Cherry Audio has released a free software synth, Surrealistic MG-1 Plus Synthesizer, that’s designed to emulate the bizarre Radio Shack Realistic Concertmate MG-1.
The MG-1 was Radio Shack’s attempt to bring analog synthesizers to a home audience, and it has some quirky features as a result. It was based on Moog monophonic designs, but through the lens of a retailer that didn’t believe people would want to buy a monophonic synth. So it’s essentially a mashup of a budget Moog monosynth with a simple electronic organ.
The Surrealistic MG-1 Plus Synthesizer is described as “a super authentic recreation” of the MG-1, but it also has some features that expand on the original’s capabilities.
Features:
- ‘Ultra-Accurate’ Analog modeling
- Dual oscillator monophonic plus polyphonic oscillator bank
- Super fat 24db “ladder” filter
- Over 130 presets
- “Bell tone” ring modulation
- Tempo syncable LFO
- Expanded octave ranges
- Multiple note priority modes including legato and retrigger
- Full MIDI control
- Full DAW automation for all controls
- Surrealistic MG-1 Plus is available in AU, VST, VST3, AAX, and standalone formats.
It’s available now as a free download for MacOS & Windows.
Why “bizarre”? MG-1 is a Moog Prodigy with some minor variations. A Moog with wavetables would be bizarre.
you mean the animoog? or its hardware equivalent the theremini? yeah, they do that, too.
Software doesn’t count. Do you know of any analog wavetable synthesizers? The Theremin is someone else’s invention and was Dr. Bob’s sideline until he invented his own synthesizers. Altering a Theremin’s design doesn’t make it a Moog.
No, not a Prodigy. It’s mostly a restyled Moog Rogue with the Tandy/Radio Shack name. The Prodigy had two VCOs.
This is a really fun freebie!
I had an MG-1. It was far from bizarre. Which I still had it.
At the same time they were selling Pascal and C for the OS9 multitasking operating system running on the COCO.
Radio Shack had more than just bad blisterpak parts, cheap tools, and RC racers.
Radio Shack and Lafayette were the parts places to go to for hobbyists, until Tandy bought the former and the dumbing down of America killed curiosity and ambition. OS9 is bloody brilliant. It’s still available for embedded systems.
I used to have one of these as well, back in the early 90’s. It was my first (of two) analog synths.
I couldn’t install it on my MBP running 10.11 (El Cap). It says minimum OS must be 10.12
Installed it today. Runs great. Nice, big user interface. Sounds great.
+1