Muse - New 8-voice Synth from Moog!

[trusampler]

Anyone compare the keybeds, between these too? I love the Trigons keybed. The Muse is on my list of synths to check out this year.

[cryophonik]

Some might find this comparison between Muse and Trigon-6 useful:

The Muse clearly sounds better, until the times when it sounds worse.

No way, you’re out of your mind. The Trigon sounds undeniably better, except when the Muse does.

[trusampler]

lol

[zerocrossing]

Some might find this comparison between Muse and Trigon-6 useful:

The Muse clearly sounds better, until the times when it sounds worse.

No way, you’re out of your mind. The Trigon sounds undeniably better, except when the Muse does.

Hey! I posted that comment on the video!

[Constructed Identity]

Just played a Muse at the local Guitar Center. My thoughts:
Keybed has a short throw, feels good. The after touch is a little easier to control that my 3rd wave.
Knobs are nice. The sliders are plastic over metal and are a little wobbly, they could have done better.
The screen is great, very clear. The effect is deep with HP & LP filters for the feedback. From the factory it doesn't display changes on screen, but that is easy to change. Loved the sound, with either filters set to HP-LP in sequence or in dual mode you get nice resonant sweeps. Really nice character in the sound overall.
The extra controls available by pressing the module's corner button are also really nice. For example, the VCA envelope has control over slopes from linear to varying exponential levels.
Overall I really liked it. I will probably get one in the next couple months based on today's experience.

[CoolColJ]

Good video exploring Muse features in less bog standard fashion.
Showcases it's character better than most other videos I have seen

[Uncle E]

Does that sound better than plugins? I feel like I could make all of those sounds, if not better, with plugins.

[CoolColJ]

I visited my local music shop today

Played the Moog Muse a whole lot, and the PolyBrute 12 as well.

Didn't hear the Muse on speakers but it sounded good on my headphones, and had a lot of fun with it, when I noodled with the INIT.
The presets were awful though.
The raw oscillators are fairly edgey and brash sounding.
The keys felt good and are somewhere between the Trigon/3rd Wave and PB12 in weight/action.
Good tactile controls, but the sliders are way too sensitive in the useable range....
Knobs would have been better here for finer control.

I recorded the my whole Muse noodle, but unfortunately I plugged it into the mic input of my Sony D50!
RIP, distorted low level recording...
Damn it!

I had it doing some snappy plucky sounds, deep basses, lush synthwave style washes, and mellow arps/sequences.
Tried all the filter serial/parallel/stereo options, envelope shape curves, and what not
The mixer drive is very nice
Had a lot of fun.
I will try and repeat it again and get it recorded properly so I can hear how it sounds on my system.

It was pretty out of tune, so that spoiled things a bit...

Problem is it so expensive here.
$3500 USD would be around $4500-5000AUD here, but it's like $6300AUD
The Trigon is around $4400AUD, which is where it should be.
If it was I'd get one....

[CoolColJ]

Does that sound better than plugins? I feel like I could make all of those sounds, if not better, with plugins.

maybe so, but the fun factor and ease of use and operation, interface is damn site better than plugins, based on my noodle with it today.

The filter set up is pretty damn nice, and not something you can easily do with plugins.
Things that have chaotic behaviours like that are hard to model

[Uncle E]

maybe so, but the fun factor and ease of use and operation, interface is damn site better than plugins, based on my noodle with it today.

That's true. I program my plugins using a System-1 and that provides the fun factor for me, but the Muse does have a lot more going on. Anyway, that video is completely in line with my experience of it. It's perfect for anyone looking for those kinds of modern sounds.

[egbert101]

For people who actually make music, and by that I mean the Pop industry, or whatever, and not strictly the electronic music industry (or nerds like us), the Muse works perfectly and is probably the best analog poly for the job. But for precisely that reason, that it doesn't blow me away or satisfy my love for electronic music sounds, is the reason why it doesn't interest me.

[Jim Roseberry]

Context is everything.
More complex evolving sounds (almost a composition in themselves) often don't work in a band/ensemble situation.

I agree with @CoolColJ that the sliders aren't great.
It can be a bit fiddly trying to get Decay just right.

Having been thru all the major synths/keyboards the past 30 years, I'm not sure anything blows me away (anymore).
That initial rush of excitement isn't what it once was.
But... I can't even imagine the 20 year-old me having the likes of PolyBrute 12 or Muse.
When the Prophet 5 came out, heard a guy playing it at Coyle Music (family owned brick-and-mortar store)... and it blew my mind. Wanted it so bad... but just couldn't afford it.
The unjaded 20 year old me would have thought both the PolyBrute 12 and Muse were life-changing instruments.

To add some perspective (even aside from intonation issues), Moog One didn't blow me away.
I couldn't live with the intonation issues (drove me crazy)... so it's gone.
Moog One's UI is amazing (better than Muse or PolyBrute 12).
"More" buttons bring up menus that display ALL parameter values. Muse "More" buttons just show additional parameters.
Some of Muse's "More" buttons bring up menus with no current additional parameters.
Moog One's sound is a bit like PolyBrute... in that you have to work to make it sound large/thick.

At less than half the cost of Moog One, PolyBrute 12 is (IMO) a lot of what Moog One should have been.
I'd say the same about Muse.

For whatever reason, I like the PolyBrute 12's UI slightly better than Muse.
If PolyBrute 12 had Muse's oscillators and Model D's Filter, the choice would be simple.

Wish Muse had 16-voices and Model D's Filter. Of course, it would be larger/heavier and likely a lot more expensive.

[CoolColJ]

For people who actually make music, and by that I mean the Pop industry, or whatever, and not strictly the electronic music industry (or nerds like us), the Muse works perfectly and is probably the best analog poly for the job. But for precisely that reason, that it doesn't blow me away or satisfy my love for electronic music sounds, is the reason why it doesn't interest me.

I think it can do fun and experimental just fine from what I noodled with yesterday.
The dual filters in stereo and parallel allow for a ton of chaotic textures
The stereo function remind me a lot of the Jupiter 8 dual mode where you have two slightly different sounds, one left and the other right

Going back soon to redo my recording of it....

[lfm]

Moog One's UI is amazing (better than Muse or PolyBrute 12).
"More" buttons bring up menus that display ALL parameter values. Muse "More" buttons just show additional parameters.
Some of Muse's "More" buttons bring up menus with no current additional parameters.

Is Muse having current values from presets shown in some way?

Prologue has a nice '*' and you can dial in any knob.
REV2 has holding Misc/show button showing value in display.

Thinking ability to disect existing patches that you want to learn from?
- how did they do that, kind of thing

EDIT: yes, there is a global setting to turn that feature on, and gives both current value of a knob/slider and the saved value. Really nice.

And is there any compare/preview when writing patches to memory?
- to easily browse patches and when you hear non-keeper you overwrite that location

I love that from Nordlead, Polybrute and REV2 also.

EDIT: manual only explains Compare button to current patch location, not if you can browse with that on while about to save a patch.

Thanks.

[CoolColJ]

Went back for another play today.
And got a free Moog Muse bag



Some odd things the pitchbend wheel is reversed - up is down, and vice versa...

It seems to be up to my snappy and thumpy desires and standards
Subjectively my Trigon is thicker for synth sounds, more low mid cream. That third oscillator seems to add more vs the Muse

Here are some collages of my noodle there with the init patch. recorded into my Sony D50 at 24 bit 96khz. Mostly dry

Bass
https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/moog-mu ... ss-collage

Ambient Arp
https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/moog-mu ... mbient-arp

Synth sounds
https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/moog-mu ... nth-sounds