Moog Minitaur

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Nig wrote: If you plug a jack into the gate input on the back of the Minitaur is will keep the gate open so you don't need to keep triggering it, a 1/8 inch jack to a 1/4 inch jack adapter works best here but a cable with a 1/4 inch jack will do the trick too. Just make sure nothing is connected at the other end.


This is a physical limitation of the synth, probably to do with keeping the very low notes more stable. I'd reckon if you open the gate like above it will bypass this limitation for inputed audio.
I tried to input a 1/4 jack into the gate, but it did not help. I think it must be 5V to work.

I finally succeeded in using Minitaur as an analog filter for Messiah. I reduced output a lot, seems like the Minitaur's input will distort very easily. (And that is ok with me, it is a useful feature.). Then I got clean audio. I set the souncard's output to max, and amplified the cutoff by 1.8, then I had strong enough cutoff, and I offset the Minitaur hardware cutoff at 10 o clock (Ca. 30%) , and then everything sounded as expected.

The Messiah filter mode is set to "ignore program change", and there is a built in bypass mode, and it was easy to route all audio to right output, so there is no problems on the softsynth side of things.

All the best
gunnare

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gunnare wrote:I tried to input a 1/4 jack into the gate, but it did not help. I think it must be 5V to work.
I had a quick look at the Minitaur manual to see how to do this but couldn't see it. But if you check page 20 of the Slim Phatty manual it explains how to do it in the performance tips.

Here's the manual: http://www.moogmusic.com/sites/default/ ... manual.pdf

May have been something to do with your decay or sustain settings if you were getting no sound.
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Thanks!

I tried with less decay like it says in the Slim Phatty manual, but had no luck. I even removed the midi in cable, and turned Minitaur off and on. Seems like it need 5V to open the gate.

I improved the Messiah version for external filter tonight, and it works really well with poly sounds, even with the Minitaur's mono filter. I set the filter kbd tracking to track the highest key to avoid unwanted changes in cutoff when playing chords.

All the best
gunnare

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That method of recording at the end is pretty cool :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSVseNpDUU
Cheers
Dennis

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gunnare wrote:I got one yesterday. My local shop here very far north in Trondheim suddenly had 2 in the shop. (This is Trondheim in Norway and almost the end of the world). There are 5 in the country, and the rest will ship in May.

It is very simple, it took me ca. 5 minutes to explore all the sound possbilities. The sound is very soft like butter, and very fat. It can sound fat even without delay or reverb, and I have never experienced that when I have tried little phatty in the shop. And it has got the moog sound I searched for, and never found in the Phatty. The brightness is still not as crisp as my softsynths, it is actually duller, but they say it is the brightest of the new moogs. From listening to Automatic Gainsay's videos I would say that Minibrute has crisper and more raspy oscillator. The Minitaur oscillator is more polite.

I disagree with the resonance level scaling. It seems to be linear, so the sound start to fade away as soon as I start to add resonance. I would have liked a more inv. exp curve compensation system. You actually have to increase volume when you add a little bit of resonance. 'The resonance self oscillation is like a very pure sine wave that do not blend with the sound, but is like a sine wave on top of the sound. It is totally different from the MS20, Minibrute and Monotribe that screams like crazy when you add resonance. The resonance on Minitaur is very , very polite. Actually I prefer the sound with no resonance, there is no magic to the sound when I add resonance, the sound seems to become weaker and less powerful.

The env is perfect and very musical. And very snappy. The most agressive tones, that still is quite polite, can be had with short snappy enveloes.

Wish list: The synth would have been so much more versatile with Pulse width modulation, or even fixed puse-width settings. Fixed pulse values like the Minimoog had made a big selection of reedy leadsounds possible.

So it is very limited and polite, but it has got that moog sound that I love. This unit is not for users that are not players, and like to sequence and make crazy effects, and like the resonance to scream. It is a polite very fat synth with a classic buttery soft sound and is a champion on simple fat sounds and bass. It sounds very good for soft lead sounds.

And I can confirm that the osc are hardware limited to C5 (note 72). What happens when you play between C4 and C5 with osc2 set to +1 octave, is that osc2 will play C5 on all notes between C4 and C5. So it is obvious that it has a built in limiter.
this is a brilliant review. thanx a lot.

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I had the opportunity to play around with one during the easter days.

Made two videos with my first sounds (some delay added from Cubase)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v10X1ncq ... detailpage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRr9fcqg ... detailpage

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Really great sounds/videos :tu:
Thanks for sharing :)

Cheers
Dennis

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Bronto Scorpio wrote:Really great sounds/videos :tu:
Thanks for sharing :)

Cheers
Dennis
Yes, good stuff there. I came across those videos on YouTube yesterday. Very cool sounds & it certainly doesn't sound like the Minitaur is a one trick pony to me :wink: Can't wait to get mine.

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..... BTW, anyone in the UK managed to get one of these from a UK outlet yet? I'm moving to Australia at the end of January so I'll probably wait until I get there before buying one I think. I want one NOW but it's one less thing to ship :wink:

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Can anyone tell me if the US model of the Minitaur has a universal power supply that is able to accept 240V?

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meldavid wrote:Can anyone tell me if the US model of the Minitaur has a universal power supply that is able to accept 240V?
From the manual:

The Minitaur's universal power supply will operate with a
power source from 100 to 240 Volts AC, 50/60 Hz.

Just ordered one from the US myself :)
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DocT wrote:I had the opportunity to play around with one during the easter days.

Made two videos with my first sounds (some delay added from Cubase)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v10X1ncq ... detailpage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRr9fcqg ... detailpage
Beautiful demos. They sure show that the Minitaur is it's own beast and not a Phatty lite.
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zerocrossing wrote:Beautiful demos. They sure show that the Minitaur is it's own beast and not a Phatty lite.
They also demonstrate a broader range of sounds than I think many expected from a bass synth with a limited range. It's still a limited little synth but it's far from a one trick pony ;) Can't wait to get hold of one of these little beauties :D

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Dogboy73 wrote:They also demonstrate a broader range of sounds than I think many expected from a bass synth with a limited range.
You have to keep in mind though that the oscillators of the Minitaur are rather pitch limited. They don't go higher than note C 4.
For the higher pitched "melody" in the 2nd video I had to use the sine wave from the keytracked resonating filter.

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Tasty review of Minitaur on the May issue of Sound On Sound.
Check it out :tu:
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