New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

[TwilightOdyssey]

After much internal debate and many videos, I decided to pull the trigger on the Mother-32. One reason is because it pretty much tops every list of synths for getting into modular. And the other is - - it's a Moog!

This unit has the sweetest square wave I have heard.

Can't wait to stack it with my other synths this weekend!

[jtougas]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

Hah! For a second there, I read that Arturia as being a "KEYSTER" and thought "Brave of them to name it that..."

[LLL]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

Gave it a quick play last night. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that it took a good 10 minutes to get any appreciable audio out of the thing!

Another quick observation: CV is SO MUCH easier to use than MIDI! Having both is ideal, of course, in terms of sheer versatility, but it's a whole lot easier to connect CV from the BeatStep/BeatStep Pro/KeyStep than to muck around with menus assigning MIDI channels to everything!

[jtougas]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

Well, yeah, it's analog control versus digital emulation.

While I was in college, I attended a talk by the Jaron Lanier, who claimed to have invented MIDI for Roland (something now credited to Dave Smith, so there might need to be some research done). He basically said, "This was created over the course of a weekend, was incredibly limited and limiting, and was never intended to stay around for a long time." He may simply have been kvetching about Roland's implementation of it on their equipment, such as the 808 being limited to 4/4. *shrug*

To which I agree. We're in the 21st century, we've got vastly larger storage space; it wouldn't hurt to develop a MIDI 2.0 that gives us a little more fluidity, even if it is at the expense of larger files.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

Re: the history of MIDI, they are both right. But the actual acronym MIDI is Dave Smith; he was also one of the designers of the standard.

There was an update to MIDI, but the original spec does everything we need, so why change it just to change it?

Out of curiosity, though, if you were on the committee for MIDI 2.0, what would you add?

[jtougas]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

I'm not entirely sure - I would best be qualified as a "deeply educated newbie" when it comes to MIDI... a lot of learning (including an electronic music class while I was a music major), without a lot of practical experience (very simple and straightforward MIDI setups, nothing advanced).

So, maybe a better implementation for channels and instrument selection/differentiation. More fluid rhythm construction?

As I said, I think Lanier was mostly kvetching about Roland's 4/4 lockdown on the 808 and how much it has standardized pop music - again, a limitation of the times. Now, you could do your matrix construction on an LED display (be right back, need to go file a patent for a next generation 808...)


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[Mincer]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

Haha, I was listening to Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record as I read this. I can't play keys, but I've learned a lot of his very fast Moog lines on guitar.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

Ha!

Yes, now on the hardware side it's quite easy to program odd time signatures. I like how the hardware has grown more intuitive (aside from having to remember each manufacturer's quirks for menu/parameter diving) whilst maintaining backwards compatibility.

I have a moderately-gonzo MIDI setup and use it on a daily basis, so it's entirely possible that I've just grown so used to it's shortcomings that I don't notice them (forest, trees, &cet).

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

Haha, I was listening to Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record as I read this. I can't play keys, but I've learned a lot of his very fast Moog lines on guitar.

Neither can I, really; but my playing has gotten (sic) much better over the past couple of years now that I play keys all the time and am doing guitar/keys live.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: New Synth Day - - Moog Mother-32

Had a serious play on the Mother-32 last night, and learned a valuable lesson. I started right in by sync'ing the Mother-32, MiniBrute, and MOPHO with the BeatStepPro and Korg SQ-1. I recorded a whole bunch of tracks and they sounded great. Woke up this morning and checked the tracks only to find that the tuning had drifted quite far as I was playing. This morning I let the synths warm up a full 30 minutes before I started playing. They held tuning much, much better than last night and the sounds were overall MUCH fatter coming from both synths! The Mother-32 is a tremendous sounding synth! When combined with the second VCO of the MiniBrute, the sound is massive! Though I was bummed about having to re record the synths again, the end results are so much better.