If you're tuned into the synth world, you may have felt a little ripple run through its very core this week. Moog Music has announced a pilot production run of the iconic Minimoog analog synthesizer, which hasn't been made for over 30 years. Units are being made at a special space at this year's Moogfest and will be available to buy at the event.
The Minimoog was a 3-oscillator monophonic analog synth that started an 11 year production run in 1970. It was relatively tiny compared to the huge synth monsters of the day and had a fat sound all its own (anyone remember Are Friends Electric by Gary Numan?). Though the sonic void at the close of production was filled to some extent by the Voyager redesigns first launched in 2002, Moog announced an end to production of those too in September 2015.
Moog isn't giving too much away on the limited production of the Model D at the moment, but apart from a couple of extra modulation switches in the controllers area of the main board and a new LFO knob to the left of the keyboard, all looks pretty authentic.
The pilot production run is currently taking place at Moogfest 2016 in North Carolina, until the doors close on May 22. Units are being handbuilt at a pop-up factory space at the event and are available to buy from the Moog Store.
You can see some of the instruments being made in the video below.
Source: Moog Music