So, the word in the reviews is that the (ancient) Steinberg Model-E pretty much sucks.

Can someone recommend a VSTi plugin that comes a little closer to the growl of my beloved Mini? I do R&B/Hip-Hop/Southern Soul tracks, so I use the Mini sound mostly for bass parts (cool slurs, nice grit, etc etc).

Dig it...

the mercury-1 synth is absolutely amazing, but...it will take up an entire processor of power and it will never be updated and there is no support for it anymore. that being said, you can always make tracks and freeze them.

Hmm, no good Mini clone per se (c'mon either G-Media or Arturia), but I've gotten some very nice Mini-ish sounds out of Pentagon 1, though the lack of stock triangle waveform is a huge downside in P1 in respect to emulating a lot of Mini sounds (though it does come with a set of wavetables that includes a set of oscs from a minimoog). I'm not saying that Pentagon 1 is a Moog or even sounds really close, but it's definately capable of the vibe. That also means that Z3ta + (which does have triangle waveforms) may come a whole lot closer if you just don't use the waveshaping features and whatnot. Aside from that check out Arturia's MMV, which is supposed to be a very good emulation of a Moog modular. In fact, right now that's probably your best bet.

Vaz 2010 is a nice VSTi/DXi that uses a semi-modular patching method similar to the Moog Modular and you can great some great Moog-type sounds out of it! The routing is a lot easier than Arturia's Moog clone as it hasn't tried to copy the wire routing which IMO is taking a step back. Instead it uses nice little drop-down menu's (like it has a hidden matrix). I can understand Arturia wanting to emulate the sound but why the wires? This is why a lot of people now use virtual synths so we can forget about wires. Just coz it looks pretty doesn't mean it sounds good and is easy to program.

Anyway, my advice is to Vaz 2010 (or if you can't afford it VazPlus2 which provides most of the same functions but is a fraction of the price).

Hope this helps!

Alex

http://www.ele4music.com/synthedit/synthedit-2.html

top of the page; "mini SE"
Before you say "I just don't think I want another SynthEdit compiled VSTi right now, and here's why;......." I must point out that this is the same fellow who brought us "Odd-SE", which had real Oddysey users giving great reviews.

Cheerz.

By the way... What is wrong with the Model E??? why does everyone always shit on it? I think it is great. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a "Mini Moog clone" - why? 'cause it does what it says on the tin, that's why. It is not packed with features, nor is it the most flexible synth in the world... but let's remember what the real Mini was, shall we?

Synthefellow (http://home.att.net/~j.leibold/index4.html) has done a minimoog in SE. while you simmer down and stop that guffawing, it's actually quite good - I've used it a number of times. It's been updated recently too - go see!

Getting an accurate mini will actually be a very difficult thing, especially with tuning drift etc., so any reasonable approximation in the right context can be hard to distinguish from the real thing. Be careful to get the style of what is played right, and you can fool many!

HTH
DSP

PatchArena quoth Vaz 2010 is a nice VSTi/DXi that uses a semi-modular patching method similar to the Moog Modular and you can great some great Moog-type sounds out of it!

And it has a big brother, Vaz Modular, which is an absolute monster.

The routing is a lot easier than Arturia's Moog clone as it hasn't tried to copy the wire routing which IMO is taking a step back. Instead it uses nice little drop-down menu's (like it has a hidden matrix). I can understand Arturia wanting to emulate the sound but why the wires?

Actually, I disagree with this. With Vaz's system its not as immediate to work out what has been patched, and where, as with visual 'wires'. Setting up routings is a little easier; checking them is much more of a pain.

This is why a lot of people now use virtual synths so we can forget about wires. Just coz it looks pretty doesn't mean it sounds good and is easy to program.

Visual connections are easier to follow than hidden connections, or connections only displayed as textual indications of source or destination. Following a signal path graphically is much simpler.

Anyway, my advice is to Vaz 2010 (or if you can't afford it VazPlus2 which provides most of the same functions but is a fraction of the price).

Good advice. If you like the idea of summat really flexible, though, try the Vaz Modular demo as well. More expensive but well worth it.

Been using the Arturia Moog Modular V lately and love to program it (there are also drop-down menus btw). The patch chords can be (partly) hidden, and it gives you a nice clue of what's going where. Pitty that the scales on the knobs aren't readable (very tiny), but they show up when you move them around.

If you compare a simple patch made with MMV with the sound of Model E (which was pretty cool at the time) it becomes laughable in terms of depth and 'analog' feel.

Not a VSTi, but a very good Minimoog emulation is the mighty Creamware Minimax albeit a little expensive (is also featured in their lovely Noah).

... if it's not a thread about 303 emulations then it must be another Minimoog emulation thread! Yippee

For my money MiniMax is the dog's and no mistake and Model-E really is laughable. That doesn't help you native chaps much though.

mini moog, ......trilogy is my vote

I have had a ModelE for a long time (my first VSTi) and I used the hell out of it on my early tracks. IMHO the Model E does a fairly good job on the high end MiniMoog sound, but the low end isn't NEARLY warm enough on its own. All told it just isn't as convincingly "analog" sounding as it should be on its own. That being said, I have been able to coax very moogish sounds out of it by using additional processing on the low end, usually PSP's MixBass and MixSaturation plugins. The synth is easy enough to program, and the long overdue (and underdone, really) update has helped somewhat. It has NOT been, however, the kind of dramatic and welcome update that Native Instruments gave the Pro52 with the Pro53. God forbid that Steinberg should do that, and offer the update to owners for free like NI did!

I think that Triangle II ia capable of doing a lot of the same stuff, without the need for additional processing to beef it up, and it's free! However, it is somewhat easier to get strictly moogish tones out of the ModelE because its a clone, and thus limited to those kinds of sounds.

The Model E would be a VERY worthwhile synth if only Steinberg would update the quality of the oscillators and filters, and consider dropping its ridiculously high (in these days) retail price.

Oh, just for the record, Im sure it was the redoubtable Scot Solida that pointed out that Tassman does a bloody good MiniMoog impression, and I'll also mention that Spark FXmachine does some of the meatiest, chunkiest monosynth sounds around. Its also a modular thingummibob, and if three of its oscillators arent enough, the fourth one will be...

whyterabbyt wrote:

And it has a big brother, Vaz Modular, which is an absolute monster.

Yes...we have had quite a few Vaz Modular patches submitted to us although we haven't patched this ourselves...yet

whyterabbyt: If you have some Vaz Modular patches then please send them in

Thanks,

Alex

kryos wrote:

By the way... What is wrong with the Model E??? why does everyone always shit on it? I think it is great. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a "Mini Moog clone" - why? 'cause it does what it says on the tin, that's why. It is not packed with features, nor is it the most flexible synth in the world... but let's remember what the real Mini was, shall we?

Agreed. I do like Model-E

....I was really comparing Vaz 2010 with Arturia Modular V.


Thanks,

Alex

While the Model e sux as a minimoog clone, I still think it is very useful to me anyway for leads and basses. I always get great results when I mix the Model E with the fruity flanger.

Why don't you try Tsunami. It's better than Model-E and it has a fat sound, lot fatter than Model-E and overall better emulation of a minimoog.
There is a demo version of it too.

http://www.kvr-vst.com/get.php?mode=show&id=259

mercury wrote:

the mercury-1 synth is absolutely amazing, but...it will take up an entire processor of power and it will never be updated and there is no support for it anymore. that being said, you can always make tracks and freeze them.

um, what processor are you on..a pentium 100? mercury 1 is one of the LESS cpu intensive synths these days...remember it is 4 x mono timbral and turning off the extra 3 voices drops the cpu usage to next to nothing...
and most people dont need the 4 voices anyway as the things so bloody fat with one voice...

It won't be updated, that is correct, but the statement of tc still not supporting it is simply not true...I have an email from Tc saying "of course we still support it always!"

and you can still find it at some stores for a good price..

the only nitpick is it uses pace and since i now have a pace free system i recently sold my mercury 1..but as a synth, it really is the truly forgotten one with an awesome sound

Tarkus wrote:

Why don't you try Tsunami. It's better than Model-E and it has a fat sound, lot fatter than Model-E and overall better emulation of a minimoog. There is a demo version of it too. http://www.kvr-vst.com/get.php?mode=show&id=259

it's a ncie sounding synth that's unfortuantely very buggy and the developer not only hasn't re set up his purchase page for months, but he is not answering my emails either..

Hey, ttoz;

I too love the Mercury 1.
it was my first "real" virtual synth, and you are right about switching off the other three voices. I used to use it on a 350 mghz K6-2 !!!!