Michael's Texas Embrace

Mwa ha ha. Michael got a Moog Prodigy. Oh man, did it take a lot of patient tip-saving to get this thing. Customers of Borders Cafe! I thank you for your money, for now I can make music that sounds like a video game, or terrible noises that will bother the neighbors. To those of you that never, ever tip me and are mean, fie on you. You can't play my synthesizer ever.

Made between probably around 1980 or 81, this crazy thing is pure analog. It's a little wonky right now. It pops out of tune a lot (who'd have thought you have to tune electronic things...) so I guess it needs cleaned on the inside, contacts and such, and perhaps the oscillators need recallibrating or something. But man does it sound cool anyways. See all the knobs on the top? Since it's old and not digital, it can't remember anything on its own. You have to find the sort of sound you want to make by twisting knobs and flipping switches. Since every knob and switch alters the sound, and there are so many of them, it makes a huge number of sounds. But if you find a good sound, you have to take a picture or write down what position all the knobs were in, or you may not find it again any time soon. But that also mean that you can twist the knobs while you play it to make crazy sounds. Oh, and since its old and analog, it only plays one note at a time. Rock. Now, to get it to tune...

A combination of knobs and switches that produces a good sound is called a "Patch." I don't know why, so lay off. Jerks. I got a manual for it from the internet and it had a bunch of patches pictured in it. For you beep-heads out there that crave strange, bloopy noises, I have recorded my test runs of those patches Whoa! Be preparde for old-school synth sounds in all their glory.

THE MOOG TESTS ARE GONE DUE TO SPACE.

Moog Tests 1

Moog Tests 2

Sometimes it sounds like more than one note is being played. This is because the synth has two oscillators to produce sound. They can be tuned independantly of each other, so pressing one key can produce two notes. but you cannot sound two keys at once. Also, the filter in the unit can be "Played" by constantly altering its cut-off frequency, and that sound can go over the others. That's the sound that sounds a bit like a theremin.