Moog Music Forum

Hi,

I'm a proud owner of a Moog Little Phatty Stage II.

I Love the sounds it can produce ! But always wished it was 6-voice Polyphonic

I would love to see Moog Music develop a Polyphonic-Moog Synth in the future. (6 voices would be great).

How likely is this to happen ? and would others here be happy to see this happen ?

Thanks,
Muziksculp

Welcome to the forums.
a polyphonic moog is not likely to happen. if you do a search of the forums there are tons of threads already discussing this topic in great detail. your options are basically 1)buy 5 Slim Phatties to go with your Little Phatty 2)Buy a Dave Smith polyphonic synth and live with DCOs if you want a new synth (i dont know your feelings on this but for some people its the end of the world to play a synth with DCOs ) or Studio Electronics if you want new with VCOs but dont mind using rack mount gear 3)look for a used Alesis Andromeda A6 or one of the many synths from the 80's and 70's if you want VCOs and dont mind used and possible repair work.

Enjoy your new moog!

Start saving your money now cause if they do release one it's probably going to be pretty expensive.

[quote="muziksculp"]

I would love to see Moog Music develop a Polyphonic-Moog Synth in the future. (6 voices would be great).

My balls are growing bigger and bigger .

But, as I remember when Bob Moog had been asked about, if they'll produce one or not he said: " We could, but we won't".
The Moog-guys seem to stick pretty much on this.

But my opinion is, if they'll won't do, it wouldn't be good for them. On the other side it's a "hard thing" to develop one. As I was told, it's pretty hard to keep 12 or 18 galloping horses (12 or 18 VCOs 100% tuned) all in a row.

Not to break up the party but, Colorform2113 resumed it perfectly well: "if you do a search of the forums there are tons of threads already discussing this topic in great detail."

That being said, welcome muziksculp !

It's called Animoog, and it's awesome!

dream on

aen wrote:It's called Animoog, and it's awesome!

Thanks, Animoog looks like a cool, and affordable option, I'm also considering the DSI Prophet 08.

From the feedback on this thread, I think I should not count on seeing a HW Poly-Moog anytime soon, or maybe even in the next few years.

But then, who knows... there is still a glimmer of hope that this might happen one of these days, but there is no point in waiting since there doesn't seem to be any serious effort from Moog Music to deliver a Poly-Moog in the next couple of month.

Cheers,
Muziksculp

megavoice wrote: On the other side it's a "hard thing" to develop one. As I was told, it's pretty hard to keep 12 or 18 galloping horses (12 or 18 VCOs 100% tuned) all in a row.

The problem isn't that it's a "hard thing". The problem is bad design. There's a right way to design an analog polyphonic and most of the vintage ones are wrong.

But even if the design was done right, it would be $$$. Moog could build one, but I totally understood Bob's reluctance when he said they won't.

Yeah this gets brought up every week or so.

I don't see it happening, certainly not at a competitive (to DSI) price point. The expectation that Moog would cram the guts 6 Slim Phatties or Voyagers RME into one convenient module and price it at less than the sum of its components is just not realistic... It would be really expensive.

Anyone that wants a polyphonic Moog should put their money where their mouth is and configure one to meet their needs.

MC wrote:

megavoice wrote: On the other side it's a "hard thing" to develop one. As I was told, it's pretty hard to keep 12 or 18 galloping horses (12 or 18 VCOs 100% tuned) all in a row.

The problem isn't that it's a "hard thing". The problem is bad design. There's a right way to design an analog polyphonic and most of the vintage ones are wrong.

But even if the design was done right, it would be $$$. Moog could build one, but I totally understood Bob's reluctance when he said they won't.

I know techs who repair them all day by day and who've told me day and night about the "hard thing" and, of course, th "bad thinng". There had been made tons of mistakes over there formerly, and naturally nowadays it could be done much better. But the problem is VCOs must be heated up to keep them stable and in greater numbers this has an effect to the price. This is not the case for DCOs.
P 08 is a fine solutuon, not ideal but despite great. Hope the 12 will compete or will be even much better.
For the new Polymoog nevertheless some years will pass by

The Sub Phatty has very accurately tuned VCO's...

And its small enough that you could line up three of 'em in a standard 88 key piano length

Maybe not so far future...

megavoice wrote: But the problem is VCOs must be heated up to keep them stable and in greater numbers this has an effect to the price. This is not the case for DCOs.

Not all VCO designs need to be heated.
Many (if not most) VCO designs are not.
But it is true that they must have some sort of autotune or feedback circuit to keep them stable when used in a polyphonic structure.

DCOs don't need such circuits or techniques as above, but have their own share of problems.
Some use a master clock which renders all DCOs perfectly in phase.
Most also don't allow "easy" modulation.
That is, one can't just "plug in" a modulation source (env, lfo, noise, etc) and have the DCO follow along.
Those sources must either be generated or digitally encoded first, then applied to the digital stream controlling the DCO.
Modulation frequencies are therefore limited to the speed and resolution of the digital processing.
So a design that uses VCOs could add a modulation control with something as simple as a pot and resistor, whether originally manufactured that way or modded.
On a DCO design, it could require considerable software changes.
This is one of the big reasons you don't see modular synths that use DCOs.

As for Moog making one, give them time. One day they might.

For a polyphonic to be "done right," it would have to be fully polyphonic, allow individual tuning, voltage control, waveform, filtering,and articulation per-note.

But that's not what you lot want.

So, you're a lot closer than you think.
Wouldn't you just be pleased-as-punch with a digital polyphonic Moog DAW which allowed you to play chords and say (if only say) you were playing Moog?
As such, I agree with those who say "Animoog." You don't really want an analog fully-polyphonic polyphonic.

I wonder if it would be cost effective to release a polymoog divide down synth. No one is doing it these days, so it would be a unique product, and much more reliable than the original. The polymoog was truly a unique instrument. There really is nowhere else to go really, other than a full on poly or modular, both of which are nonstarters IMO.