Hello,
I recently acquired unit #370 and I updated to 1.2.9 yesterday. It is a very nice synth! I have experienced a few of the Cutoff/MIDI bugs so it will be very good if these issues are all ironed out in this release.
I'm running Mac OS X 10.8.4 on a ~2008 17" MacBookPro3,1 2.4GHz 4GB system. Since I also own an Octatrack I'd already tried to run C6 to no avail. In my software environment, the application will try to launch but eventually exits without showing anything on screen other than a bouncing dock icon. When encountering the behavior while updating the Octatrack firmware, I moved on to the alternate installation method of placing their file on the CF card and letting the Octatrack apply the update via it's OS. I probably could have used some other Mac application to send the file to the Sub Phatty, but ended up using the Windows 7 netbook nearby. It would be nice if sending the update was eventually a native feature of Moog's own support applications.
One area that remains a bit confusing is regarding CV inputs. The manual states 0-5V, and there is a thread on this forum discussing how this deviates from the 'normal' Moog Modular/Mini input voltages, and how to use offsets, etc. But then there is another comment in a different thread, where an end user states that contacting Moog support reveals the unit supports voltages as high as +-12V without problems, and even higher voltages are current limited. I certainly appreciate this end user relating this information but it would also be nice if someone from Moog can comment officially to clear up some of this confusion and let us know more about how the CV's are handled internally in the Sub Phatty. Are negative voltages ok? Will all incoming voltages simply act as offsets to internal CV's generated through the control panel potentiometers and the micro controller?
On that note, the synth itself is pretty great. Personally I think a couple of additional software features would be of significant benefit:
•Routable CV inputs. Being able to patch to Volume, Pitch, and Cutoff is great. But I would also really really like to be able to patch to Mod Wheel (Modulation Bus Amount), LFO Speed, and Multidrive or Detune. Rerouting is available on the Minitaur so perhaps there is hope for this being implemented on the Sub Phatty!
•'Superpatches', 'Performance Sets', or "Patch per Channel' groups. Being able to address the synth over MIDI is wonderful and obviously one can send a MIDI command for patch increment or patch change. This can be more difficult to implement for live performance. In a multi keybed setup designed for live performance, it would be useful to have the ability to load a few Sub Phatty presets at once, with each patch responding to a different MIDI channel. Obviously the synth is still responding monophonically, but this would allow a performer to have different sounds immediately available at different physical locations, without the need to send patch change commands. High or Low note priority can be used to select an active channel/preset when receiving multiple MIDI inputs simultaneously. A setup like this is almost like having multiple synths from the Sub Phatty, and also makes it easier to layer the Sub Phatty audio output with other instruments. This would also be very useful for drum programming.
•Adjustable scales as available on the other Phatty's would be great. Alternate scales are great for introducing different sounds into compositions and performances.
•Arpeggiator is an obvious and repeated request from the user base. It seems reasonable to edit some of these functions in the software editor per patch. Panel combinations could also work with the feature; I think using the Octave Up and Down buttons in unison has been suggested for enabling or disabling the Arp. Holding the active Patch button could set the synth to accept keyboard input for note/scale/interval data.
•Tap Tempo! Perhaps holding the currently active preset button while tapping the Pitch Amount button?
•CV to Midi converter abilities would also be nice.
Thanks very much for the continued effort on supporting your products and users! Viva la Sub Phatty!
