Moog has released Grandmother Firmware Update v1.0.6, a free update that adds new global settings parameters, including:
- Oscillator 2 Frequency Knob Range;
- Clock Output Mode; and
- Independent MIDI OUT Channel Assignment.
A detailed list of v1.0.6 changes, as well as an in depth explanation of new global settings, can be found in the Grandmother Firmware Release Notes. See the Moog site for details.
Moog has also released a patch collection by synthesist Lisa Bella Donna, which is available as a free download (pdf).
sex sells
The word “grandmother” makes you think of that?
xD whell logically no but analogicly yes. ?? Love my grandmah
a firmware update on analog hardware means a person from moog will come to your house and solder new components on to the circuit board. wait, there’s digital tech in there? 😉
Indeed, it has Musical Instrument Digital Interface technology.
There will be hundreds of chinese technicians flying around the world. You just paid for that! 😉
What a surprise that someone who takes potshots at Moog doesn’t actually know what “firmware” is.
Yes, if your analog instrument has MIDI, then of course there will be firmware. You can’t have MIDI without a microprocessor in there. These days, though, what was once a server-grade CPU is now the size of your pinky fingernail, and costs 25 cents.
It’s nice to see that Moog and Lisa Bella Donna are publishing free patches for it.
Actually that FPGA is more costly than you believe – by a lot – in low volume. There is also labor associated with programming it.
> Actually that FPGA is more costly than you believe – by a lot – in low volume. There is also labor associated with programming it.
ASICs are super expensive in low volume. Figure $1-$3 million amortized across how ever many chips you can sell.
FPGAs are cheap commodity chips that allow for “field programmable” digital logic. They are used for low volume applications where the cost of developing an ASIC is way too high because it’s low volume.
FPGAs are the sort of thing that struggling college students can, and have, produced custom medium scale chips with, something that would be impossible if they were actually to produce a chip using a custom mask etc.
This all said I haven’t seen any references that Moog is using an FPGA on this device. It would make more sense for the digital controls to come from some sort of MCU.
Love the patch book .. reminds me of the black book that came with my Minimoog back in 1974, but how are you suppose to get the firmware into the synth .. do they send us out a ROM chip to install? Or do you gotta own a computer 😮
Or……. Or……. You could use the USB jack on the back of the instrument.
Would you ever have to pay for a patch? That would be…weird.
I’m not surprised to see Moog backing up their work, but any company that does things like this gets a gold star. We all know how many times good products have been orphaned and left with warts that were one upgrade away from being removed. Good faith = return customers.
I dunno. Somehow, using “Moog” and “firmware” in the same sentence doesn’t seem right.