Moog Music Forum

Hey Y'all-
On my MG-1, if you have multiple keys depressed, the oscillators create the tone of the HIGHEST note keyed. The opposite is true on my Prodigy. Now, the polyphonic section on the MG-1 sounds Pretty nice when blended with the monophonic oscillators, but when you play a chord the monophonic oscillators play the highest tone you have keyed, which usually is not the chord root and would sound better being carried from the bottom anyway. Can the MG-1 be "easily" modified to choose the low note over the high? Has this question been asked thousands of times already? Thanks in advance, etc.........

Hmm that's strange, I thought all moogs had low note priority by default. It seems like it would make sense especially for the mg-1. Sorry I can't give you a solution, hopefully some one else can, I'm curious to know also

Not possible, sorry to say. The MG-1 is the ONLY "monophonic" Moog to have the highest note priority, precisely because of the way gate (trigger) signals are extracted from the polyphonic section.

When I had my MG-1 for many years, I used to play a lot of inverted chords in order to have the monophonic note play the root of the chords.

The multi-trigger mod on this page will also give you an MG-1 with low-note priority. It's a rather complex mod requiring you to build a piggyback circuit and cut traces on the PCB board. Execute at your own risk.

Portamental wrote:The multi-trigger mod on this page will also give you an MG-1 with low-note priority. It's a rather complex mod requiring you to build a piggyback circuit and cut traces on the PCB board. Execute at your own risk.

Cool! I didn't know about that mod. Thanks for pointing it out!

But it is rather involved, AND it will result in "last note" priority. So the OP would still have to make sure he plays the root note of a chord last, in order to get the result he wants, even with this multi-triggering circuit...

thealien666 wrote:But it is rather involved, AND it will result in "last note" priority. So the OP would still have to make sure he plays the root note of a chord last, in order to get the result he wants, even with this multi-triggering circuit...

Apparently not. According to Matrixsynth about an MG-1 with this mod that sold last month, it simply restores low-note priority.

"Low note priority". I'm learnin' stuff already!

I play alot of inverted chords, too...........at least my son the acm@uco student told me that's what I was doing. I'll have my theremin tech look at the mod, and see how it shakes out. Thank all of you!!

The modders say low-note. I have an older MG-1 with no power supply and a few missing parts, in dire need of TLC. The unit has been modded to death. I was at Addison today to pick up some parts to rebuild the power supply. I always wanted to do this mod, now would be the time if I can bring this unit from the dead.

Portamental wrote:The modders say low-note. I have an older MG-1 with no power supply and a few missing parts, in dire need of TLC. The unit has been modded to death. I was at Addison today to pick up some parts to rebuild the power supply. I always wanted to do this mod, now would be the time if I can bring this unit from the dead.

Out of curiosity, does it have a red power LED that was added on the front left, by any chance ?

thealien666 wrote: Out of curiosity, does it have a red power LED that was added on the front left, by any chance ?

No, it has one CDS cell and 2 switches on the left, one switch and 2 pots on the right, and one more switch on the panel, plus midi and Synjack electronics inside. It barely ever worked, no polyphony, only a few keys triggered. I remember from dismantling it that the pots on the right were trim pots inside that were extended to regular pots on the outside. Anyway, I got a couple more in good working order I love this little guy

I was asking because when I had one, a few years ago, I added a red power led indicator on the front left (opposite de headphones jack) and had installed an external pot that replaced the pulse width of Tone Source 2 trimpot inside. I also modded it so that I could plug in an expression pedal to replace either Tone Source or Filter modulation sliders momentarily with am additional switched 1/4" female jack on the back.

I sold it back around 2002 in pretty bad shape (defective 5823, scratchy pots and switches, foam had deteriorated and wasn't yet removed, etc...) to a guy who was crazy about getting one, no matter what!

This morning at 2AM, my theremin mechanic and I finished a mod completely of his design that gave the MG-1 switchable low or high note priority. Life is good.