The name Moog is basically synonymous with bass. The company has released countless synthesizers over the years, from the iconic Minimoog Model D to the foot-operated Taurus and the modern classic Sub Phatty that delivers incredible bass. Now he is delving even deeper into those depths, but in a complementary way, with the marianawhich obviously gets its name from the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth.
Mariana's architecture is unlike almost any other Moog in existence, in physical or virtual form. It's a dual-layer synth, and both layers feature two oscillators and a sub-oscillator for some very fat tones. Each layer also has two filters, one low-pass and one high-pass, plus a dedicated filter just for the subwoofer. In addition to those core sound sculpting tools, there are three LFOs, three envelopes, and two random generators per layer, plus an overdrive circuit, a compressor, chorus, and delay effects.
When combined with the powerful modulation system that allows you to control almost any part of the synth with any other part, you get an incredibly rich and complex instrument, especially considering the price. Mariana costs $30 on iOS or $99 for Windows or macOS, though it's 50 percent off as part of an introductory offer ($15 and $49, respectively).
Mariana lives up to her name. I was able to play with it for a couple of days and wow, does it have bass? It compares quite well to other bass-focused virtual synths and Moog emulations from other companies. It can deliver enough sub-bass to literally rattle your skull, without getting you too dirty. Obviously that can vary a bit from patch to patch, but for the most part the sound engine delivers on its promise.
While most of the 200 or so presets focus on bass, there are a few that explore other sonic territories. There are some particularly solid and brave tracks that hit with all the oomph of the lower patches, they simply shine in the higher registers. Some presets show off Mariana's wilder side that can take advantage of the robust modulation features to generate some wild sound effects and decidedly non-Moog tones.
Mariana also has the support of the MPE. While it's a cool feature, it's also of limited use here. While you can switch it to duophonic mode and play the two synth layers independently, it is primarily a monophonic instrument. And while it's nice to be able to slide by simply swiping over Push or Seaboard, it doesn't really take advantage of the polyphonic part of MIDI Polyphonic Expression.
What Mariana does lack is a sequencer, an arpeggiator, or a deep list of effects. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Chances are, if you're using it in a DAW like a VST, you'll have plenty of options for that stuff. So while many other plugin makers are loading their virtual instruments with all sorts of features, Moog stayed focused on the synthesizer itself.
However, it is not without its quirks. While the interface is easy to navigate once you get used to it, I'm still not a big fan of skeuomorphic designs in general. And while I'm willing to cut Moog some slack on that front, as he's trying to maintain a consistent aesthetic that capitalizes on his long legacy of analog synths, there are some slightly questionable choices. For one thing, the two separate slide-out panels on either side for the modulation controls appear to be easily combined. And the buttons to expose them are separate from the rest of the synthesizer's controls; a dedicated tab within the main UI alongside the synth and mixer sections would probably make more sense.
It's also almost impossible to read the position of a knob by default. The little dot indicating what a parameter is set to almost disappears on smaller laptop screens (and I can't even imagine how hard it would be to tell it apart on a phone). There is an option called "knob position highlight" in the configuration that extends a line from the center of the knob that is much easier to see. But I ran into a bug where every time I minimized the Mariana window in my DAW, the lines disappeared. You would have to go back into settings to disable it and then re-enable it for them to appear again. Also, it should probably be on by default.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that Mariana is an absolute consumer of resources. Admittedly, my studio laptop, a roughly five-year-old Dell Mariana was loaded, and routinely increased to around 80 percent while playing, resulting in a number of audio artifacts. For comparison, I can usually load six or seven instances of Arturia's Pigments or Analog Lab V without even crossing the 25 percent threshold. And only with everyone who really plays can I exceed 50 percent.
Still, Mariana sounds great. And there's a lot of power under the hood. If Moog can control resource usage in a future update, it would be worth the price.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/moog-mariana-is-a-virtual-synth-all-about-plumbing-the-Depths-of-bass-151914123.html?src=rss
