Moog Mariana VST/AU/iOS Bass Synth

[DrWashington]

I have an i9-13900K at stock clock. Can confirm the performance is absolutely atrocious for a monosynth. There should be no excuse for this in 2023. It doesn't sound markedly better than some of its competitors and the filter is underwhelming vs. my Minituar that I'm trying to sell because the VST plugin to control it is hot garbage and I can't take it anymore.

And yeah, I can't stand the UI: I'd be fine with smaller knobs if everything was on one page. So stupid to have to use a tab to get to your LFOs & Envelopes. I hate it. Truly.

Get it together, Moog.

[D-Fusion]

So the point of CV interconnectivity with the Moogerfoogers is basically to add effects to the synth's internal signal chain? Can the Moogerfooger Freqbox be used to apply FM modulation to the Mariana's oscillators? I'd guess not, since from the demo video it seems to just allow input to modulate the Freqbox's VCO oscillator... but perhaps output from that can be used to modulate Mariana's oscillators? And I guess an unlimited number of instances of Freqbox can be CV connected, to provide as many FM oscillators as you want?...

Is the cpu efficiency of the Moogerfooger effects similarly bad? Which Moogerfoogers best extend Mariana's capabilities better than non-CV interconnected plugins would?

I don't think I signed up for a free trial, but I got an email saying my trial for the Moogerfooger effects ends soon. I definitely didn't install them, and Moog's website tells me I didn't create an account (email not recognized when I try "forgot password"). Then again the email address says "newsletter"... but it would be utterly bizarre for them to send that out as a newsletter.

The Account thing confused me too since i signed up for their hardware account.
Found out They have 2 Accounts 1 for hw and 1 for sw so you have to create a new account from their sw site too.

[mustgroove]

Super annoying crash with this:

1. Open a blank Ableton project
2. Create an instance of Roland Cloud TR-909 VST3 on a track
3. Create an instance of Mariana VST3 on a track

Live crashes

[Ou_Tis]

So the point of CV interconnectivity with the Moogerfoogers is basically to add effects to the synth's internal signal chain? Can the Moogerfooger Freqbox be used to apply FM modulation to the Mariana's oscillators? I'd guess not, since from the demo video it seems to just allow input to modulate the Freqbox's VCO oscillator... but perhaps output from that can be used to modulate Mariana's oscillators? And I guess an unlimited number of instances of Freqbox can be CV connected, to provide as many FM oscillators as you want?...

Is the cpu efficiency of the Moogerfooger effects similarly bad? Which Moogerfoogers best extend Mariana's capabilities better than non-CV interconnected plugins would?

I don't think I signed up for a free trial, but I got an email saying my trial for the Moogerfooger effects ends soon. I definitely didn't install them, and Moog's website tells me I didn't create an account (email not recognized when I try "forgot password"). Then again the email address says "newsletter"... but it would be utterly bizarre for them to send that out as a newsletter.

After watching some of the demo videos I think I was wrong to assume the inter-plugin CV is like internal effects chains in Phase Plant or Bitwig, and it's just about modulation (which Bitwig can already do between any plugin parameters for all plugins)?

I guess this means Mariana by itself can already do audio rate FM: "The Random generators produce various voltage values based on ... audio rate noise"? OTOH, for the Mariana LFOs, "The rate goes from a nicely slow 00.5Hz up to a decent 50Hz, but there’s no real opportunity for a bit of audio rate modulation or FM synthesis".

https://www.gearnews.com/moog-mariana-b ... -the-deep/

Some of the Moogerfoogers---the Phaser and Ring Modulator for example---have LFOs that can be set to "audio rate". IDK if Moog kept the Mariana LFOs from doing audio rate modulation in order to encourage people to buy the Moogerfoogers....

[vertibration]

I have an i9-13900K at stock clock. Can confirm the performance is absolutely atrocious for a monosynth. There should be no excuse for this in 2023. It doesn't sound markedly better than some of its competitors and the filter is underwhelming vs. my Minituar that I'm trying to sell because the VST plugin to control it is hot garbage and I can't take it anymore.

And yeah, I can't stand the UI: I'd be fine with smaller knobs if everything was on one page. So stupid to have to use a tab to get to your LFOs & Envelopes. I hate it. Truly.

Get it together, Moog.

Yea I just couldnt bring myself to buy this after messing around with the Demo. The problem is the team is probably small, and has little to no contact with users via forums like KVR to take into considering the problems it has. Sending moog a support ticket will end up getting lost in the shuffle when it comes to developers getting the requests so......Yea this synth really needs CPU efficiency and a UI rework

[c0nsilience]

Demo'd briefly and dropped. Just doesn't sound great compared to other offerings already available. CPU-hungry as well. Not a huge fan of having two separate Moog accounts (like mentioned above: HW and SW). Yeah, not sure about this...

[briefcasemanx]

For some reason I haven't bought any moog stuff. I think I was under the impression that it was Mac only??? Dunno why. But I see this is windows.

What is the copy protection?

[nanostream]

Yea I just couldnt bring myself to buy this after messing around with the Demo. The problem is the team is probably small, and has little to no contact with users via forums like KVR to take into considering the problems it has. Sending moog a support ticket will end up getting lost in the shuffle when it comes to developers getting the requests so......Yea this synth really needs CPU efficiency and a UI rework

Geert Bevin, who’s a part of the team behind Mariana, has quite the reputation for being really approachable and nice. I haven’t checked in a while, but he used to hang out at the Audiobus forum, always open to suggestions. Maybe try there?

[machinesworking]

Being that I like using the Raven touch screen to write patches I’m not unhappy with the GUI. I think it’s sounds great for what it is, it’s just the same question I ask always now, I have at least a dozen analog emulations, some really good ones even, do I need another?

I’m going to get it because it does certain bass sounds like no other, but the fear is always that I don’t end up reaching for it that much and it’s just me clutter

[vertibration]

Yea I just couldnt bring myself to buy this after messing around with the Demo. The problem is the team is probably small, and has little to no contact with users via forums like KVR to take into considering the problems it has. Sending moog a support ticket will end up getting lost in the shuffle when it comes to developers getting the requests so......Yea this synth really needs CPU efficiency and a UI rework

Geert Bevin, who’s a part of the team behind Mariana, has quite the reputation for being really approachable and nice. I haven’t checked in a while, but he used to hang out at the Audiobus forum, always open to suggestions. Maybe try there?

Im sure he's wonderful. Im not going out of my way to contact anyone from Moog about this synth. If they care, they will go out of their way to be active on forums and take feedback from customers like the Image Line team, and other Devs.

[Kypresso]

So what would people recommend as an alternative bass synth then ?

[zerocrossing]

So what would people recommend as an alternative bass synth then ?

I went though about 20 different plugins to see if I could get near the sonic character I was getting from Mariana.

I bought Mariana. There's really nothing quite like it, and as much as I wish it were lighter on CPU, it just sounds great.

[BBFG#]

Yeah, it's got so much bottom end and presence that it's hard to pass on or dismiss. I just have trust issues.

[Raddler1]

So what would people recommend as an alternative bass synth then ?

I went though about 20 different plugins to see if I could get near the sonic character I was getting from Mariana.

I bought Mariana. There's really nothing quite like it, and as much as I wish it were lighter on CPU, it just sounds great.

Absolutely agree. I obsessively compared mariana to all my moog emulations and it's very capable. It has an absolutely raw and alive moog character. Beats the newly released Mini V4 imo. I will agree the tabs and GUI is frustrating, but the sound is very unique. Gotta work for it a bit though. At first I was very underwhelmed by the presets, but once you dig deeper it beautifully reveals itself. Unfortunately, the spectrum of sound possibilities is kinda limited and when you move away from the bass/mid tones, it can sound a little thin.

https://voca.ro/13MsAyCHd7T1

[DaniZzz79]

Can the Moogerfooger Freqbox be used to apply FM modulation to the Mariana's oscillators? I'd guess not, since from the demo video it seems to just allow input to modulate the Freqbox's VCO oscillator... but perhaps output from that can be used to modulate Mariana's oscillators? And I guess an unlimited number of instances of Freqbox can be CV connected, to provide as many FM oscillators as you want?...

Mariana can be CV modulated by the FreqBox Envelope and Osc.
On the Mariana side anything can be modulated (right clic on the knob) by internal or external (CV) sources.

On the reverse side you can modulate Freq, Wave, Env Amount FM amount, and MIX of the FreqBox by any of the CV outs from the mariana: synth1/2 LFO1/2/3 amp, filter and mod Envelopes, and the two randoms.