Moog Music Forum

Hi guys!


First of all, congrats to your new Moog Voyager´s, they´re awesome...

Well, I´ve got a Moog Opus-3 myself, just purchased it some weeks ago and I love it. But as it always ends up, -you want the BIG one!

So tell me, is it worth the money? I suppose so...

I´ve been listening a lot to Emerson, Lake & Palmer for the past 5 months and I´m absolutely stunned by the sounds of the old MiniMoog.
Is it possible to generate most of the sounds of Emerson´s old Moog??

Another newbie question, does it have an appegiator? And what about programming? Is it easy?
Tell me all you know, I´m so darn curious...

It does not have an arpeggiator or seqencer built in. Shame really.

I´ve been listening a lot to Emerson, Lake & Palmer for the past 5 months and I´m absolutely stunned by the sounds of the old MiniMoog.


As I recall, Emerson used two Moog synths during that period. He did have a Mini--whch he used in later shows, not in his first ones in the U.S.-- but most of his work was done on a big, modular puppy which had customization. My guess is that the recording you heard were all done on a Moog modular, not a Mini.

Keith Emerson mainly used a MiniMoog-like patch on the modular system (i.e. osc-filter-amplifier) in concert. I recall reading this in an interview with Keith's tech Will Alexander. Will also mentioned that the modular system has lab-quality specs (0-100KHz) which no doubt accounts for the incredible sonics of those old sounds.

Regarding the previous post on Keith Emerson's modular Moog, I located the source of the information: Vintage Synthesizers by Mark Vail, 2nd edition, page 123.

This large paperbook text is actually a Keyboard Magazine publication and is a handy reference (as well as a great read) for older (AKA vintage) synths. Highly recommended.

- Greg

Actually the Minimoog is credited in Trilogy along with the Modular and I believe he even plays the solo to "From The Beginning" on it. He also used a Moog prototype called the Lyra which was a beefed up Minimoog with a pressure-sensitive keyboard (you can read about it here: http://www.keithemerson.com/EmoGear/techtalk.html). I believe either this or an original Mini was used to achieve the "steel drum" tone used in Karn Evil.

I have one of the original Mini's and I would guess that with it you could probably come close to duplicating 80% of the synth sounds Emerson uses on the first four ELP albums. That's a very rough guess but I think generally you'll be able to get most of the tones you are looking for with either the original Minimoog or the Voyager at a fraction of the cost of a Moog modular and in a more portable and easy to program package.

Grab a Voyager today and rock on! (And then don't forget that most of Emerson's keyboard playing on the early albums is actually a Hammond C3(B3) w/Leslie. Start saving...)

agermani wrote:I have one of the original Mini's and I would guess that with it you could probably come close to duplicating 80% of the synth sounds Emerson uses on the first four ELP albums.

We're waiting for the patch set, customized to Voyager ;)

FWIW, I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to duplicate the synth sound at the end of ELP's 'From the Beginning' on my MMV for many months. I'm beginning to think that it was actually programmed and played on the modular as opposed to the Minimoog. The Minimoog patchbook doesn't have the 'From the Beginning' sound listed, which may also be a clue here. It does have the 'Trilogy' sound, however.

If anyone has duplicated the "From the Beginning' sound on the MMV, please let me know.

Greg