Thinking about purchasing a poly/para synth for my setup. These two intrigue me. They both seem to have a vintage flavored sound (which I love). Any recommendations? Anyone prefers one over the other?
Hello, I never tried Moog Matriarch but I dreamed about PERfourMER and I finally bought it some month ago.
I still love it, it sound warm and big. It can make very fat bass or sharp arpeggio or spacey chords.
But be careful, the PERfourMER is not as other synth. It’s 4 mono synth in one box. Without any preset. That mean if you want to make chords, you have to adjust every parameter at the same value, by hand, including the tuning.
That why I love this synth. When you tune each voice to C3, it’s analog and never perfect C3. When you play chords on C4 or C2, you will have a slight detune that make the sound incredible warm.
So yeah, the PERfourMER is a beast with a lot of character that need to learn, may be disapointing at the beginning.
I think Matriarch is a more classic analog synth that will directly give you a fat analog sound but maybe without the wild soul of the PERfourMER.
For me : go PERfourMER, no plugins, no synth, nothing can emulate it.
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I also have the perfourmer mk2. I find it very versatile. And yes, it takes some time to dial it in if you want the 4 modules working together but it sounds so good and its very worth it at the end of the day. Warm sub, thick mids, and gentle highs.
If you enjoy getting lost, the perfourmer is pretty great for that. Can’t really speak for the Matriarch but demos sound pretty great there too.
I have the P4mer as well, and love it. it’s great for simple mono synth things but also goes into weird territory and straight up poly territory. for me, the killer feature (other than sound) is just all the different options for triggering the voices. the Korg Mono/Poly and the A4 also have lots of these options, but they’re way more fun, immediate and usable in the P4mer. as mentioned above, part of the beauty is that the voices are never exactly perfect with one another.
I’d say the main difference between the two are that the Matriarch should be able to go much weirder than the P4mer, given all the patch points; and will interface with a eurorack system or the M32/DFAM/Sub systems very well. the other is that the Matriarch can’t do true polyphonic while the P4mer can (albeit, only four voice and you have to dial them in carefully).
you’re not wrong that they have a vintage flavor though. the P4mer reminds me of a mix between older Roland SH series and Moog. haven’t played a Matriarch but I did own a Grandmother and it was also quite vintage sounding. I’ve owned a few 70’s era Minimoogs as well as newer Moog (Voyagers, Little Phatty, etc) and it’s definitely closer to the former.
So I just read a review from sound on sound regarding the Per4mer. It states that it is unable to play notes simultaneously via midi. It this true? Can anyone confirm this? I cannot understand the reasoning of purchasing a poly synth that lacks such a crucial element.
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The Perfourmer has six modes of which it can play. You can play all combined synth channels polyphonically (four-voice-polyphony) using polyphonic mode.
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For the price of a Matriarch one can get a Prophet 6 or OB-6 module…
I know P4mer and Matriarch are awesome, but P6/OB6 are incredible synths!!!
Basically only sweet spots bring in mono, arp or poly…
Just saying…
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Here in Holland a p6 or ob6 module is wat more expensive than a p4r, all used.
I love my p4r as well. But to be fair, it’s not always switched on. I go for synths with memory more easily.
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that was in regards to the CV option. and Paul Nagle doing what he does.
he said:
“The review model had been fitted with the optional CV/Gate inputs, meaning that MIDI can be bypassed entirely, should you so wish. Why would anyone need that? Well, super-tight sequencing is one possible answer. If you ever aspired to play four notes simultaneously via MIDI, sorry but you’re out of luck, it can’t be done — via a single MIDI port, anyway. Shock, horror, I hear you cry, but it’s true! MIDI is a serial interface and therefore everything that happens happens sequentially, one event after another. This review isn’t the place to muse over the subtleties involved in perceiving a few milliseconds between fast, percussive hits, but if you’ve ever thought simultaneous voices played by a drum machine sounded different when replayed via MIDI, then perhaps these optional jacks are aimed at you.”
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Pretty sure you could buy two perfourmer a for the price of one OB6
You can play each voice on a different midi channel at the same time.
Of course they are.
I was saying Matriarch is in the same price range as one of the mighty DSI desktop modules.
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Right, in that case I would probably save up for the OB6 haha. Or like you said, a dsi desktop!
The perfourmer is really great at the price point.
So for clarification:
1.If I were to purchase a Perfourmer and use a keystep, then no simultaneous poly?
2. If saving 4 a Matriarch, just get an OB6 desktop?
Pick the one that you like the character of the sound the best. When comparing synths, one of them will whisper to your soul a little sexier than the others.
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- You could probably just plug Keystep MIDI out to Perfourmer MIDI in to get true polyphony
- I don’t know. Matriarch, OB-6, and Perfourmer are all really different.
Shit.
I was looking for a MonoPoly v Matriarch thread, and now there’s the Perfourmer!
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Having heard and played both DSI Prophet 6 and Matriarch in person, I agree with those who said you can’t go wrong with either choice, if you don’t care about keyboard vs. no keyboard or if the 90 patch points on the Matriarch mean nothing to you.
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I do understand these synth’s design function, as well as the quality of their raw oscillators, but I wholeheartedly admit I was a little confused by sound on sound’s wording in regards to the Per4mer’s midi/poly capabilities. I feel as if they could have worded that cv section in the review with greater clarification. No offense taken.
I agree with this opinion too. Deep down in the essence of my being I am, and shall forever be drawn to the pure analog sounds of the Matriarch and Prophet 6.
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