Arturia’s New Moog Modular V for Macintosh and Windows Will Have Approval of Bob Moog

Early announcements of Arturia‘s new software emulation of the classic Moog Modular synthesizer referred to it as the Modular C3. But it turns out that the original Modular’s creator, Bob Moog himself, is going to be involved in the marketing of Arturia’s emulation, and that has led to a name change. Henceforth, it is the Moog Modular V (the ‘V’ is for Virtual).

Arturia’s software reproduction of the legendary Moog, one of the most influential and recognized synthesizers of all time, appears to be thoroughly faithful to the original. It replicates all of the functions and parameters of the original Moog Modular, including modules such as the Moog 921 oscillators, the Moog 911 envelope generator, and the Moog 960 3×8-step sequencer.

The Modular V uses TAE®, a new set of synthesis algorithms created by Arturia’s engineers, specifically addressing the peculiarities of emulating classic synths. TAE stands for True Analog Emulation, and Arturia says the new algorithms deliver superior audio quality when reproducing analog circuits.

In particular, TAE avoids any sort of aliasing, and provides alias-free oscillators with wave forms indistinguishable from those generated by analog hardware circuits. It is also able to emulate the notorious instability of hardware oscillators, including the soft-clipping and micro-variations typical of vintage hardware oscillator and filter circuits. Arturia says this is the secret to recreating the warmth and character of vintage synths.

The Arturia Modular V is a stereo synth, and it can be run as a stand-alone application, or as a plug-in virtual instrument. It runs at 32-bit, 96 kHz resolution. The package includes a 450-page manual in 3 languages (English, Japanese, French), and a bundle of more than 400 presets, developed by top sound designers.

The Modular V will be available in March for both Mac and Windows PC environments, with a street price of $299 (US).

Features of Arturia’s Moog Modular V:

  • 9 oscillators (921 Moog series)
  • 2 dedicated LFOs
  • 3 filter slots can be chosen among classic Moog 904 series (low-pass 24 dB, high-pass 24 dB, filter coupler), and an additional 20 dB multimode filter (7 modes)
  • 1 noise generator (white and pink — 923 Moog module)
  • 6 ADSR auxiliary envelopes (911 Moog module)
  • 2 VCAs (with their own envelopes, and 1 panoramic potentiometer for natural stereo effects)
  • 16 auxiliary VCAs with modulation inputs
  • 1 sequencer (3×8 steps — 960 Moog module)
  • 1 filter bank (14 bands with their own bandwidth)
  • 1 stereo delay
  • 1 chorus
  • Mono/polyphonic (up to 64 voices)

Arturia Web Site

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