Moog Synthesizer: Multimoog
One of the synthesizers I always wanted as far back as 1980 is the Moog Multimoog. I thought it would be great to have the pressure sensitive keyboard with that Moog sound. After I bought the Micromoog I kept eyeing the Multimoog sitting there at Switched On in Austin. I wasn’t really thinking about it that much but every time I looked at their website it was still there…. calling me.
One day a couple of weeks ago I was looking again and decided to do a little research. I found out that only 1000 had ever been made and from my experience on eBay I knew the owners very rarely sold them, so if I wanted one this might be my one chance. So after a very restless night dreaming about it I decided it was time. So now it’s here!
It’s basically the same as the Micromoog but with a few very nice features. One of the best is the switch to go from single to multi trigger. I find single-trigger to be the most useless feature ever put into synthesizers and would live to modify the Micromoog, MS-10 and MS-20 to permanently be multi-trigger!
Next, of course, is the second oscillator. Very nice for thickening up the sound a bit but this one is a bit more limited than other synths. There is only 1 octave switch so both oscillators are always in the same range. Another very unusual feature is that when you detune an oscillator on this instrument, it is Oscillator A that you change. This is probably because you have the Sub-oscillator pot on Oscillator B so you can add in a square wave either 1 or 2 octaves below the pitch, so you want that one to be your main or root pitch.
Like the Micromoog you can change the waveform continuously on both oscillators so you aren’t stuck with the a few basic waveshapes.
And the best feature is the pressure sensitive keyboard! There are a lot of routing options for it. You can add modulation to the filter, or the oscillators or my favorite, just to oscillator B. You can also set it to sync the 2 oscillators and then modulate the pitch of one to create the classic sync sound.
You can also set it to bend the note up. This is really nice because I find it hard to do bends with the ribbon so instead, I use pressure to bend up, then add vibrato with the mod wheel.
There are also a lot of CV outputs on the back so it would be great for controlling the modular synth, or another synth like the Micromoog. There is even an output for the keyboard pressure, labelled “Keyboard Force”.
It doesn’t have the sound of a Minimoog but it definitely has that Moog sound and being a bit unique is always good since the Minimoog sound is used everywhere.
So another synth dream comes true. There aren’t really many left that I want. Minimoog, Oberheim 4 voice, original MS-20 and Arp Odyssey and maybe a Prophet 5 some day. Unfortunately there are some nice new ones being made as well and I have very limited money to spend!
