Product: Moog Prodigy
Price Paid: US $430 used
Submitted
07/25/2000
at
10:03pm
by
B. Rosendahl
Email: rosendahl79 at aol<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
10
I am an amateur synth player, adn it only took me 20 minutes to figure this thing out. Very fun to play, just tune it yourself, and let it fly!
Features
:
7
It is totally monophonic, you can't get chords unless you wire it differently (I wouldn't try it anyways...keep it original!). It has two oscillators that can be in sync with each other, A pitch and modulation wheel (just like the Minimoog), a tune knob, a modulation knob (very fun), filter contours i.e attack/decay/sustain, and frequency..in short, The Prodigy is like a smaller Minimoog.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
5
It is the closest you'll ever get to the Minimoog sound without forking over thousands to get the Minimoog. It's a great synth, espesically for leads and weird fx. However, the amount of sounds you can create is very limited, and you'll max out all the sound possibilities in less than 3 months.
Reliability
:
8
I've played live with it, and you get some weird looks when the thing starts ocsillating out of control. Use this keyboard to cover "Tom Sawyer" by Rush. The best thing is to write down the sound settings on paper, and pre-tune the thing between songs. I also have an Moog Opus 3, so I alternate between the two. You really have to pay attention to what you are doing on stage, or all hell will break loose. In terms of reliability, the thing is 20 years old and hasn't hit a glitch. This is one of the most reliable keyboards Moog has ever made
Customer Support
:
3
Good luck finding anyone who can fix it...luckily I found someone who knows how to fix Hammond Organs and old Moogs
Overall Rating
:
8
Great keyboard for the new Moog lover, very reliable, limited amount of sounds, great for solos with a band (on it's own you'll get sick of hearing it.) Espesicially recommended for those on a tighter budget, and for those who love Gary Numan's old "live" stuff from the late 70's
Product: Moog Prodigy
Price Paid: US $50 used
Submitted
12/30/1996
at
08:36pm
by
Philip Pilgrim
Ease of Use
:
10
Very ergonomic. Two controller wheels, uncluttered surface, simple architecture and big knobs give it all the nice man machine features of the Minimoog
Features
:
9
The synth has two oscillators which can be synced. I do not believe the minimoog can do this. The sync patches are far easier to "dial up" than on a pro-one. The sound is "duller" or "warmer" as some say, than the pro-one, however I think that it is nicer. a simple FM Mod will add brightness. Actually, the synth's hardware is so simple that mods are very easy to do. The case and control surface has lots of room for mods A healthy power supply resides in the case to handle the mods two. So far I have only done the FM of the cutoff but plan to add pulsewidth manual and LFO mod as well as throwing in a second LFO and a couple of ramps. The portamento rate is very musical. As well, it's two envelopes are very simple but functional. It is a seemingly "plain jane" synth however it just needs a few changes to make it the best monophonic. It is much stabler than a mini.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
8
It is a little on the dirty side sonicly. However it has the best synced osc sounds. The tuning controller wheel can reaaly make the sync sound interesting. (to qualify this statement, i'll mention that I've had a pro-one, JX-3p, Jx-8p, and Jupiter6 all with sync)
The filter is a typical moog ladder. I find it similar to a Roland filter on a Sh-101 (well when the Res is up high) It is different than on the Pro-One. Well the Moog's knobs are very "intuitive" like on a roland, the Pro-Ones are not. Have you ever turned a linear pot in a circuit that required a log pot?...well that is what a Pro-One is like...yuck!! Fortunately the Prodigy has a nice swing/range to it's pots.
Reliability
:
9
I have two. Both are each about 18 years old. One had a faulty op-amp, that was very easy to replace. Actually everything in these synths are easy to replace. A good number of parts at Radio-Shack even. discrete circuits throughout.
Overall Rating
:
10
Monophonics Rating (these are units that I owned) 1. Prodigy (moded) 2. SH-101 (moded) 3. Minimoog 4. SH-101 (factory) 5. Prodigy (factory) 6. SH-1 7. Pro-One 8. CS-10 9. SH-3
-It is a fun synth to play; controller wheels, sync, portamento -Easy synth to mod; VCF FM, PW, LFO, Ramp -Easy synth to repair; all discrete circuits using common components -Reliable Moog; more stable than a mini
