Frustrating

The Moog Mother 32 is a mixed bag to me. I ordered it because I just LOVE the sound of the oscillator and the filter, but I found it's limitations very frustrating so I returned it.

On the pro side; it looks good, it's sturdily build, the knobs are really nice and it's not too small. And it's cheap - for a Moog. But on the downside I found a lot missing;

• Although the filter sounds really nice I was put off by the drop in volume when you crank the resonance up. I new it would roll-off the low-end but the drop in overall volume is annoying. 


• There's only a single envelope and its too simple. No separate decay and release controls and sustain is either on or off. You can patch the gate to the amp to free up the envelope for the filter, but the gate makes the amp click. 


• Not enough LFO wave-shapes and no sample and hold.


• It is confusing what is pre-patched internally, because it is not labelled on the frontpanel.


• It is hard to find to right patch-points, because they're all bundled together to the side and the labels are obscured by any cables patched-in.


• The sequencer is not at all nice to use; it has far too many shift functions and key combinations, which means you have to look things up in the manual all the time, and I did not like the buttons either. Toos mall and too wobbly.


• In the end I also felt the patch bay did not add very much to the capabilities of the mother 32. Maybe you need to combine it with the other modular gear for that.

Personally I much prefer the Make Noise 0-coast, which is a similarly priced single oscillator semi modular. The 0-coast get's me in the flow all the time, while the Mother32 seemed to lead me in different directions without getting me anywhere.

Equipboards' FAQ suggests it's great for beginners, but I beg to differ. Something like the original Arturia Minibrute is much easier to grasp for a beginner because there's no confusion around what is and what isn't pre-patched internally.

Open thy wallet, then immediately open thy wallet again

Sounds great, just like a Moog should. As far as being an "all-in-one"eurorack synth.... it leaves a lot to be desired. You may be misled into thinking that having thirty-two patch points is pretty legit, but I found in practice that a lot of these patch points can be accessed via the front panel - in other words, you don't even need a cable to use a lot of the functions that have patch points. The reason for this is that Moog wants you to use the Mother alongside a eurorack system (or as the centerpiece of your euro system). I really just wanted to have a standalone semi-modular synth to do some experimental music with, and I don't think this is a great box for that purpose. I'm sure you can get weird with it paired up with a few other modules, but on its own it really just does the bread and butter analog monosynth stuff. That's fine, just not what I need.

Packs more punch than the price might suggest

A fantastic Moog synth at a very good price. Even if you ignore the integration with a eurorack system (which is simplicity itself) this is still a versatile machine. The patch bay makes for easy sound design and the controls themselves are solidly built and intuitive. Sound wise it's not as limited as a single VCO synth might be, in part down to the patch bay but also the base design, which lets you dial in a tone very easily. The built in sequencer isn't bad. A little bit of button tapping is needed to do v=certain things but it's not too bad and you can always plug in a midi controller to do this. I love this little thing and it lives paired with a dfam in a custom case.

Great sound!

Versatile, great sequencer and MIDI. Works seamless with DFAM and Subharmonicon.

From Gear Setup

Lush!

This is a brilliant product both as a standalone and as a great introduction into modular synthesis (eurorack specifically), the only downside is there is no overdrive a la minimoog/voyager and when increasing the resonance the overall volume is decreased. The assign output on the patch bay has numerous capability as it can be a number of things programmed in different ways such as a noise/random generator, also the step sequencer on this is incredible and even at the price it is it is still a bargain when you think of how much it would cost to buy this as individual modules.

Exploring ambient soundscapes with reverb and delay effects

MOOG Mother 32 Trippy Ambient Synth DEMO JAM played with keyboard & sequencer + Neunaber Wet Stereo Reverb add video of girlfriend unboxing Part 1 with keys recorded last night in my studio: MOOG Mother 32 + Neunaber Slate/Wet Stereo V2 + EHX Deluxe Memory Man TT1100 Part two with internal Sequencer was recorded at X-mas night while girlfriend was sleeping beside me: MOOG Mother 32 + Neunaber Slate/Wet Stereo Reverb V2 changed @2:25 to Echelon Tape Delay setting

Good at what it does

This was my first analog synthesiser so I get very excited about using it. It's very good at what it does, and has a beautiful sub. It is also semi-modular so it's a great way into building a modular system.

Fantastic sound quality, simple sound design tool. Not a great sequencer.

I love this and have 3 of them in a 3-up rack. The sound quality is surprisingly great and very "Moog".

Time investment's rewarded with lush, smooth analog tone

The first couple times I experimented with the Mother, I was disappointed. After doing a bit of reading on it though, I had enough knowledge to adroitly route for my own patches and got perhaps the best tone I've gotten from a single oscillator. Today my main complaint is that I know a polyphonic version of the same tone would be amazing.

My second step into modular synthesis

A little beast with a powerful sound. I like the open structure and the sequencer. It also features a midi in for quick use as a sound generator with keyboard