Motas-6 Synth

I’ll try get some more demos, might do a video of me quickly making different patches to both show the raw sound aswell as the creation process

The vcos are stable in that they only rarely need retuning which is very quick to do, there is some movement to the vcos as you’d like from them. Theyre definitely stable enough to get results with the PM not too unlike what you’d expect from a DX7 tbh, it’s definitely analogue but it’s unlike any analog fm I’ve heard before imo

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Can I ask ‘unlike’ how?

I’ve long wanted to try this but haven’t got there as yet… one day. The morphing really interests me fwiw.

I mean, any fm I’ve heard on an analogue synth sounds nothing like the PM you heard from a DX7 sy77 etc… the Motas’s PM defo itely has more in common with the DX7 in how it sounds than typical analog FM, if you search motas PM on soundcloud or it might even be earlier in this thread, you can hear an example of what I mean.

The vector morphing is really cool too, I’ve had some good results from it but tbh, still barely dived into it even after owning it for 2 years now, not because it’s not interesting but because I’ve already been able to get so much evolution in patches just from all the lfo’s, I’ll try and make some more examples of that when I have time.

If you’re interested, I recommend getting in touch with Jon of Motas, he’s really helpful in any questions you may have.

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Yeah, I’ve had contact with jon before - great guy and very open to discussion. Thanks for the info - as I understand it the basic oscillator tones are capable of sounding very raw/analogue too - is that correct do you think?

Last question - note you compared it to the A4, something I wouldn’t describe in that way (above) at all - you think basic tone is rougher around the edges/bigger than that? I appreciate these are terrible and highly subjective descriptors so I’m only looking for your opinion, I’m just interested if it can go from ballsy analogue to smoother FM and all in between?!

Oh it can sound very raw, my search for analogue sound ended when I got my motas and I’d tried a bunch of other analog synths that didn’t come close to THAT sound that I’d been craving from analogue.

Yeah it and the A4 are world apart in terms of sound, I just meant more in that they’re both programmers synths and that time spent is ultimately whatll lead to reward with them, the Motas does sound amazing with a single oscillator and filter though and I’ll often use it for just that even though it’s capable of so much more.

It can also sound very pretty / smooth, I love it for pads / chords

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Thanks for the info, appreciated

Well, after checking for months with no luck one’s turned up used in the UK. Typically straight after I bought a Pro 2 and also found a new place to live which needs a million things buying for it :sweat_smile:

Heads up for anyone else who happened to be after one, buy it and put me out of my misery.

Alright, thanks for nothing guys - I’ve got a Motas-6 on the way. Three cheers for financial irresponsibility!

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Congratulations! Pretty sure I know that seller too - great guy!

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Could anyone offer any thoughts on the sequencer? I’m thinking about picking up one of these but haven’t been able to find out much in terms of the sequencer’s usability. Is it fun to work with? CV out? Length of sequences, says 1 bar in the manual???

Many Thanks!

I’ve not actually used the sequencer much as I sequence mine from my computer using architect and used to use a pyramid for the job.

The seq is more of a bonus imo, there’s some cool things about it though, like being able to automate the parameters per step or change patch per step and I believe there was an update which allows you to use the knobs o. The panel to program the sequencer.

I think for me to consider making heavy use of the seq, I’d ideally want the ability to change seq remotely which is not currently possible.

Polymeters are possible

Thanks for the response. It’s really a lovely looking/sounding machine but I need something with a better onboard sequencer, I think. 1 bar doesn’t do much for me. But there’s always a compromise when picking up a new synth, anyway, appreciate the feedback

The sequences can be chained if that helps at all?

How is it not having dedicated ADSR controls?
It might sound silly but I think that’s the thing that puts me off the most about this instrument.

I don’t find it an issue and there is a panel mode accessed easily that allows you to control the envelopes with knobs on the panel, works really nicely actually… But I tend to program the envelopes using the encoder as it goes quick for me that way

Things are mad hectic for me at the moment with moving house so I haven’t spent as much time with the Motas-6 as I’d like by a long shot, but I can say that it definitely hasn’t disappointed so far. The day it arrived I spent a few hours doing nothing but getting insanely different tones from the filters, I’d seen @Petajaja mention the MS-20 type screams before but I was surprised to find some settings that reminded me of Dreadbox stuff too - you can get really cool vocal sounding harmonics out of the resonance with certain routings/gain/feedback.

The main thing I was slightly concerned about was how the raw character would lend itself to more bread and butter patches since most of the demos naturally focus on the crazier side of things. This will be my only analog mono for the moment so it’ll get used for basic stuff a fair bit too. I found it a little well behaved, maybe even slightly vanilla just from an init patch but I guess it’s better to start out that way and give you the tools to break out from it than start out sounding full of character and not be able to dial it back. I started on setting up a kind of custom ‘analog init’ patch with bits of instability programmed in (sort of DIY ‘slop’ I guess) and it works wonders for that kind of thing, there’s clearly bags of character in here even if it’s not on the absolute surface.

When I actually read the manual this thing will definitely become dangerous. The UI is a little unusual but the fact I haven’t really had to look much up yet shows how well designed it is, especially considering the complexity the synth has. Although figuring out how to get to an init patch had me scratching my head right out of the box :sweat_smile:

Some observations/questions about the hardware:

My silver one has a fair bit of fading and what looks like wear on the labels - is this likely to be wear or just the nature of the screenprinting when done directly onto metal?

The resistance of the knobs varies quite a bit, not a huge deal but noticeable nonetheless. Maybe it’s had a fair amount of use in its life already… Seems likely given the filter cutoff is particularly loose.

My encoder knob is a bit scratchy, going to very scratchy when pushing it down and turning it. Entering values with it feels a bit jumpier than I’d like as well, perhaps the two things are related?

Anyway, I’m super happy to finally have a hold of this and really looking forward to future explorations when time allows.

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Lots of great info in this thread.

Was wondering if anyone has played around with this paraphonicly? Can I play chords on the Modas-6 over MIDI/etc, or is it just retuning specific oscillators? If not it’s not really a dealbreaker, just haven’t seen any examples so was wondering if anyone had played around with it.

Looks like a pretty wicked synth from what I’ve read in this thread and the little I’ve seen online.

EDIT: Ah just saw a paraphonic example in the Superbooth demo. This thing sounds pretty wild.

Yeah, another demo here:

It’s a lot like the Pro 2 since each oscillator can have it’s own amplitude envelope, it takes a bit more setting up than the Pro 2 but has a bit more flexibility in how they can be triggered as well (low/middle/high etc.)

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Oh yeah, another thing it has in common with the linear FM-slinging Pro 2 is the potential for paraphonic wackiness with phase modulation in the mix since playing multiple notes effectively means you’re dynamically changing the operator ratios as you move around the keyboard.

You can play quite cool ‘melodies’ just holding down one key and tapping others to trigger changes in timbre.

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I really love using my Motas as a paraphonic synth, you can also squeeze multitimbrality out of it if you couple it with something like a Blokas midihub or a sequencing program like Architect… I love using mine as a drum machine through this trick.