten about and recently read again is that you can apply Pulse Code Modulation to the sawtooth wave!

It's a big beast though and a bit flakey (only works well at 18 degrees!), we'll see how it goes (or not!).

Mal

[gd]

Hopefully it will work great when it comes back. I am hoping to get an Opus 3 and either a Multimoog or Source within the next month or so, I just find that nothing can beat a Moog for that fat ballsey in your face sound.

Well I finally got a Source tonight, should arrive in a week.

[mee3d]

I had a Source for 5 years during the late 80's . . . what a great keyboard it is. I have been thinking about getting one again but prices here in the UK are quite steep . . as they are hard to find. Perfect gigging moog IMHO.

Strikes me that moog should use the Source as a model for a new lower cost mono.

Mal

[stiiiiiiive]

Hey Mooguys.

Zombifying this thread to get some details about how the Opus 3 works. yep, ten years later

About the “mixer”: if I understood correctly, the three coloured knobs do not set the volume for strings/organ/brass sections but for chorus-output/organ-dry-output/filter-output. What comes out in the chorus and filter outputs then relies on the two faders between sections. Am I right?

About the Articulator: what is the difference about the modes? There was an explanation earlier in this thread but it’s one the technical side, not on the musical one. What I want to know is: is there a attack-release mode vs. an attack-decay mode? Or put another way: can the Opus 3 play some piano-like shaped sounds?
Now I guess the trick would be to use the filter envelope, but I want to know anyway

More globally, I’m considering this little guy as a main keyboard for a psyche-garage rock band: organs + synths, stereo for routing into two different pedal boards… sounds good to me. Any thoughs?

Thanks

[ebg31]

Go for it.

[stiiiiiiive]

Oh come on, those questions are supposed to be kind of a time buffer before I crack... and you only tell me "go for it" without any other answer???
My banker hates you!!

[thealien666]

My best friend had one back in the eighties and, if I remember right, we were surprised at the versatility and sound quality of this Moog. I don't remember exactly how it operates, but I remember that it could do organs, strings and pads, and simili-piano. The best feature was, of course, the ladder filter.

But be aware that is uses divide down technology and that some of those chips (the top octave generator in particular) are prone to failure with time, and not always easy to find an exact replacement.
So, like any other synth, try-before-you-buy is recommended, if possible.

[EMwhite]

The two modes are essentially the diff between legato and retrig, except without any respect paid to the fact that you are holding a key and playing legato style. But the Brass section deals with this differently than the String section, etc.

It's really confusing to express in text, or maybe something is wrong with Opus but I always remember it behaving in quite an unusual manner.

Think about the PolyMoog and the fact that it has a VCA per key (madness, I know) Well the Opus does not but you can ride a gate on each key that follows the standard amplitude envelope so think Paraphonic and what you might know about it. In fact, the Opus, in Brass mode is just that except that instead of using 2 OSCs with one VCA and one Filter, it's got the equiv of a single OSC (based on my knowledge) with one Low Pass filter, a gating mechanism on each key and a single amplitude envelope which is essentially Attack / Release.

To make matters more confusing, the Filter envelope, sorry, Contour, has an Attack, Decay and Sustain with a switch for "Final Release" that essentially re-uses the Release I mentioned above.

It gets crazier because in addition to the Cutoff Frequency (CF) and Resonance (Emphasis), there is the Amount which is complemented by the LFO to Filter CF which has a 'delay' and delay time slider plus amount and rate.

Then, yes, there is the Chorus which can be on String section and/or organ section depending on the horizontal mix slider which is between those two sections; likewise, the Brass and Organ mixes to the Filter.

It gets crazier and crazier; I think Herb might have specified that they Engineers do 'a' and they came back and said how about 'b' and being the 70's and all, he might have said... "groovy" (it was released in 1980).

There are no good YouTube demos of the end to end, however there are a few decent videos of people playing them. My sliders are crap, have been since I got this and I'm on a waiting list (5 mos) to have it refurbished.

But having said that I highly recommend it because a) it's a great string machine because it has a nice chorus and b) the brass section with the filter, etc. is great. I paid too much ($600) for mine with grand plans to build a new case for it and completely refurbish it. I opened it up and cleaned out all of the foam padding crud and lubricated the sliders then recapped the power section; Finally I put some Moog style knobs and some MuRF slider caps across the board but it really needs a full tune-up.

Hope this helps. If you want to see/hear something specific, let me know and I'll do a quick YouTube and post it privately and send you the link but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so won't dare post anything just to be told I'm a douche or whatever. (I assure you, I am not

[thealien666]

Oooooh yes, I had forgotten about that dreaded foam issue ! Anyone considering buying an Opus 3, as well as any other Moog with sliders from that era i.e. The Rogue, (Realistic) MG-1, Liberation, should make sure the sliders foam dust cover has been removed/replaced. Otherwise, make a very low offer for it 'cause you'll surely spend hours working on that if it hasn't.

Thanks for reminding us EMwhite.