Okay, for how long have you own your Grandmother? (No pun intended)
Thanks for the advice!
Iāve had mine since launch in the Uk, so since July/August last year
I had once a Sub37ā¦the Keyboard was very Bad, under the Keys Grease and dirt. The knobs very wobbly and between wooden Side and the Display you saw the light. I returned it for a Subphatty which was all fine. I expect Matriarch to be at least as good as the Voyager i used to have. Rock solid knobs, very smooth. Great Fatar keybed. If Not, i am going to Return it
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Played a Matriarch today. Forgot about time until my wife called the store (cause I didnāt notice my cell ringing), like āHeās there, right?ā And the guy goes āYup. Want me to send him home?ā And she goes āWould you? Kids are asking if heās left us.ā
So now Iām on the bus home, wondering about it all, how lovely this synth is.
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Iām realising that paraphonic isnāt a poor version of polyphony, but just another way of looking at several notes running at the same time. I got the impression I could do things with the Matriach that traditional polyphony canāt, due to the way the voices cycle through the oscillators, and how you can use that both for sequence ideas and sound design.
I made a quick sequence on the Matriach where one oscillator was tuned two octaves above the others, and applied a saw wave instead of a triangle. The sequence itself was a single note bassline, bouncing around in an Aphex Twin pentatonic scale style, but I added enough release to let the voices cut into each other. Given that I was in four voice paraphonic mode, the Matriach cycled through the oscillators instead of cutting the notes, as it would have if I was running it in four oscillator unison mode, creating very interesting variations as the oscillators were tuned to different characters.
I just didnāt realise paraphonic was a thing on its own, not just āpolyphony kind ofā. Itās something else. I can see why one would prefer this, on and off.
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The A4 can do āOsc cyclingā aka voice cycling as Well. And even with 2 Osc per voiceā¦Just sayingā¦
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Sure, and Iām prioritizing the A4 over the MM for a next synth purchase actually.
But donāt feel all betrayed and whatever when I later add an MM to my rig. I donāt play Team Elektron or Team Moogā¦
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Yeah part of the reason I like the Pro2 so much you can set up patterns that use the oscillators an odd number of times and get tons of variations that way as the oscillators rotate through the patterns. Playing with Fm can be really interesting also as previous notes can be altered by the pitch of the new oscillator introduced, you can kind of make a more notes I play the more it sounds like my synth is breaking effect. I feel like the monopoly, Pro2 and the Matriarch are all kind of in there own world of paraphonic synths that really come into there own unique instrument and not just a lesser version of polyphony. Would be curious if anyone has a few other synths that would fit this category of paraphonic synths that really use it as an advantage.
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Count in the Vermona PerFourmer too for that Trick.
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Well Just saying, because some ppl overlook that Feature on the A4.
I canceled my preorder for the Matriarch. Still too many Bugs. Maybe next year.
Moog released the first firmware update yesterday for the Matriarch with new additions to parameters and bug fixes. Themselves call it a minor update.
Edit: link looks strange but its to moogmusic.com
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Iām actually considering getting one. Iād have to sell lots of stuff to afford it, but I donāt know. It does feel a bit like it has it all, for me.
But Iāve been down that route before, so Iām going to give this one ample time in the store before I go ahead.
One of the strongest attraction points is that itās just so lovely to play - to work with and mould stuff. Itās the essence of a hands-on experience.
I overlooked more than half the A4s features myself.
I like having some synths that have no OS to update, or very minimal OS dependency like my MS-20 Mini and Lyra 8. 
That said, Iāve no doubt the Matriarchās firmware will become as mature (relatively speaking) as the A4ās within a yearās time, as the firmware is unlikely to be as complicated as the A4ās. I see the update is fixes to the arp and MIDI stuff and thatās about it - and there doesnāt seem to be much else that Moog has to maintain in the firmware domain.
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Whatever issues this mother has, I didnāt encounter them. Iāve had two extensive sessions with it now and even managed to get two tracks down (brief ones, mind you, like a minute long each). Hardly even reached for patch cables, itās that full on its own.
But Iām sure that as you dig in for settings and stuff, these issues will show themselves. I only used it with my Blackbox, the BBox clocking it externally, running a few sequences through it and the Matriarch back to the Box for midi keyboard action. The Blackbox donāt send CC so I havenāt ventured in that direction with the Matriach.
In fact, my main challenge was the fact that the goddam thing has four oscillators. With many oscillators come great responsibility. Of which I have none. Pretty easy to crowd the track with lots of BOOM when you got all that power within armās reach.
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Moog synths tend to Boom. On my Voyager i Always used only one osc for Bass max. Two on the *Phatty line.
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Got mine yesterday and have two major annoyances. Even with the Delay mix all the way down, some of the delay bleeds into the signal. Definitely noticeable with a single Osc and no release.
The other issue is that I canāt quite get it in tune. The master tuning lot has a center detention. In this positing tuning is 1.5c flat. Itās not possible to reliably get the master tuning to where it is closer to 0 as iits on the edge of the detent. Next with the oscillators in the default mode of +/- 7c, I cant get the thing in consistent tuning. The pots feel like they are digitally sampled. Say I get an osc to -.8c - gently tapping the lot to 0 it out makes it ājumpā to +1.1c. Itās like the tuning values are digitally sampled (I imagine they are) and that the resolution is not good enough to fine tune. This really matters with 4 Osc trying to play a chord. I can adjust the tuning scale which I havenāt tried yet but I like having the tuning be +/- 7c.
Overall, Matriarch and I are not yet getting along well.
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When I first got my Grandmother, it had all sorts of minor issues, one of which was that it could not be properly tuned. There were a number of weird knob behaviors as well. It turned out that it had gone out of calibration during shipping. I contacted Moog and they sent me a file to dump into it that fixed it all. Maybe this is a similar problem?
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You could probably calibrate it if it isnāt tuning right. I read someone else mentioning the delay bleed also.