Making Music
  Computer Music Software and Hardware

Hard but flexible

The basic modus operandi is fairly simple. The modules in the synth are hardwired which means the routing between them is fixed inside the instrument. However, the software implementation allows a flexibility that was not present in the original.

The program has two modes. In Closed mode it works very much like the original Minimoog albeit with a few extras. However, click on the Open button or on the top of the fascia and the front drops forward to reveal a new set of controls on top of the machine.

But let's look at the basic controls first. There are three oscillators, each with a choice of six waveforms. The third oscillator can be used as an LFO. The output from these goes to the Mixer where it is mixed with noise from a noise generator which can be set to white or pink. Pink noise sounds like a filtered form of white noise, a surf sound to white noise's wind.

From here the sound goes to a 24dB/octave low pass filter. There is only one filter in the Minimoog and this is it. Filters were always a distinctive part of Moog synthesisers and contribute greatly to the warm, fat sound. The filter has its own envelope generator with simple ADS (Attack Decay Sustain) controls. The missing Release phase is the same as the Decay phase although this can be deactivated by a switch next to the keyboard in which case the Release time will be almost zero.

Below the filter is the Loudness Contour envelope with the same ADS controls. The sound then passes to the Output module on the right which has a master volume control, a detuning knob and a Polyphonic toggle switch. The original Minimoog was monophonic (only able to play one note at a time) but the Minimoog V can play up to 32 notes at once (CPU power permitting). The detune control detunes the oscillators in a polyphonic output to create a thicker sound.

Playing the extensions

So far we have a fairly basic and really quite simple analogue synthesiser, albeit with a sound that's as Moog as you can get. But Arturia's Minimoog V combines Moog sounds with technology to create an instrument that's much, much more than a Minimoog.

Click on the Open button and the top of the fascia panel opens to reveal a whole new set of goodies or extensions as Arturia calls them. They include a modulation matrix, an LFO, an arpeggiator, and chorus and delay effects. The details of the modules, however, are rather small in comparison to the rest of the instrument and on a high resolution screen they can be difficult to see.

The modulation options offered by the original Minimoog were few and limited. On the Minimoog V, the modulation matrix contains six sets of modulation routings, each set with a choice of 12 sources and 32 destinations. Sources include VCO 3, the filter and amplitude envelopes, the LFO, pitch bend and modulation wheels, and various MIDI controllers. The destinations cover just about every controllable parameter such as the VCO frequencies and output levels, the width of the pulse waveforms, the filter envelope, the mixer, and the LFO. This alone adds a whole new dimension to the instrument. Many Minimoog users must have dreamed of more flexibility and now they've got it!

If you wanted to use a LFO modulation in the original Minimoog, you had to take VCO 3 out of the sound generation loop and use that. The LFO extension means you can use all three oscillators for sound production - or use it in conjunction with VCO 3 and have two LFO sources. The LFO is used through the modulation matrix and can be routed to 32 destinations. In addition, it can be synced to the tempo of the host application if you're running the program in a sequencer.

No modern soft synth would be complete without presets. The original Minimoog had none at all while the Minimoog V has 400. There are some superb sounds here ranging from distinctive Moog bases and leads to pads and effects.

The arpeggiator is similar to the those that adorned a range of synths from the Minimoog era. If you hold down a chord, it plays the notes in it in various patterns such as up, down, backwards and random. There are octave and repeat controls and the arpeggiator can also sync to MIDI tempo. Great fun!

The chorus and delay effects play a major part in beefing-up the sound. Controls are few but the effects do an excellent job. The chorus can be used as a thickener or sweetener. The delay can add ambience like reverb or discrete delays and echoes. It's in stereo, too so you can make the sound ping pong between the speakers. It can also be synced to MIDI tempo.

There's a lot of good info in the manual including a short guide to analogue synthesis and an example of how to create a sound but it's rather bitty and not well ordered. It could be a little more comprehensive and an index would be helpful.

If you already have Arturia's Moog Modular V, this may seem a bit lightweight but if you've been put off analogue synths by the complexity of their programming, the Minimoog V provides as easy an entry into synthesis as you can get. Add the effects, arpeggiator and additional modulation routings and you get bags more sound for hardly any more programming. If you like Moogs, you'll love this!