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Available now for PC, Mac and iOS
>If there’s one part of the frequency range that Moog has been synonymous with down the years, it’s bass, so it seems entirely fitting that the company is launching a new soft synth that’s devoted to low-end tones. Known as Mariana – it goes deep, presumably – this takes inspiration from Moog synths of the past (the likes of the Minimoog, Taurus, Sub Phatty and Minitaur) while also promising to bring something new to the party.
IT TAKES INSPIRATION FROM MOOG SYNTHS OF THE PAST BUT ALSO BRINGS SOMETHING NEW TO THE PARTY
Mariana is a dual-layer synth; layers can either be stacked together or played duophonically, and each layer offers two oscillators and a sub-oscillator. There are two classic Moog resonant filters, along with a third one that’s designed specifically for the sub-oscillator.
Effects, meanwhile, include tube, tape and overdrive saturation, and there’s a ‘tight’ compressor for glueing everything together. You also get delay and chorus processors that can be applied on a per-layer basis.
All of this functionality comes packed into what appears to be a typically straightforward Moog interface that also benefits from built-in metering. Although it has a definite bass focus, Mariana can also provide lead sounds, percussion and effects, and 200 presets come supplied.
This is Moog’s first release since the company’s acquisition by InMusic, and is also its first soft synth to run on not only iOS and Mac, but also Windows (it should be noted that the Moogerfooger effect plugins are also compatible with Microsoft’s OS).
Mariana comes in VST/AU formats for desktop platforms and is available now for $99. The iOS version is priced at $30.
To celebrate Mariana’s release, Moog has enlisted actor, writer, producer, and comedian H. Jon Benjamin to narrate a video that celebrates the company’s bass sound history, and there’s an hour-long deep dive tutorial video from Thavius Beck.
SoundForce SFC-0B: the most affordable route to owning a ‘hardware’ Oberheim?
>If the Oberheim OB-X8 is a bit rich for your blood and you’re not keen on the Behringer UB-Xa, how do you go about recreating that classic hands-on ‘80s polysynth experience? The answer, it seems, could be SoundForce’s SFC-0B, a new bespoke MIDI controller that enables you to make your favourite OB-style plugin feel like hardware.
SoundForce has been doing this kind of thing for years, of course, but the SFC-0B looks like a particularly fine example of the ‘software made real’ genre. Looking every inch like a classic Oberheim synth, it offers 37 rotary pots, 41 switches and 45 LEDs, all of which are clearly labelled, plus a couple of additional user controls that can be assigned to parameters of your choosing.
The SFC-0B
