27 thoughts on “Moog Mavis Synthesizer Review”

1. I’d much rather build a Plinky or any number of more interesting noise boxes, than this.

   I’ve nothing against Moog, I think they make great synths. I just think there are more interesting DIY projects to put together than this.

2. DIY with no soldering sounds like we laid off a few assemblers and need the customer to do all that. Not cool for the price. I miss the Moog from the DFAM era. It seems like the company has lost course. So much IP that could be turned into 5U and Eurorack form factors at a premium and they just refue to do it.

   1. I enjoyed the process of assembling the module. It’s no-risk, unlike hardcore soldering projects, which is probably required for a company of Moog’s size. They can’t spend their time supporting DIY projects gone bad.

      Not sure what you mean by ‘the DFAM era’. This is designed by Steve Dunnington. He’s the guy behind the Mother-32 and the DFAM.

      What they’re obviously going for with this is a compact, inexpensive Moog synth voice, that works standalone or in your rack. If you judge it on that, they succeeded wonderfully.

      I love mine – it sounds great, doesn’t take up much space, and is much cheaper than trying to put together something similar with individual modules.

      1. Do you work for Moog?

         1. This was uncalled for.

         2. who do you work for?

            1. Hahaha, this is the best reply ever! I’m crying. I work for UIC in Chicago, so I’m not a competitor or an employee in Moog’s PR department

               1. John

                  It’s pretty lame that the first thing that you do when you see someone say something good about a synth is to accuse them of being an employee posting fake comments.

                  Not sure why you’d have so much hate about Moog or other people on the Internet, but maybe consider that leaving dickish comments isn’t a good look for you.

                  The Mavis is a great all-in-one Eurorack synth voice, and it’s one of the more affordable Euro synth voices on the market, which is not what you might expect from Moog. If you want cheaper, you’d probably have to go for something from Behringer or Cre8Audio. Those are just facts, not fanboy ranting.

                  1. Coleman,

                     I watched the video posted above and came away completely disappointed by Moog’s design choices. It’s hardly a glowing review. While they haven’t reached Behringer levels of malpractice, I will no longer support a company with anti-union behavior, misogyny in the sales department, two years of silence on the Moog One software update, and UG’s lawsuit against them for wrongfully terminating Moogfest 2020, etc. I cannot wait to give my money to Cre8Audio, Dreadbox, and Make Noise, especially for an 0-Coast. I sincerely hope you enjoy your Mavis.

                     Best,
                     John

               2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygLy02y7_n8

3. no sine or triangle to feed the wavefolder
   what a sad joke

   1. use it after the filter if you want less harmonics

      1. you cant patch saw>filter>wavefolder here, as seen in the video

         1. i don’t know what he is talking about regarding the wavefolder signal path before the filter, the manual clearly state the wavefolding is completely separated module and its not part of the signal path so no reason you cant use it like an effect after the vca. why will it have input and output otherwise?

            1. There is no patch output for the wave folding, the output goes straight to the filter input once you connect anything to the wave folder input.

   2. “no sine or triangle to feed the wavefolder”

      lala – You do realize that this is a semi-modular synth, don’t you?

      The LFO goes into audio rate and has a triangle output. You can control this with the keyboard pitch CV or any other pitch CV. And, of course, you can run the triangle output through the wavefolder.

      Easy peasy.

      Using the same approach, you can use it as a dual-oscillator synth, add a drone oscillator, etc.

      1. usually lfo as osc doesnt track well to note pitch,
         thats why its an lfo and not an osc 😉

         1. The LFO tracks perfectly as an additional oscillator:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGN_XfTLPYE

            People that know their synth history will remember that the Minimoog – which is a 50 year old design – had an oscillator that doubled as an LFO, too. So it’s not rocket science to get an LFO that tracks.

            This option may not be obvious, if you don’t have much experience with modular gear or synths like the Minimoog!

            1. so it tracks ok
               now you have 2 osc and no lfo and only one envelope. great /s

               no matter how u turn it
               its 1 osc, 1 lfo/osc, 1 filter, 1 envelope,
               and NO MIDI
               this is to expensive for what it does.
               400€ gets you a lot of stuff these days.

               ppl scream toy here all the time but if it says moog on the box ppl get irrational dreamy.

               1. I think that no matter how u turn it you seem to put allot of effort to dislike it.
                  I don’t know if you notice but “these days” new products are getting much more expensive.
                  People will make great music with it, they made with much less that cost much more than 350 dollars. If you are not going to get it why do you care how much it cost? what’s your motives? Complaining for the sake of complaining?

      2. usually lfo as osc doesnt track pitch well,
         and if you do that then there is no lfo for slow modulation anymore …

         this works better if you have other stuff to connect it to,
         as standalone its odd design to keep the price down. 😉

         1. It’s a semi modular so there are advantage and disadvantage, if you are not connecting anything to and just patch it to itself you missing out it’s full potential.

      3. But he said it will be hacky unacceptable solution 🙂

         1. it means lfo as osc has quer note pitch (doesnt track right across the keyboard)
            cough – unmusical 😉

            1. It seems to do chromatic just fine.
               The issue is not the actual wave forms, it’s just that wave folding is much more fun after the filter.

         2. I didn’t understood this part either

4. The best demo of a Korg MS-2000 is Horse the Band’s first album.