Moog Music Forum

stiiiiiiive wrote:Yep, you showed this already, lucky man

I've read your blog post (thanks for sharing!) and left a piece of advice as a comment.

Ooops! Yeah - just realized that.

Actually, the potentiometer boards had to be shipped to DSI between the time the two posts were made. They have been a nightmare but now things are sorted out. The Main and Voice boards are also new. So.... technically, it's kind of a new Prophet 08

Got the comment. Thanks for the tip!

I see you quite active on the Phatty forum. Did you ever get a reply to the Phatty firmware update issue? I started a thread about the same issue before discovering yours. It's quite silent.

Unfortunately not. I tried several channels, namely the forum, the forum messages to identified MoogMusic members, and the private e-mails to them. No answer so far.

Justa as a side note, my brand new Prophet REV2 (16 voice) had to fixed under warranty, because of faulty...wait for it...encoders !
Both the left and right front panel PCBs had to be replaced entirely because the encoders were being less and less reliable, often skipping or jumping around in values.
So it seems that DSI didn't learn anything from the Prophet 08 encoder fiasco from a few years ago.

thealien666 wrote:Justa as a side note, my brand new Prophet REV2 (16 voice) had to fixed under warranty, because of faulty...wait for it...encoders !
Both the left and right front panel PCBs had to be replaced entirely because the encoders were being less and less reliable, often skipping or jumping around in values.
So it seems that DSI didn't learn anything from the Prophet 08 encoder fiasco from a few years ago.

Oh man, that's so sad to hear they didn't learn anything.

With The PE Conversion Kit I was able to get the everything working again. For me the whole bricking nightmare happened because I tried to upgrade the firmware to include the 'detent / non-detent' option. Mine was so old the firmware didn't include it. I did several things wrong;

- used a new, untested MIDI interface to do the update
- Used the DSI Beta firmware
- Didn't read the upgrade docs
- Did the upgrade steps out of order

Now that it's working again I'm totally loving it!

However, my 43 years old Minimoog D is still working flawlessly. Of course it doesn't have any minuscule, crappy ALPS digital encoders. Only heavy duty American-made, rotary switches, toggle switches and potentiometers.

Glad to hear that you've got everything back in working condition again !

Just got my Roland TR-8S on Friday but couldn't try it until Sunday due to performance schedule. Sunday was just too damned nice to stay inside so I took the little beast out to the pool.

What an amazing toy

I've only scratched the surface of what it can do but what I've seen so far is really impressive!

One drawback I never anticipated though; While the screen is readable in direct sunlight the rest of the lights, including the steps are not visible. This makes using it live during an open daylight performance near impossible.





Even with a crappy Behringer speaker the TR-8S sounded great. The natural reverb of the Beaver Valley made the sound so rich. I think I may have riled up the cows at the bottom of the hill though :hihi:

ha! nice!!

Nice System 15 and Duophonic 953 keyboard there !

Here is my last purchase that makes me happy:

SUB 37.

"Perform in Mono or Duo modes

• 37-note velocity sensitive keyboard w/ aftertouch

• 2 modulation busses w/ assignable source and destinations

• DAHDSR (Delay, Attack, Hold, Decay, Sustain, Release) looping envelopes with sync

• 256 Presets -16 banks of 16 patches

• Syncable Arpeggiator and Step Sequencer

• Classic Moog Ladder Filter with resonance, MultiDrive, and selectable filter slopes."



Also I want to buy soon VX-351 CV output expander. I will share the image of all my Moog setup when I buy everything I want.

the VX-351 is for the Voyager. try the CP-251.

Feeding the modular beast with the new Corsynth C110 filter module, a recreation of a classic LPF based on the SSM 2044 integrated circuit, but using the newly reissued SSI2144 IC. For those who may not know, the original SSM 2044 IC was used in the highly regarded Rev 1 Prophet 5 as well as other classic synths from E-Mu (Emulator 1, Drumulator, SP12 & SP1200), Korg (Polysix, Mono/Poly & Trident), Octave Plateau (Cat), RSF (Kobol), and Steiner (EVI). AFAIK, the 2044 was never used in any Moog synth.
An extreme close-up of the SSI2144 Integrated circuit on the printed circuit board. This is where the magic happens!
It's a really sweet sounding filter, and a great addition to the beast!

Congrats on your purchase GregAE.
The SSM2044 is indeed a sweet sounding filter. I remember it well from my Korg Mono/Poly.

GregAE wrote:For those who may not know, the original SSM 2044 IC was used in the highly regarded Rev 1 Prophet 5

The rev 1 and rev 2 Prophet-5 used the SSM2040 not the SSM 2044. After Sequential made the switch to CEM with the rev 3 P5, they never used any SSM ICs after that model.

Two major differences between 2040 and 2044: 2044 was fixed in lowpass and included a VCA for resonance CV control. The 2040 did not include a VCA for resonance CV control, but this was a blessing as the designer was free to design the resonance feedback path which does alter the sound. The 2040 also could be configured in modes other than lowpass.

as well as other classic synths from E-Mu (Emulator 1, Drumulator, SP12 & SP1200), Korg (Polysix, Mono/Poly & Trident), Octave Plateau (Cat), RSF (Kobol), and Steiner (EVI). AFAIK, the 2044 was never used in any Moog synth.!

Correcto, except the Cat used the 2040.

The SSM2044 is a good sounding VCF IC. Better than any CEM VCF IC (with the exception of the CEM3320 configured as 12dB mode in OBSX, OBXa, OB8).

SSM VCFs sounded great but can be damaged by ESD (static electricity). They were also sensitive to power sequencing, if the voltage rails didn't come up in synchrony the IC could be damaged. CEM ICs were more rugged.

It's a safe bet that the SSI2044 has better protection than its predecessors.

Moog's bread-n-butter is their ladder filter. They never needed any steenkin' SSM or CEM VCFs.

Having owned, and currently owning many synths, some with SSM some with CEM and some with Moog Ladder, I can safely say that the Moog outshines all of them as a lowpass filter, hands down.
The SSM2044 comes very close though.

The worst is probably the current DSI120/PA397/CEM3396. That is what's inside my DSI REV2, and I just wish it was any other filter than that one...
Luckily I also have a DSI OB6 which more than makes up for it, with its SEM clone.

Eagerly awaiting the rumorred Moog One polysynth...