Moog Mariana VST/AU/iOS Bass Synth

[miloszz]

There's a delicate balance in useful skeuomorphism and the necessities of mouse interaction. I broadly prefer the Valhalla/DMG GUI form but a little skeuo pizzazz can be nice, especially if the GUI is still big and easy to use (like Relab's QRS and 480).

OTOH, I'm trying out a lot of compressor/EQ/etc. plugins and the number of them with fiddly/unreadable interfaces because they wanted to mimic hardware is insane. The Softube Zener sounds great but on a 16" MBP screen I don't even know what half the switches are doing with such tiny text and iconography near them. BB N105 - another one that sounds great but trying to get the mouse right on the edge of the EQ dial sucks hard.

The Marianas design problem is likely that it's also designed to be an iPad app and so each screen is designed around being touched by hand rather than designed on one (maybe) two 'pages' for mouse usage.

[vertibration]

SMH

[vertibration]

I'm just so sad about this inMusic thing. I'm almost certain they're never gonna fix the Loom II GUI disaster, so why should they bother with anything else important to musicians? Why does the world of audio software have to be such a crapshoot? You never know if your investment's gonna be protected, because a bunch of suits could just come along at any time and buy any small software house out and make it platform exclusive and stagnant (see: Apple > Camel Audio) or just let it gather dust till you start to get really nervous (see: Samsung > HARMAN > Lexicon > PCM Native Total Bundle > ancient GUI > my uncontrollable rage at the Korean chaebol company structure that just doesn't care at all about the peons that rely on its products that no one can seem to change).

I think it's logical to worry, but Camel was bought by Apple, i.e. a small developer made the firm choice to sell to a major corporation, so in that sense how can you trust any company? Alchemy hasn't stagnated in Logic, I don't use Logic so like many I lost Camel Phat, Space, and Alchemy. Blaming large corporations is kicking water uphill, smaller companies will balk on VST3, resizable GUIs, Apple Silicon support and any other number of maintenance or improvement upgrades that require too much rewriting for the income flow they provide. Case in point would be U-He and the Ubick still being behind in support no Apple Silicon, VST3 etc.

I'm just as or even more annoyed about Loom II, it's unusable on Apple Silicon outside of Bitwig, which wraps the VSTi somehow circumventing GUI glitches but it still crashes. I suspect they'll do the same thing to it that they did to Vacuum Pro, now rebranded as Tube Synth, and sell it as a new product.

InMusic are doing right by Akai, it's Air in particular that's being weird, but I'm certain I'm right, they had to completely redesign the GUI's of the old Air products and they took the opportunity to make most of them work on the Force and MPCs. You can see than in their "new" products. I'm not super happy about the lack of acknowledgment that they're using older tech in their new products, but I don't think I paid over $50 for anything ever from Air, Loom at $35 might be the most "expensive".

They are absolutely not doing right by Akai are you serious? A $2500 "Flagship" MPC with no converters, and the value depreciates like crazy.

[machinesworking]

They are absolutely not doing right by Akai are you serious? A $2500 "Flagship" MPC with no converters, and the value depreciates like crazy.

4-5 instruments added, dozens of FX, massive updates for 4+ years since I've owned one.
Converters? are you mad it doesn't have preamps built in? IMO that's weird, the only good pres built in to an audio card I've used are RME, and they're bland, but transparent.
You can't be talking about connectivity in general, USB ports, bluetooth and wifi, MIDI, CV, SD card, line and phono in, ethernet etc. and that's on the MPC Live II here.
Oh and if you want more it works with class compliant MIDI and audio devices. Plus I don't buy things to sell them.

The MPC line up is really great value if you want a dedicated device, personally I like using it as a controller for the software mostly in a DAW, but I write in it standalone as well, it pushes a certain workflow, which can give great results. I'm sorry you're unhappy with your purchase (or just being a weirdo commenting about something you don't use), but you're pushing a pretty lonely narrative when you paint it out to be a terrible purchase, or somehow lacking.

[vertibration]

They are absolutely not doing right by Akai are you serious? A $2500 "Flagship" MPC with no converters, and the value depreciates like crazy.

4-5 instruments added, dozens of FX, massive updates for 4+ years since I've owned one.
Converters? are you mad it doesn't have preamps built in? IMO that's weird, the only good pres built in to an audio card I've used are RME, and they're bland, but transparent.
You can't be talking about connectivity in general, USB ports, bluetooth and wifi, MIDI, CV, SD card, line and phono in, ethernet etc. and that's on the MPC Live II here.
Oh and if you want more it works with class compliant MIDI and audio devices. Plus I don't buy things to sell them.

The MPC line up is really great value if you want a dedicated device, personally I like using it as a controller for the software mostly in a DAW, but I write in it standalone as well, it pushes a certain workflow, which can give great results. I'm sorry you're unhappy with your purchase (or just being a weirdo commenting about something you don't use), but you're pushing a pretty lonely narrative when you paint it out to be a terrible purchase, or somehow lacking.

Tell me you dont know the history of MPC's without telling me you dont know the history about MPC's. Why you gotta be a noob? lmao. Cmon man.

[machinesworking]

Tell me you dont know the history of MPC's without telling me you dont know the history about MPC's. Why you gotta be a noob? lmao. Cmon man.

lol bite my ass.

seriously make your argument, but this sort if BS belongs in kindergarden. How about this? I don't give a rats ass about the history of MPCs, I care about what I can do with it right now.

[vertibration]

Tell me you dont know the history of MPC's without telling me you dont know the history about MPC's. Why you gotta be a noob? lmao. Cmon man.

lol bite my ass.

seriously make your argument, but this sort if BS belongs in kindergarden. How about this? I don't give a rats ass about the history of MPCs, I care about what I can do with it right now.

Clearly

[machinesworking]

I don't give a rats ass about the history of MPCs, I care about what I can do with it right now.

Clearly

Trolls love to troll. You literally have no real argument, period.
Analog is better than digital too right?

[vertibration]

I don't give a rats ass about the history of MPCs, I care about what I can do with it right now.

Clearly

Trolls love to troll. You literally have no real argument, period.
Analog is better than digital too right?

wrong

[cptgone]

Guys, just do the civil thing and go off topic

[martinjuenke]

New Update adds special FX.
Very suitable now for cosmic and spacy stuff (drones and strangely coloured noises) as well as the usual suspects like bass and leads.
https://www.moogmusic.com/news/introducing-mariana

[kraster]

This synth is enormous fun with the moogerfoogers.

[Ou_Tis]

This synth is enormous fun with the moogerfoogers.

Any in particular you'd recommend for use with Mariana? Do you use them for FM?

[kraster]

This synth is enormous fun with the moogerfoogers.

Any in particular you'd recommend for use with Mariana? Do you use them for FM?

Yeah.

MF 107s FreqBox (Good for FM), the MF 105s MuRF and the MF-102s Ring Mod.

The Mariana really expands the usage of the Moogerfoogers in general just as a modulation generator for the pedals.

[plexuss]

This synth is enormous fun with the moogerfoogers.

Any in particular you'd recommend for use with Mariana? Do you use them for FM?

Yeah. MF 107s FreqBox (Good for FM), the MF 105s MuRF and the MF-102s Ring Mod. The Mariana really expands the usage of the Moogerfoogers in general just as a modulation generator for the pedals.

I have the 102 and 103 and I was eyeing 105 and 107. I did pick up Mariana and really like it. Based on what has been said about the CV integration across plugins I checked to see if in Reaper they talked to each other. I saw a reference to the 102 i had open, in Mariana. So based on your post I picked up 105 and 107, already having 102 from a past PB deal.

Any tips on using the MFs effectively with Mariana? I haven't used Moogs virtual CV stuf before.