Moog MemoryMoog

Easy to programme - its subtractive synthesis with lots of knobs and buttons.

Nice to be able to stack oscillators in mono mode. Midi retrofit limited, keyboard nasty, no velocity.

Sounds are great, but tend to be a bit overpowering, and dominate a mix. Not very expressive as controllers and mod routings are limited. Very distinctive lead and bass sounds.

Reliability is terrible, so expect to spend regularly and extensively to keep this beast working. Treat like bone china.

There is none. I think Moog were bought out by Norlin to complete this synth.

I sold mine in 1991 and bought an OSCar, an RSF Kobol Expander, and an Oberheim SEM with the proceeds. I played one a couple of years later, and it confirmed my decision to get shot. A lovely looking piece of furniture, but lacking in practicality. The only hit record which used one I am aware of is the ghastly "Final Countdown" by perm wielding girlies Europe.

What the HELL could be easier than one knob or switch for ANY parameter? Thet's what you get, baby. And there's no "realtime" simulation... it IS realtime! You'll get your hands on a six-voive-polyphonic analog beast with virtually unlimited tweaking options. Yeah.
Concerning presets: I dont't use them, hardly iaknig them as an option for new sound creations. I bought a used one with a bunch of modified presets, and that's it. Editing is VERY easy. And the manual is very good.

Sometimes the polyphony (6 voices) does not work the way it should. In my opinion, that's a warming-up-problem. My MM plays far better if it's swichted on for 1 hour. There' no velocity sensitivity on the keyboard, but you don't need that. The sound is fat as a pregnant cow. No built-in effects, far better. Combine it with your own (analog) effect section and make your neighours mad.
There are no expansion capabilities... and you don't need them. Call me if you need more than that 100 memory patches: just use a good sampler (i.e. Emulator II et al) and you'll be fine!
A Kenton MIDI Kit will be fine, and sequencer users may be fin with that, too. I heard there's a sequencer in the MM+ model, but who the hell does use it nowadays?

Realistic?
We're talking about analog synthesis, in spite of that, theres noting more realistic I've ever heard. If you know how to use it (and that's pretty easy) you can use it for ANY kind of music (that's true, baby). Hard Rock, Dance, Ambient, ...
Concerning "reacting" to my playing, I have to say that there's no velocity sensivity. But you won't need that, honestly.

Sometimes, the MM causes problems. "Stuck" voices are common due to a too early release time. Don't use it on stage. But if you have the patience to use it in a studio... WOW!

Custumer support? Never heard of that.
Try the Inernet and you'll find plentyof information about it.

The MM has got quite a few weak points. But in general, there's nothing to compare. I ckecked Pro-5, Elka Synthex, Oberheim OB8. concerning sound, there's no compuarison. And if you have a MM good-in-shape, try the LAMM-option. A few bucks more, but after that you'll be even more satisfied. Long live MemoryMoog!

Memorymoog PLUS
The instrument came with a very wide variety of preprogrammed sounds. All 100 patches are re-writable. I used a lot of these sounds with little alteration. Altering and making up new patches is extremely easy if you're familiar with analog sythesis. Any background in operating a Minimoog makes the Memorymoog a breeze to operate.

Taken within the context of the time period that this was designed an manufactured, six voices was a fantastic improvement. As someone who came from the experience of using a Minnimoog (1 voice) six seemed like a luxury at the time. And unlike the Minimoog which had to be totally programmed from scratch for each sound, being able to store 100 sounds and arrange them in any order was fantastic.
The midi is extremely limited of course, since Midi was a brand new commodity when the instrument was developed. It receives simultaneously on all channels, so an outborad midi box is needed if used along with any other midi equipment.
I've always loved the feel of the keyboard on this instrument, so I still love using it today, especially for lead lines.

I have primarily used the Memorymoog for Rock and Pop performance, and it excels in this area. When emulating sounds from rock and pop recordings, I can usually find something extremely close, but usually MORE appealing to me than the original sound.
There are no actual internal effects (reverb, delay, phasing, etc.) and a reverb unit is a great addition for the sound, especially when playing polyphonically.
There is no velocity or aftertouch because there was no such thing at that time. There are a lot of other internal programming methods of adding expressiveness however, especially with the programmable foot pedal(s.)

The Memorymoog prooved it's reliability to me for several years when I was using it for gigging (1985 - 1991.) The oscillators have a tendency to drift a bit, especially until the instrument is warmed up, but I found that pushing the 'autotune' button a few times during each set kept it sufficiently in tune.

I never had to deal with the company. I've had the good fortune to know an excellent tech service guy who knows this thing inside and out. I did have to send it out of state once when my local guy was unable to acquire a chip that needed to be replaced. Some of them have become very rare!

I've been playing for about 30 years but haven't played professionally for more than 10 years now. The moog went untouched for several years but is now back out. From the 80s, I still have a Roland Juno 106 and a Roland S-10 (sampler.) More recently I have acquired a Yamaha CLP 130 digital piano, EMU Vintage Pro rack and a Nord Electro 73.
I love the sound of the memorymoog as well as the easy use and programming. I am a product of the analog age and never became as comfortable with algorythms and digital programming. It just don't make no sense to me.
The only thing I dislike about the Memorymoog is that it is very HEAVY!

Memorymoog Plus, which is far more reliable.
Easy to edit, manipulate and create sounds

Standard analog polyphonic of the era. Sound is it's strength..

HUGE, RAW sounds: power overload; power is it's signature. Kind of like a bigger Prophet but raw in character vs. edgy and more refined, complex Prophet sound. I've not heard anything this punchy, and i have a Mini, Prophet-5, etc. Apparently a Prophet 10 might be comparable..

You get a very raw, unprocessed sound (early 80s rap/electro such as Planet Rock, etc.); it's a trade off - a little less polished, sonorous and musical than a Mini or Prophet-5. Instead, it imbues everything with an unprocessed, beefy, and dominating feel..

Pretty much reliable if you (1) get a Plus, and (2) treat it carefully and leave it inside (no gigs); occasional glitches which are a pain to fix because of it's weight re: transport, but nothing serious.

Techs hate to work on it because of it's complexity, but it's a known commodity to some.

Dominating - intensely powerful signature, a rawer Moog sound that lends itself to industrial and underground moods, in my opinion.

Extremely intuitive, as long as you know the basics of substractive synthesis. Very clear layout, so-so LED readout. Probably the easiest synth of its era (and complexity) to operate for newbies.

6-voice polyphony, 3 VCOs/voice. That's a hunk, kids, particularly in mono mode (18 oscs per note, natch). Terrific modulation section, including keyboard tracking on LFO 3 (a wonderful improvement on the SC Polymod feature). Blah blah blah. But the SOUND... that's the whole story on this one. Just incredible. Oh- that's the next section.

This isn't a sampler or a modeler, so don't worry about "realism" per se. But if your desire is for astonishing analog warmth, depth and balls, this is the only one. Period. I've owned and used everything, live and in the studio -- I still own a Prophet VS and a PPG Wave 2.3 from the old days, and have sold off so many other things that I actually liked -- Matrix-12, Prophet V, Jupiter 8, etc. -- but this one is the undisputed Tsar of Balls. Don't mean to be crass, but you can't believe how much presence and power this synth has. Not to mention routing flexibility and WOW-ish filters. I just can't stand it.

Funny... I've never really had a problem with it, at least not a significant one. I've had it upgraded a few times (it's a 1983 model), and serviced at irregular intervals, but the biggest glitch I've had is a few dead keys when it gets humid. I wouldn't call that a problem, really. I've noticed a bit of osc tuning drift, but once the machine is good and warm, it goes away. Maybe I'm just blessed.

There is no customer support. A few experts work on them. You can find them on the web. Use them, as long as they're verifiably good.

Overall rating is an 8.5 --- this is honestly the best-sounding synth in my arsenal, and it's been a mainstay for 20 years (!). I can't get anything to sound remotely like it, and I'm a longtime programmer for some of the big synth companies. Access Virus? Nah. Novation? Forget it. This is the mother of them all... and if you can find one, please bite the bullet and snatch it up. Rumor has it that there are really about 1200 of these left in the world... and if that's true, this puppy is becoming the moody Stradivarius of its day.

Amazingly easy to use, I have tons of recordings from the eighties featuring improvisational programming/tweaking, in real time. Couldn't do that with any keyboard for years after (until the virtual analog revolution). Brilliant lay out (display compared current position of knob being tweaked with preset position, a first!), logical and educational; first moog with presets, big deal at the time; retuning a time consuming nightmare, and necessary on a weekly basis.

see other reviews...

Very fat, but somewhat course sounding. I disagree with the other reviewers, although close it did not sound exactly like a mini! The filters were different, the sound less smooth, different in character. Still a good sound, but the Prophet V was better.

The worst keyboard ever made

Imaginary. I bought one new at the time, so bad they replaced it twice. Never admitted they had a major design flaw, so I kept thinking I was just unlucky... learned later that none of them worked properly

It kills me how some people get all misty eyed over vintage gear. Clavinets, Fender Rhodes, sure, they're still great. But lets get real: the Memorymoog (and many others) was completely unusable for any kind of gigging musician. It single-handedly destroyed countless gigs for me, suddenly drifting wildly out of tune at some crucial moment. It even had a feature where you could disable the out of tune voice, reducing the polyphony (which was six voice) -- Moog's tacit admittance that the keyboard wouldn't stay in tune. I often wound up playing it as a one-voice synth (the other voices disabled), and even that voice drifted. Just me, but a great idea for a synth is useless if it doesn't actually work.

Mmmm... Knobs, they're all you need. Very easy. Select a patch by pressing the patch # then ENTER, and start tweaking.

The user manual explains the functions very well, it's one of the best I've seen.

The Memorymoog is a six-voice polyphonic programmable analog synthesizer. Each voice has three VCOs, the famous Moog VCF, VCA, and independent ADSR EGs for the VCF and VCA. It has a five-octave keyboard and pitch bend/mod wheels. There is no aftertouch or velocity sensing in the keyboard. There's a useful and musical arpeggiator built in. The Memorymoog Plus (which I have) includes a polyphonic AND monophonic sequencer and a very basic MIDI implementation.

Each VCO has triangle, ramp, and variable pulse waveforms available simultaneously, this is the only Moog outside of the modulars with this feature. VCO2 can be synced to VCO1 for the nastiest sync sweep sounds. VCO3's keyboard control can be turned off and can be dropped to LFO mode like the Minimoog; read the voice modulation features later on to discover how powerful this feature is. A mixer controls levels of the VCOs and noise level.

The VCF is the famous Moog transistor ladder filter and it sounds GREAT. Instead of continuous keyboard tracking, Moog used the 1/3 & 2/3 tracking selectors like the Minimoog. The filter has its own ADSR EG with variable amount.

The EGs can track the keyboard with the Keyboard Follow button, IE the higher the note the faster the attack/decay/release transients. There's also a Release button for disabling the release stage.

The Return to Zero button resets the envelope to zero instead of from its current level. The Unconditional Contour forces the envelopes to complete all ADSR stages regardless of whether the key is held down or not.

There's also a multi-waveform LFO (triangle, rising ramp, falling ramp, square, S&H) that can be assigned to any/all of VCO pitches, PW, and VCF. The mod amount can be preprogrammed or varied with the mod wheel.

Then we get to the REAL power of the Memorymoog... Voice Modulation. The VCF EG and/or VCO3 can be used to modulate VCO1/2 pitch, PW, or the VCF. The modulation amounts are variable and can be inverted. What's the big deal? VCO3 can be put in LFO mode and when you route VCO3 to the PW of the other two VCOs, you get independent LFO modulations of the PW for a rich fat sound. If you use the standard LFO, the PWM of all the voices will all be in sync; if you use VCO3 as an LFO, the PWM will be independent. The sound is much thicker and much more animated. For more fun, turn on keyboard tracking for VCO3 while it is in LFO mode. This was the Prophet-5 claim to fame with its Polymod feature, and the Memorymoog takes it even further.

The Sequencer is fairly rudimentary and I haven't used it in years. You can store six polyphonic sequences and six monophonic sequences in memory. The monophonic sequence CV and gate goes to the rear panel jacks for external control of other monophonic synths and the CV is scalable for interfacing to Moogs, ARPs, etc. The sequences can be in step or in realtime, you just press record, start playing, and press stop. You can specify the maximum number of voices so that you can have some left over for playing along with the sequence. Pretty basic by todays' standards but it was powerful for 1984 when it was released.

Other features... Foot pedals, two jacks on the rear panel for CV pedals, use just one and #2 is normalled to #1. You can use foot pedal #1 for controlling volume, pitch, and/or filter, then foot pedal #2 for mod amount and/or VCO2 pitch (think sync sweeps). The voice allocation are flexible - cyclic, memory cyclic, reset, memory reset. Cyclic cycles through all six voices when you play the keyboard, Memory cyclic "remembers" the same voice if you repeatedly press the same key, Reset always resets to voice one when all keys are released, I forget how Memory Reset works.

The Memorymoog doubles as a monophonic synth by pressing MONO, and you can vary the number of voices from 1 to 6. All six voices in monophonic mode gives you one of the hugest sounds in analog land, you get the sound of eighteen VCOs and six Moog

This thing will get ANY analog synth sound from the 70s and 80s, it is THAT versatile. I've been using the Memorymoog to cover songs by ELP, Styx, Rush, and many many others. It's been my workhorse for YEARS. I've even used some string and tympani sounds with a community orchestra band and it sounded fine. I wish it had some aftertouch in the keyboard though.

Of any of the Moog synths ever made, the Memorymoog does the best Minimoog impersonation. It's got that big bad Moog sound. It's a lot of machine just for basses and leads, but it's fantastic for FX, pads, rezzes, strings, brass, etc I can get a LOT of sounds from this. The key is the voice modulation feature. "Brawny" is the best way to describe the Memorymoog because it sounds so big and strong.

But... the Memorymoog is one fragile creature. I gigged with mine with a flight case for years yet the tuning and reliability went to hell. There are two problems: the trimpots fail and the connectors oxidize. The Memorymoog is FULL of connectors and Moog Music used really crappy ones. When mine wouldn't hold its tuning or calibration anymore, I ripped out selected connectors and replaced them with gold-plated ones for a phenominal reliability improvement. This is a big job but worth the effort if you want to keep your Memorymoog going strong. The details of the fix are described in the Analogue Heaven archives at http://www.midiwall.com/archives/ah/

Don't gig with a Memorymoog unless you do the connector job. Trust me. If yours can go out of tune just by bumping on the case, it won't hold up to road abuse. Most people leave theirs in the studio but even that isn't safe as they age and the connectors fail.

Be aware that the Memorymoog uses about forty CEM chips which are now getting very rare and are running $50 and up apiece.

Moog Music is history and there are not many techs who dare to repair one of these. I do my own repair and calibration.

Fred McNiff is one of the original Moog Music techs who still does repairs and he specializes in Minimoog and Memorymoog work. His website is http://www.madbbs.com/~fmcniff/

The Memorymoog is THE classic polysynth to own but you'd better be prepared for the cost of calibration. You'll need to range and scale all eighteen VCOs once a year, and if it gets worse than that then I suggest the connector remedy described above. If you keep it tuned up like a fine import motorcar, the Memorymoog will reap many rewards. It's pretty heavy too, weighs about 80 pounds. You'll want a sturdy stand for it.

I bought my Memorymoog from Moog Music in 1985 when the DX-7 had squashed the analog synth market out of existence, and Moog was blowing out brand new MMs for $1000 with warranty. Mine is actually an early Memorymoog with the sequencer added along with the reliability upgrades, and it has a new serial number on it. I know this because the serial # on the LH control board is lower and they added the sequencer overlay over the original. I can't believe that they're fetching $2500 and up on ebay today.

I own fourteen keyboards now, including seven Moogs. This beast has been my number one axe and it is the standard against which every polysynth is measured in my book. I've tried to find a smaller lighter polysynths that could replace the Memorymoog but they all come up way short. The Supernova couldn't do it. Nor could the Oberheim OBMx, Matrix, any VA, etc. Only the Alesis Andromeda comes close to it, and I've successfully duplicated many Memorymoog patches in the Andromeda. Even though the Andromeda now replaces at least four keyboards on stage, I am still hanging on to the old stuff. I'm just too attached to it. It's my favorite synth and I'm forever learning how to get new sounds on the thing.

Read the manual. That says it all. Just make sure you remember what you read. This isn't called a "memory" moog for nothing.

Lots and lots. Except don't expect modern frills like sensitive-anything.

Check out the patches at the memorymoog user's site.

Well, I'm still waiting to get a comparison between one gone over by Lintronics and a gal on the west coast. SHE hasn't had any problems, but then, she's never moved it from where she put it when she first took it out of the box a decade and a half ago.

I have found Lintronics a joy to deal with. Rudy sends email very promptly and knows EVERYTHING.

This question is a no brainer. It has knobs. Switches. LED's. All integrated into a straight-forward control-surface. And, I might add...all those controls and switches and LED's invite you to twiddle with them. No, this is NOT a menu-driven machine....this is real-time, immediate keyboard. Built for immediate gratification.

As analog machines go, featurewise, it covers all the bases. But no, it does not accept samples; no, it is not multitambral; no, there are no patch cords to matrix it's separate modules together like on the old modulars. No, it does not accept cards, or new boards, or more memory. But, it has the SOUND. 18 VCO's worth! 19, if you include the LFO. Classic Curtis 3340 chips....put into probably the most intense analog configuration ever built. There's enough circuit-board real estate in these puppies to tile your kitchen.

Being a person who used to haunt the music stores when these actually were being sold as new, I KNOW what it's DIRECT competition sounded like. Down to business: It eats the Obie's and the Prophet 5 for lunch. But then, there was 3-5 times more that went into making the Memorymoog then either the Prophet or the Obie. It *killed* the old Voyetra analogs as well. No comparison.

I would say that it's only real direct competitor that I've heard was the LARGE Oberheim, which was out of production by the time the Memorymoog hit the market. I still have one of those; I have played them side by side. The final word is this: As a stand-alone Polyphonic Hybrid (it's true classification); the Memorymoog is the King. Period.

Reliability can be summed up thus: The Memorymoog sunk Moog, the company. Two reasons: First:

It's production was sadly, ill-timed. Remember the Yamaha DX-7? It was coming to market at the about the same time as the MM. And the DX-7 came out like a tidalwave. Completely changed the whole keyboard marketing dynamic forever.

Second: With a 2000+ parts count, early versions of the 345A proved to be very unreliable. In fact: About a quarter went back to the factory for one reason or another...at least, that's what I was told. And..the MM is a servicing nightmare. People need to know the machine before attempting repairs. Don't try this at home kids. Professional driver on a closed course.

Anyway, the story has a semi-happy ending. Moog product 345A went through several revisions that ended up successfully fixing the vast majority of the problems...the final production machines were quite reliable, almost reliable enough to tour with. The only real problems left outstanding are: Power supply problems, due mainly to corrosion build-up or intermittant contact of a single internal power-supply plug/jack (fixable permanently, if you lose the plug/jack, and hard-wire the PS), and "thermal substrate blow-through" on the part of the CEM 3340 VCO's that populate the inner-workings. But as long as the machine is allowed to breathe (it does have an internal fan), that can be kept to a rare occurance.

Oh, one more slight problem: Moog is no longer in business.

Customer support: BWHAHAHAHAHAHA. Seriously: There are *still* a select minority of people out there who are qualified to work on these Dinosaurs. But I can't stress enough, though, to network FIRST before trusting someone with your beloved.

OK....I've got a surprise for you Mr. and/or Ms. analog keyboard enthusiast. I own FIVE Memorymoogs....all in pristine condition. In original boxes. No kidding! These will be going *individually* on EBAY between 1/01 and 5/01. One per month. Actually, I hope they wind up in museums, or world-class recording studios...that's where they belong....certainly not any longer in my storage.

If they were stolen, I'd hope to collect boo koo bucks from the insurace company. Would I try to replace them? What would I replace them with? NOTHING sounds like them. If I needed the sound, quite frankly, I'd be SOL.

Everything is laid out with huge amounts of buttons, pots, and LEDs.The presets are pretty cool, and a good starting point for the amazing s*** you will soon discover.

There is only one problem here, but if you know how to work a volume pedal, there is no problem here. OK, it's not velocity sensitive, but it isn't a piano so...? You have to play this SOB to get it and I don't want to give away too many secrets, but when you run this baby in the "unison" mode there are 18, count 'em, 18 pure analog oscillators humming on every note you hit. Soloing in this mode is the stuff that standing ovations are made of.

This is, without a doubt the most badass board I've ever owned. The more you look, the more you'll like. Take this thing out on a gig and you're liable to tear someone's head clean off.

OK, ya got me. I don't know what to say except that if you decide to buy one, be prepared to spend around the same amount of money on maintenance as you would an El Camino from this era.

Mine started to smoke, but my pal "E" says he'll have it going good as new for under $300.

Programming the MemoryMoog is a dream. No menus, or scroll down lists, just a knob or a button for every parameter, what could be easier. In addition, when a knob is moved, the display indicates the current value as well as the programmed value, a nice feature.
The manual is excellent and includes the usual 1980's introduction to subtractive synthesis.
There are no preset sounds, all 100 patches can be edited.

The MemoryMoog has the standard (for 1985) 6-voices. There are no built in effects and no expansion capabilities.
The keyboard is your basic early 80's synth keyboard; unweighted, no velocity, no aftertouch.
The MemoryMoog has no MIDI. The MemoryMoog+ has a rudimentry MIDI implementation accepting note on-off data in omni mode only.
The MemoryMoog+ has a very sophisticated (for 1985) sequencer. It can record in both step an real-time modes. In real time mode, an audio click output is provided. However, as the sequncer can only be sync'd to an external clock, the sequencer is of very little use in a late 1990's MIDI studio.

This is one amazing sounding machine. With three true analogue oscillators per voice, the sound is huge. Plus there are many more modulation options than any other programable polyphonic analogue synth of this era making this a very flexible machine. There is a place for the MemoryMoog in all types of music.

This is by far the most unreliable synth that I have ever had. They are prone to overheating and intonation problems. They are extremely complicated and difficult to repair. I never take mine out of my studio and would never even consider taking it to a gig.

Moog have been out of business for over 10 years. However, there are some very knowledgable former Moog employees who are can repair even the most difficult problems.

I have owned a MemoryMoog+ since 1986 and I am still completely in love with it. The sound is amazing and it is a joy to program. My only complaints are that it has been very unreliable and that the Midi implementation is very rudimentary.

For: Knobs and buttons galore; 3 oscillators per patch (times 6 in monomode); make sure your teeth are in tight when you play it (BIG sounds).
Against: do-nothing keyboard; mono outs; tuning probelms (still); MIDI seems an afterthought and only available on MemoryMoog Plus. Doesn't respond to some performance commands (velocity).

Sounds: analog Keyboard: 5 octave (no aftertouch or velocity) Poly: 6 voice Storage: 100 patches Recorders: Arpeggiator Connections: mono; CV gate & input; program jack (up/down); release & hold; cassette

This was the last hurrah from the company that basically started it all. Moog barely made it into the MIDI age with the MemoryMoogPlus (aka MIDIMoog) and limped along a few years before giving up the ghost in 1987.
How does it sound? Well, picture if you will the pure Tasmanian devilry of six MiniMoogs coraled under one hood. Those 18 analog oscillators, in the wrong hands, can spell earth?shattering sounds of eviction?notice proportions.
The control over programming isn?t very intuitive, but it can be mastered. Once there, you have 100 patch locations to store your jems. And jems they are indeed, in at least the same class as the Oberheims and Rolands of the early MIDI era, and with a little careful study, better still?

Not so much, and the chips, like those used in Sequential Circuits' machines, are getting thin in the bins.

Robert Moog's own Big Briar provides an incredible (though pricey) upgrade (better MIDI, tuning, etc.). Considering how old this synth is, this kind of help is a big asset.

This is a powerful machine, but I wouldn't want to take one on the road. At its current price ($1000 or so) it's got more umph than even an MKS80, but the MKS is a decidedly more civilized box. If you have the cash to give it a decent MIDI upgrade, I'd certainly recommend it over a plain Mini, which is often seen selling for more!