Moog WERKSTATT-Ø1 ANALOG SYNTHESIZER

[Uncle E]

Now, consider the MemoryMoog, is that a real Moog? Almost every circuit in the MemoryMoog, save the filter, is a CEM chip. That's EVERY SINGLE CIRCUIT. The envelopes, the oscillators and the majority of, if not all,of the VCAs are CEM chips. These are the exact same CEM chips used in the Prophet 5 rev 3. The MemoryMoog does have ladder filters for all of its voices and this probably accounts for a lot of the fatness. So is the MemoryMoog "classic moog" ?

Now what about that AR envelope? It's a simple design based on an opamp. It's not "classic moog", but there's nothing special about the AR envelop in the Moog Rogue either, so who cares?

You're right, it's ridiculous not to call these "classic moog", it's just that I personally don't think they're very good synths.

With that said, I imagine that a strong argument could be made that the Minitaur and Sub Phatty aren't "classic moog", yet those are excellent synths so what does it really matter? The sound examples of the Werkstatt-01 sound quite different from the Volca Bass and Arturia synths to me.

[Shabdahbriah]

I haven't touched a soldering-iron in 25-30 years, but I have a drawer of alligator-clips, several drawers of wire spools and strippers, shrink-wrap, etc., that I could see soldering 'posts' on all those little holes, and killing at least a week ~ sampling the results... These "kits" give a 'taste' of hands-on (to varying degrees, obviously), and I see that as a really good thing.

I have BIG hands, and have yet to find anything "mini" functionally practical unless it can be slaved to a sequencer or keyboard/trigger device that is "fingers-friendly"... Admittedly, I too think/consider most (though not all) of what these units are capable of is "just" bleepy-bloopy-squelchy predictable "toy-noise", which can simply be FUN! I could easily be persuaded by my son (or grandson) to build some wackass-shit with some of these "toys".

I don't think it has to be 'about' any particular goal/objective; e.g., what one does with their "noise" in a manner perceived by others as "musical", or musically competent/relevant, but rather {personally} in the objective/subjective JOY of discovery/experimentation, connecting the dots, and the seat-of-the-pants hands on *learning*, that can be applied to any equally obsessive endeavor.

{fwiw} the only Moog products I have are a decade old T-shirt, and their iPad apps (for my first gen. hand-me-down iPad) which I only accepted as a gift because Moog and Wolfgang Palm got into it, at that exact (opportune) time. I'm stuck with iOS ver.5 (something) apps though, as I can not by any stretch justify actually buying an iANYTHING... but with the iPad and an Alesis dock added to my other hardware/controllers/processors, I'm quite content for the time being.

A Sub fatty, would be my only (real) hardware Moog GAS.

carry on.

[ghettosynth]

So, how is this NOT "classic moog" ?

Discrete electronics.

The ladder is most definitely discrete electronics. Moogs have used op-amps since the Mini, in fact, IIRC, even the modulars used 741 op amps pretty much as soon as they were available. There are 8 741 op amps in the Mini.

You're right, it's ridiculous not to call these "classic moog", it's just that I personally don't think they're very good synths.

I agree, I've said as much.

With that said, I imagine that a strong argument could be made that the Minitaur and Sub Phatty aren't "classic moog", yet those are excellent synths so what does it really matter?

Exactly, I don't think that it matters how far the design is from the minimoog, what matters is whether the synth is a good value/interesting synth at the price point that it's being offered.

The sound examples of the Werkstatt-01 sound quite different from the Volca Bass and Arturia synths to me.

Indeed the Volca Bass has a 12dB/oct filter based on the minikorg 700s, the Arturia a rather unique (in terms of manufactured synths) synthacon diode ladder.

[ghettosynth]

You should buy one if you are a collector, they will sell out fast and I doubt that there will be more.

They'll be making loads.

Really? So I find that interesting at least. That says that they think that this product is, in some sense, competitive with the current crop of little synths.