LEGENDARY BASS SYNTHS MOOG MINIMOOG

The gamechanging classic synth is still a perfect choice for many a producer’s low end

Use in music

Gary Wright drew heavily upon the Minimoog’s bottom end for his classic The Dream Weaver LP – including the familiar title cut.

The late, great Bernie Worrell used three Minimoogs to fashion the iconic bass riffage that opens Parliament’s 1978 hit Flashlight. Similarly, David Frank of The System lashed a pair of them to an Oberheim DSX sequencer on Phil Collins’ Sussudio in 1985.

Moog’s aforementioned dedicated bass synth, the Taurus, was much loved by Progressive players, including Geddy Lee of Rush and Mike Rutherford of Genesis, to name but two.

How it works

The Minimoog was the anvil upon which modern synth design was forged, though few that followed have ever matched the raw power of the original, particularly in the crucial bass registers. Moog built the perfect storm in the Mini, with its three (slightly unstable) oscillators, legendary 24dB transistor ladder filter and, crucially, the ability to route the headphone output back through the filter section for added drive. Add to that two simple yet punchy envelope generators, and expressive lefthand controllers, and you have a recipe for some high-calorie, meaty sounds.

Though designed as a simplified allrounder capable of leads and effects, musicians the world over have gravitated toward the Minimoog as a source of bass sounds. Moog recognised the attraction and eventually designed a dedicated bass synth – the Taurus - with a built-in set of foot pedals.

Get the sound

The Minimoog is among the most imitated synths in the world, with new knock-offs appearing even today. Needless to say, then, it’s been widely cloned in virtual form, most notably in Arturia’s Mini V, Native Instruments’ Monark and Synapse Audio’s The Legend, all of which have been around for yonks and come as close to the sound of the original Minimoog as one vintage unit might come to another!

If you’re on a tight budget, an online search reveals many free variants, the most (in)famous of which is likely to be Steinberg’s Model-E, one of the very first commercial VST instrument plugins.