The Moog One

[HammondDave]

I am curious what the group thinks about this awesome instrument now that it’s been out for 3 years.  Yes, it’s expensive… but what does this not do? I don’t have to think about my non-existent kids needing a college fund… hummm….

 

https://www.moogmusic.com/products/moog-one
 

[Nathanael_I]

It is very awesome. Sounds great. Seems to have been put together by true synth lovers who tried to think of everything. The firmware updates have fixed most early issues I think and added new features.  It’s very deep in what it can do. I think the Waldorf Iridium is the digital cousin of this board. Both massively capable. And have a decent learning curve.

 

Having the Bowen Solaris covers this territory for me. But the Moog is a beautiful premium instrument. If the $ work and you like the architecture and sound….

[Delaware Dave]

I've had all the electro-mechanicals throughout my life (Hammond, Wurli, Rhodes, Clav, CP70) but from a synth perspective I've never owned a Moog.  I've had 'Moog knockoffs" and digital synths but never purchased a Moog; I always found them too expensive for the amount of time that I would use it.  A friend of mine had one so I've played one but never owned one.  

 

[EscapeRocks]

it's a great machine

Eric Levy, excellent pianist and synth artist, as well as current Night Ranger keyboardist, has one.    He features quite a bit in his solo work and online videos.

 

Here's a couple

 

 

 

 

[GRollins]

I'm sure you'll get a bunch of glowing reviews...here's your dissenting one...

 

Take this with any sized grain of salt that you wish because I'm primarily a strings guy, not keys, but I played the One in Asheville a while back and found it to be uninvolving, verging on boring. Generic. The polyphonic part is undeniably cool, but the sound left me cold. I started a thread on it at the time. I imagine that you can find it via the search engine if you want more words that express "meh." No, I'm not anti-Moog--I own four, two Voyagers (keyboard and RME), a Little Phatty, and a theremin. (And two Behringer Model Ds as stand-ins for the real thing.) I want Moog to succeed. I went into the Moog store super-excited to have the opportunity to lay hands on an actual One. Stoked. I left the store and told my wife not to worry, I wouldn't be dropping the money, not even for a (presumed cheaper) used one. It's just...screw it, buy a used Voyager, if you want my advice. Yeah, I know, it's not polyphonic, but it's got magic. The One doesn't.

 

There...I said it...that's good for a couple dozen posts in response to this one, telling me (and you) that I don't know what I'm talking about, that you have to take time to get to know the One, that I'm deaf and don't know good hardware when I hear it, etc. In preemptive response I'll say this: You don't have to go through a learning curve with a Model D or a Voyager to know that there's something good there--you can tell almost instantly. The One? If you've got to spend six months to get anything out of it, my view is that it takes the buyer that long to rationalize the fact that s/he put down that much money for something that doesn't really move them, emotionally. It's hard to admit that you're dissatisfied with a high dollar, high prestige item. Imagine buying a dud Ferrari model. Would you be willing to admit that you wasted your money? Most people wouldn't.

 

My advice: Find one. Play it. See what you think before plunking down your money.

 

[Grey scoots off to his closet to put on his asbestos suit, 'cause it's about to get hot 'round these parts.]

 

Grey

[HammondDave]

I appreciate all comments, pros and cons. I saw it in the Page Mcconnel rig video and was fascinated. Then I watched the Sweetwater videos and got even more excited. I owned and played the original Model D in the early 70’s. Loved it. But like an idiot I sold it aline with my Clavinet D, Rhodes, Wurly, and Hammond C3. I play the Moog Model D VST now for three songs in my band’s show. The re-issue is too heavy to lug, and I don’t want a monophonic synth for my studio, so this really intrigues me.  

[mate stubb]

I'm with Grey on this one.

 

I bought a 16 voice soon after they became available and ended up returning it.

 

I've had a weird relationship with Moogs my entire life. That characteristic Moogy fatness that I love has often eluded me when sitting down with their more modern instruments. Every time I encountered a Voyager in a music store it sounded weak and washed out compared to an old Mini.

 

The Moog One is their deepest synth yet and I have heard you can coax the power out of it if you work at it, but for the major coin I dropped, I didn't want to have to hunt for great tone.

 

Ironically, I have found that magic tone in the Matriarch - it gave me the sound I was missing immediately.

[GovernorSilver]

Had the pleasure of trying the One, in a room that also had Sequential Prophet 5, Prophet 6, and OB-6 set up.

 

I was drawn to the Prophet 5 most of all.   I ended up coming back to it again and again.  This was a surprise to me, actually.

[HammondDave]

3 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

Had the pleasure of trying the One, in a room that also had Sequential Prophet 5, Prophet 6, and OB-6 set up.

 

I was drawn to the Prophet 5 most of all.   I ended up coming back to it again and again.  This was a surprise to me, actually.

Several years ago I played the Prophet 5 at NAMM. Before I knew it, several hours had passed. Love that synth. 

[David Emm]

Its very subjective, as always. I've bought a few multi-thousand-dollar beauties, but I've generally come back to more practical instruments. Those are generally not $6-8K, ahem. My sweet spot was within the $2K or so range. I strained a financial groin at the time to buy a new Triton, but it paid off beautifully. My view is that you should either marry the thing properly or stick with more casual dabblings. (By which I mean a table or two stacked with Stuff, but not the entire den.)

 

I've owned several Moogs, but all in all, multi-tracking a soft-Mini over my Memorymode seems far more sane now. The Moog One IS a Memorymoog brought into the modern world, to my ears, so "all" you get has to be framed by whether or not that feels like YOUR voice. I barely have a primary voice, as its turned out, so nad-rattling Moog bass is just another pigment. I can build a polyphonic Moog in several ways now. OTOH, I don't play keys for Night Ranger, so my angle on it isn't the go-to position. 🤓      

[GRollins]

5 hours ago, mate stubb said:

I'm with Grey on this one.

 

I bought a 16 voice soon after they became available and ended up returning it.

 

I've had a weird relationship with Moogs my entire life. That characteristic Moogy fatness that I love has often eluded me when sitting down with their more modern instruments. Every time I encountered a Voyager in a music store it sounded weak and washed out compared to an old Mini.

 

The Moog One is their deepest synth yet and I have heard you can coax the power out of it if you work at it, but for the major coin I dropped, I didn't want to have to hunt for great tone.

 

Ironically, I have found that magic tone in the Matriarch - it gave me the sound I was missing immediately.

If I had to choose between the D (Behringer, in my case) and the Voyager, I'd probably go with the D, driven by a wide keyboard (> 73 keys). I don't have a real Moog D to compare to, but the Behringer units sound pretty rich and creamy and I like them. The Voyager? It's a little less...organic?...but I like the way it sounds as its own thing and I have to be honest, I like the presets. For me, though, it's nice to have both. I don't have to choose.

 

And comparing a Voyager to a One? Huh...gimme the Voyager. Arguably the D would win over both, but it also depends on what song I'm working on.

 

Price? Roughly 20 Behringer Ds per One, depending on this and that, so there's that to consider, at least for me.

 

How badly do you want polyphony? No, I haven't played the Behringer paraphonic doo-dad. I have no opinion. Someone with actual experience will have to take up that argument.

 

Disclaimer: I'm so tired I can barely see. This post may not make sense. Read at your own risk. If I look at it tomorrow and it's too non-linear, I may try to revisit the notions herein.

 

Grey

[ProfD]

9 hours ago, HammondDave said:

I am curious what the group thinks about this awesome instrument now that it’s been out for 3 years.  Yes, it’s expensive… but what does this not do? 

IMO, the One doesn't really have the Moog magic or mojo.

 

The Moog One is an expensive modern analog poly synth in a sea among other poly synths that are cheaper and offer more bang for the buck. 

 

It almost feels like the Moog One was released past its prime.

 

Also IMO, only a super niche group of synrhesists will appreciate the Moog One. Otherwise, it will not move any needles sonically.😎

[Nathanael_I]

18 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

Had the pleasure of trying the One, in a room that also had Sequential Prophet 5, Prophet 6, and OB-6 set up.

 

I was drawn to the Prophet 5 most of all.   I ended up coming back to it again and again.  This was a surprise to me, actually.

I've got the OB-6. What draws me back to it again and again is that it just sounds good.  And I can't really make it sound bad.  It is easy to get a great sound that is satisfying to play.  I think that Dave Smith's real genius is in setting the control ranges on the knobs.  It's like they know the exact useful sweet spots and only let you control those things and only in the right values for good sound to emerge.  His synths never have the deepest architecture or most flexible routing, modulation, etc.  But they always sound good and program easily.  As a result, it gets used more than some of my more exotic synths.  The P5 does sound great...  Fully agreed.

[GovernorSilver]

5 hours ago, Nathanael_I said:

I've got the OB-6. What draws me back to it again and again is that it just sounds good.  And I can't really make it sound bad.  It is easy to get a great sound that is satisfying to play.  I think that Dave Smith's real genius is in setting the control ranges on the knobs.  It's like they know the exact useful sweet spots and only let you control those things and only in the right values for good sound to emerge.  His synths never have the deepest architecture or most flexible routing, modulation, etc.  But they always sound good and program easily.  As a result, it gets used more than some of my more exotic synths.  The P5 does sound great...  Fully agreed.

 

Sure, someone other than myself could have walked into that same room, around that same time, and come away with the OB-6 as the top choice for them.   Perfectly valid.

[ksoper]

Disclaimer:  I've had a relationship with Moog Music since 2000 and was in a small way involved in the design of the One.

 

When I went to Asheville to pick up my One in Aug of '19 I was expecting to be blown away. I was not. Geert Bevin himself gave me a two hour demo and I still had my reservations. The presets were meh, the sound system they played it through was paltry. (They really need a tricked out demo room, not just the gift shop.)  I did love the action and after the demo I was fairly convinced that it would do a great many things, hopefully sounding better than it did at that moment. Mike Adams asked me what I thought. I said "I felt like you built it for me. It's everything I asked for times three."  

 

So home it went but I was at the start of a major rental house renovation and didn't have time to fool with it. When I did have time I was disappointed with the quality of my presets. The One wasn't the problem. I was. I just didn't know what I was doing. The house was sold right as COVID hit and I found myself with considerably more time.  I began to find the sweet spots. I could reproduce them--they weren't just happy accidents.  I'm at a point where I can approach the One with a particular sound in mind and create it in a matter of minutes as opposed to hours.  But there's so much to do. It's really a poly modular and you can lost in the way that modules connect to each other and have "second pages" full of wonderful tweaks to make. 

 

What it is not:  It's not a polyphonic Voyager or Model D, or a MemoryMoog reboot. It's not a P6 or OB-X8. (I really love Obies and Prophets and it's really easy to make them sound good.) The One is also not a vocoder, no matter the specs suggest. It's also not cheap or cheaply made. 

 

What it is:  A luxury musical instrument that can be the centerpiece of your studio for ages to come.  In Unison mode you'll find that stupidly fat analog poly madness.  In Mono mode you can stack 48 oscillators on one note and loosen the nails in your drywall.  It is lush beyond description. It feels wonderful under the fingers. 

 

What has been helpful to me are videos from Tim Shoebridge and Matt Johnson, both of whom have really gotten inside the One and come up with beautiful sounds.  I bought the Johnson pack of sounds just to reverse engineer them. There's a Reddit user who goes by "dimundsareforever" who has a marvelous approach to the One and demonstrates how she builds her patches while dispelling some myths. 

 

Bottom line, success with the One begins with 1) actually owning it rather than demoing it in a store and 2) taking time with it.  I'm biased because of my involvement, but I still think the One is the finest hardware analog poly ever built.  It's ok if you don't.  

 

"Wanna hear it? Here it go..."

 

https://kensoper.bandcamp.com/track/come-sweet-death-j-s-bach

https://kensoper.bandcamp.com/track/in-dulci-jubilo-j-s-bach

https://soundcloud.com/b_d_c_f/sixth-double-concerto-antonio-soler-1729-1783?si=7e0a5552f327456dbbc33980805a4108&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

 

 

[CyberGene]

2 hours ago, ksoper said:

"Wanna hear it? Here it go..."

A bit of an off topic but I love your Bach arrangements. They sound exactly like following the steps of Wendy Carlos down to the patches, trills, dynamics and timbre change. I’m keen on Bach and classical arrangements but mine sound like a joke compared to yours. I absolutely love what you’ve done! ❤️

 

I’ve been unable to recreate Wendy’s patches (due to being relatively new to synths, I’ve been only playing piano until recently… and relying mostly on simple Minimoog type of synth layouts, modular is still too complex for me) which is why I’ve approached my Bach arrangements and the other classical arrangements with a bit more modern synth sound but I still strive for analog-like sounds. Here are some, if you’re interested:

https://m.youtube.com/@CyberGene/videos

[Nathanael_I]

19 hours ago, ksoper said:When I

 

Bottom line, success with the One begins with 1) actually owning it rather than demoing it in a store and 2) taking time with it.  I'm biased because of my involvement, but I still think the One is the finest hardware analog poly ever built.  It's ok if you don't.  

It’s very plausible that it’s the best analog poly ever in terms of its base capability. I have a Schmidt 8-voice. It’s even more expensive than the Moog, which doesn’t really matter, but it’s true, and interesting in light of the following:  It isn’t as flexible as the Moog One. It is essentially knob per function. It has seven filters, 4 OSC, etc. it’s a beast, and true analog. But it doesn’t have the digital brain behind it for control signals and routing. It has a very unique sound, based on ring modulation that gives sounds very different from typical Moog subtractive sound. It can sound very harsh, metallic and industrial. It comes with very lame presets. And it takes a while to learn it. But it too is unique. It yields to commitment and rewards with a unique voice. It too is a premium instrument in construction. But arguably, the Moog One is much more flexible and complete.  (And a bargain, relatively speaking).
 

my Bowen Solaris has all of this. It is a modular poly as well - different but same level of flexibility. But it is not analog, even though it sounds like it. 
 

the Moog One as a synthesis platform has a huge capability matrix. I like what I’ve heard. 

[RedKey]

A few weeks ago I spent a few hours on a One and it is an impressive and very capable machine.  Then I spent 15 minutes on the Trigon 6... not the same, but I was instantly drawn in to the sound, the expressiveness, and immediacy of dialing in GREAT sound.  The One is off my radar now.  Trigon 6 arrives tonight.

[ksoper]

5 hours ago, RedKey said:

...Trigon 6 arrives tonight.

 

I don't blame you. That thing sounds amazing. Enjoy!

[mate stubb]

When did the Trigon 6 happen? I didn't even hear about this! Sad not to see Dave in the announcement vid.

[allan_evett]

5 hours ago, RedKey said:

A few weeks ago I spent a few hours on a One and it is an impressive and very capable machine.  Then I spent 15 minutes on the Trigon 6... not the same, but I was instantly drawn in to the sound, the expressiveness, and immediacy of dialing in GREAT sound.  The One is off my radar now.  Trigon 6 arrives tonight.

 

I've been studying the Trigon 6 a few weeks now. The Moog One has intrigued me, as I did own an original Memorymoog; but the cost is well beyond affordable right now.  Heck, even the Trigon 6 would be a stretch, but the temptation could easily lead to some keyboard stable adjustments. The demos sound sweet; can't wait to get some playing time in on a Trigon 6. 

[GovernorSilver]

13 hours ago, mate stubb said:

When did the Trigon 6 happen? I didn't even hear about this! Sad not to see Dave in the announcement vid.

 

Announced just this past November, so yes, some time after Dave's unexpected passing:

 

 

[RedKey]

On 1/5/2023 at 7:30 PM, allan_evett said:

The demos sound sweet; can't wait to get some playing time in on a Trigon 6. 

Allan, Give me a call and come by! 😃