Taiga from Pittsburgh Modular

The Lounge Other Gear
#99

I’m with you - I see the excitement in it - it’s a very cool synth, but the sounds aren’t really my style - all the demos sound very cool but it’s not a character I think I need. I’m excited for the folks that want it though as it’s a real beast, lots of cool features!

I’m ok with the look, not my style but it’s different and tastefully done - I really like the aesthetic these guys employ but I’m not sure they’ve found a way to properly translate it to their synth designs, but it’s a much better execution than the East Beast.

Will be interesting to hear from folks once the dust settles and it’s in the hands of people that have bought one to make music with it. I could be convinced otherwise!

5 Likes
#100

I really don’t get how they got from the design language of those models to this. The grass clip art…

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#101

am I the only here thinking some mults would really nice to have? i know you can use stackables but a lot of the semi modulars don’t really come with mults (except mavis)

maybe they want to keep the price low but not digging the cheap looking recent knobs at all. those and the pale cheeks make the synth look cheap imo. their old lifeforms stuff (esp voltage lab) look 100x nicer

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#102

Honestly this is the thing that has me on the fence about buying one. I know that I will want to expand it, which led me into the modular rabbit hole after buying semi modular stuff last time.

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#103

It does have a very nice mult that can add and devide. I wish the sequencers they use had the ability to enter notes from the unit. Over all of seems like a upgraded voltage lab, I really like it. They need to make a capacitive keyboard for it or something.

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#104

Me too !

I looked at combining it with a Eurorack controller from Pittsburgh Modular’s sister company Cre8audio, the NiftyKEYZ ( thread ).

They would make a good combo except unfortunately the NiftyKEYZ has their CV connection along the top of the Eurorack slot, the wrong place, unless you put the Taiga in upside down, which would be really weird, that you might actually get used to that.


Cre8audio NiftyKEYZ

The NiftyKEYZ is capable as a polyphonic CV controller, with MIDI too.

I also looked back at the Capacitive Keyboard Thread, specifically this post there.

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#105

Yeah, while I love the small, compact, semi-modular Pittsburgh designs, I wish they go all out and make something like a Moog Grandmother meets Easel, with the voicing of the SV-1, Microvolt, or Taiga.

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#106

That might be how the VRL2 ends up, I guess?

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#107

That is the dream.

#108

We may one day all be living in it… in the meantime, I’m going to connect a 0-Ctrl to the SV-1 and see what happens

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#109

Good luck. I’ve heard some people never come from that. It is just too groovy.

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#110

Yeah, I’m not feeling this design AT ALL. The sound is the bee’s knees…I really want one.

Like, I get that those two typefaces may have co-existed in some late mid-century nature/outdoor life magazine - but, to me, they feel like their awkwardly bridging two disparate vibes; delicious late mid-century modern (helvetica + analog video noise = 1970s television documentary) and more of a 1950s Christmas card thing with that hand script. It’s a clash I’m not feeling. I can’t tell if the hand script is earnest 50s or kitsch 70s-a-la DEVO, or what.

#111

In order to use this live for a multi-song set and really exploit it’s versatility, I would have to use a Polyend Preset or similar to change patches.

That being said…is there such a thing as a true analog monosynth with wavefolding AND patch memory out there?? :thinking:

#112

I wonder if recent design decisions by manufactures are a result of cost cutting and/or production line issues…

#113

I wonder if recent design decisions by manufactures are a result of cost cutting and/or production line issues…

wow, I wouldn’t have thought of that…but yeah, maybe they hired a less experienced intern who didn’t really get how tough it is to make retro era-mixing “work” smoothly.

But I’m willing to be wrong. Maybe next year I’ll have a road to Damascus moment and see what they were doing and go “fuck me, that’s brilliant”

#114

There has to be, right? I am hoping that the inclusion of a wave folder in the Mavis means that moog will get a little crazy with the next gen of their “Sub” format synths. Probably just wishful thinking though.

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#115

Upside-down Taiga in general would solve the problem of cables getting between you and the knobs. People who do aftermarket skins should look at an upside-down version :upside_down_face:

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#116

Yeah I love that this is an analogue synth but at that price I would rather use software still. I can save the presets I make and just sit outside and mess with sequences with zero effort.

Its a super cool Semi modular synth and paired up with something like an Octatrack, i can see lots of potential.

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#117

There are some noisier, more experimental sounds/patches in the second half of this video:

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#118

majella implexus maybe?