Moog Multimoog

i love the idea of (playing) a synth with no 'memory'. And i think this is a superb little synth in that the player/composer can really 'interact' and attain a strong sense of 'connection' with the instrument. What i mean is that its very 'inspiring'.

Sounds can be shaped/tweaked instantaneously via a multitude of dials/switches.

i have never taken advantage of the array of in/out jacks offered via the rear-panel or external foot-switches.

i think this is a really good first/introductory (to Moog) synth.

The action reminds me slightly of that on a Hammond L100 Organ (though with smaller keys and a slower 'return').

'Bass Sounds' sound acceptable (in most 'functional' types of music) when 'dry'. However, 'Lead Sounds' definitely require the addition of external-FX. i am seriously considering purchasing an 'MXR Analogue Delay Pedal' (??99.99p on Ebay UK).

The 'Sample & Hold' function sounds awesome through 'delay' !!

i admit that it took me a while to (very bitterly) accept this is not a MiniMoog !! After going through this realization, i am now able to enjoy it for its own unique strengths and characteristics. i would say that to anyone who imperatively requires/desires that 'classic' MiniMoog sound (and Chick Corea totally does it for me 100% in every respect imaginable), then pay double the money and buy a MiniMoog. There really is no way around it (though i did once read that someone hooked up two MultiMoogs which generated an equal intensity as a MiniMoog, but financially the cost is the same !!).

i bought it on Ebay 18 months ago and had it shipped from USA to here in the UK. It traveled great and worked 100% fine for 12 months. However, a couple of notes have developed a 'stutter' and also do not respond to 'after-touch'. 'Bent notes' (via the 'ribbon-controller') often remain at the altered pitch (which is quite annoying). i am not sure if this is a fault with the 'ribbon' itself, or an electrical issue inside?? The 'ribbon' was brand new and has certainly not been used-and-abused. So, until i get it fixed i simply turn the 'white-switch' selector OFF.

The overall 'master-pitch' (on mine) is quite stable, though it does waver when assigning 'oscillator pitch' variations (via 'click-dial' selector) through the two 'wave-shapes' in the 'modulation section'. But, it is quite easy to reach over (with your left hand) to the rear-panel and tweak the 'master tuner' dial.

Considering its age, if an owner (such as myself) can get away with a few minor faults, then that person should consider themselves to be quite lucky !! If i was playing in a residency then i would most probably use this (as much of my small band work requires a strong left-hand-bass). However, if i was touring or even working different venues on a regular basis, there is no way i would trust/rely on my MultiMoog. Besides, i feel quite passionate towards it and it would only end up getting damaged on-the-road.

I took it to a great guy (Leeds, UK) called Roy Harrison. He checked it over for me as it had spent 3 weeks in freight.

Luckily, it did not require a step-up/down converter because of the ingenious 'voltage selector' on the rear-panel. i believe that not every Moog has this facility.

The seller included (photocopied) service/user manuals. Though i think these are quite readily obtainable in PDF formats from similar type synth-geek sites.

i much prefer 'pitch-bend wheels' any day to the 'ribbon-controller'. But, the 'ribbon-controller' is absolutely brilliant for 'trill' effects (up/down in intervals from a semitone to a fifth) which cannot be obtained by a 'wheel'.

i really love the look, size, weight, and robustness of this instrument. But 'range-wise', i would give anything for a bottom 'E' note (as opposed to an 'F').

i have read many times that only 1,000 MultiMoogs were ever made. And then contradictory to this statement, some people say this figure should be as high as 4,000. In either case, my model is '2420'.

There are now a grand total of TWO MultiMoog video postings on 'You Tube' !! Both are very different. There is a 'Spyro Gyra' video featuring Tom Schuman playing a MultiMoog in the "Shaker Song". It's a great solo and i wrote to him a couple of times asking for the 'settings'. But he has never got back to me, so if anyone can figure out the 'patch' please let me know !!!

Being a Chick Corea fan, i have a Fender Rhodes Suitcase, Hohner E7 Clavinet, and Multimoog. i still really want a MiniMoog though and would even consider selling my MultiMoog to raise half the funds.

a little different layout than a minimoog, with about the same ease of use - all the controls are right there and easy to grab.

the first and only moog synth to my knowledge to have pressure sensitive keys to control modulation, etc. it's very unique. Also features built-in sample and hold and pitch-ribbon not found on a minimoog.

it's sonically different than a minimoog but in a good way. Excellent for bass - listen to Jim Crichton from Saga who uses the Multimoog exclusively for bass, extremely expressive and warm sounding.

mine must be 30 years old now, it's changed hands probably many times, but it keeps ticking. Probably more reliable than a minimoog since it doesn't have the moveable front panel.

I regretted selling my first one, and eventually found another one which I won't part with. This is one of the most under-appreciated vintage synths out there.

THIS IS UPDATE #2 FROM ME

I have the experience of playing the Multimoog live--it's now an integral part of the Floorian stage setup--which is interesting to say the least. This context is where you really miss the convenience of presets...I basically have to set it to one standard sound (but oh, what a sound it is! mmmm...) and do minimal pseudo tweaking in the course of the show, which basically means switching things in and out of the circuit rather than large scale sculpting. My basic setup is a two-square wave "Lucky Man" type sound; one song I turn it into a synth bass by simply turning off one oscillator and cranking up the octave-down suboscillator; other songs I modulate the filter, or turn on the glide, or switch to free-floating pitch so I can get wacky with insanely wide oscillator sweeps. So in that way it's great...but for really fine tweaking, like changing from a square lead to a pseudo French horn, forget it, there are too many knobs. It would, however, have been easier if they'd had switches to select waveforms. The continuously variable waveform feature is nifty, but for split-second live work it's a pain in the ass to get it juuust so. I hate to do this, but I have to dock the Multi a bit for that.

Well documented elsewhere.

It's a vintage Moog. That should tell you everything you need to know.

Maybe it's just how I use it, but my Multi is starting to show its age. The innards seem to be working just a little loose. One of the keys is sticking up a bit too far. Part of the aluminum trim strip on the bottom has pulled loose. The oscillator sync function hasn't worked in several years. The filter attack control sometimes acts goofy on me, but I don't use it much anymore anyway. And, of course, its inherent temperamentality: on stage it needs retuning with maddening frequency. And the key contacts get dirty and intermittent just when you don't want them to. But it still soldiers on...

Yes, you can technically fix it yourself, but now that you're a working musician and not just a bedroom hobbyist, you don't have the luxury of time to tinker with your gear's innards, and you can't afford to have your synth go a semitone flat--or flatline--in the middle of a song when you can barely hear what you're playing anyway.

The dwindling supply of experienced analog synth techs, pretty much. And your soldering iron. I wouldn't count on any current company named "Moog <whatever>" to even know what a Multimoog is.

This baby's most congenial environment is the studio, I think. Take it onstage and you're risking a lot, but when you do, you have a sound and a way to control it that's like nothing else, except maybe a satori.

I'm torn...on the one hand I have the greatest giddy love for this old girl and the sounds she makes, but the Multi is by no means perfect. It's an old piece of electronic gear with all the physical and functional quirks and problems you'd expect to find in anything its age. You have to love the sound, but the physical reality hits you.

So I'm not going to give it an overall rating because all the negative niggly factors that make live work hell would unduly drag down the rating of what is otherwise a great classic keyboard. Instead, a bit of advice: buy a Multi, and treat it very tenderly.

Easy, and there are a lot of features on here that at the time and even now, are impressive for a monosynth. It's expressivity is second to none because of it's keyboard aftertouch, which no one had at the time or later..

Standard analog but with expressiveness beyond almost any other classic mono synth, so perfect for live.

Very good pro sounds, only proviso is that this, and the one-oscillator version the Micro, don't have that classic Moog sound, despite what others have incorrectly written. I say this having owned them all - if you want classic Moog sounds on a budget, go with a Rogue, Source or Rogue. The Multimoog sounds quite good ie Steve Windwood lead sounds, but to me sounds a little more like a Prophet, doesn't have the warmth or distortion of most of the other Moogs, otherwise i'd have kept my as-new one..

Seems well put together considering the era.

Good quality monosynth, but if you want classic Moog look elsewhere, and if you want excellent monosyth sounds i'd choose a Pro One or Odyssey. With those reservations, the sounds of good quality and this thing is more expressive than just about any other monosynth i've seen or can think of because of the aftertouch.

The mutlimoog is very easy to use. All controls are clearly labeled.

The multimoog is Monophonic and midi was not readily available at the time of production. The features that are present are versatile. Considering when it was built, this synthesizer was representative of the best that was available at the time.

The multimoog has that big, fat synth sound most indicative of the early 80s electronic music such as the Underworld and Steve Winwood.

I would definately use this at a gig without a backup. The multimoog is eay to keep maintained, except for the pitch bend which is a cloth "zip" strip that has some signs of wear and tear. It still sounds great after all these years.

I bought is any customer support is available for this, but there are several sources on the internet for tips, layouts, and schematics.

The multimoog has sounds and versatility that I have not been able to duplicate on any sampler. It is easy to use and all the controls are at your fingertips. It is simply one of the best.

It is very easy to use in my opinion. Lots of knobs and switches to mess with.
The best way to get acquainted with one of these types of synths is
just to simply mess around with it. I was oonce a Minimoog owner.
I loved that synth. But originally I wanted a MULTI. They are just as versatile and have some extra features that no Mini has.
One less oscillator but frankly you do not use the 3rd oscillator
a whole lot when playing the Mini.

Great for a monophonic synth even in this day and age.
The expansion abilities are neat because of the Moog "open system".
This allows several of these synthesizers or different
one with the same patching capabilities to linked together.
I also have a Micromoog and an original Moog CV Footswitch.
I have them linked along with my ARP Omni II.
Loads of fun!

Nice synth type keyboard. As for sounds, lots of 'em.
But don't try to match an existing instrument. Have the fun of these
synths are all of the "unnatural" sounds they make.
It also can be somewhat expressive. Very expressive for a synth
based on the technology of the time.

Well, its a Moog. If you wanna own a Ferrari, great, but be prepared to pamper it to some degree!
Although, I have not had a Moog go south on me but once.
A leaky FET box in the Minimoog I used to own. The glide would go crazy too.
The repaired FET box fixed it all and cost me about 50 bucks to have it done.

The company? What company? But I have run across several techs
who work on these babies. Fred McNiff's to name one.
I hear he's pretty good with Moogs.

I love this synth. If could get a couple more I would! And I will be on the lookout!
This with my Micro, Arp, Rhodes and sampler/keyboard makes a pretty
nice keyboard setup. It works well for me anyway.

And the Multimoog is VERY underrated. But there are not alot of them out there either.

This is an update to my previous review: The "filter mod by Osc B" feature basically allows audio-frequency FM of the VCF's cutoff, using oscillator B as the modulator. This allows for some very funky ring modulated sounds, and also applies interesting tonalities to external signals (I've tried it with guitar and voice...neet). My only beef with this feature is that there are only two "intensity" settings selected by switch; I would much prefer a knob.

I also should mention another cool feature: the external control voltage inputs. I think these were intended for use with constant-voltage pedals and such, but there's no reason why you couldn't control the oscillators or filter with some other kind of signal...say voice or guitar! This is another VERY interesting effect which only an analog synth can provide.

The oscillator warbling that I complained about before has long been fixed, by Wes Taggart at Analogics, Geneva OH. My Multimoog now sings with the best of them!

Well, the circuits are old, and I did have to do some repair work to my example, but fortunately these things aren't that hard to fix if you're good with a soldering iron and have the service manual. This isn't a "No User-Serviceable Parts Inside" machine; most of the electronics are readily available through places like Mouser Electronics or even Radio Shack. Except for a few ICs the Multi is still based on discrete, generic components. But you WILL probably have to service it at least once. Also, as with other Moogs, you need to perform a range-and-scale every so often to keep the whole thing in tune with itself.

Provided you can find a good analog synth tech nearby (I'm luck I live only a couple of hours away from one! :-) you should be fine. The original company, of course, is long since deceased, and I don't believe any of the various firms carrying the Moog name these days will have anything to say about a sick Multimoog.

If you lust for the classic Moog sound and don't want to pay out the ass for it, consider this one, which can be had for a bargain because everyone and his brother wants a Minimoog. But be prepared to take care of it when it gets sick, because it probably will! And keep in mind that unlike one of the modern digital marvels with retro-style faces, the Multimoog is in fact temperamental in the same way as your parents' old Magnavox black-and-white TV was. Highly recommended.

The essence analog synthesis: knobs and buttons by the handful, without a LCD screen or data entry slider in sight. Every knob has only one function so there is a very direct and intuitive interface between you and the sound coming out of the speaker. This is what keyboard manufacturers seem to be discovering again with their new virtual-analog things, but this is the real deal, and it's a joy to play with all those controls and see what kinds of neato sounds they make. And you can't get much simpler than the standard analog voice architecture (2xVCO>VCF>VCA+modulation). It doesn't quite make a 10 for me, though, because a couple of the controls aren't quite intuitive to me yet (ie the modulation control panel), and for someone who's used to two wheels, the ribbon pitch bender takes a bit of getting used to.

What we have in the Multimoog is what was the bread and butter of Moog's lineup: a fully analog, monophonic, self-contained synthesizer. The Minimoog was the most classic example of this, but this synth actually does the Mini one better in several important ways. Although I've never played a Mini, I'm willing to say that, based on what I've read about it, the Multi is the better synth, as it offers most of the Mini's features and adds some of its own. Designwise the Multi is related more to the single oscillator Micromoog, except that it has a longer keyboard (44 keys, like a Mini), another oscillator, and more features. The basic voice architecture is 2 VCOs, 1 of the hallowed Moog VCFs, a VCA, an LFO, and a switchable AR/ASR envelope generator each for the VCF and VCA, as well as a fairly extensive modulation section. What follows is a description of just about every function on the Multimoog...get your reading glasses on! :-) Starting at the top left of the control panel, VCO-A features an interval control so as to tune/detune it with VCO-B; and it also features a continuously variable waveform control, which sweeps from a sawtooth, through a square, to a narrow pulse wave, and everything in between, and twisting this knob rapidly is basically a manual pulse width modulation. VCO-B has the variable waveform control as well as a "doubling" knob which divides the note down by either 1 or 2 octaves. The MASTER A-B panel consists of a mixer for the two VCOs and an doverall transpose switch; setting the transpose to the farthest clockwise setting allows you to manually change the coarse tuning with the "wide freq" knob. Next there is a noise source, then the familiar Moog filter, which offers cutoff, emphasis (resonance), and contour. The two EGs each have only two controls (attack and decay) but are switchable between a percussive envelope (the decay actually acts as a decay) and a sustaining envelope (the decay acts as a release); both allow times of between 1ms and 10 sec.The modulation section is incredibly versatile, offering not just square and triangle LFO waveforms, but two sample & hold settings, one of which uses the LFO to repeatedly trigger the EGs and a setting for using the filter EG to modulate; the modulation can be routed to the VCOs, VCF, or VCO-B's waveform (yes, that means PWM!); there is also a rate control which ranges from 0.3-30 hZ. One of the coolest features of this synth is that it has aftertouch, ie pressure sensitivity. You can route this function to the VCOs, VCF, VCO-A's waveform, and also to sync VCO-A to VCO-B, which makes some VERY neat timbres (pull out your copy of _Emperor Tomato Ketchup_ by Stereolab and listen to the 2nd half of "OLV 26" to hear this cool effect). The aftertouch is switchable between bend (an effect similar to the pitch bender) or the modulation section, and also has a sensitivity control.You then have a glide time and main volume controls, then a bank of switches controlling: release (haven't figured this one out yet), oscillators (normal, drone, and off), filter mod by VCO-B (funky sounding but I dunno exactly what it does), filter (non-tracking, tracking, and resonant), percussive/sustaining envelopes for both VCF and VCA, and a VCA bypass switch which lets the thing just drone and drone and... On the extreme left of the synth are another bank of switches for: glide on/off; single/multiple trigger; a trigger output that selects between off, keyboard only, and keyboard/ribbon; and something that tells the ribbon pitchbender to control either both VCOs, VCO-A only, or nothing. The left hand controllers are the familiar modulation wheel and the ribbon controller, which has a detent in the center and allows up and down pitch bends. Its range is not adjustable. The back panel features a bucketload of audio and control inputs and outputs, including an external-source input for things like guitars (think of the sample/hold-filtered guitar effect in "Relay" by The Who...tre cool

It's analog. It's a Moog. I don't think I need to say any more. :-) Actually I take that back. In addition to the sounds themselves, the user interface?knobs, switches, that ribbon?offer a capability that you just don't get with more modern synths. You're not limited to playing preset patches on the keyboard. You can play ALL the controls. Just now I got a funky telephone-voice effect out of my Multimoog by playing the keys with my right hand and the ribbon with my left, along with some knob-tweaking. That's the kind of stuff you can do with this sort of old-fashioned design. I give it a 9 because, as I bought it, there is an annoying bit of modulation that makes it sound like an electric saw or an airplane the further up the keyboard I go (possibly power supply related? Only a tech would know?), but I think that if that were fixed the sound would be just fine.

People are still gigging with Moogs older than this one, and I don't plan on taking it out anywhere, so I don't think I have anything to worry about.

I don't know how this newly revived Moog Music is, but there seem to be plenty of vintage-synth techs out there who love to fiddle with old Moogs...

An A-number-one excellent value, especially since the Minimoog can cost at least twice as much as what I paid. What with the more flexible oscillators, aftertouch, sample/hold, pulse-width mod, etc., it's a probably Moog's most underrated product, and I think superior to the Mini in terms of features. I got this one by calling a classified in the paper about a Mini with some unspecified problems, and the guy just happened to be selling this one as well (someone else had already swiped the Mini, as expected). I don't think I'm gonna be displeased with this one for a while. It's the current Holy Grail in my collection. If you can find one, pick it up! If what you're after is the classic Moog sound and can resist the wallet-draining snob appeal of the Mini, the Multimoog delivers the meat.
(Note to all potential flamers: I do not HATE the Minimoog as a synth?quite the opposite?but I think aside from the feature-by-feature comparison they are overhyped and overpriced, especially for the less affluent hobbyists like myself. I think the same thing about products like the Fender American Standard Strats... or for that matter the VW New Beetle! :-)