Analysis and opinion Minimoog Model D: Where to buy

At the end of 1970, the great inventor Robert Moog, together with his partner Bill Hemsath, presented the world with a portable and powerful synthesizer that would change the history of music at that time.

Great musicians such as Rick Wakeman (Yes), Richard Wright (Pink Floyd), Wendy Carlos, Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), Gary Numan, Charly Garcia, Krafwerk, among many others, have immortalized the sound of this synthesizer in their records making it go down in history as one of the favorite synthesizers of many of the great keyboardists of the 70’s and 80’s.

The Minimoog is a subtractive monophonic analog synthesizer, with a very characteristic sound with a lot of character and a very warm timbre, used very commonly for recording electronic basses and lead singers, but thanks to its great versatility it can be used to create different types of sounds.

Paying tribute to this iconic synthesizer, the brand has launched a first reissue of this model with some updated features to the new era, called the Minimoog Voyager and later in 2016, presented the reissue of the Minimoog Model D, with all its circuitry intact, adding some features accommodated to the time.

This classic synthesizer does not have the ability to save presets, so each sound must be created from scratch, with no possibility of saving it to the synthesizer’s memory.

Another important aspect of this synthesizer is that all its features have a control on the front panel, so this synthesizer has all its functions ready to use in real time and instantly.

The type of synthesis used by this equipment is subtractive synthesis, which is one of the most popular in history and many synthesizers use it nowadays, some of them inspired by the legendary Minimoog.

In the new reissue of the Minimoog the brand has added some modifications that expand the capabilities of this synthesizer, but keeping the sound and audio path of its predecessor.

Being a 1970’s synthesizer, the original model did not include MIDI ports, since this protocol had not been invented yet, in this new model, 5-pin MIDI ports for input, output and thru are included (MIDI Thru is an output connection to chain several synthesizers) .

This new model includes a 3.5 octave Fatar keyboard, with sensitivity to velocity and after-pressure.

It also includes voltage-controlled outputs for tone, gate, speed and after-pressure to communicate with modular systems or semi-modular synthesizers.

Finally it has a modification in the mixer overload to create more full-bodied and distorted sounds.

The sound of the Minimoog Model D

The Minimoog Model D has three oscillators, each with 6 available waveforms (Triangle, Sawtooth, Square, Wide Pulse, Short Pulse and a triangle sawtooth wave that is in oscillators 1 and 2 and an inverted sawtooth wave included in oscillator 3).

Each oscillator has a frequency control that determines the height at which the note is being played on that oscillator, somewhat similar to the octave rise or fall controls on modern synthesizers.

Oscillators 2 and 3 also have tuning stability controls to create sounds with slight detuning between each oscillator that give it more body and character.

In the Controls section, you have a control for the overall synth tuning and a control for the Glide, which determines how long it takes to progressively move from one note to another after the second note is pressed, this control is also known as Portamento on other synthesizers.

It also has a basic LFO with the possibility of being configured in triangular or square wave type.

This synthesizer has a noise generator that can be selected in Pink Noise or White Noise, quite useful for creating larger filter sweeps or electronic percussions.

This synthesizer also has a mixer for its 3 oscillators, the noise generator and an external input, with on/off controls for each of these sound sources and volume controls, with an additional Overload option, which allows you to add more body and distortion to the sound.

Finally, an envelope for the amplification section with attack, decay and hold controls.

The Minimoog Model D filter

One of the most characteristic elements of this synthesizer is its resonant filter, this is a 24dB 4-pole lowpass filter with quite a lot of character, which has the basic parameters of cutoff and resonance, but also has a dedicated envelope, with attack, decay and sustain to give more movement to this filter and keyboard tracking controls.

Listed by many as one of the best filters on synthesizers.

The Minimoog Voyager is the update of the original Minimoog Model D, made by Bob Moog himself in 2002, with new features and a renewed sound.

This synthesizer, although it is 100% analog, has digitally controlled oscillators so they are more stable in their tuning, although for many this sacrifices a little the character of their sound.

Its oscillators are very similar to the original Minimoog as are its mixer and filter, but its LFO section is much more complete by adding several controls which allows you to expand your sound exploration thanks to new routing possibilities, in its two envelope sections, the “Relaxation” parameter is added which was not present in the original Minimoog.

New features include MIDI connectivity, the ability to save more than 800 presets and an assignable X/Y pad for modifying the sound according to parameters you set.

This synthesizer was released in several colors and in editions with more functionalities and semi-modulars.

This synthesizer has been used by great musicians like Herbie Hancock, Rick Wakeman, Chick Corea, Brian Eno, Trent Reznor and Stevie Wonder among many other outstanding musicians.

Although these two synthesizers are in principle somewhat similar, they differ in that the current Minimoog Model D is a replica of the original 1970 Minimoog, with the features of that time, adding only the MIDI implementation and some additional functionality; while the Minimoog Voyager is a synth inspired by the iconic synthesizer of the 70’s but with notable changes such as digitally controlled oscillators for more stable tuning, its fully modified LFO with many more controls than the original Minimoog, its X/Y pad, the implementation of MIDI and the ability to save presets, making it a very live focused synth.

Minimoog VST

This synthesizer is so iconic and outstanding that different brands have tried to emulate its sound in software, including the Moog brand itself which recently introduced the Minimoog Model D in a mobile app.

Among the most prominent software copies available at VSTi are

• Arturia – Model V.
• Native Instruments – Monark.
• GForce Software – Minimonsta.
• IK Multimedia – Minimood

Some of these copies add certain additional functionalities, such as effects, polyphony, arpeggiators and greater signal routing possibilities, as well as excellent preset banks.

The Moog Sub 37 is a state-of-the-art paraphonic analog synthesizer created in honor of the great Bob Moog, a synthesizer with modern features such as the ability to save presets, arpeggiator and sequencer that can be synchronized, with two LFOs to modify the sound, and a filter and an envelope section in principle very similar to the Minimoog Model D.

As for the oscillators, the Sub 37 has 2 oscillators while the Minimoog has 3 oscillators, but the Sub 37 has an additional sub oscillator an octave lower to achieve deeper basses.

Another important detail is that the Minimoog is a monophonic synthesizer while the Sub 37 is a 2 voice paraphonic synthesizer, so it can be used as monophonic, but it can also be used with a 2 voice polyphony, each voice using one of the synthesizers.

Finally, the Sub 37 is a much cheaper synthesizer than the Minimoog Model D so it is a quite interesting option for many users.

Moog Minimoog Model D vs Behringer Model D

Recently, the Behringer brand has launched amidst controversy the Model D, a true copy of the legendary Minimoog Model D for an eleventh of its price.

Its sound and routing are exactly the same, with a couple of differences: the Behringer Model D has no keyboard, and a difference that may be of interest to many, the Behringer Model D has several voltage-controlled inputs and outputs on each of its parts, for connection to modular systems and semi-modular synthesizers.

For many audio lovers the Minimoog Model D is a collector’s item, but it is undeniable that the sound of Behringer’s Model D is quite similar, if not almost identical.

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