Cherry Audio's new Minimode

[David Emm]

I started out with a real Mini eons ago and now enjoy cranking up CA's Memorymode, so there's no hole in my rig that needs this. I was briefly keen on GForce's Minimonsta, but it won't run under Big Sur, so bleep it. The Minimode demos have the ol' Moog squirt, so it's a clear win.  

 

The other side of it is how easy its become to build a monster of a prog dream stack with CA synths alone. Like most of us, I have a variety of instruments from different companies so as to engage more than one ideological "tone." Once you get past being too puckered over that aspect of the game, the sound always wins. The Memorymode rattles my bass bin and solos like my old Mini. I can't want for more at that point.       

 

I was a bit let down at yet another Mini, but what's left that doesn't have a software emulation out there? TBH, effects sections add what was missing on half the originals. I'm pleased with the flow of things, because the original hardware will die on a downward curve that matches the upswing of softsynths and Behringeroids. 🤨 🤓

[Tom Fiala]

Would love to see some other classic keys in software.  How about a Synthex or a Chroma, for example, to name two that are unobtainable?

[Tusker]

I am eager to listen to this Mini from CA. My Minimonsta is a victim of Apple’s updates and Monark has a particular quality of mini (aggressive). I feel it helps to have more than one soft emulation handy. 

 

Do we know if the CA synths offer more modulation options than the synths they are emulating?

[RABid]

I posted a question on the Cherry Audio forum asking for a chart of the differences between the MemoryMode and MiniMode. Looking forward to an answer. Also put a request in for a Chroma VSTi.

 

[Doerfler]

3 hours ago, Tusker said:

I am eager to listen to this Mini from CA. My Minimonsta is a victim of Apple’s updates and Monark has a particular quality of mini (aggressive). I feel it helps to have more than one soft emulation handy. 

 

 

As am I, Jerry. Surely I will buy this for the offering price. I have owned Minimonsta for almost 12 years . Love the built in effects and poly mode. It runs fine on Windows 10 but GForce has not updated the GUI like they have for M TRON PRO. I'm too old to need to squint while looking at a 32" monitor. This is one of the great things about CA's offerings. The GUI's are BIG. The CA 2600 is so fn cool I'll never buy a hardware version. 

[David Emm]

I got to noodle on a Chroma in a music store, but I've lost track of its aroma. It didn't persist long enough to get a real-world feel for it. The original GUI would be an intolerable pain in 2022 terms, so you're talking either nimbly-crafted, *friendly* software or a very costly attempt to make a knobular version only BT can afford.

 

I already knew what to expect in a Memorymoog emulation, but the Chroma is from Neptune. "Herbie liked it" doesn't really give me a frame of reference. 🤨 

[Piktor]

The Minimoog does a particular thing that is beautiful. As part of a transaction for a friend in the late 1970s, I actually owned one for a short two weeks. I have long dreamed of owning one permanently. At current prices I doubt that will ever come to pass, so this new release caught my attention. 

 

I listened to some of the Cherry Audio demos that people posted on You Tube and I get the impression that there are a bunch of Youtubers who have no idea what an actual Minimoog does best. The Mini shines as a monophonic lead synth and a synth bass. I am hearing some folks making cheesy poly sounds that seem to have nothing much to do with the Mini's beauty.  Have any of you found a great demo that shows this virtual instrument making some of the iconic sounds that we came to love from the seventies? 

 

Does anyone have an opinion as to how the CA version compares to Moog's own Minimoog IOS app?  

[CyberGene]

I use the following app on my iPhone and iPad:

https://apps.apple.com/app/mood/id1218198148
 

It’s a Minimoog on steroids: additional mods, effects, etc. 

[RABid]

10 hours ago, David Emm said:

I got to noodle on a Chroma in a music store, but I've lost track of its aroma. It didn't persist long enough to get a real-world feel for it. The original GUI would be an intolerable pain in 2022 terms, so you're talking either nimbly-crafted, *friendly* software or a very costly attempt to make a knobular version only BT can afford.

Once you got used to it the Chroma was not bad to program. Push a membrain button, look at the value in the read out, move the data slider. The real power of the Chroma was in the electronics. Good sound, complex voice structure, up to 16 notes (I think, been a while), the ability to layer sounds or split the keyboard. Built in velocity and release velocity, optional after touch, the ability to connect to a computer and have 16 parts each playing a different patch. The programming was brilliant. My favorite was the guitar patch. Push forward on the mod lever and you got vibrato. Pull back on the lever and you got a nice feedback sound. A seperate patch was designed to emulate guitar amp feedback rumble. I layered the two and ended up playing many of the guitar solos for our band. The feedback guitar parts in Reflex - The Politics of Dancing is a good example of solo parts that this patch could nail. I Love it When You Call Me Names by Joan Armatradding was another. Our guitarist could never get the slow fade in of feed back right for that sound. For my Chroma it was easy.

 

Note, this was a time when keyboards like the Prophet 5 and MemoryMoog did not have velocity or after touch. Other companies were scrambling to release something to compete. That is how we got the Prophet T8. Then there were the tricks like being able to reverse the keyboard. Multiple inputs for sustain and CV pedals that let you do things like hit a chord, then play other keyboards. The chord would not sound until you pressed the pedal. Very handy when you are a single keyboardist trying to orchestrate a bunch of parts.

 

A lot of songs on the radia during that time used patches from the Chroma with no edits. We played Dirty Laundry and I only needed to add delay. Rocket was a lot of fun since Herby Handcok had a Chroma. The lead on that song was from a patch on the Chroma, again no editing necessary.

[Steve Nathan]

Well, for what it's worth, in head to head with the Mini V3 I've used for a while, I would give the nod to this one from Cherry Audio.  My actual Mimi has been in need of repair for too long, so I'm using my weak ass brain to recall, but at the end of the day, it matters less to me whether it is a perfect substitute, and more that it be a tool I can use.  For $39, I'll take it.

[Mark Schmieder]

Synthax has been done by both Xils-lab and Arturia. Quite good, both of them, but I've come to prefer the Arturia.

 

I bought this after listening to the demos, even though I have other minimoog emulations and a hardware Voyager.

 

There's still something about bass patches on original minimoog architecture that isn't quite matched on later models.

[ksoper]

For $39 it might be worth it just to do a head-to-head. CA's blind test was pretty weak and what else have I got to do? 

[drawbars]

Has anyone A:B'd the CA Minimode vs. the GEforce Minimonsta?  I bought both the MM and Oddity 2 during GEforce's Easter sale last month -- $30US each was too sweet a deal to pass up -- and while I love the sound of the MM, it has downsides:

1. The emulation is a little weak in the mid-bass.
2. The UI is getting long in the tooth, and desperately needs the ability to resize and/or hide the virtual keyboard.
3. The enhancements are so massive that it's easy to accidentally enable unwanted 'uber-Minimoog' features.  This is especially true when modding GEforce library patches.  I just want a Minimoog's sound path.

#1 is easy to fix with EQ; in fact, I have a preset in Sonitus EQ to do just that.  The other two, not so much.  I just want a simple Minimoog clone with a big display for my old-man eyes.  Maybe polyphonic at times, but nothing else.

 

But if Minimode doesn't sound as good as Minimonsta, then I'll stick with what I've got.

 

[Doerfler]

Hey Bruce -

 

I had mentioned the same issue as your #2 referencing Minimonsta earlier in this thread.

 

Haven't downloaded CA Minimode yet due to life getting in the way, hoping to do so in the next few days.

 

All of the other CA offerings have a 30 day free trial period, hoping it is the same with Minimode.

 

Would really like to know what your thoughts are comparing the two.