Moog Minitaur v2.2 Hands-On Demo

Moog Music recently updated the firmware for the Minitaur bass synthesizer, adding front-panel access to new LFO wave-shapes, oscillator hard-sync and more. In addition, the Minitaur’s new Librarian/Editor Software makes DAW integration seamless between your synthesizer and Mac or Windows machine.

They shared a new video, above, which offers an overview and hands-on demo of the new features, along with an audio demo, below:

Audio Demos:

The update is free to Minitaur owners. See the Moog site for details.

Moog also let us know that through October 10th, all new Minitaurs purchased from an Authorized Moog Dealer will come with a free set of wood end cheeks.

37 thoughts on “Moog Minitaur v2.2 Hands-On Demo”

  1. This couldnt be more boring or unimpressive. Poor aound programming as well – did no one review this? I mean listen at 2:05. Terrible. Moog has been resting on their laurels for some time basically rehashing the same idea over and over relying on their name and filter. Korg, Roland and can’t believe I’m about to say this but Behringer are running circles around them. The company won’t be around in 5 years.

          1. Just comparing them to competition. I have no loyalty to a brand. Im a lot more excited by my se-02 and minilogue. Its all about relative value. Ive owned many moogs over the years. People can payup for a name. To each their own.

    2. WHAT?? 2:05 is a beautiful hard sync sound! Just cuz it doesn’t tickle your fancy doesn’t mean the rest of the world won’t like it. This new hard sync opens up more possibilities on this BASS synth. What you heard was a sample of what could be. One building block element to new sounds. It’s up to you to incorporate it and make something unique…..Moog has not “rested on their laurels” they have rightfully concentrated on a unique sound that they do best. And, proving that they love their products and customers by providing support / innovation for an older synth. This is something that the other mentioned manufacturers will likely not offer in “5 years” (or possibly after 1 year)! Don’t get me wrong, I love Korg, Roland and Behringer, I own many products form all of them, BUT Moog’s support is somewhat unique and VERY much appreciated! At least by me. 🙂

    3. After 5 years, now you can use that CV in to MIDI output, turning the Minitaur into a handy MIDI-to-CV converter but “it’s a total yawn fest.” “Same idea over and over relying on their name and filter” *roll eyes* Might as well keep your opinions to yourself to not make you look like an idiot.

      1. I’m sure I look like a huge idiot for not being impressed with a firmware upgrade and a boring demo.

        I guess you’ve changed my mind. I’ll go buy one right away due to your comment – I’m now impressed by the sound of the demo and ground breaking features this upgrade provides. No other synth comes close except for their cv enhanced reissue of the sub 37 which was an expansion on the sub phatty which was an updated little phatty which was a stripped down moog synth for people who wanted a “new synth aimed at those operating with restricted finances”

        Glad the moog employees got a memo to reply. There were 0 posts before my comments now there are 15. Clearly this would be a boring topic if not for my statement.

        I should be thanked for getting some clicks going!

  3. thank you moog for your continued support of this great instrument! I have had it from day 1, and it looks like you have the kinks figured out on some things that didn’t work before. Tremendous value, now if only as an early adopter I could get the wood side cheeks as well! 😉

  4. Also… Amos is back! Last time I’d heard from him was back in the Sub-37 patch editor release days – over a year ago I think. I agree that Moog have been a bit silent as of late, but this is a nice step in the right direction.

    3. Heh, agreed. ” “Poly-Chain up to 16 synthesizers…” It’d take a special form of boldness to chain 16 Minitaurs together. Talk about making the dance floor move! Will your insurance cover the people who are woofered into a wall with the first note, a la “Back To The Future?” Besides, its classy of Moog to offer retro support like this. If you connect with the Minitaur, its a solid step up. If not, buy a Bass Station II and complain to the Internet, because it is your BFF. On Tuesdays.

  7. A small portable Moog synth that remembers and saves 99 presets!!!
    Fits in my laptop bag!!!
    A company that continues to update the firmware!!!
    $400-450 New !!!
    Midi / Audio in & out + CV !!!
    Wait, maybe I should buy one of those “cool” looking analog modeled (AKA DIGITAL) devices for about the same price.

    Never mind, I made the right decision with Moog.

    1. But Silly is cool .. remember the Wasp .. THAT was a silly synth .. but still cool lol (edit:there are two Wasp at the top of the news here lol ..COOL!

  10. i remember something like freedom of opinion. obviously only applies towards behringer. 😉

    yes, a moog is a moog is a moog. and a moog only. we all know this, don’t we?

    whether a firmware that still needs tweaking after five years is something to be proud of is another thing. even though it is nice when it finally gets done.

    1. Adding new firmware “Features” means that a developer somewhere is still playing around and having fun with the synth. I’d love to hear some of their tracks (I’ve talked to these folks at DEMF and they like to use their gear!).

  12. A synthesizer is a device made for designing sounds. Many sorts of sounds. The most versatile synths can produce a wide range of them.

    Saying that a synth is no good (boring, sounding bad, etc.) just based on on sound example (or even a dozen of them) is completely dumb. I don’t see how it could be any else.
    Did you try it and found that NO sound it made was good? Then say it sounds bad. Does it have less possibilities? Then just say it.

    Do you think it sucks? Or that it is just a toy? Nobody cares.

    Sorry, but I’m so tired of this “they made something I don’t need so now I’m really offended”.

    1. First off I never said the synth wasn’t any good . Is the opinion valid if you owned one and used it for a year? My opinion wasn’t based solely on the sound demo – I was just not impressed with the demo given what competitors are putting out for demos. Your average walk-through presets would have been better than what they did.

      The heart of my point is that this is a market-based economy and other companies seem to be reacting to what competitors are doing and trying to do better, whereas whoever is running moog SEEMS to be out of ideas and settling for good enough.

      To me that’s very much what moog has become “good enough” they have a great name and no doubt their synths make “that sound”. I think they are generally overpriced for what they are and there is a big name payup here. I don’t really care where or how they’re made – if I did I clearly wouldn’t be using an iPhone like I am to make these comments.

      That’s not to say I don’t care about getting a quality product which is the next arguement I’ll see – robots are very capable of putting together quality products, thats more of a garbage in garbage out thing and has nothing to do with who the people or machines are that assemble something. Quality materials with proper specs and quality control can be accomplished almost anywhere and will result in good products. Most things made by machine result in superior quality.

      I’ve owned voyagers 4 times, little phatties about the same as well a as a minitaur, sub phatty, sub 37 and mother 32. I’m not sure you can say that my opinions are formed by a video . Clearly I’m someone who moog should be interested in the opinion of. All I’m saying is I’m underwhelmed by what they’re doing and obviously i’m a long time client who is probably spent more than most people on their products.

      I am just amazed at the lack of constructive feedback to my comments which were admittedly subjective – I feel many continue to try to “shout me down” with little substance as calling me stupid is now the number one arguement against me and I suspect people like you either have an irrational and emotional loyalty to the brand or work there.

      My only point was that the demo wasn’t great and for the same price there’s a lot better out there right now: Toraiz AS-1, Roland SE 02, Behringer D (perhaps, price adjusted for sure), Monologue just to name things that were released or announced in the last 12 months. All of them are the same price or less and with the exception of the Behringer D (which costs 40% less) they are all more capable. In my opinion all have had better demo videos. Instead of coming out with a new version of a minitaur that offers me more they gave me a few features that they should’ve had years ago #stillunimpressed

      1. You make reasonable points. It’s true Moogs would cost less if made in China, or by robots. And it’s true they may not survive without doing so. But they also might not survive if they do do so, there’s no guarantees. If Moog is just another Chinese synth, what’s it’s story? What makes it different? As you point out they are slow on innovation. The Moog Guitar was very innovative. Too innovative. They didn’t sell. When Moog does extreme innovation customers say things like “Why do we have to have all this MIDI stuff and patch memory? All we want is clones of the Model D and the old modulars.”

        For those who want innovative Moog style synths, that are also cheap, there are tons out there. They don’t have a Moog label.

        Moog is employee owned. Most of the employees are regular folks whose job is to assemble synths. Not design them. Not oversee a Chinese factory. They don’t have these skills at all. So why would the employees who run the company want to put themselves out of a job by moving production overseas? They would all be out of a job, and Moog would just be another company making cheap Chinese clones.

        It’s not easy to find people who can design great synths and instruments. They are more rare than one in a million. Tatsuya Takahashi was one for this generation. Moog and Buchla were ones from the past. Paul Vo might have been that guy at Moog but he moved on. The some other person to replace Bob isn’t there. Even Bob wasn’t the guy to replace Bob since the Moog reboot never really soared but were always incremental updates on established previous concepts, things that had already been updated well by other companies.

        I doubt Moog will survive. But it might.

        Korg has a similar challenge. Was Tats able to pass his creativity and design sense to inspire a next generation? We don’t know yet.

        There’s a number of pretty cool instrument designers around running little outfits who are doing good work. A lot of interest in innovation has moved to these small producers. Most people though just want something that works and sounds good and isn’t expensive. Big companies like Roland and Behringer are doing well right now at delivering this.

        Yamaha I fear is completely lost in action in all this.

  13. In order to control the Mopho as a VST plugin, that should be the least for every modern synth, you have to buy kind a 69$ editor, even not produced by DSI, I guess.
    This is a virtuos example, instead, of total control throug plugin and DAW!

  14. Rabid Bat said – “It’s true Moogs would cost less if made in China… ”

    Apple’s products are all made in China, in mini factory cities, yet Apple products are some of the most expensive in the business!
    I think it’s immoral that they’re produced cheaply yet sold at a high cost.

    1. They would cost less to make. What price they sell them for would then be up to them. Right now they have a high cost of manufacture because they produce domestically. That’s good for America and I support it. Whether it’s sustainable in a world of the WTO and no tarriffs remains to be seen given that, as you point out, the best products in the world now are made in China, so they have the quality there for sure. In the case of Apple they certainly have a lower cost of manufacture in China than they would in the US with domestic production. So much so either they’d have to reduce the profit margin, lower quality, or massively increase price if they wanted to go domestic. Apple seems successful with large margins and high quality overseas production. It’s not even clear to me that domestic production is even possible at this point for something like the iPad. Probably not, I doubt we have the skills. A domestic iPad would probably be much lower quality and would certainly be vastly higher cost.

      The Moog set up right now is something of a dream. The workers themselves own the means of production. Will this result in the gains in production and innovation predicted by Marx? This philosophy is compelling and sounds wonderful. I myself when as a worker would greatly prefer to also own the means of production, so I can relate to the appeal of this structure. In practice it has not always had the best success. It seems the best success of this philosophy has been in China. It’s not clear though that they are any longer really following the Marxist philosophy despite claims about the nature of their economic and political structures.

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