Moog Matriarch

Cool, will check out Patricia.

Yup, he is indeed the 4th artist introduced in the promo video. This is maybe the 4th time I’m listening to it, just to hear the various patches being demoed by these artists.

… nah.

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Damn I was saving for a prophet but now i’m torn. Gonna have to try this puppy out when it hits stores!

Thanks @GovernorSilver and @spikysimon for the tips!
I didn’t wrote that, but I am looking for an all analog poly. I’ve got an Digitone which I love and that fills my need for a digital synth for now.

With that said I’m always open for other options and I have heard some sounds from the Minilogue XD and I am not convinced, but I need to listen to it more in order to get a clear picture of it.

I have considered the peak and listen to many YouTube videos of it, but I am not liking the digital sound of it. Digital oscillators often generate sharp sounds and the peak oscillators does that as well. I will use my Digitone if I want to generate some sharp sounds so the peak is out of the equation.

I am going to look at the Micromonsta though, because a hardware wavetable synth is always interesting.

@VanillaSun I am sitting in the exact same boat as you. The Prophet Rev 2 has been on top of my list, but now when I go back and listen to that synth it’s not in the same league soundwise as the Matriarch.

Have to call this out as nonsense. Peak does have a certain character but it’s in the filter and the drive/distortion circuits, all of which are analogue. The oscillators are generally just very clean, full sounding waveforms, especially the basic sine/saw/tri/pulse waves. Some of the wavetables sound more digital, deliberately, but those are an option, not part of the intrinsic sound.

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I’m not gonna argue that all sounds from the Peak sounds sharp because I don’t have used it myself. I just picked up that many sounds of it has a sharp character from what I’ve heard from videos on YouTube and I do not have the knowledge of that synth to say if it’s from the oscillators or other parts of the synth. I just shared my thoughts about some sound that have heard. I know that listen to sounds from synths on YouTube doesn’t give a 100% coverage of what a synth is capable of but it can give you useful hints of a specific synths sound character.

Yeah, I think generally a lot of YouTube videos of the Peak seem to focus on a particular side of it, the more aggressive / overdriven sounds, and the heavy modulation, because that’s stuff it does quite easily. There are some that break it down a bit more and you can get a sense of where the character is. The oscillators themselves are pretty neutral, the filter has some character and can easily get aggressive (especially in 24db), and I do think that if you mainly want lots of “creamy” / smooth pads a Rev2/P6/OB6/Prologue/Deepmind might be a bit more conventional (and as proper polys, more suitable than a Matriarch). Peak can definitely do it though.

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Peak got you covered if you want an analog poly. I know it isn’t analogue, but it can really shine with analogue character if you work on your patches. It is immediate, and a joy to play with. It is one of my synths that even after a year, I can still see it as an endless source of inspiration and wonder. You should try it out! :blush:

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You asked us how versatile the Matriarch can be as a pad machine.

IMO, a purely analog machine by itself will never be as versatile as a hybrid synth. The Minilogue XD can do a variety of pads that the Matriarch can’t, if we’re just comparing them one on one. Maybe you won’t like any of the Korg’s sounds as much as the Moog’s, but it is more versatile.

Since you have a Digitone already, layering that and the Matriarch together might cover the majority of your pad needs. Getting the Micromonsta as well should round it all out nicely. Wavetable pads are yet another type of pad that an analog-only synth cannot do.

You could expand the Matriarch by patching with external Eurorack modules or something, as someone mentioned, but I defer to those with more experience with hardware modulars, as far as ideas on exactly what modules to get.

I’d say just get it for what it does really well, and not worry about max versatility.

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Ive just spoken to Moog and have preordered the Matriarch. Not since the Octave Cat will i pay so much for a synth. But i doubled my money on the Cat so its a good investment. Should be a whole load of fun.

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It’s the thinking person’s polysynth. I’m really into mine.

My take on the Matriarch is that I like the choice of candy colours more than the ones on the Grandmother. And also it sounds lovely.

The Matriarch does sound lovely! And for what it is, I find it has a great price tag, which is not something that I often feel about Moog products.

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That’s a great idea! I’m gonna do that if I buy the Matriarch.

Yeah, I don’t have any eurorack yet, but it would be awesome to add some modules if I buy the moog. It would be a great way to get started with modulars.

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You can also stay semi-modular - just to limit the investment.

Combine a Moog GM oder Matriarch with - for example - a Nyborg 12 (made by Tom Carpenter, Analogue Solutions, having an Oberheim SEM like filter) and you have two quite complementary and very flexible instruments in one setup.

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That’s a really good idea as well, its nice to keep it as simple as possible and to limit the investment as you wrote. Nice!

that’s lovely - really reminds me a lot of the sort of pads I used to get from my Roland JX-10. The Peak is still very much on my watchlist…

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I watched the Vintage King demo of the Matriarch this morning… wow it was dull. No reflection on the synth, but it cant do them any favours. I thought the same when the One came out - it’s obviously an exceptional synth, but you have to go to a fair amount of effort to find a demo that does it any kind of justice. Moog should start vetting these early videos from their key distributors.

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Agreed, it’s not a great video! I’m very much looking forward to Mylar Melodies getting his hands on one…

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I’m looking forward to an in depth review of it with some sound examples.

I see that its only one 1/4" input for instruments. Is it possible to sum a stereo signal with a 2 1/4" to 1 1/4" cable and still have a stereo signal? For example, can a keep a stereo signal coming from my Digitone into the Matriarch or will it be summed to mono in the Matriarch?

It would be really nice to be able to process stereo sounds from the Digitone for example, with the stereo filter and delay in the Matriarch.

Store demos are just that. People who do demos don’t work on their own music full time and tend to just do what they think customers want to hear. If they don’t know the people want to hear piercing high end, they’re not going to feature that sound.

Before I bought my Nord Modular G2, for example, there were no demos that came close to the patches that were released by some exceptional patch designers in the user community.