Yeah I know its a long thread, I have read a lot in that thread and people have encountered issues with it. However, I simply don’t have time to go through the thread to find the exact posts again, but here are the examples that I wrote about.
“There is another bug which is far more annoying to me… when I record MIDI and play it back, sometimes in seemingly random fashion the Matriarch completely loses it mind as far as pitch is concerned. It gets at least a tone out of whack. It seems to have something to do with how the playing is stopped (maybe the glide control goes wrong and gets stuck that way). When that happens it is permanent and only a power cycle seems to fix it. I tried everything I can think of to reproduce it (or work around it) but no luck so far. When doing a lot of record/edit/playback it has been happening consistently every few minutes.”
Written by apessino on page 64.
“–Someone mentioned an problem with using the Tie function in 4-voice mode, and I seem to be having the same issue, although it might have something to do with me not having much experience with this sort of sequencing. It also seems like the sequencer’s tempos are very fast; the slowest setting on the dial still doesn’t work for me, I have to use the Tap function.”
Written by eb7 on page 64.
I appreciate you taking the time to recall which page in particular stood out to you, then post it.
I will probably have to reread that page every time my credit cart starts sneaking out of my wallet after a listen to jayhosking’s demos or Lisa Bella Donna’s Matriarch tracks.
Another thing is that the Matriarchs velocity seems not to be that expressive when play the synth itself, but when you use Matriarchs keybed as a midi keyboard its more expressive.
This is from the thread:
“Amp velocity is pretty dismal for Matriarch, my biggest disappointment. Maybe Moog figured VCA velocity isn’t that important on a monosynth that people seem to want to use for bass, leads … things that usually get compressed in the mix anyway. The velocity out via MIDI to other modules works pretty well … a little more sensitive than I’m used to, actually.”
Written by mkdvb on page 64.
“Has anyone been able to get this to work in the way one would normally expect – i.e. playing with light force will produce a quieter sound than a heavier touch? I’ve had no problem incorporating aftertouch into patches, but velocity I’ve had trouble with (although I believe the problem is with the VCA CV inputs rather than with the keyboard or its velocity output). I can hear some difference in levels but not a full range. I can get it to go from medium to loud but not from soft to medium.”
Written by eb7 on page 66.
And a text about the other issues that I found written by bucketsofcake on page 66.
“The most frequent bug I have personally encountered in both the GM and the Matriarch is that the rates, both LFO and SEQ, will occasionally get stuck in slow mo and I need to restart the synth in order to get them back to normal.”
Yeah velocity doesn’t work great on the grandmother either. That said if I was in the market for a Matriarch (well, I kinda am, but other priorities for now) I don’t think anything reported there would put me off
Lisa Bella Donna has several videos showing her considerable playing skills on Matriarch. Fans of prog rock keyboard deities, jazz fusiony fireworks, etc. should check her stuff out.
There’s also a video or two of Paris Strother playing Matriarch. She’s coming more from a pop/R&B angle, but I wouldn’t call her a beginner level keyboardist. She handles keyboard duties for her band King. This is a much more recent vid than any of the ones posted earlier.
I don’t hear scratchy pop action in any of Lisa Bella Donna’s or Paris Strother’s stuff. Guessing that Gearslutz guy just got a bum unit. It happens. Even on the Zoia thread there are unlucky customers that got a unit that had a problem.
If there were widespread Grandmother problems, we’d be seeing reports in every forum that has a Grandmother thread, not just from a couple of vocal individuals on GS.
also, nobody admits how much abuse they put the unit through, like smoking packs of cigarettes in the same room as the synth.
I hope it is like you are saying that its just a few individuals that have this problem because I really don’t want to pay a premium price for this synth and get these problems. Its such a lovely synth excepts its flaws.
I got one Grandmother with a pot problem. Never giged with it, dont smoke and always taking good care of my instruments. First it was working fine but after few months problems appeared. I had to send it to repair and the guy on store said that i am not the first one with the pot problem (insert your joke here). And if your read that Gearslutz forum, its not just one guy having the problems.
And offcourse Moog dont send faulty units to Lisa or other YouTubers, who are advertising their synths. And offcourse not every unit is having these problems. But if Matriarch is using same pots and circuits as Grandmother (which it probably does), i am pretty sure there will be problems with some units.
I can only speak for my units, but I have a Grandmother and a used DFAM (So I have no idea how old it is or how much use/abuse it got from a previous owner), and the pots on mine are fine.
I don’t follow Gearslutz due to time constraints but if the only forums you follow are that and this one, I could see why you would get a particular impression.
I hung out on the Moog Music forum when I had a Voyager. Perhaps you have noticed that every forum has a signal-to-noise ratio. Moog Music’s has one too, but itone also has some really knowledgeable folks. If you go there, make sure you figure out who knows their stuff - the equivalent of our sezare, avantronica, OpenMike… Find those high-signal, low noise people and pay the most attention to them.
