Moog MemoryMoog+

The basics are easy, but the synth is deep. To use it to its fullest capacity takes some work and expertise. Having said that, it's pretty easy to get a sound out of it and then go to town tweaking the knobs.

Obviously, its features can't be compared to the synths of today - at least in terms of memory and polyphony, but it's got more than enough horsepower to get most of the sounds your imagination can drum up.

I have a CS-80, PPG Wave, a Quadra, a Prophet 5, a Jupiter 8, and I used to have a PS-3200 : ( (I stupidly sold it). I'm not going to be one of these people that tells you that it is the one and only 'cause it's not. As someone said, each synth fills a niche. However, what I will say is that the MM+ is extremely versatile, very trippy sounding, very FAT (or thin), and very organic sounding. It is definitely one of my favs, and it is one of my main "go to" synths. I can always count on it to deliver something great.

Considering how complicated the synth is, I'm fortunate that mine has held up fairly well. I would definitely say GET THE MM+, over the reg MM. I've heard that the PLUS is FAR MORE reliable. One nice thing about the MM+ is that I find that it really stays in tune. But despite my luck so far, i would definitely NOT take it out on the road. It's a studio synth. I wouldn't move it around too much.

As far as analog poly's go, this synth, for me, is one of the absolute best. If I could only have one poly, I think I could build a pretty good argument for this being the one - largely due to its versatility. Great bass sounds, great leads, fat string sounds, stays in tune, still has MIDI...etc. BUT, I think the one thing that this synth does so well - kind of like the CS-80 - is that it always inspires me. There's a surprise element with this synth cause ya never know what will come out of it each time you start tweaking those knobs... That for me is something you can't put a price on.

The Memory Moog+ is pretty straight forward. Hands on knobs approach. I haven' t gotten into the storing presets side or even the sequencer, but anything else is really self explainatory if you know the basics of synthesizers (analog ones i mean).

6 voice polyphony. A unison mode that will blow your speakers. No EFX, which for me is a plus since you concentrate on the pure sound when tweaking. A big minus of nowadays software synths is that you usually get a preset sound that is embellished by chorus and reverb and so on (when you bypass all that you realize how weak the actual sound is.
Midi is tragically bad (Lintronics offers a very pricy upgrade that will turn your Memory Moog into a modern monster synth). I haven't been able to afford it yet, but it's on the want-list.

It's a moog!!! Some bad-ass bass stuff, wacky efx and juicy lead sounds + very good pad sounds. You can get it all. The envelopes could be faster for punchy bass sounds. I love the slightly metallic charcteristic you get when modulating sounds with the 3rd VCO... Actually that whole section is really unique and makes it really original. It's like an organic sounding FM thang. Don't be misguided by the word 'metallic'... It always sounds really fat and analog even with the most vicious screaching sounds. No aftertouch. No velocity.

Nope... and nope again. It's a studio gem and not very rugged (though it's heavy as hell).
Tuning is not an issue on mine, but has been known to be one on other ones.

Inexistent. Though if you get the Lintronics upgrade i am sure you will get very good support from Rudi Linhard himself. When i bought mine i rang him and spoke for about an hour on the phone about memeory moogs. He was very helpful and friendly and as soon as i have the money to spare for the mod i will do so. Rudi is the number one expert about Memory Moogs: he has mod'ed over 300 from the surviving 500 existing ones. About a 1000 were built, but only half of them are still sort of functioning and alive.

I would cry if it got stolen and would chase the thief around the globe!!!
It was expensive but it's worth every penny and also an investment.
I have had it since 2003.
When u are stuck for musical ideas just turn it on and jam on it: you will be blessed with ideas after max 5 minutes. Very good for score music especially (Carpenter-esque).

Top notch synthesis options, a full console of choices
The "Plus" versions that i've used have had stable oscillators (no drift) and have been relatively problem free. Occasional glitches which aren't welcomed given the weight involved in lugging it to a tech, but small in relation to the intital deserved bad rep of the intial non-Midi versions.

Basic Midi; can be enhanced by various options.
No effects, but it sounds so much better than the effects-laden plastic sounding "lite" synths of today that it's irrelevant and easily addressed with outboard units.

Power overload; the biggest more powerful synth i've heard, and i've heard all the usual contenders. Word has it that only a Prophet 10 can come close.
Downside: very industrial sounds are ideal for techno, industrial, etc., but it's not quite as pure as a Mini, P-5 or OB re: musicality. Having said that, it's overpowering and HUGE.

No major problems if left unmoved.

Apparently techs hate to work on these, because the internals are a nightmare. From what i understand, the LAMM upgrade does wonders in many respects, from Midi to tuning, etc., but is ridiculously expensive, almost the price of a Memorymoog!

Dominating, overpowering sound. Excellent for industrial sounds, a little lacking in musicality when compared to other vintage analog classics, but still great..

3 Oscillators Per Voice. Very straight forward waveshape & pitch selection. You can actually select all the available waveshapes at the same time.

6 voice polyphonic!
3 oscillators per voice.
NOT MULTI-TIMBRAL.
Not velocity sensitive!
No After-touch/pressure.
Mine. No MIDI.
Mine. No Sequencer.
Tape dump of patches.
No built in effects. Except built in 18 oscillator detune/drift!!

Realistic sounds? I think not!
The MemoryMoog made one great sound.
THE MOOG SOUND!!
No frickin' FM synth crap here!!!
The king of kings when it came to Bass, Leads, Intros, and Perc. SFX.
Definitely NOT PURE & PRISTINE!!!!

Even in 1984 the MemoryMoog needed updates, tuning, and TLC. Twenty years on you have got to be kidding!

Even when Moog was in business in 1984 they were a pain in the ass to deal with. Now since they don't exist, it may be a little worse.

Bought new in 1984 from Moog Dealer in Santa Cruz, CA. Serial #2524. Sold to get a PPG. Does a MemoryMoog sound like a PPG? NO! Does a PPG sound like a MemoryMoog? NO! The MemoryMoog was my first synth I actually owned. I was learning synth programming at the time on an EMU modular at Cabrillo College and the MemoryMoog translated very well into my studies. Unfortunately, i bought mine BEFORE the MIDI/Auto-Tune update and had to run it up to Magic Music Machines in S.F. to get it tuned. The 18 oscillators would drift out of tune and then I'd repeat the process. This wore rather thin and lead me to pursue the PPG. Digital oscillators do not need tuning! Do I miss the MemoryMoog? No. I have a Access Indigo! Do I miss my PPG's? No! I've got the Wave 2.V plug-in. At the time (1984) the MemoryMoog was at the top of the pile. Now-a-days owning a MemoryMoog just doesn't make sense when there is so much great NEW gear out there that is reliable and more capable. Thus the low rating. No nostalgia here folks!

When compared to my prophet-5, jupiter-8, CS-70M, My Memorymoog plus is the fattest sounding of them all. Some of the horror stories of unreliability are true. My first memorymoog purchased in 1985 was broken more often than it worked. The one that I have now is very reliable, and tunes well.The happiest information that can be displayed by the vintage calculator-esk LED readout is "6 TUNED". I'm running revision 85 which includes the new autotune routine, sure it takes longer to tune, but is more consistant. The Memorymoog plus has a 6 bank multitimbal sequencer, and primitive MIDI (note on/off, prog. change). Linntronics offers a far superior version with advanced implementation. Like most synths of the early eighties, significant efforts were made to replicate acoustic instruments. This resulted in many lame patches in the Memorymoog. Face it, with as many knobs, switches and modulation routings, if you can't create better sounds than factory, you should wear a helmet and ride the short bus. The MM+ is a natural for editing, touch a knob or switch and it instantly becomes active. The calc. display shows a numeric representation of the current parameter value as well as the previous value. Since the basic MM+ doesn't do sysex at all, there's no patch editor. The manual is quite good and is a good primer for budding synthesists.

The MM+ has 6 note polyphony using three oscillators per note, that's 18 oscillators. Two more than my Jupiter-8. Eight more than my Prophet-5. With the Unison mode it stacks all 18 on one note. Continued useage of this feature will cause our moon to break orbit. The MM+ has a 61 note non-weighted, non-velocity, non-aftertouch keyboard. No effects, but modulation routings which surpass the Prophet, and rival the Matrix. The MM+ has a flexible arpeggiator which is externally syncable. The sequencer was great in 1984, but not very useful today. The MM+ has traditional interface outs (CV & gate) with programmable triggering; high note, low note, or last note priority. Without sysex capabilities, the only way to transfer patches is via the cassette interface (yuk, tape).

The MM+ is the KONG of polyphonic synths. It is fat, gritty, and ugly. The mixer section is specially designed to overload and distort prior to the filter stage. The MM+ is still quite capable of warm pads, lush strings, tight brasses. But it's more of a natural with really messed up leads and insane ambients. It's a shame Moog didn't include the touch sensor of the Multimoog/ Liberation and the multimode filters of the Polymoog. Had they done this, people would make fish aquariums out of their Yamaha CS-80s. No effects, it's as dry as a Nord. FYI The MM+ doesn't use the same oscillators as the MINIMOOG, it uses CEM 3340 which is the same as the Jupiter-6, OB-8, and Prophet-5. Not that it matters.

The MM+ has a reputation for being unreliable. Some are unreliable. All can be fixed. My MM+ is very reliable, I wouldn't hesitate to gig with it.

Norlin/ Moog is out of business. There are many skilled/ reputable technicians out there. Don't let anyone break their cherry on your Memorymoog. Always make sure your tech has experience on the Memerymoog, it's a very complicated machine to service.

While I dearly love the Memorymoog, if I had to choose one analog polysynth; it would be the Roland Jupiter 8, but the MM+ is fatter. Fortunatly I don't have to make such a choice. All of the vintage analogs have niches, you can't only have JUST one. All of the analog polysynths suffered from diminishing sales in the early eighties. Players wanted something that could provide simulations of natural instruments. This is why the DX-7 was such a hit. Too many manufacturers tied up resources in synths like the; Memorymoog, the Prophet T-8, the Quadra. I guess attitudes have come full circle with the release of the Voyager and the Andromeda. I'm sure there'll always be plenty of love for the vintage analogs.

It's pretty easy to use.The display seeds clear messages,intuitive.Obviously you still nedd the manual to translate the codes.

Xcellent. probably the most superior analog polysynth ever made,both for sound and features.

Top synth.
There's anything like it,and I do own a Prophet 5 and a Roland MKS80.
It's the best sounding synth ever,deep,complex,moody,warm.

Fortunately I've never had any crash or troubles with it for 4 years.
But it's true also I never move it away from the studio.

Never needed any.

This is the best synth I ever had and played.
Unsubstituitable at all,a state-of-the art polysynth.

This synth is very intuitive....I've had several Minimoogs in the past and was pretty good at tweaking them but getting on this thing for the first time was like option overload heaven!!
Originally touted as six Minimoogs in one keyboard...it's simply AMAZING!

This thing is loaded....introduced in 1982 as Moog's flagship model it has six voices,three oscillators,the famed Moog "ladder" filter,a killer arpeggiator,100 programmable presets,and a wicked modulation section. The "system controller" computer that is the heart of the keyboard has some very cool features. As you tweak any knob on the keyboard it tells you in a 1-100 scale both where you started and where you currently are. This makes going back and trying the original factory programs in the manual a breeze....a totally useful feature that just adds to the list of ridiculously cool things this synth can do. The keyboard action is not weighted but it still feels good. The baddest vintage synth you can get in my book!

This instrument is an ABSOLUTE JOY to play.... I've never had so much fun tweaking endlessly and getting totally lost programming and experimenting with any other unit. It is warm and rich,beautiful and complex sounding....great bass,great strings,great wacky effects,the filter is too much.....I recently considered purchasing a Roland Jupiter 8 and I brought it home and played it for about an hour...I thought it sounded HORRIBLE compared to the Memorymoog,thin and cheesy and totally uninspiring. I put it aside and plugged the Moog back in and it was like "aaaaahhhhhhh...thank you!!!"

These instruments are notoriously temperamental...I've had some small problems with mine.
A couple of the voices went dead.....but the good news is I've had great luck with Fred McNiff,a very well known Moog technician who lives in Cassadega New York.
He's a great tech,a super nice guy and very helpful,highly recommended.
One good thing is that if the unit starts acting up you can easily go into the computer and defeat the particular voice that's giving you problems. Playing a Memorymoog with only 5 of it's voices is still far better than playing any other keyboard that happens to be working perfectly! Don't road these obviously,but if you just wanna have a blast in your home studio this keyboard is for you!

As I said I just call Fred with any problems I may have.
I did e-mail Bob Moog one time and he promptly wrote me back and was very nice.

If something happened to my Memorymoog I would be friggin' devastated!!!..I'm a really a fulltime guitar player but I think I hold my Moog in higher regard than any of my vintage guitars...I love this thing....I'd buy another one if I could ever find one!

Bought the unit right at the midi implementation takeoff and had it retrofited with the plus module. It could remember midi program changes via sequencer but damned if it didn't make a blast of notes from the previous sound when changed...workaround was to change programs 1/2 bar before the new sound was to come in, not on the downbeat. It could only receive in Omni mode, so a midi filter by JL cooper worked to filter out the other uneeded channels (a must when using the unit as part of a song with other instruments receiving the other midi channel information)

Polyphony at 6 voices was good enough for me
No efx, but 100 programs and oscillator and adsr detuning could make it mimic delays etc...As stated previously, its midi implementation is rather primitive

This is a true analog monster a 'big daddy 'of the time which had a 'ballsy' sound that no one else save for Moog had....a raspy, gut wrenching 3 oscillator behemoth which sounded as heavy as the unit itself (damned thing weighs like 60 pounds!) It had a super solid build construction in comparison to today's plastic encased lightweights which break if they fall from two feet. Its knobs were solid and had hardwood side panels...damned thing was a rock of a synth...of course, there was little velocity or aftertough sensitivity...had to pretty much program it in using adsr....

The nature of this beast is that it would always go out of tune, and it had a nifty auto-tune button to try to correct this, but at times it wouldn't and if would have to be brought into the shop for a 35 dollar repair....this is something you don't see in this day and ages with today's rock solid digital oscillators emulating analog..but this was true analog, and man, did it sound like it....wicked raw and nasty this thing blows the Alesis Andromeda out of the water....I could get this insane bass lines that just smacked you in the face and gurgled and modulated all over the place....then it could produce the most angelic string pads....it was a true beauty to behold...only other synth of its time that compared, to me was the Oberheim OB-8, which was tonality wise much softer than the Memorymoog

Moog went out of business for a while...and now they are back after some kind of weird stint with big briar music who if I am not wrong was somehow connected with Sequential Circuits at one time....I think at the time they were in Buffalo NY then became a telecommunications company when they went belly up...I never had to deal with them except once, and it was a baaaaad experience because they somehow LOST! my Moog Source in the mail when I sent it back for repairs under Warranty....man I was pissed....it took me two months to track it down....but hey, what can you say....they were Moog, and Moog is the granddaddy of all synthanufactureres...the Japanese stuff was good, but they never made stuff like Moog did...not nearly as dirty and mean as the Moogs...Moogs were the monsters of them all, save for ARP running a close second...

What else can i say? Yesterdays technology is considered worthless in a world dominated by the newest and best toy....but nothing I have ever heard since, with all of its bells and whistles, has ever sounded like this machine, so in the sound department, no sampler could ever emulate the thing, and no synth has the guts and meat this machine had inside...a true original and all time classic machine that could never be replaced.....i just wish I had never sold mine..

6 note Polyphony (could throw in a few more)
Could benefit from a weighted keyboard. I think i might try to glue some lead weights underneath. Forget about the midi implementation guys. Just play it.

The only reliability problem i have encountered with my memorymoog is the power supply connectors (3 square pin type) the female plugs do not make a good contact with the square pin. Solution: solder directly or replace with round type plug. Consider replacing Z80 cpu w new Zilog eZ80 for several reasons.(I've notified Big Briar on this)

I maintain all my moogs.