Moog Subharmonicon Semi-Modular Analog Synthesizer

This thing is wild. It will take you places musically that you wouldn’t have gone otherwise. This is a generative music machine. My only complaint is that it needs better MIDI in and out.

Trotz einiger Hinweise, dieses Stativ wäre nicht so stabil muss ich sagen dass es perfekt und wackelfrei steht. Die Montage ist innovativ und intelligent gemacht: Man kann / muss die Holz-Seitenteile der Synthesizer nicht nur dranlassen, man muss auch nur auf jeder Seite 2 der 4 Schrauben lösen. Dadurch verschiebt sich nichts und die Montage läuft im Handumdrehen. Dieses Original Moog Equipment passt perfekt und sieht stylisch aus. Für den einfachen Aufbau und den stabilen Stand gibt es bei mir die volle Punktzahl. Der mitgelieferte Strom- und Audioverteiler hat 4 Mono Eingänge oder zwei Stereo Eingänge (umschaltbar) und lässt sich ebenfalls einfach verbinden, da alle Kabel mit dabei sind.

Me llegó perfecto, en tiempo. La calidad del producto, el empaque, el manual, un poster, cartoncillos de parches de sonidos, etc. De lo mejor!. Moog cuida todos los detalles en su producto. EL sonido impresionante y la calidad de los botones el tacto, de lo mejor.

It was a little jarring to see the “MADE IN TAIWAN” label on the back and no reference made to Asheville at all. Maybe Apple has the exclusive rights to the phrase “Designed by… Made in…”? But there’s no point in complaining about the country of origin; of course this is the cost of globalization. This should mean more Moogs in the hands of people who want them. But one would think the new-and-improved manufacturing process would have some effect over the price. I think the asking price is a little extreme if you want to compare it with other mass-produced noise-making toys.

The concept of the Spectravox is very interesting. The overall design is truly unique. Having all those envelope followers, a filter bank, myriad patching options…I mean seriously, go watch the videos on this thing and you’ll have a hard time not wanting one of your own to play with!

But it certainly has its downfalls. And most of these are related to the price and the value that I’ve come to expect from Moog.

First: Where’s the freaking manual?!? It doesn’t ship with the usual black-bound, attractive Moog-branded manual. It comes with a quick start guide (and, of course, a sticker…and five 30cm patch cables) but the manual is only available for download on Moog’s website. Print it out yourself, I guess?

There’s no onboard sequencer. There’s also no MIDI input. But there’s only so many options you can cram into 60hp for $600. If you’re buying this, you’re probably already pretty deep into volt-per-octave and gate CVs. But it doesn’t really exist as a standalone instrument unless you enjoy playing a pitch knob like a theremin.

It has Moog’s desktop skiff typical square/sine oscillator with PWM. I always keep my fingers crossed for a second oscillator and sync option or variable wave shape, but there’s only so many options you can cram into 60hp for $600.

The decay envelope seems like kind of a corner-cutting feature, but there’s only so many options you can cram into 60hp for $600.

As vocoders go, this thing is very basic. If you’re trying to synthesize speech, there’s way better options that’ll yield way better results. But paired with a drum machine (or a DFAM) and this thing can actually do some fun stuff in vocoder mode.

I’m disappointed that the filter frequencies are not printed on the panel and instead are just numbered 1-10.

I’ll touch again on this thing not being a standalone instrument. Yeah, out of the box you can make weird and cool sounds with it. But unlike pretty much every other offering that Moog has released, the Spectravox would be sort of disappointing if it was your FIRST Moog. The onboard oscillator is what allows it to be considered an “instrument” rather than a “module”, and it’s easy to get pulled into the what-if game. (“What if this thing wasn’t larping as a standalone synthesizer and instead was an impeccably-designed 60hp filter bank on steroids? That’d be so awesome…”)

It plays well with others. But Moog hasn’t given us the usual playbook of patching ideas that’s been so endemic to the previous Sound Studio releases. Maybe this is a good thing and it makes you experiment harder? Maybe this thing was rushed to market?

It’s hard to totally hate the Spectravox. But it seems like it’s trying to do too much and ends up being mediocre at most of its endeavors. I guess there’s only so many options you can cram into 60hp for $600.

Lo califico con 5 estrellas xq lo q hace lo hace excelente! Genera baterías, lineas d bajo y efectos bien diferenciados del mother -32 o subharmonicon. Aun el Edge de Behringer q hace lo mismo no tiene el encanto del DFAM, lo cual es solo opinion personal por su tamaño, estética y cariño a moog.

Really easy to assemble and create your Moog Studio 3, the power junction box is also super useful to save plug space… However, I do have a few things to whinge about.

The stand itself isn’t that chunky, which is probably a good thing as you don’t want it too heavy. But I am struggling to see why it’s priced so high. I get that the brand is premium and I love the synths, but I’m convinced you could get a nicer stand for less price on Etsy.

The cables that come with it are cheap and aren’t shielded… I also suspect that the audio quality from the junction box might be a little suspect and eventually I’ll only use it for power. If you try to tuck all the cables under and around the back you just get a tonne of noise… All off to the side it’s fine.

I’m going to keep it as I’ve (finally) managed to assemble a studio and I’ve wanted one for a while, but I can see eventually moving to something else.

If I got another synth or two to complement – I’ll be going to Etsy instead.

The unique approach to generating tones and rhythms with subharmonics is refreshing. It might not be for everyone, but it’s very inspiring and fun to play with.