Moog Sub Phatty Review 2025

Aggressive. Grungy. Sterile? There are a lot of very interesting opinions about the Sub Phatty out there, and only a few of them overlap. Released in 2013, it was the beginning of the Sub series of synths from Moog, and it marked a shift in tone for Moog synths for a while. So how does it stack up in 2025? Is it worth getting today? Let’s dive in.

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OSCILLATORS

The first thing you’ll hear, are the oscillators. There’s 2 main oscillators, plus a Sub Osc that is permanently set to Square, and plays 1 octave below Osc 1, and a Pink Noise generator.

Compared to the Slim Phatty, the Sub Phatty raw oscillator tone is aggressive and in your face. Where the Slim Phatty has a smoother rounder tone (partly due to the lower cutoff point for the filter, and also because of the chips used for the VCOs) suitable for vintage 70s and 80s sounds, the Sub Phatty is brighter and dirtier and punches through in a mix more noticeably. It’s not brassy like the Prophet Rev2, but much more aggressive than the Slim.

The 2 main Oscs have full wave sweep capabilities, ranging from pure Triangle wave all the way to narrow Pulse, in a continuous function. It’s quite nice for creating some very exotic dirty electro basses and Psytrance noises.

The Osc Sync function is interesting, although it doesn’t feel like it can penetrate the same territory as the Slim Phatty’s Osc Sync. The Slim’s Sync can veer into full on FM territory with a little coaxing, and DX7 style sounds can be managed on it, whereas the Sub Phatty’s sync never quite achieves the same variety of metallic and hollow sounds.

The Pink Noise generator is helpful for some classes of sounds - the manual states producers like to use it for Percussion sounds. But for modern Techno, House, and Trance producers, Pink Noise is much less useful for modern sound design, since the low frequencies tend to crowd out the rest of the sound and mess with the tone balance. Pure White Noise or some kind of sweepable Noise generator that allows for Pink and White Noise would have been much more useful for making modern Melodic Techno and Progressive Trance sounds.

The 2 layers of Detune capabilities for the Sub Phatty are a welcome touch though, as the single Freq knob on the Slim Phatty makes it very difficult to create detuned Trance and Psytrance saw leads without veering off into uncontrolled tuning territory. Being able to detune very slightly on the main Frequency knob and then adjust the secondary knob a tiny to taste makes it easy to make usable sounds very quickly.

It’s worth noting that pushing the Oscs too loud starts to overdrive them, so factor that into your sound design choices when working with it. A delicate approach is needed when trying to make smooth and gentle sounds with these oscillators.

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FILTERS

Besides the Oscillators, this is really what everyone goes to Moog for. But does it have that Classic Moog Ladder Filter Sound?

The Sub Phatty is brighter, is our first impression. It certainly cuts off at a higher frequency than the Slim Phatty. And that sound brightens up further when you reduce the filter slope curves. Tricky part is accessing those slope curves. There’s some obtuse ways to access them via some front panel controls, which I did manage with the manual handy. But it was far from convenient. With the VST editor from Moog, it’s much much easier to change those, and access some other deep settings that expand the sound design capabilities of the synth.

The resonance pushes into self-oscillation and yields some extremely gnarly sounds when cranked in tandem with the Multidrive. It doesn’t quite sound as bright on 303-style Acid sounds that use a low cutoff and moderate Envelope Amount settings, but it can achieve some nice grit that adds fun textures to Techno and Trance tracks.

It didn’t feel quite as ‘round” and smooth as the Slim Phatty, or even the Prophet Rev2, but it did surprise us with its character while experimenting with Plucks and deep Basses.

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ENVELOPES

The Envelopes here are pretty normal, as far as synths go, so there’s not too much to say here. The Attack is a bit shorter and tighter than Some folks may be accustomed to, so you have to push it really far to make slow evolving sweeps. It’s great for Plucked sounds, though. The snappy envelopes make Techno and Trance plucks a breeze to design.

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LFO

Now this is where some serious excitement is to be had. The Sub Phatty has 3 different LFO Speed Modes, which can be changed via obtuse key combos on the synth… or more easily on the VST editor. And that’s where the fun begins. Switching between Slow, Mid, and Hi speeds allows you to do really gentle wavering swells, more moderate vibratos, or even insane audio rate modulation. We got a lot of great use out of these settings while designing buzzy Hands Up and Progressive House Leads, and on some cinematic sweep type patches. This is one of the Sub Phatty’s strongest points, and really puts it in a league more in line with crazy super-mod synths like the Blofeld or Virus.

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MODULATION

As this is an analog synth marketed as more of a budget synth a notch or two beyond the Little Phatty, there isn’t too much to talk about here. Routing options are pretty minimal. It would have been nice if the Amount controls began at 12:00 and could be changed to positive or negative values to yield more exotic modulations. But for the synth’s overall capabilities, the modulation options are workable.

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EFFECTS

“Effects” is a bit of an inaccurate header for this section. All the Sub Phatty has is Multidrive. Which we found to be more of a Saturator on lower settings, and then at higher settings, it turns into distortion. It doesn’t mangle the sound quite as nicely as the Overdrive on the Slim Phatty or the Feedback + Multidrive combo on the Sub37, but it does yield some nice added grit to sounds.

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CONCLUSION

So, at the end of all things, is the Sub Phatty worthit? Is it still relevant in 2025?

While it lacks in modulation capabilities and the Pink Noise isn’t nearly as useful as the manual claims, this synth has a lot of heft to it, and if you are looking for a snappy semi-modern sounding Moog that can do aggressive sounds and more serene tones, this one would work well for you.

Its oscillators are big and aggressive, and the filter does add a lot of nice character.

In the right contexts, this synth could stand front and center in some very big tunes, and add a lot of welcome character. It definitely works great for Tech and Electro House basses.

So while it might not be our first choice for an analog synth, if you happen to find one at a good price, it could serve a lot of solid uses in your tunes and set you apart from everyone else. Its aggressive gusty character almost takes it to Prodigy territory, and if you can run it through other FX for reverb or distortion or chorus, you will get some very exciting tones out of it.

So overall, we might recommend a couple other synths before this one to Synth Newbies, but we would not turn our nose up at future opportunities to work on it either. We’d recommend it for producers and keyboardists after a specific kind of gritty sound.

That’s our take on it, anyway.

We're on GearNews!

Hey all, 2 of our latest Nord Lead soundsets, for the 2X and 3 respectively, have been featured in the new GearNews article about sounds and presets!

Check it out!

READ HERE

Synth Showdown is here!

Ever wondered about the differences in sound between a Moog and a Prophet?

Wonder no more!

Big news, softsynth users!

Most of you are probably already aware that Waldorf just released a VST version of the Blofeld hardware synth, and our Blofeld soundsets will work in them!

Waldorf Blofeld VST Plugin

So if you’ve been wanting to get your hands on our Blofeld soundbanks, but didn’t want to shell out for a hardware Blofeld, now you can have your cake and eat it too!

Waldorf Blofeld Soundsets

100 soundsets!

It’s a big day here at Kulshan Studios! We just completed our 100th soundset, and because our very first ever soundset that we ever made, Adventure Trance Vol 1 for the Adam Szabo JP6K VST, we decided to bring things around full circle by making Adventure Trance Vol 6 for JP6K!

Grab the bank today, and celebrate 100 Kulshan Studios soundsets with us!

I declare this the Summer of George!

Just kidding

But in all seriousness, this will be the Autumn of Ambient. We’re mostly finished with an Ambient/ Downtempo soundbank for the Nord Lead 3, and we’ll be working on Ambient and Downtempo banks for our other synths like the JP8080, Prophet Rev2, and others this autumn, so you all have access to more chill sounds this winter.

Stay tuned!

Our first Largo soundbank is here!

After putting it off for a few… years… we have finally gotten ‘round to completing our first Waldorf Largo soundbank! We started off with Trance, and there will be more in the future, so stay tuned!

You can buy Adagio Trance Soundset for Waldorf Largo now!

Our first Spire soundbank has landed!

Thought we’d never get around to releasing some VST soundbanks, did you?

Well, thanks to our friend Triplestar in the Netherlands, we now have our very first Spire soundset available and ready to use in your next club smasher!

Buy Rave Essentials Vol 1 now!

The Links have landed!

Hey everyone, you may have noticed we added a new menu for Links on our site. These are for directing you to free and paid editor/librarian apps for different synths, effect plugins, and associates of ours that offer music services that can help you extend and improve the songs you make using our presets and samples!

Take a look and pay them a visit - you’ll be glad you did!

Clavia Nord Lead 2X Review 2024

Bright. Sharp. Aggressive. Cold. Common comments made about the Nord Lead 2X, the successor to the famous Nord Lead 2 that came out in 1997. The 2X came out in 2003, and improved on the original with expanded polyphony, more user memory, and upgraded 96 kHz 24-bit DACs. Some users complained that it sounded a bit too ‘clean’ compared to the 2 and the 1, and that it sounds dated compared to more modern synths.

But with analog and VA synths becoming trendy again, and music reverting to the 90s in style and mood, it seems like the Nord Lead 2X may be swept up in the revival.

So is it still worthit in 2024? Let’s find out.

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OSCILLATORS

At first, the 2X looks simple and straightforward enough. Conventional analog waveforms like the Triangle, Sawtooth, and Pulse come standard on both Oscs, but Oscillator 1 also includes a Sine wave, and Osc 2 has Noise available, whose color can be brightened or dulled by turning the Semitones knob.

The Pulse Width can also be modulated, but unlike on the Nord Lead 3, or most other analog-modeling synths, the Pulse Width is a Master control, so turning the knob or linking PW to an LFO or the Modulation section affects the Pulse Width for pulse waves on both oscillators at the same time and the same way. There is no Pulse Width variability per oscillator to add complexity, which can be a little frustrating if you want to create more complex pulse-based tones.

However, one area the 2X shines is in the FM capabilities. By jumping between oscillators, and playing with semitones and adjusting the FM, you can create some convincing-sounding DX-like tones on it, and I even managed to recreate some classic DX7 slap bass style sounds on it fairly easily.

The Sync and Ring Mod behave more or less like normal for any synth, and I personally have very little use for them, since they don’t factor into genres of music I write.

Now the big question you’re all wondering is, “How does it sound?” And the answer is:

Excellent.

The saws and pulses are bright, pop, and full of harmonics that become fizzier higher up the keyboard you go, so midrange basses, plucks, and bright detuned leads have a very pleasing musical quality to them that cuts through a mix without being too in-your-face, and the sines and triangles are also good and clean, and lend themselves well to all manner of crazy FM tones.

The Fine Tune detuning between Osc 1 and 2 has a somewhat odd and uneven curve to it, as it seems to detune more rapidly and aggressively turned clockwise, and less aggressive detuned counter-clockwise. It can be helpful when trying to make 80s leads that are detuned by small increments, but it takes a little getting used to.

Some folks complain that the synth doesn’t sound “fat” enough on its own. And compared to a Moog, it doesn’t. But for a modern dance mix, that lack of heavy fatness is a blessing in disguise, as it requires little to no processing to sit cleanly in a mix. These oscillators are definitely the big strong point of this synth.

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FILTERS

Now on to one of the other big critical elements of the 2X. The filter. It’s an analog-modeling subtractive synth. Does it sound analog?

The answer there, is yes, and no.

It’s not analog in the same way the Moog ladder filter is analog, in its sound. The tightness of the envelopes and the overall tone and behavior of the filter feels more in line with the Prophet Rev2, and so like the Rev2, it’s great for plucks and super snappy sounds. But juicy round 80s and funk basses can be accomplished on it with minimal effort. But it isn’t the same super round, mildly saturated filter tone that a Slim Phatty puts out. And the Resonance doesn’t quite hit as nicely on the 2X as it does on the Moog. Again, it’s more like the Rev2 in that arena.

The different filter modes are also quite nice, and the different Lopass modes are musical and pleasing, and the Hipass, Bandpass, and Notch+LP are fun and offer useful sound-sculpting capabilities.

What IS extra nice, is that it has not only a Velocity on/off button (a control knob for variable velocity mod amount would have been nice, but it’s fine as it is), and multi-level Keyboard Tracking for the filter. So for melodic toplines, midrange basslines, and arpeggios, you can really add some energy and life to your riffs with the push of a button.

The filter does have its own character that sets it apart from other VAs like the JP8000, and so it lends well to making plucks, plucky basses, and short sounds with low cutoffs that the JP can’t manage due to the filter snap baked into the sound of the JPs. For trance plucks and basses, the 2X is pretty hard to beat

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AMPLITUDE

Not really too much to say here. Standard ADSR envelope and Gain to be found here. Same nice and tight behavior as with the filter.

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LFO

Fairly standard LFOs to be found here, although I must confess, having used the Blofeld, TI2, and Mininova, the LFO routing options and waveform choices on the 2X feel really restricted. convincing Dubstep and DnB wobbles are a challenge with these since they don’t have a Sine waveform option, and the number of potential routings is pretty small. However, for more standard types of basic modulations, it’s adequate. The Nord Lead 3 definitely spoils you a lot more with options.

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MODULATION

This is another somewhat weak point of the synth. The settings are fairly typical, and the same can be found on the NL3, and Slim Phatty, and so on. But the inability to link the Mod envelope to more than 3 sources, and the pitch only being for Osc 2, seems like an oversight. Being able to modulate the master pitch, or fade in the LFO amount or Rate would have been helpful. At least the Pulse Width can be modded using these parameters, so I can make some of my favorite types of pluck sounds with it.

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EFFECTS

Like all the early Nord Lead keyboards, the only FX you ever get is Distortion. On the NL3, that came with an adjustable level, which you could pair with the Moog style filter for screaming acid sounds, On the 2X, it isn’t much more than a saturator that soft clips the sound and adds some gain. If you want really crunchy screaming distortion, you’re going to need to run this through external FX.

Having said that, once you run this synth through some reverb and delay, or phaser, it really starts to shine. Dry, it sounds a bit lifeless. but once you add in FX like you would use in a final track, the synth comes to life.

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UNISON

And so we come to the Unison. One of the most famous and beloved features of the 2 and 2X. Activating it turns on 2 voices per key pressed, which if you use Poly mode and play chords, creates some nice fat sounds that have a very pleasant stereo spread. By digging into a Special submenu using the Shift key, you can change the Detune amount for the Unison, to create more extreme effects. Great for Trance and Psytrance pads, and wide, detuned leads.

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CONCLUSION

So here at the end of all things, the question arises:

Is the Nord Lead 2X still worth the money? Is it worth getting? Will it still be useful in music today?

In this sound designer and musician’s opinion, yes.

While it lacks the fearsome modulation options of a TI2 or a Blofeld, and it can’t pull off huge SuperSaws like the JP8080, nor the super heavy tones of a Moog, the Nord Lead 2X still excels at bright, punchy, bold leads, plucks, and basses, that you can record dry, add whatever reverb or delay you need to for the sound, and minor subtractive EQing to balance it, and that’s it.

Its sound fits in any mix, and with careful adjustments to the Velocity and keyboard tracking, this synth will add rich musical depth to your song that many newer synths lack. What it’s missing in mod options, it makes up for with a characterful sound that can be as modern or retro as you like.

Modern Techno and Classic Trance producers in particular will find it useful for bright plucks, and bold punchy analog-style stab sounds - and tight rolling basses.

It’s definitely worthit and it has been a reliable stalwart in several of my most recent songs, and forms the foundation of their most engaging sounds. My 2X will accompany my JP and Virus with me to my grave.

You can also attain the same sound in VST format using the discoDSP Discovery VSTi

Hear it in action:

Big news for users of Roland Cloud VSTs!

Good news, everyone! If you use the Roland Cloud JD-800, JV1080, or XV5080 VSTs, our JD-08 and JV-2080 soundset packs now include .bin files compatible with the plugins!

So if you’re a user of those plugins, and been wishing you had access to those sounds, now you can download and use the sounds easily!

A taste of our sounds in action

For those of you curious how our presets sound in actual finished songs, here’s a couple songs that feature our sounds!

Contains presets from:

Couloir for Nord Lead 2X
Ascension 2 for Virus TI

Icefall for Prohet Rev2

Altitude for JP80x0

Contains presets from:

Pinnacle for Nord Lead 3

Icefall for Prophet Rev2

Altitude for JP80x0

Ascension 2 for Virus TI

Contains presets from:

Ascension for Virus TI

Icefall for Prophet Rev2

Couloir for Nord Lead 2X

Contains presets from:

Ascension for Virus TI

Ascension 2 for Virus TI

Icefall for Prophet Rev2

Couloir for Nord Lead 2X

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Contains presets from:

Fractals for Virus TI

Revolve for Prophet Rev2

Gnosis for Prophet Rev2

The Nord Lead 2 & 2X have arrived!

Finally snagged a great deal on a Nord Lead 2X, and we just got a Trance soundset for it up!

By the looks of things, it’s the very first fully dedicated Trance soundbank for the 2 and 2X ever made by anyone, so if you’ve been wanting some solid NL2/X sounds for your productions, now we have some available!

And what’s more, is these patches will also load into the DiscoDSP Discovery VSTi! So All you Discovery users can use these sounds in your songs too!

Buy it now!

Attention Adam Szabo Viper Users!

User of Adam Szabo’s Viper VSTi? Wish you could use our Virus soundsets in Adam’s powerful Virus emulator?

Good news!

Our Virus soundbanks will load into the VST and work mostly the same!

They will also work in that 56300 Virus Emulator that’s been circulating around the web.

So if you wound up here on our site while hunting for Viper soundsets and are wondering why the menu option for it redirects you to the Virus page, that’s why! The banks are cross-compatible!

Cheers!

How To Route External Synths Through the Virus TI2 Inputs

Ever wished you could run your dry-as-the-Sahara synth through some sweet effects? Have a TI2 sitting around that could use some extra love? Why not combine both and route your synth into your TI2 and turn your dry synth into a massive monster!

The user manual is vague on the process, and current info about the steps are scarce on google, so I made this handy How To video to help you get everything hooked up and running!

How To Install Soundsets on the Roland JD-08

Having trouble installing soundbanks on your new Roland JD-08? Watch this video to get full step-by-step instructions to help you get your new patches uploaded and ready to play!

Roland JD-08 Review 2022

So, at last Roland has come out with a boutique for the legendary 90’s digital classic the JD-800. As always, early reactions to the synth are mixed, and frequent complaints about its size abound. It also garners a lot of praise. But how is the synth really? Is it a faithful recreation, or merely a pale photocopy? Is it a worthy synth for modern music production? Let’s dive in and take a look.

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OSCILLATORS

According to the Roland site, the JD-08 contains all the original waveforms from the JD800. So if you’re looking for all the OG waveforms, you will not be disappointed. Everything is on display here, from 3 different kinds of Sawtooth waves, to multiple widths of Pulse and Square waves, triangle, sine, and numerous digital and sampled waveforms of everything from guitars to pianos, to folk instruments from all over the globe. There’s even a couple human voice type waves in there, which is fun.

The oscillators are all bright, crisp, and clean, and word on the street is that the sound of the JD-08 is a bit brighter than the original, so you can get an even crisper tone from it for modern productions.

You can layer up to 4 waveforms at once using each of the Tone buttons, and because of the architecture of the synth, each Tone can have its own independent Envelopes applied to it, so you can create really cool morphing and evolving textures that few other synths are capable of.

It lacks Pulse Width Modulation though, so the various fixed-width pulse waves and squares are all you get. There’’s no pulse sweeps or subtle modulations to be done to these. Which makes sense, given that the waveforms are technically all samples stored on the synth. But it’s still annoying for those of us accustomed to analog and VA synthesis.

That limitation aside, the sheer number of possible waveform combinations and the ability to independently modulate each one makes this synth a true powerhouse for any genre.

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FILTER

The filter here is fairly typical of other Rolands, in that it has a bright resonance, and sounds quite nice. It doesn’t properly self-oscillate like a Moog though, so achieving squelchy round Moogy basses and acid sounds will be a bit challenging (it’s doable, but a lot of it will come from how to set the Filter Envelopes, since the filter has only one slope type).

The Hipass and Bandpass filters are great though, and allow for added tonal exploration that are a joy to work with on all kinds of patches. The bandpass is particularly nice for aggressive FM type squelches and squishes.

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AMPLITUDE

This is where things get interesting. All 3 envelopes are accessed using this single set of controls, and you have to button-push to dive into each one - and that’s on a per-Tone basis. So if you’re making a 4-layer patch with different layers of modulation for each Tone, you’ll be menu diving a good 12 times to get it all set up.

That said, the level of granularity for sound sculpting with these extended envelopes is intense. You get extended decay AND sustain parameters, allowing you to create wild evolving textures and pads that shimmer and sweep in ways few other synths can pull off.

The Pitch envelope section of this cuts back on a couple of the usable parameters/ changes their effects a bit, but other than that, these envelopes behave the same across all sets of parameters, giving you individual tonal control for everything.

It does take some getting used to though, and wrangling the Decay and Sustain amounts, levels, and slopes so you can make normal trance and house sounds takes a time to get a feel for. Your patience will be rewarded here.

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LFO

Now this is nice. 2 independent LFOs give you a lot of nice options for sound manipulation. Initially they are free-running LFOs, but if you dive into a submenu, you can clock them for easier-to-manage rhythmic effects. That the LFOs can be linked to most of the front panel controls is super nice.

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MODULATION

Between the LFO, the Envelopes, and the Bias section (which is more or less a more granular Volume control for each Tone), there’s not too much else to say about the Mod section.

There’s no internal Mod Matrix, so besides going into submenus to set various parameters to Key Follow, or Velocity, there’s not much else by way of Modulation controls here. It’d be nice if it were like the Virus TI, where you can modulate all the FX parameters, or like the Blofeld, where you can make almost anything a source to modulate against other sounds, to create crazy massive FM sounds. This synth is more primitive in that regard.

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EFFECTS

The effects on this synth are where it really shines. The Distortion is crunchy and gnarly (and comes in multiple flavors, which is cool), the Phaser is spectacular, and has enough granularity in the controls that you can use it on almost anything (it far surpasses the Rev2, JP8080, and Blofeld with its Phaser by a long mile). The Chorus is nice and expansive, and offers a lot of control. The Spectrum control (glorified 6 band EQ) helps add a lot of character to sounds, and the Enhance effect is also nice. The Delay is solid and highly flexible, and the Reverb is quite nice. It’s no Virus TI reverb, but it is definitely wide and spacious and plenty usable if you need reverb for patches in a live or DAWless setting.

The FX on this thing definitely add a big plus to the synth.

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UNISON

Honestly? We barely understand what the Unison actually does on this synth. As far as we can tell, it multiplies and stacks some extra voices of the sound being played, but that’s about it. There’s no Detune or Pan Spread control, so activating Unison doesn’t really allow for creating notably wider sounds. The sounds become a bit fatter, but they also reset back to the initial value with each new note, so the sound takes on a phasery washy kind of quality (similar to the Blofeld).

It’s good for big trance leads and pads, but for plucks, unison doesn’t really help much, unless you want that phasery sound.

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CONCLUSION

So how does the JD-08 stack up?

In our design work on sounds for it, we found virtually no difference between the sounds of the JD-08 and its ancestor the JD800.

One issue we encountered that’s important to note is that existing JD800 soundbanks (both for the hardware and the VST) will not work on this synth. The JD-08 stores its patches in a master backup file that is proprietary to the synth, and patches can only be loaded and dumped in a single master backup file. That limits the number of soundbanks you can buy for it, and also means you can’t load in individual patches from several banks to build your own custom collections. You can save your own patches, but if you save them to the original set of patches that the synth came with, you will lose them or be forced to do a separate backup and juggle backups to use your own sounds and 3rd party soundsets. Maybe Roland will eventually release a workaround for this, or fix this in a future firmware update. But right now, banks go on the synth in an all-or-nothing fashion. That’s a definite strike against it.

Now, on other technical matters, what it lacks in PWM and certain modulation capabilities, we found it more than makes up for in flexibility and expanded sound design capabilities that put it in territory that surpasses other synths in its price range.

The FX, the USB-C connectivity, and ability to act as an audio interface and even do audio over USB make this a seriously powerful synth, in a tiny package. We’ve heard demos of the other boutiques, and we think this is a real contender for Best Roland Boutique.

Where many of the other boutiques are tiny digital emulations of older analog synths, this is a digital recreation of a digital synth, and it expands the connection capabilities of the original to territory the original can’t hope to achieve. It’s all digital and it isn’t ashamed of it. It can be powered via USB or batteries, and is small enough it can fit into a backpack or tote bag (or even a particularly large pocket). The built-in speaker is no great shakes. But how many people are buying it for that to begin with?

This is a synth you hook up to a laptop for music work while on a plane, train, or bus, or hook up to a larger keyboard and PA system to play out for some monster pads and leads (and it even punches pretty hard on basses too) at a live gig.

For $400, this isn’t merely a bargain. It’s a powerful synth on its own merit (with a few quirks) and is a welcome addition to the Roland Synth Pantheon.

If you make dance or ambient music of any flavor and need a travel-sized synth with more voicing than a Virus TI, that works well as a solid all-arounder, the JD-08 is one of the best you can get.

Just don’t try to use MIDI CH 4 or 5 for connecting it to your PC (trust us on this one)

Hear it in action:

Moog Slim Phatty Review 2022

Difficult. Unstable. Limited. These are common complaints made about the Moog Slim Phatty since it came out in 2011.

But are they deserved? Is the Slim Phatty (and its keyboard twin the Little Phatty) as hard to work with as some reviews say?

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OSCILLATORS

And what is a review of a Moog without talking about its oscillators? They’re 100% analog, and true too form, they’re big, fat, and drenched in the saturation that makes the Moog sound so highly prized. There’s 2 independent oscillators (which can be Synced), with membrane buttons to let you change octaves for each, and a Freq knob that acts as a Detune for oscillator 2. It can be used to create nice detuned trance leads, but you have to be extra careful with it, as it goes unpleasantly out of tune really quickly, and will require manual re-tuning of the synth with the Fine Tune knob over in the main panel to get the synth back in tune with your track.

Speaking of tuning, this is an area where complaints often come in for the Slim. As it’s fully analog, the oscillators are prone to tone-drift while warming up. So you won’t want to use it right away after turning it on. In warmer climates it may take less time to get in tune, but here in the Pacific Northwest, it usually takes 10-20 minutes. We generally turn it on right as we turn on our studio PC and let the synth warm up during bootup so we don’t have to waste valuable studio time waiting for it to get in tune. After warmup we usually doublecheck it with a chromatic tuner to be extra sure it’s in tune, but you can use whatever you prefer to check the tuning.

That annoyance aside, the oscillators really sound fat, and with full pulse width modulation capabilities, it’s really nice to sweep the oscillators and get some nice evolving tones. The sync iis bright and metallic-sounding, and we find it yields some cool bellish and dubstep tones with a little tweaking.

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FILTER

And of course, no review of a Moog is complete without talking about the famous Ladder Filter. This was the last synth Bob Moog designed before he passed. So this makes this the last Moog synth that still has the Original Moog Sound. And it delivers that in spades.

Moogs were always known for their low-mid saturated sound, due in part to their oscillators, but also due to their choice of filters. And the classic Moog ladder filter, which can be changed between 4-pole, 3-pole, 2-pole, and 1-pole modes, is as round and juicy as you’d expect from a Moog design. Sounds can be as creamy and warm or bright and gritty as you like.

We found that the filter frequency maximum cutoff is a touch lower than on other synths - including the Prophet Rev2. So it doesn’t hit with the same fizzy bright top end that the Rev2 or even Sub37 does. That’s isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it means that it isn’t as sharp as some others.

On the other hand, that means that lopassed sounds on the 3 and 4-pole settings are super smooth, and when you couple that with the right Overdrive and Resonance amounts, means you can get some unbelievably in-your-face Acid sounds that don’t have any residual harmonic bleed that takes away from the smoothness of the sound.

And the prized Overdrive on the Slim Phatty, a staple of Moogs for several decades, really is special and unique on this synth. It adds incredible filth and dirt into conventional sounds, and works in tandem with the Filter super well, so distorted sounds still roll off pleasantly and retain that same analog juiciness. It’s loads of fun when the synth is used in External Audio Mode, and you run digital VA synths through it to get that round gritty Moog sound with Blofeld wavetables.

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AMPLITUDE

While they’re Voltage-Controlled Amplitude and Filter Envelopes (VCA, VCF) they don’t really behave any differently than any other envelopes. Can behave as tight or as loose as you need for a sound. The Attack paired with moderate amounts of Resonance on the filter yields some excitingly squelchy sounds.

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LFO

This one’s a bit of a strike against the Slim and Little Phatty - one LFO really hobbles it in terms of what you can do sound-wise. But as it can be free-running or set to specific clock speeds through a submenu setting, you have your choice of timed sweeps for nice wobbles and evolving textures, or you can make it move at speeds near audio rate, to add some nice grit to sounds.

What’s also neat, that isn’t immediately obvious, is that in addition to the standard modulation sources available, buried within a submenu is the ability to switch the Filt Env source over to a Sample & Hold LFO waveform, enabling you to create some cool glitchy tones.

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MODULATION

This was the other strike against the SP. Only one modulation slot makes it challenging to make really complex tones. But as mentioned above, Filt Env can be switched to a Sample & Hold lfo, for crazy chiptuney glitchy goodness.

Note: getting the hang of engaging and tweaking Mod Amounts is a bit tricky. After setting your Mod Source and Destination, you have to hold down the Amount button until it blinks, in order to activate the Amount Level function and make the Mod actually affect the sound. It can take a little trial and error to get the hang of, but the synth becomes considerably more useful once you get the hang of it.

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EFFECTS

Not much to say here. There’s no FX on the Slim Phatty.

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CONCLUSION

In all, as an entry level introduction to the Moogiverse, the Slim Phatty is a worthwhile offering. What it lacks in modulation capabilities, it makes up for in fat sound and smooth filters. It excels in basses, as Moogs are known for, but it is also very good at super warm, gentle plucks, and interesting lead sounds that have a fair amount of heft to them in the lower harmonics. If you want a capable Moog on a budget, this should top your list.

Hear it in action:

Sequential Prophet Rev2 Review 2022

Brassy. Thin. “Not real analog.” These are a few common comments that have appeared since the Sequential Prophet Rev2 first came out in 2017. Is it, though?

Or is it the best polyphonic analog synth at its price range, as others say?

Or is it both?

Let’s take a dive into the Rev2, and see what we discover as we explore the synth.

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OSCILLATORS

The oscillators on the Rev2 air fairly polarizing, it seems. Because they’re not true VCOs, the traditional analog purists are dismissive of them. But despite their tuning being digitally-controlled, they are still analog oscillators. Just analog oscillators not prone to tone drift when the temperature changes.

All the typical waveforms are here - Sawtooth, Triangle, Pulse, and one extra - Saw-Triangle.

What makes these waveforms truly exceptional, is that all of them can be pulse width-modulated (not just the Pulse/ Square). Sequential calls it Waveshaping, but it is essentially pulse width modification. And it sounds cool.

The best part?

You can link the waveshapes to LFOs or any other parameter, and create exotic, moving, sweeping tones that you may not hear elsewhere.

Oscillators also have a coarse tune that shows up on the screen as the actual note you’re scrolling to (and its octave position) for creating chords or octave spreads, and also Fine Tune controls for each oscillator, for custom detune amounts (which is great for Trance and Psytrance leads).

An added bonus feature that’s super nice is the OSC Slop feature - it allows for fine-tuned mimicry of the random tuning instability present on vintage analog synths. It can be very subtle, or very extreme, and can be useful for creating detuned leads and pads with a little more organic movement

Sync is also available, for when you want to create more metallic sounds and textures.

The general sound of the oscillators, especially the Sawtooth, is, as some users describe, very brassy and in your face. This is due in large part, to the Curtis filter (discussed below), and the lack of innate low-mid saturation common among Moogs and other analog synths. Any saturation baked into the signal chain on this synth appears to emphasize the upper mids, and as such, this synth is well suited for biting leads, and really tight plucks.

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FILTER

What review of the Rev2 would be complete without talking about one of its biggest selling points?

The Curtis filter.

An analog filter that’s seen use in Prophet synths since the 1970s, it can self-resonate in 4-pole mode (but doesn’t in 2-pole mode), it’s what helps give the Rev2 its characteristic tight sound and brassy character.

Compared to the filters on synths like the JP8080 or Slim Phatty, the Curtis filter and attached ADSR+Delay Envelopes are tight, clean, and perfect for making wide long pads, and tight, punchy plucks and basses.

One thing we’ve noticed is that if you’re trying to do plucky lopassed techno rumble type basses, you’ll need to keep the Filter and Amp Release times longish, otherwise you end up with a peculiar snap-back sound from the filter. It won’t impact the bass movement at all, even when in Unison/ Mono mode, so Psytrance and Techno enthusiasts won’t have problems with longer release tails on driving basses. It’s just somewhat unusual.

In general, the filter is great, and is reminiscent of the Nord Lead 3, but much much smoother. Juicier, even.

It’s a very warm, organic sound.

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AMPLITUDE

The ADSR Envelope may be VCA, but it behaves more or less like any other, so there’s not really much to say here. Each parameter is nice and tight, so you can achieve as snappy or as gentle of sounds as you need.

And most importantly, it has a Pan Spread feature that in single voice/ oscillator mode acts like an alternating auto-pan feature, and like a stereo widener in Unison mode. The Pan Spread is mono-stereo compatible, too. So you can make bouncing binaural plucks and midrange basses, and they’ll pingpong back and forth for stereo width, and will collapse to mono with no phase cancellation. Very helpful for adding width without using any external tools.

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LFO

This is where things start to get really interesting. The Rev2 sports 4 LFOs, and multiple LFO types, including a Random waveform that can be sped up into something like using Noise as a modulation source.

The other waveforms are pretty standard - Triangle, Saw, Reverse Saw, Pulse. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. Initially they’re free-running, but can be clocked, and can be assigned to most other parameters, which gives you piles of sound designing capabilities.

Be wary of modulating pitch with it though. It tends to cause extreme pitch warping effects at even moderately low amounts.

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MODULATION

Now the Modulation section is where this synth stands apart from other analogs. It has 8 slots in the Mod Matrix, and has an additional 3rd envelope with full ADSR controls, so you can modulate an additional parameter freely of the other slots.

And the regular Mod Matrix slots allow you to control just about any parameter by 22 sources, giving you tremendous sound sculpting capabilities with minimal effort.

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EFFECTS

The effects on this are something of a mixed bag. The Delays are all great - and increasing their rates doesn’t cause any pitch warping effects that plague a few VST Delay FX.

The Chorus is decent, although limited in editable parameters. It does a nice job widening sounds and unless pushed to extremes, doesn’t cause super unpleasant phasing or pitch warping effects.

The Phasers and Flangers are alright, although they lack the degrees of flexibility that the Virus, Mininova, and Blofeld offer, so unless you’re very careful with dialing them in, you can end up with weird metalllic howls rather than pleasant swooshes.

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UNISON

Now, the Unison is both the Rev2’s great strength, and also a little bit of a weakness. Being able to sum as many oscillators as you want and then detune them in the Unison section is great, and can yield some fat SuperSaw type sounds, which are great for leads and arps.

But.

Unison is Monophonic only. So no big SuperSaw pads or stacked chord leads like you can do with a Virus, or JP8080, or Blofeld.

Sweet lead toplines and low octave lead support, that’s where this shines in unison mode.

One interesting feature, similar to the Blofeld, is that you can dial in the amount of voices being summed in Unison, and then you can detune from there. So you can make a 2 voice sound with detuning for oldschool detuned Saw leads, or you can go for all 16 voices with a tiny touch of detuning, and creating huge solo leads that’ll shake your speakers.

Pity there isn’t a variable unison mode that lets you sum however many voices for a monophonic aspect, and then use the remaining voices polyphonically. That would yield some interesting and exciting tones. Can’t have everything, we suppose.

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CONCLUSION

So, is the Prophet Rev2 worthit? Does it live up to the hype?

Yes.

It’s bold, in-your-face, yet just neutral enough to sit cleanly in a mix. It has modulation capabilities that outstrip many of its competitors, and it has enough voices to be usable for both pads, supersaw leads, and dirty punchy basses. A small touch of distortion fattens it up to sound comparable in warmth to a Moog, and the Curtiss filter adds a bouncy roundness to sounds that makes it fantastic for plucks. And the Pan Spread function is incredibly useful for creating wide sounds, and sounds that bounce around the stereo field, adding mono-compatible customizable width.

The Rev2 is a definite winner for analog polys.

Hear it in action:

Clavia Nord Lead 3 Review 2021

Clinical. Cold. Thin. These comments tend to commonly pop up in reviews and comments about the now-20-year-old 24-voice Nord Lead 3 virtual analog polysynth by Swedish keyboard company Clavia. Frequently overlooked for its younger sibling the Nord Lead 2 (and the later 2X), the NL3 is a synth that garners criticism for not sounding analog enough and having weak factory presets, yet also receives high praise for other aspects of its sound and design that race ahead of its competitors. It’s a synth that folks seem to either love or hate.

So is the NL3 still worthit in the 2020s? Should you get one?

Let’s have a look.

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OSCILLATORS

At first glance, the NL3 looks fairly simple and minimalist, with on 2 oscillators to generate sound. But digging a little further into the panel, one will find not merely the usual analog-style Sawtooth, Pulse, and Triangle waveforms, but also Sine, Noise, and Dual Sine oscillators that open up sound design possibilities far beyond the typical early 2000s VA.

In fact, it’s the Sine and Dual Sine oscillators that transform the NL3 from a typical VA. When engaged, the NL3 can become a 4 operator FM synth, with the push of a few buttons. So for DX style pianos, clangorous bells, hollow slap house basses, or ripping dubstep wobbles, this synth opens up a world of possibility with very little tweaking. It has in fact, one of the easiest FM implementations of any hardware synth on the market. And you can use any of the waveforms for FM, which provides many opportunities to make new and never-before-heard sounds.

The standard waveforms are what you’d expect, and the detune and pitch controls are easy to use and sound sweet. As far as how they sound, some say they sound thinner or less aggressive than the NL2’s, but we find that it sounds like a midpoint between the Prophet Rev2 and the Blofeld, with a bit more leaning toward the Rev2. They don’t sound Analog in the Moog sense with heavy low-mid saturation (although there are settings built into the synth to make it sound more analog), but they do have that bright slightly fizzy (but not brassy) analog quality of the Sequential synths - making the NL3 perfect for plucks, leads, and midrange basses, as well as huge pads.

Manipulating the pulse width is pleasant and yields very nice crisp sounds, and the Noise generator can lend a little nice extra air to a sound when the OSC MIX is dialed in right.

The OSC MOD section is where a lot of the fun happens. each of the settings will send you down fun rabbit holes of Frequency Modulation, Distortion Modulation, Ring Modulation, Differential Frequency Modulation, Distortion, Filter Frequency Modulation, and experiment with them on different oscillators. Anything from 80’s FM bells to filthy riddim snarls can be managed here, as well as crazy atonal pads and effects.

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FILTER

Sporting the 3 basic Filter types, plus 3 additional ones (one of which is a 12 dB Distortion filter), with 3 different filter slopes, Filter 1 is more or less what you’re expect from a VA synth of the era. Tight, clean, and has a Resonance that can make for nice and squelchy sounds, but doesn’t quite self resonate (although you can get nearly there in Classic mode, which is a filter intended to emulate the Moog Ladder Filter).

What’s truly unusual about the NL3’s filters is the secondary Multi Filter. It essentially acts like a series of comb and multi-pass filters that combine different curves, and can yield some exciting sounds and effects with a little tweaking.

The standard filters can be a little steppy during sweeps, but compared to the JP8000 that came out a few years earlier, it’s much smoother, and has the added bonus of not adding any weird artifacts to the sound, so you can make super tight warm plucks and bouncy basses with ease.

Analog purists may be disappointed at the lack of full self-oscillation at high resonance settings, but for most dance music producers, it’s not that crucial of a feature.

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AMPLITUDE

There’s really not too much to say here. The ADSR envelopes are typical of any VA, and behave similarly to any other.

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LFO

Now we get into some fun. A decent number of parameters can be modified by the 2 onboard LFOs, and besides the standard free-running lfo speed, they can also be clock synced, and any of the timing and amount parameters can be linked to the modwheel, so you can do on-the-fly sound manipulation.

Each LFO modifies slightly different parameters though, so you’ll need to be choosy about what you modify, and how.

There are loads of LFO waveform types which is nice, but sadly it does not have a Sine wave type, so you can’t get as smooth of a curve as you might like for certain classes of sounds. But the smooth random and other waveforms are great for chaotic psychedelic textures.

An interesting note is that Pan will modulate the stereo position of the entire sound on patches that are Mono/ not in Unison. When Unison Stack is turned on and some detune is applied, the Pan will modulate the sound semi-randomly on a Per-Voice and Per-Note basis, creating wide, spread out stereo movement that doesn’t feel overly Binaural-y. It’s great for large unison pads when you want to expand the stereo field further. When using LFO modulation on a pluck or other non-Unison sound, the patch will behave more like on other synths, with the sound bouncing back and forth across the stereo field evenly.

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MODULATION

This section is rather limited. A very basic AD envelope lets you modulate a handful of standard parameters. It’s helpful for making nice plucky pitchy sounds and for some clever pulse width modulation effects. Those are mainly what we use it for.

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EFFECTS

In general, the Nord Lead 3 doesn’t really have any effects, per se. The Distortion Filter, and the DIST in the OSC MOD sections sort of quality as effects, and they are quite nice for adding saturation and crunchy distortion for basses and acid and dubstep sounds. Pairing the distortion with the FM yields some fantastic ripping growls and snarls that put Massive and Serum to the test.

Many folks discounted the NL3 when it first came out because of its lack of onboard FX, when competitors like the Virus, SuperNova, Q, and even the JP8080 had good onboard effects. By comparison, the NL3 is super bare bones.

Within our studio however, we have found it to be highly capable, and we have no trouble envisioning how it will sound in a song, because we have our NL3 routed into a Virus TI2, and so as we design and review sounds for songs, we can switch on some reverb, delay, phaser, chorus, or whatever else we want, and have a clear idea of how the sound will fit in the final mix (we do of course, record Dry once we have everything set the way we like on the NL).

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UNISON

And finally, we come to the Unison section. This is one of the features the NL3 is best known for, and for good reason. It adds an extra 4 voices on top of the base sound, for a total of 5 voices, which spread over the stereo field as you increase the detune. And the best part? It doesn’t impact polyphony.

So you can make huge pads and unison leads and still have 24 voices to work with!

The Mono, Glide, and other sections are fairly standard as with other VAs, so there’s not much to tell there. The tight filters and bright cutting oscillators do mean that gliding leads and leads with some pitch mods have a lot of energy in them, which is nice.

It’s worth mentioning that just below this section lurks the Performance and some extra modulation controls - the Performances let you load up different patches into each section for quick recall, or even play multiple sounds at once (or stack the same patch 2-4 times!) and achieve huge monster sounds that still have loads of polyphony to play around with.

So for you Trance producers, you could effectively make a window-shattering 4 layer multi-octave SuperSaw Pad, or layer a couple leads and plucks together and not have to worry about note timing issues between each layer while recording parts.

And the stone Modwheel can be linked to any parameter, and to multiple parameters at once, giving you almost Blofeld-like sound manipulation capabilities.

The wooden thumb-operated pitch bend gizmo is a pretty neat touch. It’s very unique, and in some ways even more useful than the standard pitch wheel on other synths.

Some of you may be wondering how the Arpeggiator sounds, and it’s nice. I will admit I rarely ever use the built-in arps on hardware synths, but this one sounds nice, and there’s submenu options for tweaking it further, but I must confess I haven’t really fussed with them (as I do most of my arranging ITB).

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CONCLUSION

So, at the end of all things, is the Nord Lead 3 still worthit? There are certainly other VAs and digital synths out there with more FX, more voices, and more bells and whistles, some for less money.

However.

The NL3 has hands on controls unrivaled by anything except a handful of analog mono synths.

It has unison capabilities that are superior to most of its competitors.

It balances the cleanness of VA/ digital with the fatness of analog for a bright sound that isn’t overwhelming.

As a keyboard (which is what we have), its keybed feels great, and it’s a joy to design sounds on the fly with. So if you have ambitions of bringing a live Trance/ Psytrance/Dubstep act to the world stages, pairing the NL3 with some outboard FX units would take this synth to a whole new level and make it the centerpiece of your live rig (plus, it looks super cool on stage, too).

Still worthit today?

Totally.

Hear it in action: