MOOG Minitaur - Analog Bass Synthesizer Module with Headphone Amp, 128 Presets, Software Editor

After resisting buying analog hardware all these years --due to great sounds from software, I'm quite happy with the purchase of this synth for bass duties. It gets a wide variety of sounds, but most importantly to me, there's finally a real solid bottom end to my pieces. I've tried using all kinds of plugins on VI's, ducking the bass with kick and other percussion, but in the end, could never get this foundation. Even at lower levels, the bass lines have always come through, and translate to smaller speakers as well. For the money, it's great. If you have, say $1,200-$1,500 I do think a sub 37 or subsequent will give you most of this synth's bass, while of course offering up a lot more variety of sounds. On the other hand, this unit's very small footprint sits great next to my midi controller and mouse, as opposed to having yet another keyboard. Bottom line: If you're looking for uber bass, you can't beat this machine.

After hearing Analog Kitchen and others play around with Minitaur, I had to pick one up. If you like that Moog bass sound then Minitaur is a great option. My one critique is the MacOS version of the Minitaur software is janky to the point where some key features don't work. That said, it's still worth it to me because the synth itself sounds great.

I have a Slim Phatty, and before that, a Little Phatty Stage, so I'm not entirely new to the Moog sound. However, I can understand the hesitation to spend so much on monosynths. I think Moog delivers something in the Minitaur that will make anyone a believer, and arguably in a better format (1 control per function) than the Slim Phatty. I spent quite a bit of time with it this evening, sequencing it with the synth channel 1, which, by default goes out to MIDI channel 1, from my Electribe ESX-1. The arpeggiator really let the Minitaur open up and show it has more tricks than what people know about, from it's time with Geddy Lee. It can have a truly modern sound ranging from the warmest almost-chippy sounds to the fattest analog bass sound you'd get anywhere at this price. With the second oscillator allowing free tuning while the other stays locked, it definitely makes running through arps a lot of fun. I haven't played with the Doepfer gear, but at this price, I imagine they are trying to get the same budget monosynth market-share, but there's nothing skimped here, and if you were going to get a 303 or some other bass syth, I definitely think the Minitaur deserves a look.

Not much to really say, it’s a Moog Minitaur. The thing cranks out heavy bass with easy quick manipulation via the front panel, and gives you way deeper control through the Librarian software. I’ve owned several Behringer desktop synths and the sound quality just doesn’t compare. I also got a Moog Sub25 (the successor to the Sub Phatty) and although I loved it, having it in my home studio was like owning a lifted F-350 in manhattan. So I sent it back and kept my Minitaur. I find my self using it even more often than I thought to record a quick bassline or lead into Ableton for further processing. Don’t get me wrong this thing is basic. I knew that going into it though. But what it does, it does beautifully!

It is everything is promises to be and more. The low end is huge. I’ve taken it out on some live shows and have been absolutely amazed at how heavy the sound is. Love it

Great analog tones. So much fun to use and craft sounds. Highly recommend.

I opted to connect it to my computer through USB instead of MIDI (since many of the features are only accessible through software via USB). When it was working it worked great. Lovely analog Moog sound, and an amazing filter. However... the connection to the device kept dropping out :( It would just stop showing up as a MIDI device on my computer. Unfortunately it was so bad it was unusable. I had to send it back. Not sure if it was just my unit, or if all the USB drivers are shotty.Aside from the connectivity issues this is a great little synth, however I'm left very disappointed that Moog hid away many features behind software and didn't perfectly implement the USB connection aspect.

Awesome synth! Can't beat the low end and warmth in this little beast.I give this synth 4 stars instead of 5 for two reasons:1) As beastly as this thing is, there are other synthesizers at this price point that have more sound design variation capabilities. This is a trade off though. As I have said, I really like the low end and warmth on this thing and I would argue that it is unrivaled.2) This is the big one. A had return my first minitaur after it got all out of tune after running the firmware update to use the minitaur editor. I was never able to get the editor up and running and there isn't a lot of support for these kinds of issues. I was not able to troubleshoot using moogs forums either. As it stands now I have not run the firmware update which allows me to use the minitaur editor and thus I can't unlock it's full potential.If moog had a bit more support for firmware and software compensation I could give this 5 stars.The synth is still great though, highly recommend.