MPC & Moog Little Phatty

Hi guys,

I have recently been looking into purchasing a good synth to compliment my MPC in a creative way.

The most similar stuff i can say that i am tryin to achieve is the sound of this guy: www.misterbibal.com both his cds are free and most importantly are incredible!

Now im not looking to sound exactly like this dude, im just looking for a synth in the £1000 mark that is capable of those sort of sounds.

Would just like some advice from people who use the moog little phatty or any other similar virtual or true analog synths within hip hop as to what they would recommend.

Many thanks in advance!

Thread about Bass Plug-ins.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=131940

Nowadays you don't need an expensive analog synth but if you WANT one GO FOR IT and indulge yourself!

Some of the Roland analog synths are very capable in the right hands, and cheaper than a MOOG.

I had a Roland JP8000, never should have let it go...

I've got the Moog Voyager and will say that in the right hands, nothing can touch it. I've also seen plenty of people with one that really hadn't the first clue how to get it started and really just let it rot. From playing with the Lil brother, they are quite similar so maybe I can help you out a bit here.

So here's what I'll propose to you and maybe what you can think about... do you want something that is really hands on, has a distinctive sound and that you can really control, or are you just looking for a lot of presets that you can just punch around quickly to see what fits your track?

I cut my teeth on synthesis sound design on the Voyager and it really taught me a lot about how to get things done and tweak them so that they fit my needs. I've also got an Access Virus TI Desktop that complements it just great... honestly I just love tweaking those knobs.

I also have a few soft synths and I'll be honest here, there are just so many damn presets that I end up spending more time cycling through them rather than tweaking them. Plus most soft synths have a lot of complexity beyond your standard hardware synth which is good because you can do more with them, but bad as there really isn't any knob or slider for you to just grab and tweak.

I have found that the iPhone/iPad apps, and even the Nintendo DS-10 Plus have been a good stop gap between software and having a good interface to work with.

Sorry if this hasn't really helped you much, but I'd give the Little Phatty some consideration, but there are also some other hardware synths out there you might want to at least consider (Roland Gaia, Dave Smith Instruemnts, microKorg XL, Access Virus...). Since you can use the pads to trigger the synth too, think about wether you really want a keyboard or not, also do you want synthesis or just a bunch of presets? Heck you can pick up a Korg Triton Rack, Yamaha Motif Rack or Roland Fantom XR pretty cheaply too.

Thanks for the advice, to be honest the Voyager is the dream, but being as i cant afford that i thought the lp would be a worthy substitute.

Im at the stage now where i want to delve more into synthesis, and i definitely want the hands on full control approach. I understand the Moog is monophonic, this makes it primarily suitable for bass and lead sounds right, i take it the voyager is the same, how do you integrate it into your setup with the MP?

Studio Electronics SE-1x or ATC-X would be my recommendation.

And since you have a sampler, I wouldn't worry too much about a synth being monophonic. You can either multisample it or multitrack it.

But if mono may present a problem, I'd suggest a DSI Prophet 08 rack, or Tetra.

Studio Electronics MIDI Moog even better than the Voyager and other SE modules although it's quite rare.

It's a vintage Model D Mini Moog that is rack mounted and given MIDI capabilities all housed in a sleek tank like black case, rare cos who on earth would want to chop up their MINI....no patch memories etc of course but who cares! The sound imo blows them all away..unless you don't like the Moog sound.
A mate sold his for only 1500GBP...not bad really considering you are getting a real 70's MINI Moog

alot of Virtual Analog synths out there these days either rackmout or w/keyboard that will definitely teach you basic subtractive synthesis for alot cheaper than the real deal moog analog. The real deal will sound fatter for sure, but most of the VA's are polyphonic and even multitimbral etc so you get more flexibility usually.

Radias, MS2000 (rack or Kbd), JP8000, JP8080, SH-32, sh201, GAIA synth, Waldorf Q, micro Q, Novation made a bunch, Nord, Virus (getting $$ now) spectral audio Neptune for real analog rackmount goodness..

love my JP8080 and love my Waldorf Micro Q. midi'd up and always on call for a bassline or synth tweak..

~Steve

All very helpful responses guys.

*Silly question alert*
I have never used rackmount synths before, only those with keyboards, now i use a Digi 003 and i also have a USB Midi interface 3 i/o. Could someone give me just a basic way to setup say a single keyboard synth unit with say 2 other rackmount units?

Thank you guys!

The Phatty is a good substitute to the Voyager. The rack mount voyager is also a good choice, might be worth checking out ebay/craigslist or whatever you can to see if you can find it.

As for how I have the Voyager in the setup, well it's kind of complicated, I'll probably be posting again in the MPC Studio Setup thread with a lot of details at some point, as it's all kind of crazy what I did to get it all working, but it's actually pretty elegant.

But, to answer your question... At the most basic level I have the MIDI out going to the MPC IN, MIDI in coming from the MPC out (thru a few other devices). Got it setup so it listens on MIDI channel 15 I think, so that I can send data only to it to use it to sequence. Audio outs go into another device setup in an audio pass through mode (gets me out of needing a mixer ATM).

Depending on what I am doing, I may just dial in a sound and sample it so I can play it as a synth on the MPC that way, or if for example I've got some massive glide going on, or wacky LFO or FX or something that just can't be replicated using a sample I'll record a midi sequence with all the CC changes and such... from there it isn't too hard (using JJOS2XL) to record out what I want as an audio track to use, but also have something I can go back to if I need to tweak it or make a similar but different sequence. Using audio tracks, you can really get down and use the Voyager for a lot of different parts, just remember to take notes, or name the tracks with your patch so you can get back to it when necessary. If you plan to get any moogerfoogers for FX or use the outboard CP and patch cables to further tweak a sound don't forget to take notes on that too.

Glydez wrote:All very helpful responses guys.

*Silly question alert*
I have never used rackmount synths before, only those with keyboards, now i use a Digi 003 and i also have a USB Midi interface 3 i/o. Could someone give me just a basic way to setup say a single keyboard synth unit with say 2 other rackmount units?

Thank you guys!

it will always be midi in out or through,keyboard is the master,racks are the slave's.find a book about midi,for details.

Glydez wrote:*Silly question alert*
I have never used rackmount synths before, only those with keyboards, now i use a Digi 003 and i also have a USB Midi interface 3 i/o. Could someone give me just a basic way to setup say a single keyboard synth unit with say 2 other rackmount units?

Certainly not a silly question, but something that does help to understand how it works to get everything working properly/optimally.

So another minimal setup of how I have things running.

MPC 1k w/ JJOS2XL
I have it set to master, outputting tempo on A/B
I have thru mode set to "As Track", so I can only have midi data sent to the device that I am actually sequencing at the time.
I have the MIDI channel set to All
1) MIDI Out -> Korg Triton Studio
2) MIDI In -> Korg Triton Studio
I also setup audio thru, so that it will monitor any audio that comes in.

Korg Triton Studio
Global Channel is Set to 1 (sort of a lie, it listens to 1-8 or 1-16 depending on what mode it is in)
Tempo is set to External to get the BPM from the MPC.
MIDI In -> MPC 1k
MIDI Out -> MPC 1k
MIDI Thru -> Moog Voyager
Audio Outs -> MPC 1k Ins
Audio Ins -> Moog Voyager

Moog Voyager
Global Channel is Set to 15 so that it will only listen to this channel when MIDI data is sent to this channel
MIDI In -> Korg Triton Studio Thru
Audio Outs -> Korg Triton Studio Ins

In this example, you wouldn't be able to capture the MIDI outs from the Voyager, so to get around this I have a MIDI box that actually takes all MIDI Outs from all my devices and merges them into one MIDI Out stream that goes into the MPC. Again, I'll try and get it all written up at some point in case it might help someone someday, but given my setup, I've managed to get a turntable, Korg Kaoss Pad 2, Korg Triton Studio, Yamaha Motif Rack, Access Virus and Moog Voyager all hooked into the MPC so that I can do all the MIDI/Audio recording necessary.

Good Luck!

Had a listen to that stuff...It's nothing a £150 virtual analogue couldn't do to be honest...Moog has a different tone..PHAT, that stuff on the other hand just sounds like any other wannabe analogue synth.

Get a Nord Lead 2 Rack an you are sorted, they are lovely synths and good to learn on pluss they are polyphonic.

If you want a cheap analogue keyboard with lots of knobs on it that's fun to play look at the Novation Bass Station

It's better for leads though than bass imo... Well I mainly use it for leads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGnvtoPZ ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABMUTCT1MOI

hey
i use the little phatty, a roland juno 106 (and some other stuff) with a mpc 4000.
i am pretty sure mister bibal uses the microkorg, his sounds are very similar.
i bought the juno because i needed poly - but i did not sell the moog
for a first analog i would suggest the juno 106 ; awesome sound, easy to find, cheap, poly, super nice to use.
one thing : isolate it from other midi devices, it just create mess if you place the juno somewhere in a daisy chain : just have a midi in and out for him on your mpc and you will be fine.
cheers
bacha

Thanks again for all the responses.

bachabulu wrote:hey
i use the little phatty, a roland juno 106 (and some other stuff) with a mpc 4000.
i am pretty sure mister bibal uses the microkorg, his sounds are very similar.
i bought the juno because i needed poly - but i did not sell the moog
for a first analog i would suggest the juno 106 ; awesome sound, easy to find, cheap, poly, super nice to use.
one thing : isolate it from other midi devices, it just create mess if you place the juno somewhere in a daisy chain : just have a midi in and out for him on your mpc and you will be fine.
cheers
bacha

How do you use the Moog with the MP? You go direct into it or through a DAW?

Have any stuff you have made with the Moog i could listen to?

Glydez wrote:Thanks again for all the responses.

bachabulu wrote:hey
i use the little phatty, a roland juno 106 (and some other stuff) with a mpc 4000.
i am pretty sure mister bibal uses the microkorg, his sounds are very similar.
i bought the juno because i needed poly - but i did not sell the moog
for a first analog i would suggest the juno 106 ; awesome sound, easy to find, cheap, poly, super nice to use.
one thing : isolate it from other midi devices, it just create mess if you place the juno somewhere in a daisy chain : just have a midi in and out for him on your mpc and you will be fine.
cheers
bacha

How do you use the Moog with the MP? You go direct into it or through a DAW?

Have any stuff you have made with the Moog i could listen to?

U listened to the Moog on youtube?? Pretty much any one who is any one has used a Moog at some point on their recordings....Gill Scot Heron with Brian Jackson used the Mini and very notably on "Almost Lost Detroit" which was sampled by Kanye..thats the sound of a Moog