Celebrating the company's DIY legacy, Moog Music has launched a semi-modular build-it-yourself analog synthesizer called Mavis, which delivers the unmistakable Moog sound in a compact, wallet-friendly package to new users and seasoned musicians alike.
By getting users to assemble Mavis at home, Moog hopes to foster a deep connection to the instrument, allowing them to "get closer to the circuits at the heart of this unique musical machine." It can be put together using minimal tools and the soldering iron can be left in the workshop.
Once complete, Mavis features dials for oscillator and filter circuits up top, with a full-range analog VCO with pulse-width modulation and variable-shape LFO included together with a -24-dB low-pass ladder filter. It also comes with a Moog first in the shape of a diode wavefolder, along with a four-stage envelope generator for cooking in "interesting and unusual modulation contours" and a one-octave keyboard.
All of which allows for combined traditional subtractive synthesis as well as sounds not heard on a Moog before courtesy of additive wavefolding.
Those new to semi-modular synth creativity are offered a helping hand via a selection of patch books and educational materials – though users will need to output to headphones or an external speaker to hear the magic – while seasoned sonic scientists can just dive straight in.
The analog synthesizer can be used solo or the 24-point patch bay can add two oscillators, full ADSR (attack decay sustain release) envelope, ladder filter, sample and hold functionality, wavefolding, mixer and attenuators to other voltage-controlled hardware such as Eurorack modules or Moog's Mother-32, DFAM, Subharmonicon, Grandmother and Matriarch semi-modular instruments.
The Moog Mavis semi-modular analog synth is available now for US$349, the video below has more.
Source: Moog