Moog Mariana VST/AU/iOS Bass Synth

[digitalboytn]

Brutal CPU hog with nothing special to offer against my Diva, Repro, Minimonsta, Falcon, Phase Plant, Pigments,...pass...

But it's got Moog written all over it with all of those secret audio herbs and spices

I think that the seafood smell was the deal breaker for you

[v1o]

Its just been confirmed that this was developed by Geert Bevin - who is Moog's Director of Software Development and did all the Moog iOS instruments. Air music had nowt to do with it.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gbevin_i ... ic_profile

[DaniZzz79]

just tried it out:
- VST3 on macbook pro m2, ableton 11 38% CPU usage. sounds good but very CPU hungry.
- no visual feedback on the moogerfooger plugins when you CV connect them with the Mariana
- weird visual (yellow cable in the back) on Mariana

I updated the Moogerfooger to 1.2 and surprise: they don't work anymore because Moog/inMusic have recently disengaged from iLok and I don't manage to register them anymore. (I hope the inMusic support will work this out soon)

[sin night]

So, I just tried it on my Windows DAW (I7-9700 32GB, purchased in summer 2020).

The CPU meter of Windows is completely useless. I can play Mariana in standalone mode at 96k, but when I try it in a daw (I tried both in Cubase and Live), it reaches about 75% and I hear some crackles (in Cubase, the meter reports some peaks, it hits the red), while the system meter reports a low cpu usage (which doesn't make any sense).


It looks like my Macbook Air M1 can handle more that my Windows daw, but the cpu usage is relatively still high... I don't want to buy a new compter at the moment (I prefer to spend money on other things), although I wish I had a new Mac as a daw (I prefer Mac to Windows), especially if it's very quiet or even fanless (that's one of my favourite things about the M1 Macbook Air)...


Unless Mariana receives some serious optimization, I guess I'll have to skip it at the moment... which is unfortunate, because it sounds good and it has some features I'm missing on other synths (like pwm on every waveform). I'm thinking if I should buy the iPad version in the meantime (just to be able to access the synth, in case I want to), but my iPad is not recent, so I don't know how well it performs.

[nix808]

hey sin night,
DSP cpu is different from system cpu,
so task manager does not display the application's max dsp capacity in terms of CPU=DSP

[dlandis]

Moog dropped iLok from the effect plugins in an update earlier this year. You no longer need it.

Thank you.

Um, Mariana does seem to need iLok. From the Plug-in Boutique ad under system requirements:

Note: This product supports both iLok USB and iLok Cloud activation. You will need a free iLok account, and either a physical iLok USB key OR an active internet connection (to start an iLok Cloud Session).

[dumbledog]

They say that about the Moogerfoogers too but I installed them last night without iLok, but it does now require an account from Moog's site when it didn't before (and I had to authorize each effect individually which was annoying).

I think PB may be using outdated info, but I haven't installed Mariana yet.

[BBFG#]

Moog dropped iLok from the effect plugins in an update earlier this year. You no longer need it.

Thank you.

Um, Mariana does seem to need iLok. From the Plug-in Boutique ad under system requirements:

Note: This product supports both iLok USB and iLok Cloud activation. You will need a free iLok account, and either a physical iLok USB key OR an active internet connection (to start an iLok Cloud Session).

I was able to download and install both without any mention of it. They do however require an Internet permission, which I question. But they run fine ATM.

Didn't check actual CPU usage but the stand alone ran without apparent issue of any kind on my home system (XeonV3/28G). Output is unnecessarily high though, so I restarted it in Bitwig to have a master volume control over it.
Again no issues and decided to add a couple of the Mooger fx to push it a bit. All fine.
Then I loaded another track with CA Memorymode and added their Stardust to A/B against the first track. Not in any test of accuracy of course, more of levels and playability.
The CA track started crackling and maxing out. And going back to the Moog track instantly maxed the system. Something that particular set of CA plugins never do on my systems. So I deleted the first track of the Moogs and everything went back to normal. Which kind of implies to me that the Moog stuff runs continuously regardless of being played or even if the track is active?

Don't really need it, but I've been an easy mark for Moog since I was 13. Watching to see if they get this optimized better.

[BoogerSnot]

Bought for iPad, on the strength of Animoog Z which is brilliant, and the fact that it's the same development team.... Not disappointed at all! Even on initial test drive it's pretty clear it has the ability to venture beyond just bass sounds, with enough modulation sources and targets to create movement and interest.

Best overview video I found, after searching through a handful of them:



Seems like the whole dual synth aspect will be what distinguishes it, if anything does, though obviously that will take more diving to determine for sure.

[thecontrolcentre]

[Big DAW Audio]

Huge huge sound! loving it so far. comparable to my sub25

[aMUSEd]

I don't think the au3 is available on Mac desktop this time from the looks of it

[dlandis]

Moog dropped iLok from the effect plugins in an update earlier this year. You no longer need it.

Thank you.

Um, Mariana does seem to need iLok. From the Plug-in Boutique ad under system requirements:

Note: This product supports both iLok USB and iLok Cloud activation. You will need a free iLok account, and either a physical iLok USB key OR an active internet connection (to start an iLok Cloud Session).

I was able to download and install both without any mention of it. They do however require an Internet permission, which I question. But they run fine ATM.

Didn't check actual CPU usage but the stand alone ran without apparent issue of any kind on my home system (XeonV3/28G). Output is unnecessarily high though, so I restarted it in Bitwig to have a master volume control over it.
Again no issues and decided to add a couple of the Mooger fx to push it a bit. All fine.
Then I loaded another track with CA Memorymode and added their Stardust to A/B against the first track. Not in any test of accuracy of course, more of levels and playability.
The CA track started crackling and maxing out. And going back to the Moog track instantly maxed the system. Something that particular set of CA plugins never do on my systems. So I deleted the first track of the Moogs and everything went back to normal. Which kind of implies to me that the Moog stuff runs continuously regardless of being played or even if the track is active?

Don't really need it, but I've been an easy mark for Moog since I was 13. Watching to see if they get this optimized better.

Well, I don't mind iLok myself, but I'd rather not have it if possible. I am glad that the site is wrong.

[sin night]

Huge huge sound! loving it so far. comparable to my sub25

It holds its own even against the Minitaur, it's a beast in the low end.

The tone is different of course (I tried to make them sound similar, within reason... and I couldn't get them to sound close enough: different oscillators, different mixer, different filter response...); but Mariana can do the job when it comes to solid heavy bass.
I think I would consider it as an option, depending on what the song asks for, and it would be competing against my hardware synths for the role.

It's unfortunate that it's so cpu heavy, otherwise I would have purchased already, instead of being thinking if and how I could manage to integrate it in my setup untill I'll upgrade my daw (which I don't plan to do very soon, unless I change my mind).

[machinesworking]

I don't think the au3 is available on Mac desktop this time from the looks of it

Yeah I was getting that impression too. Why would they charge $49 for the desktop version and $15 for the iPad version otherwise?