Moog Music Forum

EMwhite, I'd love to see Moog move into the Synthesizer.com, 5U (MU) direction but I'll say that no person at Moog actually owns a modular and quite frankly doesn't care about them especially from a manufacturing stand point. It's a disappointing aspect but ultimately a big reason why MakeNoise exists.

EMwhite's comment of "Squeeze more into each module" prompted me to share a project that I've been doing for our very own Voltor.



This is a one-off.
A "throw together" poutpourri of many different functions in one.
The front panel is a Synthesizers.com.
In the back it has custom boards of my own design for the following:

White noise

Two LFOS (each with square and triangle)

A reversible attenuator (can invert any signal)

VCA

It also has an original Minimoog board #2 for the additional functions:

Two envelopes (blame Voltor for the "Do not press" label

Glide

Sample and hold

All outputs are buffered and short-proof, many with LEDs indicating their output voltages.
There's no AC coupling on the VCA so it's good for modulation and there's extremely low DC offset all around.

The LFOs have different (overlapping) ranges too, with one going very slow and the other a more normal range.

The only big compromise is that the glide is hardwired to the S/H output.
That's how it is in a Mini tho.

So, it's not terribly pretty, but it does provide a little Minimoog goodness along with some other often needed functions.
Saves space.

Kevin Lightner wrote:/snippity/
So, it's not terribly pretty...

Yes it is!

Voltor07 wrote:

Kevin Lightner wrote:/snippity/
So, it's not terribly pretty...

Yes it is!

Everyone thinks their child is special.

Kevin Lightner wrote:

Voltor07 wrote:

Kevin Lightner wrote:/snippity/
So, it's not terribly pretty...

Yes it is!

Everyone thinks their child is special.

You're the one who put all the work into it. I just gave you money and told you what I wanted. Technically, this is YOUR child.

MY child is the cabinet it's going into.

That module looks awesome.

If there were no future plans for labeling towards the top Id probably request a mult also, since it seems to have every other useful module already built into it.

So with a Minimoog clone filter and genuine MM envelopes, it should sound pretty authentic, yes?

Eric

I agree that Voltor's modular should have some mults, but I'm not sure they could fit in this module.
There's a lot of stuff behind the panel.



Btw, those boards in the middle are Moog buffer boards as used in Minimoog and MemoryMoog+ synths.
I found them easy to modify into other things.
Made extras too, so have some completed spare VCAs, LFOs and Rev Attns.

Kevin Lightner wrote:I agree that Voltor's modular should have some mults, but I'm not sure they could fit in this module.
There's a lot of stuff behind the panel.



Btw, those boards in the middle are Moog buffer boards as used in Minimoog and MemoryMoog+ synths.
I found them easy to modify into other things.
Made extras too, so have some completed spare VCAs, LFOs and Rev Attns.

I'm going to buy a mult module from Synths.com. I can hardly wait to get this module! It looks great so far!

EricK wrote:That module looks awesome.

/snip/So with a Minimoog clone filter and genuine MM envelopes, it should sound pretty authentic, yes?

Eric

That was my original intent, to have a modular capable of authentic Minimoog sounds. However, this one module wil give me a whole lot of possibilities that no Mini ever could produce. The functionality will be incredible! It saves me the purchase of two oscillators, and frees up the third one that will be in my system. So, with this module alone, I'll have one VCA, two separate LFO's with simultaneous waveform outputs, one of which can double as a basic audio osc; and two envelope generators via the Mini envs, not to mention a reverse attenuator. Not bad functionality for $1200.

Of course, I'll be buying Roger's VCA, two ADSR's, mults, 8 channel mixer, three oscs, three four channel mixers, 3 osc aids, and a couple other modules of his...I'll have a pretty good starter system.

Kevin Lightner wrote:
The only big compromise is that the glide is hardwired to the S/H output.
That's how it is in a Mini tho.

?

unfiltered37 wrote:?

I remember this conversation. I reluctantly bowed to reason. I wanted as many features as possible not hard-wired so that I could get the most potential out of each component of the circuitry. Sadly, the S&H and glide are not separate from each other, so I will still need an S&H module and slew limiter when I build my modular system, as there's huge limits to what one can do with these two components attached.

I was just wondering why or where there is S+H on the minimoog.

The sample and hold on a Minimoog is for holding the keyboard CV after a key is released.
It uses a gate to initiate the hold function.
The glide circuit is part of this same circuit.
While I know that a triggered glide isn't a standard module or function, it can still do some neat effects.
Given a keyboard's CV and gate, it should act pretty much like a normal glide.
If noise is fed into it and a clock provided from one of the LFOs, the glide simply acts like slew limiter or lag and slows things down.
If no glide is turned up, it's pretty much like a standard sample and hold.

As for using an LFO as an audio oscillator, I suppose one could, but it would still be a very low frequency and have no voltage control.
These LFOs are better suited for vibrato, tremolo and general use (PWM, filter sweeps, clocks, etc.)

The env and glide curves should definitely sound like a Mini.
Voltor also has a Minimoog filter module that should help.

Voltor,
You seem to be pretty handy with a soldering iron, why buy mults when you can make them?

Or why not get this instead?

EricK wrote:Voltor,
You seem to be pretty handy with a soldering iron, why buy mults when you can make them?

Or why not get this instead?

I can make mults, no problem. I have a box of jacks, and I could even make a switched pair like Roger has on his panel. The thing is, I would have to buy a blank panel from Roger anyway, so why not just spend the $20 more for a completed module? The MOTM mults are a bit overpriced, IMO.