Listen to this beastly 2020 monosynth (SE V30)

OG boutique SoCal synth firm Studio Electronics updated their classic racked & hot-rodded Minimoog clone in 2020... just in time for the pandemic. I missed this entirely, even though I was at the 2020 NAMM show where they apparently rolled it out.

Anyway, thanks to one of @eyeseeofficial's countless Similar Items recommendations here on EB (thank you, king), I'm finally catching up with this military-grade weapon... and OH MY.

Look, none of us are gonna buy one -- but y'all should have a listen anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lGBdHLZNek

Stank face reaction

none of us will buy one? I have an SE1 and might sell the old one and get the new one if it sounds like an upgrade... I would want to be able to try it in person womewhere, I skipped the 1X and se3 and I always thought I would trade backwards to a midimini just for bragging rights. Or I'll get one if it feels like I'll use both enough at work that its going to pay for itself (unlikely) or if I'm sick of soemthing else I own in the same price range that can offset. The dmeo certainly sounds more versatile than the SE1, but not a ton more versatile. The eurorack patchpoints are a nice addition :)

I love studio electronics and would own more of their stuff if money was no object.

Stank face reaction

Quoi?

none of us will buy one? I have an SE1 and might sell the old one and get the new one if it sounds like an upgrade... I would want to be able to try it in person somewhere, I skipped the 1X and se3 and I always thought I would trade backwards to a midimini just for bragging rights. Or I'll get one if it feels like I'll use both enough at work that its going to pay for itself (unlikely) or if I'm sick of soemthing else I own in the same price range that can offset. The dmeo certainly sounds more versatile than the SE1, but not a ton more versatile. The eurorack patchpoints are a nice addition.

Well, I'd be happy to be wrong re: none of us buying one. What is it you're not getting from the SE1 that makes you open to a midimoog/midimini?

honestly nothing, the SE1 is just an SE redesigned and manufactured midimini, the bragging rights on an OG midimini is that its a rack mounted and midified minimoog, literally all the moog internals in a rack. It became the SE1 when they had to start building from scratch, they did a redesign and built up their own PCBs, the SE1 is more tuning stabkle though its not quite as commanding in the low as an original minimoog, it sunds much like a voyager though. As far as this new one goes, I was taken with the FM part of the demo and those patchpoints are tempting. They say the 1x has an even more commanding low end than an old model D so I imagine that's true of the the SE V30, there's another selling point. I love me some low end. I've been kinda tired of moog basses and leads so my SE1 isn't used as much as it once was. Oddly I've been using the prologue for a lot of bass, the mono mode can stack a second voice an octave down for up to 4 VCOs and 2 Digital oscillators, which sounds theunderously huge and complex and must be dialed in conservatively to avoid loosening bowels LOL... I also like the circuit monostation lately because its so NOT a moog bass sound.

What about just getting a minimoog or a reissued minimoog? Outta space?

What about just getting a minimoog or a reissued minimoog? Outta space?

YES

I have TOO MANY keyboards, they're everywhere. Which is weird for a bad keyboardist. Also I don't enjoy PLAYING the minimoog that much, I like the odyssey/solus better to play. All my other monos are rackmount or grooveboxes, or that one semi-modular tabletop, I sequence them.

EDIT:

I gave the BS2 novation comped me to my cousin and kept my 90s BSrack and the circuit monostation. I think my uncle plays the BS2 more than my cousin thoush. Wasn't meant for him, he can afford his own synths. I also got rid of my DX7 1 and 2 and went TX7 and EX5R, and I had the 2 for decades and 1s kept showing up at my house with easy to repair issues, usually dead batteries. Which is a shame because they both had great keybeds versus a lot of my analog stuff, but you can'tget some of this stuff in a module. I've got like 8 poly keyboards and a string machine setup or leaning on a wall in case I need it right now, its out of hand. Let me look around, Juno6, poly6, proph600, dw6000, poly61, mopho x4, prologue, summit, yami sk20 and digital piano. Kawai hammer action digital piano downstairs, I share it with my son. In cases or on closet shelves there's the odyssey, solus, esq1, XK6, electrocomp and a transwave... all keyboards, way out of control. The XK6 is just a module in a keyboard but the keyboard is nice and it has a little more hands on control, than my emu racks and it was free, I should dump it though, its like keeping a dx7. but it barely puts a dent to dump one freebie

oh wait, I have a sub-phatty I never play anymore... I loved it so much, I liked the lil phatty but wanted more knobs and moog delivered,, then got very bored with the limited 2 osc architecture and very growly mixer/filter section, its like a very agressive prodigy. Its in my closet waiting to be loved again. We've been through so many more iterations of the sub series since I bought that, everyone liked the subsequents better and now there's another 25 key one now that the sub37 and subsequent37 are gone, mine is before either of those knob er function ones, its getting vintage lol

I've become a total moog contrarian lately because everyone uses them again, and that drives me up the wall, its not special anymore if everybody's got them.

With an SE1 AND a Sub-Phatty, I think you have your Moog tones covered. I remember demoing an OG Sub-Phatty alongside a Minimoog reissue at a store here in town years ago, and as far as classic bread and butter basses went, the Sub-Phatty held its own amazingly well -- Much better than I expected. I'm not saying they sound the same, because they don't, but you also can't say that the Minimoog blows the Sub-Phatty out of the water, because it does not. One is an orange, the other is a tangerine.

its a totally different take on the moog sound, its like you patched the headphone jack into the external input permanenty but otherwise its like a moog prodigy, which is what the subsequent sounds like. The prodigy is like thicker odyssey... it can't chime though, no moogs chime out like an odyssey, I make hihats on my arps all the time man, they're great at it. You ceate a pattern on an analog sequencer and its cooler than a drum machine, the variation is phenomenal. I digress... yeah, I have key moog sounds, just no polymoog or memorymoog, I would get either in a heartbeat if I found a deal and had the cash. That crazy divide down polymoog sound, just whoa, Vox humana baby! Nothing else sounds like it. And the memorymoog is truly unique. Finnicky, but unique! THe moog one seems pretty cool, I didn't get to spend much time with it when it was in a local shop, but it was powerful. More precise than a memory.

Anyway, I might also wind up with my oldest friend's voyager while he's recovering from brain cancer. His wife wants to liquidte the studio to his friends and then buy the stuff back if and when he recovers enough to play again. I don't really wnt it, but if I don't scoop it up she could sell it to a stranger. At least its the rack. So that also made me think "why do I need a voyager and an SE1 since they're interchangeable apart froma few different added features? maybe get an SE V30?" On the other hand I need a new car and I don't want to lease again... and I need to resole my cowboy boots. Synths and processing gear really distract me from worn out footwear.

EDIT: I sold the sub-phatty and forgot about it, not in the walk in anymore LOL checked my review of it and I sold it years ago and forgot completely. WOW! I think I funded something else with that money. I also found my sy35, old casio, cz101 and kawai k5 in there, so more keyboards I don't use a lot due to space... the 101 and the k5 are seriously unique... I really want a k5000, kawai's last synth, I never seem to scoop one up

EDIT: I sold the sub-phatty and forgot about it, not in the walk in anymore LOL checked my review of it and I sold it years ago and forgot completely. WOW! I think I funded something else with that money. I also found my sy35, old casio, cz101 and kawai k5 in there, so more keyboards I don't use a lot due to space... the 101 and the k5 are seriously unique... I really want a k5000, kawai's last synth, I never seem to scoop one up

That's the most telling review of the Sub-Phatty right there: you didn't even remember you ditched it. Stone cold you are, Jim... stone cold.

to be fair, if money and space weren't a constraint I would never sell ANYTHING. If I liked it enough to buy it I would like to keep it, I just can't. If I kept everything I would be even more broke and also have nowhere to sit.

this is interesting and probably explains why I find the voyager to sound so much like my se1 from the 90s

I get more envelopes than Mike gets on his voyager at 1 less rack space (but my shit is made deep and his is shallow so maybe that's it), and I can't remember if his pulse is continuously variable, I don't think it is... I remembered this review or a similar one from another rag and then got this in google while I was procrastinating today, because it made me want a se1 when it was new and I was getting into electronic music and I eventually bought one. Initially I settled for the bass station, the first affordable analog mono to hit the market in the 90s, the SE1 was not affordable new. I thought I was missing out but I have a bass station 1 again lol (got the rack, I've had a bass station keyboard and 2 racks, I don't think I got a super bass station rack but I had a BS2 and still have a rack and a circuit monostation and of course a summit, which uses the CMOS filter, which is from the wasp and OSCar filter), but both good, both very good... I also bought a realistic MG1 by moog just based on the moog pedigree in the 90s from Barracks Trading Post on Street Road right above the philly line so it had 1% lower sales tax and then sold it when it broke down, someone took it for parts on ebay when ebay was new

but if I buy up Mike's voyager rack I'll probably sell the SE1 and go for a later version, maybe this relatively new SE V30, that FM man! W00F!

If you end up with a Voyager RME, why would you also want/need a minimoog-style SE rack mount as well?

I know the Voyager is in many ways a very different flavor than an OG minimoog, but it can still do most any minimoog-type thing you'd want it to do, no?

If you end up with a Voyager RME, why would you also want/need a minimoog-style SE rack mount as well?

I know the Voyager is in many ways a very different flavor than an OG minimoog, but it can still do most any minimoog-type thing you'd want it to do, no?

synth lust? I f@rking love synthesizers! I have multiple arps too... I've been shopping for a fixerupper pro1 as well, because why not? I don't know where I'd put it, but I want one. I don't know why, because the prophet600 is dead similar only poly, but I want one. I get this way every 5 years.

I kinds want a jupiter6 too, totally different roland flavor from my juno6 and mks racks. If I had the scratch I would have an mks80 superjupiter. I wish roland would reissue the mks series.

You're craving an awful lot of edgy/bite-y early 80s analog... hmmm... It's rude of me to suggest this in public, but... maybe you're pregnant?

I wish roland would reissue the mks series.

The only MKS I currently have as the 50/alpha Juno. I was watching a thing on Trevor Horn the other day, and for the first time in my life, I craved an MKS-70. He finally made me want the JX-8P sound.

I have a 50, a 30 and a 20. I've been tempted by the JX10, the JX8p didn't do it for me, I like the 3p/mks30 sound better, it does less but it's just nicer to my ear and I had them side by side. I feel like the voice stacking in the 10 might be the ticket, and it comes in a rack, the mks70 I think, super JX? I would get an mks-10 too for the cheese of those early japanese piano attempts. I really like the wonky ensoniq synth piano too, perfect piano is a classic.

We both know the rev4 MKS-80 is the one we'd actually use and enjoy.

I purchased an MKS-80 years ago, but the seller was mistaken re: which rev it was, and I wasn't willing to pay what I paid for a rev5, so return and refund, but it was still a nice few days with that rev5.

he passed a rev5 off on you as 4? what a creep