played a multimoog today

voltageHead · Post by **voltageHead** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:03 am

That sweet thick moog sound.I have never seen a multi moog before.

tyrannosaurus mark · Post by **tyrannosaurus mark** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:11 am

The micromoog I have is the one osc stripped down version of a multimoog. But it doesn't sound thin to my ears, unless you want that detunned osc techno sound or something in which case it can't do that

has a really 'warm' sound to it. I imagine the multimoog just adds to that with the extra osc and filter option

clusterchord · Post by **clusterchord** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:20 am

i LOVE the sound of multimoog. it may not be as quick n punchy as source, pro one, or late moogmusic version of minimoog. but one word comes to mind: WARM.. i tried it side by side with the late mini and it was warmer n smoother esp the filter. it had that 70s mojo, more like the previous version of mini (so called "old osc board", and the original, R.A.Moog/musitronics version). also it did sweet PWM leads.

if u want hear how multimoog does bass listen to Saga "Silent Knight". also on Sagas first self-titled album its used for some brass n quasi-french horn leads. typical prog sounds of the time. beautiful.

in some things more limited than mini, but had some other unique tricks.

xpander · Post by **xpander** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 3:28 am

this begs the question- how much were they asking?

mok · Post by **mok** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 8:45 pm

one thing to note: I plugged my multi into an oscilloscope and found that the waveforms are really perfect. Saw looks like saw, square looks like square, pulse width does exactly what it should, and the hybrid saw/pulse is exactly that. Maybe other synths people have used are less accurate in waveform generation, so they rely on wack effects or weird harmonic manipulation to get there, but in my experience, if you start with pure waveforms like that on the multimoog, jam into a moog ladder filter, you almost can't get better pure, fat (!), great bass/lead synth lines. Perhaps the unit the OP tried was out of cal - wouldn't surprise me at GC. Multi is also one of the easiest to calibrate. If all of the components inside are within tolerances, you can get spot on tune and scale and filter calibration. The Multimoog is to me the best Moog mono synth short of a modular. For bass, lead, and out of this world crazy space sounds, it is ridiculous. I almost sold it once because I wanted a MIDI controller and thought of replacing it with a LP. Then I recorded it for a couple of minutes, jockeying through as many crazy sounds as I could make, and in that short time realized that for me, an LP could never get where this thing can. A starter: I simply love having a full range oscillator for filter frequency modulation. That and other tricks can be heard in this clip:

Good luck in your quest.

clusterchord · Post by **clusterchord** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:26 pm

ahhhh magnificent. filter is so liquidy. and the crossmod filter fm effects towards the end sound phenomenal. i did these on some old rolands like promars, but this is way nicer. it almost has a wider freq range from P5 rev2 which is my benchmark for beautiful, musical xmod n filterfm stuff..

ive listened to the second clip too (one with dimension d).. very nice too.

edit: damn , i wish i got one bfr prices went thru the roof, i.e. prior to Bob's departure.

sizzlemeister · Post by **sizzlemeister** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:11 am

Holy c**p. If you can just sit down at a Multimoog and get those sounds then there's no way a LP can replace it. That's the baddest Moog I've ever heard right there. Great sound demo.

Just listened to the Multimoog FM demo. Yup, that's the baddest Moog I've heard. Wowzers.

mpa1104 · Post by **mpa1104** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:56 am

Mok, excellent demo, thanks for posting. I've been giving my little micromoog a thorough workout of late and often wonder how much fun it would be to have the multi. It always looked fine on paper, now I know it sounds damn fine too.

Pighood · Post by **Pighood** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:23 am

I owned a Multimoog once. It had a punch-you-in-the-d**k sound that was aggressive as h**l. Flaky & unreliable, though.

tyrannosaurus mark · Post by **tyrannosaurus mark** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:41 am

Pighood wrote:I owned a Multimoog once. It had a punch-you-in-the-d**k sound that was aggressive as h**l. Flaky & unreliable, though.

Oh really? what kind of problems did you have with yours?

Automatic Gainsay · Post by **Automatic Gainsay** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:03 am

I have always felt that the Multimoog has received a bad rap. It is plainly a very versatile synthesizer with a host of interesting functionality.

A lot of Moogs suffer the "But It's Not A Minimoog" disease, which is stupid. In some respects, the Multi, and even the Micro, have a leg up on the Minimoog. It's not ALL about stacking oscillators, after all.

A lot of people complain about the Multi (and the Micro) not sounding like the Mini... but it's not a Mini... it's a different synth. There is simply no reason it SHOULD sound like Mini... none of the other Moog offerings sound like Minis either.

One thing, though: The Multi is different from the Micro, despite looking similar and having the same functionality. Apparently, the filter was a bit overdriven by the oscillator in the Micro to "make up" for the fact that it only had one oscillator. When they made the Multi some years later, they didn't include this overdriving because it had two oscillators... thinking the overdriving unnecessary.
So, it's possible when people describe the Multi as "thin," that's what they're talking about. But really, it's only "thin" if you're looking for a sound in the Multi that you should be looking for elsewhere, so there it is.

I've always wanted one!

WhinyLittleRunt · Post by **WhinyLittleRunt** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:53 pm

I gave up my LP and continue to use my MicroMoog because the bass sounds on the Micro are stronger and thicker to my ears. I don't think the Micro sounds anything like an MG-1 (which I've owned simultaneously with the Micro) - I think the LP and MG-1 are closer in sound, with the LP obviously having a lot more in terms of control and diversity.

As far as the Multimoog being unreliable, it's probably true. If it's anything like the Micromoog, just longer, it's in a very thin casing that flexes, so it's no surprise that these things took their share of abuse and probably shook up the electronics. Any of us these days who have a prime example of one or the other are probably very lucky because the majority of these things I see in stores or online are beat to s**t.

mok · Post by **mok** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:29 am

thanks for the nods on those demos... between the Multi and my Jupiter-8 I have now (for the briefest time probably) come to a point where I only have GAS for new and neato things, but my vintage GAS is sated. Yes, it is true that there are things about both of those synths that become less reliable and prone to wonkyness over the years. The Multi specifically (at least mine) can suffer from those gritchy J-wire/buss bar contacts. The tuning needs to be done about once every six months (I consider myself lucky in that dept). The upper end of the mod wheel is totally unpredictable. Before I got this one, I believe it had been in a flood. I only say that because the top plastic is curled up all around and instead of being white graphics they are orange! The original owner had a few components that were damaged replaced with exact value replacements, got some new knobs and a new pitch ribbon (from Modusonics), replaced the bushings for the keys, and did the filter low-freq mod (see http://www.emusic-diy.org/MoogManuals/MicroMoog for that one) - basically a very clean restoration. Then he decided he didn't want it after all the work, so I picked it up for $1000 off eBay. If I want to make noises, I'll switch in the VCA envelope bypass and go nuts (like that "sales" demo). If I want to play lines, I turn on the Pro-Solo and it's a lock. As always, vintage analogs are found in varying states. I feel lucky to have this one in the shape it's in and intend to keep it at least as good as it is. Don't forget, this was marketed mostly to touring musicians as their gig Moog. It's pretty light and warms up and stays in pretty good tune after only about 10 minutes. I think it was also made when Bob didn't own Moog but licensed his designs to Moog, so it's not "Bob" build quality, but the circuits are there and it is very modular friendly with lots of inputs and outputs for audio and CV. People probably went hard for the Micro as it was way cheaper, so there were less Multis sold (I think around 1000?). When I wanted to get a Moog, I first thought of the Mini, but it was too expensive. Then I thought of the Prodigy, which was more in my price range, but looking at the Multi (which isn't too much more), I loved all of the additions. It's got stuff that even the Mini doesn't have (like keyboard pressure as a mod source, S&H...) and *most* of the vibe is there. Messing with it, I feel like I can coax out the rest 8) I played the LP a bunch when I was trying to consolidate to a MIDI controller and mono Moog. I like the LP. I love the LP's overdrive. I like patch storage and MIDI and... but to get what I get with the Multi, I'd have to buy almost every Moogerfooger and then some other stuff. So I bought a Pro-Solo and a nice Novation controller to settle my nerves and, like having gone through couple's therapy with my Multi, settled back down and 'learned to love again'

And the secret weapon to all of those divebombing filter freq mod sweeps is the Multi's full range oscillator. The main osc goes 32', 16', 8', 4', 2', and WIDE, where a separate pot controls the freq from about 5 Hz to 25 kHz (my guesses). Feed that into the filter (in TONE mode, generating a pure sine wave) as a modulator (using Filter FM) and Bob's your uncle! And it's got a separate LFO and oct/2-oct down generator! I know, I should stop selling it, especially since I'm not selling mine... It's just there's few things like this that are so tactile and responsive and allow you to get that much closer to the thing you're looking for. It could be more expressive/robust/reliable/'phat'/whatever, but when you've got the mojo, you can sacrifice some of that other stuff.

Pighood · Post by **Pighood** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:48 am

tyrannosaurus mark wrote:
Pighood wrote:I owned a Multimoog once. It had a punch-you-in-the-d**k sound that was aggressive as h**l. Flaky & unreliable, though.
Oh really? what kind of problems did you have with yours?

Often the filter would freak out...don't know how to describe it in more accurate terms.

Pighood · Post by **Pighood** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:48 am

tyrannosaurus mark wrote:
Pighood wrote:I owned a Multimoog once. It had a punch-you-in-the-d**k sound that was aggressive as h**l. Flaky & unreliable, though.
Oh really? what kind of problems did you have with yours?

Often the filter would freak out...don't know how to describe it in more accurate terms.