Gforce Minimonsta - holy c**p!

Leeroy Jenkins · Post by **Leeroy Jenkins** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:50 am

I thought I had heard it all, but the new Minimonsta is absolutely indistinguishable from a real Minimoog. It sounds so good it's scary. I A/B'd it to my real Minimoog. (serial 6791). Seriously, you cannot tell the difference. It's that good!

I knew this would happen. I knew that one day soft synths would sound every bit as good, if not better that their real analog counterparts. I just wasn't sure if it would happen in 2007. But it has! God I love technology. For $199 you can have a killer f**k Minimoog in your studio that rocks the house. My nostalgic days of worshipping vintage c**p are over! Analog for sale...

Pighood · Post by **Pighood** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:53 am

I have the Arturia one. While not an exact match (and, let's face it...the listener doesn't care), it's a lot of fun and comes with tons of sounds to d**k with plus a nice delay unit built in.

Analog Freak · Post by **Analog Freak** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:58 am

I wouldn't sell the farm yet, most softsynths still have a long way to go with the interface. You can't tweak knobs on the computer monitor like you can on a real piece of hardware. I have a feeling that a lot of the new software synthesizers emulating analog classics are analogous to the digital synthesizers of the eighties compared to analogs of the seventies. Then again, I haven't yet had the chance to play a real Moog MiniMoog or the Minimonsta plug-in.

VCO · Post by **VCO** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:49 am

Yes, Minimonsta is the best Mini-replica ever made (to my ears). I've been thinking of buildind a MIDI-controller which looks like a mini so I can play minimonsta like the real deal for less cash. Still, you'd always have to connect it to a computer to work which would be a pain in the a*s compared to a real mini.

Post by **Cruel Hoax** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:55 am

Patch the output into the External input. Crank it 'til it gets nasty. Now which Mini sounds better?

-Hoax

crystalmsc · Post by **crystalmsc** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:06 pm

Leeroy Jenkins wrote:I thought I had heard it all, but the new Minimonsta is absolutely indistinguishable from a real Minimoog. It sounds so good it's scary. I A/B'd it to my real Minimoog. (serial 6791). Seriously, you cannot tell the difference. It's that good!

congrats to found such beauty, it's my fav too! but never thought it will be that great

any A-B mp3s?

Visionism · Post by **Visionism** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:12 pm

Analog Freak wrote:You can't tweak knobs on the computer monitor like you can on a real piece of hardware.

Not really true anymore. There are several "box-o-knobs" MIDI controllers available that make soft synth tweaking a breeze for very little outlay. It was a revelation when I got mine. I'd find it hard to be without it now.

chnarles · Post by **chnarles** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:40 pm

I've seen some of these box-o-knobs and while that certainly gets the job done it would be sort of cumbersome to remember what knob does what when you change from one piece of software to another. I suppose if you had one box per soft synth then you could label the knobs permanently or even better have a box-o-knobs for each soft synth that looks just like the original like Korg did with their Legacy Collection replica of the MS-20. But in either of those cases it would get rather expensive and take up a lot of space.

So here's an idea that I have thought of that I haven't seen so far. You could have a box-o-knobs with a small LCD display label below each knob so you can see at a glance which knob does what, depending on which soft synth you are using. Does this exist?

synthesizers macht frei · Post by **synthesizers macht frei** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:54 pm

chnarles wrote:So here's an idea that I have thought of that I haven't seen so far. You could have a box-o-knobs with a small LCD display label below each knob so you can see at a glance which knob does what, depending on which soft synth you are using. Does this exist?

Yes. The Novation Remote SL. But the LCD display is over the knobs so It doesn´t really fit your needs eh?

droolmaster0 · Post by **droolmaster0** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:14 pm

And I would say that it would be very silly for someone who can't discern any difference at all to spend the extra money on the hardware version.

chnarles · Post by **chnarles** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:04 pm

synthesizers macht frei wrote:Yes. The Novation Remote SL. But the LCD display is over the knobs so It doesn´t really fit your needs eh?

Close enough! This looks like a pretty neat gadget. I like the version that has a keyboard built in, I only hope that they would make a 5 octave version. Thanks for the tip!

chnarles · Post by **chnarles** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:12 pm

Oh wait, I just found the 61 key version. Looks nice. Not cheap though.

Bitexion · Post by **Bitexion** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:27 pm

The key point for me with Minimonsta is that Rick Wakeman created tons of presets for it. He's my hero, and one of the most prominent Minimoog fanatics.
There's the stories about him having 10 mini's on stage in the 70's with tape over all the knobs so he'd have lots of "presets" to jump between.

He still drags an old Model D on the road and plays it constantly during his shows. Such wonderfully loud, sharp, warm lead sounds.
I specially like that the wakeman sounds are named after his songs, so you get the "exact" lead sound in Catherine Parr, or Merlin the Magician etc. Lovely stuff. He was among the first to buy a Minimoog when it was released, and have been in love with them ever since, he's probably owned a dozen or more over the years.
He's said that no Minimoog sounds the same, they are all individual because they were handmade. And he fully endorses Minimonsta.

SecondSkin · Post by **SecondSkin** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:05 pm

+1 for Minimonsta....the best VA softsynth I've used (and I've used ALOT). Can't say how close it is to a real one (I haven't touched a real mini since the early 80's), but I'll take your (and Wakeman's) word for it.

Bonus to those of you thinking about trying it: the demo is fully functional for about 30 hours of use. Try not to use all 30 hours in one sitting (the patch morphing feature is VERY addictive).

edit: Novation's X-Station makes a great softsynth controller...it already has templates for minimonsta, and the knobs and sliders are laid out more like a synth than a generic midi controller.

Visionism · Post by **Visionism** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:27 pm

I dont find it especially cumbersome but the way I have it set up is that from synth to synth the knobs generally control the same parameters. For example the same two knobs are always control filter cutoff and resonance, the same group of four control amp envelope and so on. It does take a little setting up to assign controls to parameters but you only have to do that once for every soft synth. True not all synths will have the same controls but in general theyre similar enough that I can remember what goes where. If it's something that really doesnt fit the usual plan then I generally try to arrange the knobs in a sensible order starting with oscillator controls at the top left and working down through mixer, filter, amp and so on. If all else fails theres always masking tape and a sharpie! The Novation Remote SL is a great solution but a pretty expensive one. Masking tape is a lot cheaper!

Gforce Minimonsta - holy c**p!

Gforce Minimonsta - holy c**p!

Re: Gforce Minimonsta - holy c**p!