Moog

FM VERDICT
9.2
Mavis can’t be faulted at
this price. A wide range of
tones, well built and adds
new options to the classic
Moog sounds . A real winner
PACK IT IN: Mavis packs a lot into its fairly
diminutive form, including an extensive patch bay
and a playable keyboard
RACK IT: As well as coming with a case and dust
cover, Mavis is Eurorack compatible, making it easy
to incorporate into any workfl ow
LOOK CLOSER: The patch bay includes features
that may not be obvious looking at the main
controls, like the useful sample & hold and mixer
FEELS GOOD: While the knobs are small they feel
good and dialling in settings is easy
a part of the classic Moog setup.
The envelope generator is of the
ADSR variety and ranges from snappy
to long lasting. You won’t fi nd
features like looping or latching here
but again, I think that can be forgiven
at this price point and there’s a lot
you can do with an ADSR envelope
alone. A second would have been
nice but at 44hp, space is at a
premium and other features included
here defi nitely earn their keep.
A single LFO is included, with an
LED showing the rate, which goes
into the audio range. The LFO is
variable from triangle to square,
running slow enough for subtle
evolving modulations.
This leaves us with the utilities
section and patch bay, which is what
really makes Mavis a thing of joy, with
some features that have never made
their way onto a Moog before.
First up is an analogue wavefolder,
a new arrival on a Moog, which adds
some West Coast fl avours to the mix,
by introducing new harmonic content,
as opposed to the traditional
subtractive only methods. It’s a single
tiny knob but it can be used to really
change and intensify the output of
this wonderful little synth. It takes a
little experimentation to get
predictable results with wavefolding
at fi rst, but once you get your head
round it, it makes for some extra
possibilities that have a lot of value.
Bay watch
Under the wavefolder knob (labelled
FOLD) is the One control. I’m not
sure of the name but this is
essentially a way of setting the level
of the mixer, which is all done via the
patch bay. This mixer works with
audio and CV, so some interesting
uses can be found here. Having a
mixer on such a small, affordable
synth is a great feature and just adds
to the sonic toolkit on offer.
At the bottom of the stack is an
attenuator control, again linked to the
patchbay, and this little tool is vital
for controlling a lot of what can be
done with Mavis, setting limits to
parts of a patch. It’s nicely freed up
for creative use too, as many of the
other controls have their own.
Then there is the patch bay itself.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the
patch bay might be the least exciting
part of a synth but there is a lot more
going on with Mavis. Yes you can
access things like pitch, LFO rate,
fi lter cutoff and even gates and the
VCA from here but, as mentioned
earlier, there are some extra patch
points that help Mavis really shine.
There’s the mixer section where
you can mix one signal to another
(using the One control to set how
much is mixed, along with its output).
This has endless uses alone but
there’s also a two-way mult on board,
so this, or any other signal, can be
split and sent elsewhere as well.
If that wasn’t enough, Mavis also
features sample & hold, via the patch
bay, making it easy to generate
random voltages for use in other parts
of the synth. The obvious choice, and
one Moog suggest themselves, is to
use this as a quasi-sequencer tool but
because of its nature as a patch bay
tool it can be fed into anything, from
stepped volume changes to varying
the fi lter cutoff, or wavefolding.
Learning Mavis is simple too. As
with most semi-modular Moogs, it
ships with a number of patch cards,
showing settings for both front panel
control positions and patching.
A nice touch is the labelling that
suggests which controls to adjust
while playing to vary the output.
These cover a lot of ground and will
also help the newcomer to get a
handle on the basic operation of the
synth, as well as demonstrating a
wide range of tones.
LOOK CLOSER:
The patch bay includes features
that may not be obvious looking at the main
controls, like the useful sample & hold and mixer
FEELS GOOD:
While the knobs are small they feel
good and dialling in settings is easy
PACK IT IN:
Mavis packs a lot into its fairly
RACK IT:
As well as coming with a case and dust
LOOK CLOSER:
PACK IT IN:
Mavis packs a lot into its fairly
RACK IT:
As well as coming with a case and dust
LOOK CLOSER:
Moog Mavis | Reviews
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FMU387.rev_moog.indd 73FMU387.rev_moog.indd 73 08/08/2022 14:0108/08/2022 14:01