Moog Music Forum

Hi,

I'm a guitar player. I always wanted to play analog synth because I like those kind of sounds. I'm playing in a Post-rock/ambient band and it would be a great addition to our sound.

I already had few moogerfoogers (MF-101,102 and 103) and when I think about an analog synth, it's difficult for to look at other brands (Korg Minilogue looks definitely fine and cheap)

I have the money for Phatty but can't decide which one. I don't need the third octave the little phatty has and even don't need 100 presets (16 seems enough). The Sub seemed to be ideal for me because it seems to be nicier to tweak the knobs before selecting the functions on the little phattys, that's the thing that maked me want it.

But: No Arpeggiator/ Sequencer.

So my question is: Is there a device that can make Arpeggiator sounds from the Sub Phattys without being plugged into a computer?
I saw the Beatstep but it only seems to be a (good) Sequencer, so no Arp?
What about the EHX 8 Step Program? Can it handle both?

Thanks a lot
Guillaume

There are external arpeggiators. I don't have any experience with them, but if you Google for hardware arpeggiators you can find some units like the MIDIpal (discontinued), the soon to be released Arturia Keystep and the ARPIE. There are probably a lot more. Any synth with a built-in arpeggiator that can send MIDI or CV should also work. There's for instance the Arpeggio mini synth.

Remember that you have to somehow feed the arpeggiator the notes to be arpeggiated, which you'd either do on the external device itself (if it has a keyboard, like the Arturia Keystep) or you'd have to control the arpeggiator from another keyboard. Maybe you can send the Sub Phatty keyboard notes to a keyboard-less external arpeggiator unit only (not to the synth itself directly) and then have the arpeggiator send back the arpeggiated notes to the synth. I'm not sure about that.

All in all, it sounds like a bit of a hassle to buy your first synth without an arpeggiator and then get some extra hardware to add the arpeggiator functionality. It's possible, but I don't think I'd recommend it. If you do want to go this route I think I'd get the Arturia Keystep. Still on pre-order though, but $119 seems very reasonable. To be clear: for arpeggios you wouldn't be playing the Sub Phatty keyboard, but the Keystep keyboard and the Keystep would send MIDI or CV to the Sub Phatty for generating the sound.

Both the Arturia BeatStep and the Electro-Harmonix 8 Step Program provide sequencing, but they're not arpeggiators.

You could also get a Sub 37 if you'd like a Sub Phatty with built-in arpeggiator and sequencer.

I had to make a decision between both as well and ended with a Slim Phatty. First: you have to listen to both, specially if you are a guitar player and appreciate tone and the quality of an overdriven filter. That's one feature where both machines differ greatly.

Another one would be the VCOs, where I found the Slim to be more organic and crazier, perhaps deeper than the Sub. The slim does take its time to get warmed up though, about 1hr depending on the temperature of the room. I'm not sure the Little takes that long. You would also enjoy much more the 3 octaves of the Little keybed.

Then there's the thing about the one-knob per function in the Sub that the Slim/Little both lack and I thought that would really bother me but in the end it does not, it really works great and it's very well thought out. I've come to love the LED rings around the knobs which tell you which way you have to sweep (the parameter catch-up is pure genius) and I miss that in other synths.