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