Moog Matriarch

The Lounge Other Gear
#1092

Hey e-nauts,

So after putting the matriarch through it’s paces for a full two weeks, I’ve made the decision that it’s going to get returned to the shop I bought it from, and I’m sticking with my grandmother.

Maybe the matriarch is too much synth for me, or maybe it’s too complex to acheive what I want with my music. I’m not sure.

The stereo filters and dual envelopes create an insane amount of sonic options, and are super sculptable, creating super psychedelic (and sometimes disorienting!) results….I just feel like it’s a distraction for me. It’s made me realize that the bread-and-butter nature of the grandmother is perfect for my style of music and does what I want it to do and super fast.

Also, I can’t seem to get along with the paraphonic nature of the keyboard. The complexity and rhythmic possibilities of round robin mode are super fun and interesting, but I can’t see myself employing them too much in the future. Trying to play it like a polyphonic keyboard can be a little jarring sometimes too with notes cutting off—not sure it’s ideal for me. One more thing about the matriarch’s paraphonic nature: I feel like when you overdrive the oscillators in mono voice mode it sounds really great and is always pleasing. I feel like when you play four notes on the keyboard in 4 voice mode the matriarch easily overdrives (even with the oscillators dialed in at 10 o’clock on the mixer). The sound comes across as kind of mushy and jumbled (not terrible but not really to my liking).

The one thing that I will miss a ton is the delay! It’s quite magical and dynamic and I love everything about it….I’ll be really sad to see it go. Anybody have any pedals (besides the original moogerfooger) that are in the ballpark?

So while I had a ton of fun over the past two weeks, playing around with the matriarch has cemented the idea for me that the Grandmother is ideal for my personal music goals and does exactly I need it to do and gives me that moog vibe that I crave in spades. I also love that grandmother doesn’t have patch memory, but found myself kind of wanting patch memory from the matriarch, due to its complexity.

Now I may be in the market for a true polyphonic synth in the same price range. Any recs? Also will def. be wanting to get a pedal that can somewhat capture the magic of the moog delay (I know that one is going to be really hard—it’s so good!)

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#1093

I feel similar, although I decided to hold on to my Matriarch instead of going back to the GM. The Grandmother is so immediate, and whenever I needed chords I would just sample into an OG OP-1, which was instant and amazing.

The thing that’s keeping me with the Matriarch is the bigger keyboard, and the delay. The thing I hate the most about it is that several useful patch points are hidden at the back.

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#1094

I solved that with dymo tape and by having cables there ready to go.

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#1095

Genius

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#1096

Well… yeah. :rofl:

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#1097

I just sold a Prophet Rev2. It’s brilliant; highly recommend. I sold it for finicky nit-picky reasons and may yet come to regret my decision.

#1098

I sold mine few years ago. I loved the mellow sounds but felt it was a bit too polite sounding for me. What was your main reason?

#1099

Yeah I could never get rid of my Grandmother. Every time I considered putting it up on the chopping block I’d try it again and realized it just sounds too good to get rid of. The simple solution for me was to get both :man_shrugging:t3:.

But yeah, the Grandmother and Matriarch sound close but aren’t really identical. I think the overdriving of the oscillators is the clearest example. If you overdrive one Osc on the Grandmother both oscillators would still be audible but on the matriarch one oscillator overdriven drowns out the rest.

Would never be able to get rid of that analog delay though. It honestly sounds very reverby at times.

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#1100

Main reason: the screen didn’t suit my eyesight.

Other nit-picks: tiny quirks in the UI (such as when you have to go over to the param/value knobs); multi-mode got in my way rather than opening up greater flexibility. I found it didn’t work comfortably with my OT as main sequencer, and I didn’t want to change out the OT.

The sound is great, the architecture is great, the feature-set is amazing. It’s a fabulous synth.

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#1101

Very valid reasons. It is a pricey instrument so it really should be near perfect for justifying having it.

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#1102

Right. There’s basically nothing I dislike about the Matriarch. It was, kinda, my experience with the Matriarch that showed me I should let go of the stuff that niggles me. Someone else will have a better experience with it.

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#1103

Yes I was surprised that I couldn’t get the matriarch to do exactly what my grandmother does (it’s close but not quite the same)—and this especially becomes apparent when you are doing big overdriven monophonic bass sounds.

The oscillators in mono mode on matriarch don’t quite seem as “simpatico” and synergistic, nor do they sound as nasty and huge as they do on G-ma. It’s a small difference but one I noticed and one I also did t anticipate

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#1104

The Matriarch is damn near perfect in every way. It is one of those synths that has kept surprising me positively the whole time I’ve had it. Can’t see myself selling it ever.

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#1105

I just shipped mine off yesterday as well. As far as @Traindepot is concerned, I second this recommendation. I sold mine after having it for 5 years, making a ton of sounds and writing a ton of songs with it. Sold it on because I have some other polysynths that are a bit more inspiring right now, and since I bought it used before gear prices went silly I was able to walk away with a tidy profit.

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#1106

Yeah, they both have different roles for me or I’ll simply use their modules together. But Grandmother does Monosynth VERY well. The Matriarch does as well but you gotta hold back on it where the grandmother can get nasty. The reviews that flat out say that the Matriarch is just a beefy version of a Grandmkther are wrong.

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#1107

The Novation Summit looks great in this “high end poly” role, too.

We have threads discussing polys:

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#1108

Thanks for this write up! It reinforces my belief the GM is gonna be with me forever and I shouldn’t look at the matriarch as a pure upgrade.

I think its good you decided to stick to what you really like instead of going by what should be an upgrade on paper.

By the way: not bashing the matriarch at all, it seems like a lot of peoples’ favorite synth ever, but I guess its not a better grandmother but something else entirely.

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#1109

UDO super 6 for the win. The thing is magic, the depth and breadth of sounds it can produce are just wonderful, and it really feels like an instrument to be played as opposed something to be programmed / controlled.

Though for what it’s worth I also have a matriarch and think it’s phenomenal, in a totally different way.

#1110

If you don’t mind me offering an answer, it’s a completely different thing altogether.
Like it has been mentioned here many times it really hits a nice sweet spot somewhere between mono and poly synths.

There is something very special and pleasing about the way chords sound when they go through one (stereo) filter. Combined with the clever but simple mod bus that is been operated by the mod wheel it opens new possibilities that are both very nice sounding and also fun and immersive to use.

As for someone coming from modular it offers just the right amount of utility functions to be patchable into almost any kind of configuration I’ve wished so far but without being tedious or too complicated.

It’s immediate and incredibly deep at the same time which is v rare.
The filter offers so many interesting possibilities with the added glory of the CP3 mixer that distorts the sound almost like a great boutique guitar overdrive pedal.

Also the delay. That alone is worth 600-700€ IMO as it is a great and quite rare addition to any setup/studio.

I must admit I rarely patch it a whole lot bcs it just sounds so good without any complex trickery. :slight_smile:

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#1111

The delay doesn’t sound like an effects processor. It sounds like an extension of the synthesis. It’s wicked.

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