Moog Taurus

Just plug them in, and play them.

Under the flip glass, if it's still there, there are a few ARP type sliders that adjust analog parameters. They are useful for the variable setting.

The best. Nothing else sounds like them.

I have four of them. Other than tuning them once every 3 years or so, I have not had any problems. Call Mike Metz at Thesis Audio in Kansas to have them tuned up, or if need be, he will build you a custom contact board for about 200 U.S. Dollars. He is the best in the world in regards to these pedals. Mike can also get the impossible to find brown and black pedals. He is also a super nice guy!!!

For service, see above. For parts, call Mike Bucki in New York. He has the flipglass, knobs etc.

Bob Moog died, and he had mentioned during several interviews that these pedals will never be made again, because they are too expensive to machine. For an investment, they are an excellent idea. For the sound, they are priceless.

This is the original 13 note Taurus I pedal synth.

Three non-editable presets and one user programmable sound. It is EASY to get great bass sounds from these pedals. You won't get lead sounds or anything else due to the limited features. This was designed to be a BASS synth, and what a bass synth it is. I heard the newer Taurus II pedal synth with 18 keys and they don't have a prayer of measuring up to the original.

Taurus pedals weren't just for prog rock - Adam Clayton of U2, Nikki Stix of Motley Crue, and the Police (Andy Summers had a set and Sting had TWO sets for live shows) have used them. The newest example I've heard was on Animusic.

I have the user manual and it is adequate. These are pretty simple to operate without one. You play 'em with your feet or put it on a table and play 'em with your fists.

Monophonic but one seriously huge voice, you don't need more than one. No velocity or aftertouch. The pedal contacts can be the achille's heel as the silver plated contacts can tarnish resulting in dead notes. They can be cleaned though. Check each key out rigorously when looking over a set for purchase.

Effects? No need for 'em with this puppy.

For the presets, you can vary filter cutoff, glide, beat rate (detune), and release stage of the presets but nothing else. Filter cutoff does offer good variability of the preset sounds. Two big chunky foot controls on slidepots vary the volume and filter cutoff. Four buttons select the presets, three enable glide/decay (actually release) and octave).

The user preset can be programmed using the control panel and offers slidepot control of VCO pitch (16'-8'-4', 2' with OCTAVE footswitch on and VCO B can reach 1' with VCO B Frequency slider), VCO A/B balance, VCO B Frequency (a little over an octave range), VCA EG Attack/Decay/Sustain, VCF cutoff & emphasis, VCF EG Amount/Attack/Decay. VCO waveforms are ramp only, VCF keyboard tracking is internally fixed to 50%, release/decay share the same control, VCF EG is fixed at zero sustain, and there are no modulation features whatsoever. Very basic synth voice, not much besides bass but that bass voice has some serious subsonic low end.

These were produced from 1975 to 1982; MIDI didn't exist until 1983. The VCOs are v/hz as opposed to the more common v/oct. There are no CV or trigger inputs on these. On those two points, interfacing a MIDI converter would require some serious modification. However according to the service manual there are many patchpoints on the circuit board for an "external control box" that would offer MIDI interfacing. There is a huge plug on the rear panel where the connector for the control box would connect to but this was only available from the Custom Engineering dept and I've never seen a box anywhere.

Of the presets, "Tuba" is the least useful (but not useless if you open the filter with the foot control), "Bass" has its uses as it would be a great sequence voice (provided you could mod it for external I/O), and "Taurus" is the favorite that is infamous for moving theatre seats and mountains - there is a story of a U2 concert at Red Rock (I think) where Adam Clayton's Taurus pedals triggered a landslide when he played them.

It's a great sounding bass synth but it's not a bass sound you'd use for all styles. I would never use Taurus or vintage Minimoog for R&B, Soul, and Funk because those classic sweeping VCO bass sounds don't fit the style; I found that hard sync'd VCOs like on the Voyager and Moog Source do the job much better.

But if you want that classic Taurus bass sound, only the original will do. I have many other Moog keyboards and only the Source comes close but is missing that "oomph" in the pedals.

Stays in tune very well but watch out for those pedal contacts.

Production ended in 1982 and the original company is long gone. The new Moogmusic.com is a separate company and does not stock spare parts nor service them.

I've been looking for a good set of these for years and they are very hard to find. I saw this familiar molded case at a vintage guitar store and the pedals were inside, not even on display. I quickly confirmed that everything worked and walked out with them, they just needed a little calibration and they're missing the cover for the control panel. I never wanted to pay the crazy prices on the 'bay but this store was asking half the vintage value for them. That was a deal I could not let get away. Turns out that case was a factory molded case!!!

The hype is true and these pedals are the real deal. Nothing else sounds like these. I have been playing for over twenty years and I own the Voyager, Memorymoog, Micromoog, Minimoog, Source, Polymoog, and Liberation - make no mistake about it, the Taurus pedals stand apart from the rest of them. If you want the bass pedal sounds of Genesis, Rush, Asia, U2, The Police, Yes, et al then you want these pedals.

The reviews above more or less says it all. It's a no frills instrument.

No comments here. All is said above. For what it's supposed to do - it does it very good.

The original Moog Taurus is a must if you want to recreate old prog.

The Taurus is one reliable beast.

Beware of these few things though:

1. The contacts for the pedals are made of silver. If the set is left for some period of time, tarnish will build up and there's no ordinary electronics solvent cleaner in the world that will work.

Carefully disassemble the Taurus and remove the contact board. Clean the contacts using tarn remover. You may steal some from your mum if you like. Rinse in rinning water. Dry the board using some linthfree cloth. Leave the board to dry for at least 48 hours before you put it back. This as an extra precation - you will not be able to forgive yourself (or me) if you burn the shit because you didn't let it dry. At all stages take great care, work slowly and do not use any exessive force on any parts. They may be hard to replace should you brake something.

2. Use Armour All for rinsing and renewal of the plastic parts on its housing. You can make your Taurus look like they came out of the shop yesterday. The aluminum parts can be restored using steelwool.

3. The plastic pedals are relative easy to brake. Always have some kind of carpet underneath the Taurus when you play them. It's easy to make replacement-pedals, but you want a mint set don't you?

The company is out of buisness. Bob Moog (who didn't make the Taurus) has bought back the rights to the name Moog Music, but they don't support the Taurus. However, they may have staff who know how to deal with problems should they occur.

The patent-docs for the Taurus is available on the internet. They may be of some help should probs occur. And there's always somebody willing to sell you a servicemanual. Google up Taurus and the keyword servicemanual and you're taken right where you want.

If my (ours really) Taurus got stolen or lost - I'd be lost as well.

the only decent preset is of course the mighty taurus, the tuba i would say is totaly unusable, the bass preset is short and percussive, the variable section you can do almost anything with.

monophonic synth with no effects (you dont need them)the good thing about the taurus apart from the taurus preset is you can detune the oscilattors to give a wide range of pitch and sounds from the unit, midi wise if you wanted to control a digital synth from them you would need to fit another set of contacts to carry midi information.

the most famous sound as i have said is "taurus" a huge sounding rolling sustained saw wave it never dies it just purr,s along untill you depress a pedal and starts the cycle off again, i would say the taurus is best suited to prog rock. you can alter the loudness of the sound while playing live you can also alter the filter with the slider control on the top panel there is no velocity sensitivity

i have three sets iv,e had them since the early eighties and they are all going fine as long as they are kept dry and away from dust you should never have a problem with them my oldest set was made in 1975 the other sets have a slightly diffrent main board a change of components but they sound the same there is only one thing better than a set of taurus , three sets!

i think most components can be changed to modern parts only thing that can,t be replaced is the toggle swithches on the board just above the pedals if a pedal brakes you can replace it with a wooden one i have never come across any taurus pedals with broken pedals

to me these things were well thought out everything you need to change sounds and volume is at your feet, the only bad thing is the weight the base of the unit is cast and the rest of the housing is made up of wooden cheeks and a metal housing they are very strong how many synths do you know are 25 years old and still working?

The Taurus is the easiest synth I've ever tried. Just plug in and play. The variable setting might be a little tricky to figure out for novice analog synth users but is simple compared to others. Great sounds QUICKLY! Please Please use an accurate tuner and let it warm up though if you are using it with other synths.

3 preset sounds and 1 variable user setting...all foot switchable...glide, an octave change, and decay also foot switchable.. a loudness fader (for use with your foot) for changing dynamics (the bottom of the fader isn't 0...it's just less gain), and a filter fader (also with your foot), i believe it controls the cutoff. the variable setting is a basic 2 oscillator synth with portamento, and all the goodies you need to play simple leads (with your feet!). another really cool feature is you can say you have taurus bass pedals. that in itself is worth it.

the taurus sound is a sound in itself. it's not supposed to sound like anything else.. it's not supposed to sound like strings!! it's supposed to sound like a moog! get over it! just listen to subdivisions! sounds great direct to the board or i use it into an old bassman head and 2x15 cab. make sure whatever you run it through it has great rumbling bass.

you know...i haven't had any major problems.. although i just started using it more frequently.. i would use it on a gig without a backup only because i couldn't at this point justify trying to find another one.. but i'd say it's pretty reliable.. just be nice to it and it will be nice back.

okay.. this is where i get to bitch.. why doesn't moog music answer the phone or answer emails?! also.. they say they have manuals for the taurus 2 (which i'm looking for if anyone is looking to get rid of theirs) but not for the taurus 1. i've tried to get ahold of moog custom engineering and that doesn't work either. there is a guy fred who has a web page who used to work for the old moog music in buffalo who has a bunch of parts and knows how to work on them.. and he actually answers emails and is a nice guy. tech's that can work on these things and know what they're doing are becoming scarcer and scarcer.. time for me to get back into electronics.

if i lost this thing i don't know what i would do (i would start by getting another one).. it's by far the 'coolest' thing i own...there's really nothing very special about it.. it's just that it's a moog taurus and it sounds like a moog taurus.. and you can play it with your feet!!

The original Taurus pedals feature seven footswitches (User Set, Taurus, Tuba, & Bass for tone selection and then Glide, Decay, and Octave for utilities), and two sliders (filter cutoff and volume). Editing the User tone is done by some swithces underneath a little glass door. The User Preset allows you to set the octaves fairly high (all the factory presets are deep bass sounds), and gives controll over balance of the sawtooth osc's, tuning, glide time, and VCF & VCA with separate envelopes. Pretty basic analog synth design.

The unit is monophonic, with 13 pedals C-to-C. Little red LED's show you which tone is active and whether the "effects" such as Glide are on. The power supply is internal, and switchable for 120 or 240 volts (European). The output has a variable attenuator to adjust the line out level.

The Taurus and Bass factory preset tones are classic synthetic bass - listen to any Rush album made from 1977 to 1983 to hear them. BOOM! They have a quality that sounds great live and direct to tape, without any signal processing. The Tuba sound can sound good if you use a little glide, then it almost sounds like an upright string bass. It's a lot tougher to get high string sounds, though. Only Osc B goes all the way from 32', 16', 8', 4', 2' pitch, while Osc A stops at 8', and by then the sound starts losing its richness - I use a chorus pedal to help out. I used to own a Taurus II (same synth as Rogue), which did a better high-end sound, but was lacking a bit on bass.

All you have to do is turn it on, warm it up a minute, do some fine tuning to get just the right amount of osc-phasing offset, and then play. I've had no reliability problems, but it's rapidly becoming kind of a museum piece and I am hesitant to take it anywhere now.

The original Moog factory is gone, but there are sources of parts & expertise. I have had good luck with Moog Music CE in upstate NY (I don;t know the Web address, but it's in Harmony Central somwhere).

Overall, this is the perfect instrument for what it does. Real simple - no MIDI cables, no wall warts, professional construction (20+ years old!), great sounds.
Would I buy another? Probably not at the going rates. I use MIDI pedals for playing out now - and I hate using MIDI cables, modules, and wall wart power supplies. SO... if somebody would build something similar to the Taurus for well under $750 or so, I would be real interested. Am I alone on this, or is there a small, untapped market here?