Very few things get the synth world exited more than a product announcement from our North Carolinian friends at Moog Music. With this weeks debut of a new semi-modular compact keyboard from them, it has been a very good week if you are into synths. Everyone loves their Grandmother, right?
Say hello to the Moog Grandmother! First Look & Thoughts!
Sporting a rather, erm, ‘eye-catching’ livery, the Moog Grandmother is similar in size and fit to the Rogue Moog from way back in 1981, (a wholly underrated little synth, still available at reasonable prices, and my first Moog which I still treasure to this very day). Its rather bright paintwork and compact frame make it look somewhat like the lovechild of a Moog Source and a Rogue Moog. Its fair to say the colour scheme has proven somewhat divisive amongst the synth community, but personally, I am a big fan, and it sets it apart from absolutely anything else available on the market today. As does its equally divisive nomenclature, once again, something of which we are fans.
Turning our attention from the outside of the synth to what is actually inside Grandmother, Moog have taken inspiration from the meticulous work they did reproduce their glorious legacy modular systems. Using the topology of a number of these classic circuits and putting them into a compact and most notably, patchable synth. Like Grandmother’s stablemates, the Mother 32 and DFAM the synth is ‘patchable’ rather than ‘modular’ imbuing it with ‘out of the box’ ease of use, while still providing deep-dive flexibility for the true sonic explorers amongst us. Not to mention, of course, the ability to interface itself easily with other modular equipment, whether it is Eurorack or MU/5U.
Early demonstrations of this synth genuinely sound truly fabulous. The purity and power of the oscillators are frankly stunning, and they have topped the signal path with nothing less than a genuine spring reverb tank. This feature imparts this little monster with a truly authentic and etherial vintage sound. From thumping punchy low-end basses to spacey sci-fi experimentation, this thing has got your back.
GAK is very proud to be the number one Moog specialist in the UK, so if you are interested in this wonderful, inspiring synth, drop us a line here or call 01273 665413 and we can get you on track to owning one of these little beauties.