Hi all,
Hope you’re good!
I have a stylised picture of a synth at home (not sure which one) but it is on the desk on a photo from the Ableton website (below) can any of you kind people tell me what it is?
Cheers in advance
Hi all,
Hope you’re good!
I have a stylised picture of a synth at home (not sure which one) but it is on the desk on a photo from the Ableton website (below) can any of you kind people tell me what it is?
Cheers in advance
Realistic MG-1 from Radio Shack. Built by Moog, as it happens.
Thanks very much - I thought it had a Moogy look to it!
Similar styling to the Grandmother
I’m sure the similarity is intentional. The Grandmother’s side panels are very similar to those on the MG-1 and the ones used on the similar Rogue (my first “proper” synth back in 1981).
Hey I had one of those! Sounded surprisingly good too.
Indeed it did. I like the sound of that era of Moog quite a lot. I used to dream of getting an MG-1. I still have the ‘guts’ of one of my old Rogues from which I plan to eventually build a module for my 5U modular system. The MG-1 had a leg up on the Rogue, though, as it was capable of divide-down ‘polyphony’. Neat synth, really, and still not too expensive on the secondhand market.
I had that and the CS-01 at the same time, another “consumer-grade” synth that was quite useful.
Yeah! With a breath controller input, too! Underappreciated, that one.
Another cool tidbit about the MG-1 is that Paul T. Schreiber, who currently manufactures ultra high-quality Eurorack modules as Synthesis Technology, was largely involved in its design. It’s a very unique (and a bit odd) Moog synth with its strange polyphony and ‘home-market’ qualities.
Indeed! He was one of the first guys to put modular systems back on the map with his MOTM kits and modules. I have a couple of modules that i need to convert from MOTM format to MU. Neat (and very, very high quality) modules!
Oh yeah, damn - he made the MOTM format too.
Quite an interesting fellow to say the least, I highly recommend watching this interview
And to stay (slightly more) on topic, here is a really nice and cute demo of the MG-1:
That MG-1 demo is fantastic. I’d not seen that before!
Mr. Schreiber is one of my favorite “characters” of the synth world. His interviews on Darwin Grosse’s podcasts are great. Schreiber’s got a great sense of humor and his anecdotes about his long experience with synth and computer manufacturing and design are interesting.
Its interesting to see some of what youre up to and enjoy your synth expertise here as well - when i started getting into music yours was one of the first names i knew, as i read stuff you did designing synth patches and such!
Thanks, that’s really nice of you to post!
No, thank you!
I’m gonna hijack this thread for my own “name that synth” question.
Anyone have any idea what synth Herbie is soloing on from around 14:20? His Minimoog and ARP have logos on the back in the other videos I’ve seen. The whole video is just an amazing slice of the 1970s. Love it so much.
@Scot_Solida Thanks for solving that so quickly. Size wise it looks like it could be the Grandmother prototype. Very cool.
It’s a bit bigger than it looks. It was an ugly industrial looking thing with faux wood veneer side panels encircled in aluminum and a metal mesh ribbon controller. It was meant to be a budget synth and was pretty stripped down with only a single oscillator+sub and a pair of ASR envelopes. It had sample-and-hold (the Mini did not), and a dedicated LFO. However, it sounded good and was a solid performer. I had one for many years.