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Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:44 pm
by Mr Arkadin
http://www.proaudiostar.com/moog-minitaur.html

Well there it is. Looks like a mini Taurus (natch) with added square wave and separate Decay/Release and audio input. No memories or arp from the looks of it. Could it be used as an expensive way to program a Taurus 3 via USB perhaps?
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•100% analogue audio signal path based on Taurus I/ Taurus III synthesisers.
•2 Taurus VCOs with variable Glide amount
•Sawtooth (original Taurus) or Square waveform selection for both VCOs
•External Audio Input
•Headphone out
•2 Mixer VCAs for setting the level of the VCOs
•1 VCF Moog/Taurus-style Ladder Filter w/ VC Resonance
•1 VCA
•Two Minimoog-style Envelope generators for modulating the VCF and VCA: ADSR with the Decay and Release segments controlled by the Decay control, and with the Release segment enabled or disabled with the Release On/Off switch
•1 MIDI-syncable triangle wave LFO for modulating VCF/VCOs
•DIN MIDI in and MIDI over USB out

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:02 pm
by thealien666
Not quite exactly what I expected. A tabletop Taurus Module ? Curious design choice. Unless rackmount ears can be added, à la Voyager RME ? But from the width of it, that would make for large ears ! :lol:

Well, at least the price seems acceptable...

I don't think it can be used as a Taurus 3 controller; there is no MIDI out and no CV out either.




Thanks for the info and link Mr Arkadin ! :D

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:06 pm
by c7sus
Looks like it may have the same footprint as a CP-251.

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:27 pm
by zorbas
Question...what would you send to the audio in/outs on this thing? Am I correct in understanding that you would need a MIDI device of some kind to actually play this thing?

Cheers!

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:28 pm
by Mr Arkadin
thealien666 wrote: I don't think it can be used as a Taurus 3 controller; there is no MIDI out and no CV out either.
Oh yeah, I didn't originally have that rear panel picture when I posted and didn't really look at it afterwards. Thought it would have MIDI In and Out. Maybe the USB is two-way, although you'd need a computer then I suppose.

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:39 pm
by ColorForm2113
very excited to see what the novamusik preorder price is

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 10:59 pm
by Voltor07
Audio IN?! Really? NOW they let us use that wonderful filter with other stuff! :x

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:22 pm
by analoghaze
Looks quite nice.

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:40 pm
by EricK
Well, I like the looks for sure. Having those inputs on the "top" and being slanted will make it as difficult to rack as a few banks of foogers are. The price looks nice and I like the knobs. It could be similar in size to the MP-201. Thanks for the Audio input. It looks like a tank.


Im curious to know if it still has the original Taurus architecture or if these Oscs are different (they might be with the square wave option) and if they have a broader range than the T3.

It is a great price, even more affordable than a Slim!

The Cluster Flux is listed on the Moog homepage at $599. Novamusik had a $519 preorder price on that unit.

They could go that low on the MiniTaur or you can bet at least 50 bucks off. Still, that is a HOT price!


I think they hit one out of the ballpark with this one. We will likely be hearing the Phattest Bass on the planet in A LOT more places now.

Now, go back to the Taurus Critical Listening test video with MC and think to yourselves.....Duophonic Bass.




AMOS:
PLEASE INTEGRATE THIS WITH EASY POLYCHAINING LIKE THE SLIMS AND THIS WILL BE THE SHOT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD!



Eric

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 11:56 pm
by EMwhite
A few points.

1. Thanks Mr. A. for finding the press on this. I knew it would be released to public today but strangely, Moog wasn't (and still hasn't) broken the news. As with Slim, some obscure outfit publishes the pics first!

2. I was relieved to see that I'm NOT going to be pressured into buying this. Since I already own T3, there isn't much for me... but then again to be honest, I can't stand getting down on the floor to stumble through the buttons and modes. Despite the power and the... um... power, T3 isn't exactly conducive to tweaking. I picked up a Novation SL25 MkII for all of the mapping required for tweaking but it's not the same.

3. I'm not bothered by the lack of presets, in fact, I'm with Eric, I like the looks of the knob arrangement. The hint of it being programable via Midi suggests that at a minimum, a sysex style 'push' of a preset is possible; and I really really like my Old School and Oberheim SEM as is.

4. I'm less inclined to want PolyChain a I am to have a simple built in function to accept a range or midi split, whereby you hold a key then press a Midi note which will mark the upper end of the range.

Finally, I would have loved to have patch points for the ins/outs. A pair of DB25s for future expansion would have been swell. Moog USED TO provide all of the ins/outs but these days, they do not. I like the openness of Tom's SEM and I think they could have easily wired in a .0156 header pin row to DB25.

Otherwise, it's a nice price, more affordable than SEM and DarkEnergy, offers a bit more on one hand but comes up short in some ways. Still tempted. Form factor wise, it would be handy if they could bolt up a kit to join this to a VX or CP for mounting; looks to be about the right size; hope that it is.

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:17 am
by joe_moog
EricK wrote:AMOS:
PLEASE INTEGRATE THIS WITH EASY POLYCHAINING LIKE THE SLIMS AND THIS WILL BE THE SHOT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD!
Given that it only has MIDI in, would this be possible? (I'm a MIDIdiot so I may be entirely off the mark here...)

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:29 am
by thealien666
zorbas wrote:Question...what would you send to the audio in/outs on this thing? Am I correct in understanding that you would need a MIDI device of some kind to actually play this thing?

Cheers!

Yes, you would play it with a MIDI keyboard controller or footboard controller, or MIDI sequencer, or finally an analog synth with CV and GATE out to play this thing.

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:51 am
by Lazerface
looks fantastic, cute little box of rumbles!
how does the Taurus osc and filter differ from the Phatty?

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 2:04 am
by timmy
i wasn't planning on buying one of these (as I already have a couple of T3s) but the more I look at unit and the price... i think i will. damn.

Re: Order your Minitaur now!

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 2:17 am
by LaxSlash1993
joe_moog wrote:
EricK wrote:AMOS:
PLEASE INTEGRATE THIS WITH EASY POLYCHAINING LIKE THE SLIMS AND THIS WILL BE THE SHOT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD!
Given that it only has MIDI in, would this be possible? (I'm a MIDIdiot so I may be entirely off the mark here...)
Yes. Maybe. What you would need is a box that accepted a MIDI in from a keyboard, then had a number of MIDI outs for each "voice" that you would want. Then it would have to seperate each note to a different MIDI out.