Moog Grandmother

Grandma, put on more bass

The Moog Grandmother is a relatively new semi-modular analogue synthesizer from the iconic Moog with a built-in arpeggiator, sequencer and spring reverb. The main idea behind this little guy is to bring the classic Moog sound into a compact body with a keyboard that will just be easy to make friends with other modular synths or Eurorec.

Simplicity and flexibility

Perhaps the main charm of Grandmother lies in its (or her?) simplicity. It follows the old proven formula of classic analogue synths (a pair of oscillators + mixer + filter + envelopes and LFO), so even a beginner can easily figure it out. And branded Moog oscillators and filters sound "fat" no matter how you twist them. And the keyboard is great. Therefore, if you just want to play music, then just turn it on and play. If the soul requires something more outrageous, then we connect it with cables with some O-Coast or Behringer Neutron and get a rich palette of sounds that these synthesizers are not capable of on their own. Want more insanity? Then your best friend would be a Euro rack module for insane modulation like Make Noise Maths or Xaoc Devices Zadar.

Expensive

And now for the less pleasant. For Grandmother in our area they ask for about $1000, although you can buy a conditional Behringer Neutron many times cheaper and still get the same fat analogue sound (albeit a little different), but with a more serious patch matrix and more opportunities to control the synthesizer itself. Or Korg MS-20 mini, which is actually a 1-in-1 reincarnation of Korg MS-20, but it costs almost 2 times cheaper than Grandmother. Therefore, Grandmother is worth recommending to those who are primarily looking for powerful analogue sound and, most likely, are a fan of Moog. Well, it is also perfect for beginners: it is easy to tame it and it is almost impossible to squeeze a bad sound out of it.