There is no device that would ever satisfy those people, it’s frankly quite bizarre.
Yeah, they are clearly pushing this into different, dare I say new, territory. Some of the sounds I could hear it making are the sorts of things you’d want a small pile of modular to put together and that’s exciting to me. I liked pushing my Rev2 to extremes and this feels like other than voice count it can do most of what the Rev2 could do (Ok, missing an extra envelope, but a modulation macro knob like the PX’s and Pro2’s sliders).
Funny enough, the Rev2 is still the other analogue poly I’m probably most tempted by - I have a Mopho desktop I bought super cheap years ago and despite the horrible UI it does some really wild stuff.
Yeah, I really appreciate it for those things. It’s weakness (if it is really fair to call it that) is that it doesn’t have instant gratification sounds from INIT.
It’s a great workhorse and it would be hard to be more portable than that with five octaves and 16 analog voices that are in tune and ready to go in 5 seconds.
It can’t really do FM (there are filter FM tricks) or polyphonic ring mod, though - and I can’t wait to explore that stuff with the Muse.
Bring on the vids, any constructive analysis, but please stay on topic. This thread is raising way too many flags!
There is a discussion about YouTubers elsewhere, or about InMusic buying Moog.
Empty your bag there please, but leave this thread for this unobtainable and gorgeous synth.
Just read a comment on this video that said the Muse is what many of us wanted the Moog One to be and that’s EXACTLY right. I remember being so disappointed. This is literally the synth I’ve been wanting for over 20 years.
Yes a feature list… what I’m saying though is that if all the muse videos I watched, I don’t really hear much I couldn’t get with a p6, which to me says a lot about the flexibility of the oscillators and where they can go. Features are important but also how far can they get with strange modulation from sounding like they inherently do. The sixes might seem simple from the interface but they can get very crazy… much because of polymod that unlike most analog synth’s like this one probably works, that sends cv from the controller, polymod works by sending voltage directly from card to card without going through conversion. That is something most might not care about but it matters… also they are a full ten pounds lighter and smaller. I’m just saying that this doesn’t by it’s existence somehow make them less valuable and I don’t agree with that. I would rather have this in a studio… but if I was going to jam with a jazz group I would take a p6 everytime.
I find I like to create a sound and just play it with the sequentials, this seems to me would be fun to just change the sound as you play also.
You might want to give Surreal Machines’ Diffuse a try. Inspired by similar units, often dirt cheap in the bundle with Modnetic and they both sound excellent.
Oh yeah, fair enough - I’m thinking purely studio use and what I could do with those features if I got my hands on them. I’m not likely to be taking an analogue poly to a gig in any foreseeable situation but I am very likely to get into generative sequencing and the modulation options. Horses for courses I guess. But it seems like there’s a lot of depth there beyond the generic which a few of the demos got into, especially Mylar. And I didn’t even mention the bi-timbrality.
As I was saying above, based on admittedly fairly limited knowledge for me the most relevant alternative from DSI seems more like the Rev2 than the higher end stuff … not sure how that’s supposed to be OT, but whatever. I don’t know much about the UDOs either, though, but it does seem like the Muse is going for a different niche than most of the obvious alternatives.
The other comparison is with the Moog One, interesting that people seem to prefer Muse. Not sure I get it, but maybe that’s because it’s the … One … that got away. Was very seriously thinking about the 8 voice but wasn’t able to do an in-person demo where I am. Couldn’t justify spending that much without one, then the prices went up beyond anything I could justify even if I was to sell all my other gear, even before the 8 voice was discontinued.
I can kinda see how the Muse is more focused and probably playable, though.
I think (most) people who have a One are probably just happy with it. A friend of mine just got one, and I basically haven’t heard much from him since. I should check in with him. Maybe he hasn’t left the studio and needs someone to tell him to eat and sleep.
A ONE is much more like a highly expressive classical instrument, even more expressive than a CHROMA. There is nothing analog, that can produce such “soundtrack” like complex tones with this emotional deepness, at least nothing, i have ever heard. I tried it and it is so amazing but for my “dirty electronic” music i would not need it. But if i was into soundtrack composing, it would be my first choice. Incredible synth, most elegant tone, on top with CHROMA and MATRIX12 but even deeper and more complex as those two. It has the timeless highest end sound quality of a Guarneri or Stradivari or such instruments.
I think I said up-thread… at one point, I was literally trying to find a demo on the One that made me want to buy it. I had the cash, didn’t know when I would again, and wanted to try something new and insane. I just never heard a demo that made me go WOW! I NEED THIS! granted, the price tag plays into that too. with the Muse, the barrier to entry is lower, so you’re more willing to take a chance. but that said, I’ve had plenty of WOW! moments when hearing demos of the Muse over the last 24 hours, versus years of hearing One demos. the One just seems more clean and polished to me. maybe that’s just what people are sharing of what they’ve done with it though…
Agreed. The sixes are both deceptively flexible, as long as one likes the basic character of the filters and oscs and the basic timbral “thickness” of the sound. Which you and I both do, I think.
RE the Muse: Gotta say I’m not feeling it so far from the demos—which may just be envy. It’s definitely a relief not to be hearing a poly-Matriarch (because then I’d want what I cannot have); to my ear the oscs on the Muse seem different. However, as someone else said above, mixer levels on the Muse may change the raw tone a lot.
But real happy for those of you who are in love and getting one. The interface/feature set is really beautiful, like the best of the One (e.g., the triangle buttons) and the Matriarch (the mod osc and dual filters). Good to see Inmusic didn’t run away from the high-end side of the Moog brand.
Cool to see her mentioned here, but I also see her more as the creative mind that would make beautiful music with an empty trash can and doesn’t need a prestige poly synth necessarily.
Two other rather generell observations:
What a great time we now have so many options for (analog) poly synths between 1.500 and 4.000€ that either offer lots of features, a stripped back feature list but definitive character, or both. From the amount of posts on this thread over the last hours, it definitely seems like the Muse is going to be a success, and rightfully so.
That being said, Melbourne Delia deserves at least that amount of attention imo. And it makes me a bit sad that their release is now completely overshadowed by Muse. It’s significantly cheaper but really innovative. In a way that potentially completely transforms the way you interact with hardware. And also does a lot of things right in the sound design and functions department. I don’t think you can do much better than Moog with the Muse if you want to make a classical analog poly. But it’s „just“ the perfect execution of decades old concepts, while Delia is bringing something completely new to the table (and combines that with the best of the past).
A friend of mine just got one, and I basically haven’t heard much from him since. 