Moog

Moogs. It doesn’t feel so much like an
affordable kit, as it does a ‘proper’
instrument. Unlike the Mother-32,
the patch points are to the left of the
controls. Whether this is better or
worse will depend on how you use it
and where in a rig it might sit. For
standalone use in its case, it makes
sense, as it keeps the patch cables
out of the way for the more common
right-handed players out there. And,
speaking of players, it really can act
standalone, as it has a small rubber
keyboard allowing for some, albeit
simple, playing. No need to worry
about cramped chords either, as
Mavis is monophonic. There’s a
control for glide and also scale, which
proportionately lengthens the
keyboard, rather than being an octave
selection. This feels like an odd
choice but can be used for some
creative musical choices.
The rest of the panel looks fairly
standard at fi rst glance, with labelling
that groups controls according to
task, from utilities and VCO, to VCF,
That said, a lot of what many
people love about Moogs comes from
the interplay between the different
sections, especially the fi lter. It would
be easy to dismiss Mavis as being
built to a price and, while that is
probably true, you do get a proper
sounding Moog 24dB low-pass ladder
fi lter, with resonance. Again there is a
mod mix and mod amount control.
Pairing this with the envelope
generator lends itself perfectly to
everything from slow swells to juicy
acid basslines. The fi lter does suffer
from the volume dropoff when
increasing the resonance but it can
be forgiven for that, considering that’s
LFO, VCA and a single envelope
generator. More on that in a bit.
Moog swings
The single VCO is very typically
Moog-sounding. It has both saw and
pulse wave shapes, with a knob for
variably defi ning the shape, followed
by a pulse width control. There are
controls for VCO mod mix, pitch mod
and pulse width mod amount, so
without touching any other areas of
the synth, a core tone can be dialled
in with ease and it sounds great. Of
course a single VCO will have
limitations but for the price you do
get a genuine Moog sound.
EAST MEETS WEST
In general, Moogs are commonly referred to as East Coast synths, where the sounds are
shaped subtractively – tones manipulated by removing parts of the waveform using fi lters.
The Mavis introduces, for the fi rst time, West Coast-fl avoured synthesis. West Coast tools,
commonly attributed to Don Buchla, are more about additive shaping of a waveform,
introducing harmonic content by using frequency modulation and wave folding. That may
sound like two approaches to the same end result but they can sound very different, as
West Coast synths often sound softer and smoother, whereas a typical East Coast patch
has a harder tone. There’s more to the differences than just this however, with West Coast
often seen as the home of
things like low-pass gates,
that aid in equipping
patches with a more
percussive sound. However,
these days the lines are
forever blurred. The huge
rise in Eurorack modular
has meant musicians have
an almost limitless range of
modules to express
themselves and it is
common to fi nd people
who have rigs that combine
elements of East and West
Coast but it’ll be a long
time before those labels
start to disappear.
THE ALTERNATIVES
Rare Waves
Grendel £515
The Grendel is a
two-oscillator synth
voice, with shaping
tools, fi lter and on
board LFO. It has a
good range of patch
points but is
Eurorack only
rarewaves.net
Dreadbox
Nymphes £379
This little standalone
synth offers a huge
range of features.
Various playing
modes, six voices,
each with two
envelopes and a
LFO, plus USB and
MIDI connectivity
dreadbox-fx.com
Doepfer A-111-5
synth voice £269
Fewer patching
possibilities of this
voice than Mavis,
but offers an intuitive
experience and
plentiful tone-
shaping tools,
including frequency
modulation and an
ADSR envelope
generator.
doepfer.de
The utilities section and
patch bay are what really
makes Mavis a thing of joy
Reviews | Moog Mavis
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