Synthesist Jay Hosking shared this video, noting that the Moog Minimoog Model D is “the archetype for a reason”.
The Minimoog has been copied, cloned, knocked off and emulated for decades, and synthesists have more options for getting that sound that ever.
But Hosking argues that the Minimoog isn’t ‘magically better’, but it is a beautiful instrument, and there are real reasons why it’s still the archetype of a synth, even after 50 years.
Here’s what he shared about the video:
“This is an exploration of the Moog Minimoog Model D, no goals other than to have fun. The Walrus Slöer adds reverb and sounds beautiful. There was no additional processing to the sound. And what a beautiful sound it is.
The Minimoog Model D is one of the two main instruments that started my love of synths in the first place. I’ve long wanted one, and the reissue’s wood looked especially beautiful, but I had to wait until I saw it at the right price. That happened last week, and here we are.
Yes, I know there are clones, and I know those clones can sound very very good. I’m not telling you that this is somehow magically better; it probably isn’t. But I can tell you it feels like an instrument, it’s beautiful to the touch, it has a heft to it, and the wood makes it feel like an installation piece or furniture or something that occupies physical space in the environment. I feel like I’m sharing the room with it, a creative environment, and that’s a harder thing to quantify.
Some full songs will be coming with it at some point. How could they not? It’s just incredible.”
eh, the hammond organ was way more popular than the minimoog. it was merely a convenient prog rock instrument at the time.
Eh, the article is talking about the design of synths afterwards, eh.
It was my first synthesizer too, but aside from the rich voice, the reason its an archetype is simple: the signal flow follows the nature of our hearing mechanism. Everything goes from pitch to tone to time shape, each often modulated as they unfold. Bob understood that beautifully and basically got there first. Its a rare synth that doesn’t follow those physical terms, one way or another.
I developed even more Moog Luv when I saw Bernie Worrell set the standard for Moog bass. The man was smooooove. I also thought it was too dry a beast for me, until I added a delay pedal. That’s when its real voice came roaring out. Even minimal effects are still the best friend a synth can have.
I love polyphonic instruments for their extended abilities like the next person
But playing a monophonic still has something special
Even finding myself consistently reaching for the moog VST emulations, mainly since I don’t have 3 or 4 grand to throw at this moog
Also love the experimental experience of getting to grips with that simple interface
and with FX dusted it can do very well
Espen Kraft is not a fan of the Minimoog, and he recently let his thoughts on it be known:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiohzp0j76k
It’s kinda hard to see the old guy degrading with age. He used to be fun, but now he’s just trying to get more views. He lost his objectivity and his responsibility to present a broader view of subjects and became a troll,
like he stopped taking his medications…
In the immortal words transmitted to us via Tom Wolfe in the Electrid Kool Aid Acid Test: “Who Cares!”
While I’ve loved the sounds of the early classic synth tracks, I’ve never really gelled with the Minimoog: there’s something a bit too raw about the sound, it’s always on the verge of becoming aggressive, and I can’t get my head around playing a mono-synth, always feel I’m missing at least one more voice :*)
That’s said, it’s a lovely demo.
a minimoog was my first synth in 1978. back then, i did not really appreciate its unique qualities, and sold it to buy polyphonic gear. today, i understand that every synth more or less compares to a minimoog. it still is the epitome of a synthesizer, the source where it all begins.
Yeah… keep glorifying these old farts!
Time for something new and exciting…
The world is drowning in “new and exciting” but sadly not a lot of it translate into listenable music. That’s why I like that old fart!
I think there a lot of more exciting things on the market already (Korg Modwave is probably one of the most exciting to be honest, while people just keep buying Roland”s 80s stuff in new packaging for some reason…). Having said that, I totally agree on the gloryfication part… it’s cool and all, but it’s an analog synth from the 70s with millions of emulations, rebuilds, yadda yadda and compared to today’s synths it not that impressive feature or sound exploration wise.
And “that Moog sound”-argument got old long ago. If this thing or Moogs stuff are so groundbreaking, why did they have to be saved from bankruptcy by some VC, which will gut the rest probably then? Just my 2cents
Too bad this site lets trolls without anything useful to say spout their bile and pollute the conversation.
Makes me want to stop coming back.
Anyway, I don’t own a hardware Moog, but the few times I have gotten to play a Voyager for a few minutes, I have always been deeply impressed by how great the knobs feel. For me, they are perfectly sized and spaced and the physical analog aspects of these Moogs is even more attractive than the sound.
I got to have 20 mins on one of the recent Minimoog reissues and it sounded and felt great to me.
I have a Moog Sub-phatty and the sound was similar in a lot of ways – they are both capable of quickly creating very usable and expressive bass and lead sounds. After all, they are both monosynths with a similar feature set. And given that many patches on a minimoog will use Osc3 as an LFO, they are more similar than different in my opinion.
But the thing that hit me when I had the Minimoog under my fingers was the size of the thing. They are good looking, big, classy, and the controls feel really nice and solid with lots of space between the well laid out controls. The extra octave of keys was nice too.
But, like a previous poster said – who cares! Use what you have and make music that you like. I wish I had one though. And the sounds in the video were great.
People talk about how heavy a CS-80 is, but a Minimoog is no lightweight. Nothin’ mini about it. I got a dolly for it after I nearly lost a nad trying to heft it. Rollers rule and roadies rock.
what the tubescreamer is to guitar tone, minimoog is to synth tone. It just works and it sizzles when you know how to set it up and you’ve got the right circuit/remake/clone. The filter on minimoog and SEM keep the RIGHT frequencies that make a note sound good. That’s the way I think of it. It’s like cooking your toast and eggs the right amount, it just works where other things don’t. You’d think that features and upgrades and evolution would make amps and synths better but it often doesn’t, when it comes to the tried and tested thing that sounds good on almost any speaker, doesn’t add noise to your mix, only adds the note you want with as much or as little girth as you needed. A surprisingly large majority of gear for any type of instrument just doesn’t respond like that and that’s why we know the classics, tried and true.
You can slate the price tag and you can slate the lack of features, but to me this thing is just a giant sweet spot and the simplicity just makes it a dream to operate. The Minimoog alongside the TR-808 are the only electronic instruments I’vs felt emotionally attached to and I think that’s an important aspect of a musical instrument.
Bet Espen Kraft would love one if he could just make a little more dosh off his online rants…
There is no doubt the Minimoog was a pioneering synth design for its time, huge respect to its designer(s), it sure had an impact in music and deserves its own spot in music history. But only in history. It is 2025 and we have synths that cost much less and have tons of additional features AND character too, they make the current Minimoog prices look ridiculously unjustified. Sure, if you are a collector with a thick wallet you can fork out thousands of euros to buy one, keep it and “defend” your choice, but the bottom line is that it is a monophonic synth with great sound, limited features, no effects, no programmability for a 4 figure price in 2025.