Moog Music has introduced The Ladder Filter, the first in its 500 Series of modules. The new module is based on Bob Moog’s classic filter design.
The 500 Series is a Pro Audio Industry Standard for modular rack recording units. Moog Music will now be producing modules for the 500 Series standard and the Pro Audio industry.
“There have been a lot of firsts for Moog this year,” says Mike Adams, President/CEO of Moog Music. “The release of Animoog, the first professional synthesizer for the iPad has introduced us to whole new segment of customers. Now, The Ladder will reacquaint Moog with the Pro Audio community that embraced Moog Modular Synthesizers in the 1960’s. We are very happy to see the market embracing this exciting format and we look to developing other modules.”
Here are the details on Moog’s new The Ladder Filter.
Features:
- Low Pass and High Pass: The Ladder has inherited ‘the smoothest all analog filter section possible’. Choose between LP and HP at the flick of a switch.
- Cutoff: Simply adjust this knob to determine where The Ladder begins to sculpt the sound.
- Attack and Release: These variable controls allow you to dial in the timing behavior of The Ladder’s envelope section.
- Amount: Use in Positive or Negative mode for mild to extreme sound shaping and manipulation. The amount determines how much signal is sent to the envelope section of The Ladder. From slight timbral excitement and voicing to extreme compression-like behavior and even reversed filtering is achievable.
- Resonance: Controls the amount of harmonic bump at the cutoff frequency. This is the voice of The Ladder. Create sweet, dynamic or extreme speech like behavior and beyond. Accentuate specific frequencies to excite a sound or create completely new and unique ones.
NOTE: The Ladder’s Resonance control can push the unit into self-oscillation. This can be used for effect if desired. - 2Pole/4Pole: Select how aggressive the filter slope is. 2 pole is equal to 12db per octave, which is smooth and sweet, while 4 pole is 24db per octave, which is hard, aggressive and most similar to a Classic Moog filter.
- Bypass: Totally transparent relay bypass for routing and A/B comparison
The Ladder will be available at Moog Dealers worldwide in December 2011 for US $769.00.
via SonicState
That is amazing, Moog is really doing some awesome stuff!
How am I supposed to patch into this?
“Hey, er, engineering guys – we forgot the goddamn sockets!”
I must get one if only to check that it is 76.9 times better than my home-made Synthacon filter.
BTW, anyone reverse-engineered that picture of the PCB yet?
I woke up two people yelling with excitement from this.
Awesome ! Being a 500 series fan I’m glad to see Moog support it. Would definitely look awesome in my 500 rack. One problem though.. price is too high. I rather get a moog slim phatty for about the same price.
I’m intrigued but disappointed, too.
I’m not familiar with 500 series modules, but it doesn’t look like this is designed to be a ‘synth module’ that you could use with modern modular synths.
Can anyone explain what the 500 series standard is and how this module fits into the big scheme of things?
The 500 Series was originally developed (by API) for audio processing, not synthesis. So a filter without CV inputs fits into the concept.
looks beautiful and i’m sure it sounds the business… but that price kills it.. especially when there is already so many other filters that sound amazing…. this does look like it is over built though.. built to last for sure
Sigh. /me has a sad, since this looks a bunch like the Moogerfooger Lo-Pass, stuffed into an API box.
Not a whole lot of newness, modulo the bipolar Amount knob.
Would have been nice if they’d offered a euro/frac/other synth module, but not at that price.
Guess the pro audio types are used to the $$. (Plus i suspect most of us synth weenies already have the fooger version)
I must say, I luvs my Moog LP + Foogers, Animoog is fun but they really need to drop that ‘FIRST professional synth for iPad’ crap. The Moog folk are nice, they deserve less arrogant, idiotic marketing statements. Never gonna get that coveted Rudness endorsement if they keep that up….
Anyone that “covets” a Rudess endorsement automatically falls into the arrogant category…
Think there’s still hope for a modern Moog modular synth?
It would probably be hard for Moog to justify building one. They’d have to keep the quality very high for people to accept it as ‘Moog’, but that would make the modules a lot more expensive than what people are used to paying.
I wonder how many of them they would have sold had they release a real Filter Module with CV control and compatible with the thousands of euroracks around. How many pro$$$ are going to buy this??? How many pro$$$ are there anyway??? We just need a moogerfooger-series developed for keyboardists and modular synth lovers in a format that can be mounted on the equipment we already have.
Angelus
How many modular synths do you think there are, though, that don’t already have a Moog ladder filter clone in them?
How many kids out there have a $100 Guitar Center Fender Stratocaster copy?
It has 6 strings & single coil pickups … but it’s still not an original American made Fender Strat.
Some people want the real deal and are willing to pay for it.
This is clearly marketed towards Lunchbox owners.
This is actually a good price for 500 series modules. There are several companies that produce modules between 1-2k per module. One of which I have. The appeal of the 500 format is that you can have multiple types of units in a compact portable setup. For instance, I have mic pres, compressors, eq’s, headphone amps, and soon a MOOG filter. All analog, all awesome, for thousands less than it would be stand alone. While its just above the average prosumer, it’s much less than the big studio gear prices. Also eBay helps in bringing these prices down 🙂
The idea is to wire it to a patch bay
YES! YES! YES!
Finally, got a bit down by the strong MOOG move in software lately. This does it!
And… such a boost for the 500 community! Awesome!
What options would be available through the patch bay? Obviously audio in out, but would there be CV equivalents for most of the knobs?
you can purchase a moog slim for less then this with the same filter what the ?
would have been a whole heap better with a external front input trigger for triggering the envelope , so users could process the signal with another source, this is not a guitar pedal, so a front input jack/trs to manually trigger the envelope would have made this unit a whole heap more functional, Make it happeb guys a simple revision would make this unit so much more effective processing the input signal.
Please add a front input jack to manually trigger the envelope and use a switch to toggle between jack input or source signal.
Why 500 series? Why so expensive? It’s a moogerfooger without a PSU… why so expensive?
Why not make it modular? Why 500 series? Why not Eurorack? Is there really a niche market of engineers that need producer effects in their front-end rig? Do the Moog guys know something I don’t?
I don’t get it. Still love my Voyager though.
Love the Moog folk and their warez to death, but still wondering when they’ll move beyond the Bode/Moog paradigm into some performance synth (duophonic? 4-voice? please?) territory as yet unseen. All wavershapers / comb filters / touchplates / esoterica all the time…
I keep buying moog and keep getting more and more disappointed. Each year the quality drops again, the innovations become less profound, and they break faster. I have officially sworn off all Moog products, no exceptions as they are marketing the name to a crowd who only knows MOOG and not of the quality of analog gear, something Moog has never contributed positively.
Before all the basement hobbit/hobby knob tweakers start flaming, go out and play a synth that cost more than $20k – I like Discrete synths or SE products to start. Then open the units up and look at the chinese Moog layout versus the robust and simple quality engineering of the “real” units. After the MiniMoog nothing new has come form Moog and I am confident that this is another unit that I would sell back in a week, like the all the others.
But I can not expect others to understand quality and engineering, they just want a Moog – the not digital synth for those who can’t afford the real deal and/or know any better.
RIP Bob, too bad you couldn’t take the products to the grave with you.
“There have been a lot of firsts for Moog this year,” says Mike Adams, President/CEO of Moog Music. “The release of Animoog, the first professional synthesizer for the iPad has introduced us to whole new segment of customers. Now, The Ladder will reacquaint Moog with the Pro Audio community that embraced Moog Modular Synthesizers in the 1960?s. We are very happy to see the market embracing this exciting format and we look to developing other modules.”
The truth is here 🙂