MOOG WERKSTATT-01 (Basics and Patching)

The Moog Werkstatt-01 is a relatively inexpensive analog synth with some nice patching options. In this tutorial I take a look at the basic layout and functionality of the Werkstatt and then delve into some patching that can yield different sounds. Some of the clips show the Werkstatt's CV Expander in action with the synth being controlled by the Korg SQ-1 sequencer, enhanced by reverb and delay fx from the Nux Atlantic pedal. This video assumes you aren't that familiar with modular synthesis, but you might find the latter parts interesting even if you are. NOTE: Getting the volumes right on this has been challenging. Some synth sounds, particularly with filtering, tend to fake out the vu meters in editing software - making the synth sounds higher than intended, possibly distorting on a phone speaker (possibly making it harder to hear my voice track). Anyway, I've done some things to mitigate, but it may require shifting the volume up/down for certain sections. Let me know.
TIMELINE
00:00 STARTER
A straightforward SQ-1 sequence controlling the Werkstatt, audio going out the Atlantic reverb.
00:20 INTRO
I went to Asheville, North Carolina (USA). I got the Werkstatt in the Moog Store there.
01:45 UNBOX AND BUILD
It was very straightforward to put the Werkstatt together.
03:01 SOUNDS, FILTER, AND ENVELOPE
A look at the overall design of the Werkstatt.
20:25 LOW FREQUENCY OSCILLATOR
Using panel settings to control synthesis parameters with the LFO.
31:03 PATCH 1: WARM-UP
Envelope-Controlled LFO Rate
NOTES: wire 1(env_out -- lfo_in); vco_freq(10:00, vary), vco_wave(saw), vco_pwm(min), vcf_cutoff(1:00), vcf_res(12:00), vca(eg), vcomod_source(lfo), vcomod_amount(min), vcomod_dest(freq), vcfmod_source(lfo), vcfmod_amount(2:00), vcfmod_polarity(+), lfo_rate(10:00), lfo_wave(tri), env_sus(off), env_att(min), env_dec(2:20), glide(min)
35:08 PATCH 2: A NEW SOUND
LFO as Audio Frequency Oscillator
NOTES: wire 1(lfo_out -- vcf_audio_in), wire 2(kb_cv_out -- lfo_in); vco_freq(min), vco_wave(pwm), vco_pwm(max, this mutes vco), vcf_cutoff(max), vcf_res(min), vca(eg), vcomod_source(lfo), vcomod_amount(min), vcomod_dest(freq), vcfmod_source(explore), vcfmod_amount(explore), vcfmod_polarity(explore), lfo_rate(10:00-2:00?), lfo_wave(square, tri is low volume but nice), env_sus(on), env_att(min), env_dec(12:00), glide(min). You might be able to find a nice lfo rate range that gives 2 octaves of a whole-tone scale. The square wave sound is somewhat different than the native pulse wave.
39:51 PATCH 3: TINY BUBBLES
Bubbles from Filter Pinging
NOTES: wire 1(lfo_out -- vcf_audio_in), wire 2(eg_out -- lfo_in); vco_freq(min), vco_wave(pwm), vco_pwm(max, this mutes vco), vcf_cutoff(10:00), vcf_res(2:30), vca(eg), vcomod_source(lfo), vcomod_amount(min), vcomod_dest(freq), vcfmod_source(eg), vcfmod_amount(2:00-max), vcfmod_polarity(+, but - is nice too), lfo_rate(9:30), lfo_wave(square), env_sus(on), env_att(explore), env_dec(12:30), glide(min). Some reverb added later in Audacity on the last part of this clip.
43:27 PATCH 4: FILTER SEQUENCE
Audio LFO with Playable Filter
NOTES: wire 1(lfo_out -- vcf_audio_in), wire 2(kb_cv_out -- vcf_in); vco_freq(min), vco_wave(pwm), vco_pwm(max, this mutes vco), vcf_cutoff(9:30), vcf_res(3:00), vca(eg), vcomod_source(lfo), vcomod_amount(min), vcomod_dest(freq), vcfmod_source(LFO), vcfmod_amount(min), vcfmod_polarity(+), lfo_rate(3:00), lfo_wave(square), env_sus(on), env_att(min), env_dec(12:30), glide(min). Some reverb added later in Audacity on the last part of this clip.
46:23 OUTRO
Closing thoughts about the Werkstatt-01
48:41 ENDER
Generative Patch with SQ-1
I've had Krell patches on the brain this year (0Coast, Volca Modular, Kastles), and I had an idea about how to do it with the SQ-1 sequencer the Werkstatt-01 (with CV Expander attached). The Werkstatt-01 doesn't have any sort of random voltage module, BUT the SQ-1 has a random sequencing mode. So, a basic Krell starting point is setting up randomly pitched notes, having the duration of the note depend on the pitch (commonly high notes are fast), and then of course reverb (I'm using both reverb and delay from the Nux Pedals Atlantic here). I'm sending a gate from the SQ-1 to gate_in on the Werkstatt[cable 1]. Then, the SQ-1 has two cv out ports - so one goes to the vco_exp_in, for pitch[cable 2], and then the other goes to the lfo_in, for duration[cable 3]. Then, the way to make this work is to send the Werkstatt's LFO signal(square) back out to the SQ-1's Sync In port, letting the LFO control how quickly the sequence advances. Tuning the individual sequence pitches can take a while and is where something like this becomes very much a matter of personal preference. I used a minor tuning. The weighting of high notes vs. low notes within the 16 steps is one of the main factors in how this generative setup progresses.
50:59 BONUS
I just thought this was pretty, sort of a nostalgic vibe.
LINKS
www.moogmusic.com

[@Captain_Rhodes]

I have the original Werkstatt without the extra jack panel. Does anyone know how to wire a patch cable to that? There is no ground and patch cables have 2 wires inside. Yet the Werkstatt only has one connection for CV in

[@undulations]

You're right that you need to co-ground the Werkstatt and a piece of external gear. There are a couple of routes you can take: 1) use the audio ground. it's possible that just plugging the two devices into an audio mixer will connect the grounds. you can also use an audio splitter to create open access to the Werkstatt ground (ground is the plug's sleeve conductor, the signal is the plug's tip conductor. you can do stuff like lop off the plug and connect to the ground to the remaining wire. 2) the screws in the Werkstatt faceplate are ground, so you can hook a ring or spade lug to one of the screws and connect that to the other gear. a lot of ways to proceed, but a reasonable temporary method is just with two alligator cables: ground alligator cable goes from the sleeve of the incoming 1/8" patch cable to a (slightly loosened) panel screw on the Werkstatt, signal alligator cable goes from the tip of the incoming patch cable to one side of a tiny patch cable, other side into the Wekstatt. Taping stuff to a board can make this setup easier and prevent stuff making accidental contact. Wekstatt is quite robust to voltage but try to start with stuff turned down. Careful hooking Werkstatt to other small-cable synths, sometimes they use a lower max voltage. Best of luck👍🏻!

[@Captain_Rhodes]

@@undulations thanks. I just got a wire from a ground point on the PCB and fed it out in a crack in the chassis. then i stuck that in a breadboard

[@smellymala3103]

Thank you guru for teaching me about my own instrument 🙇🏻‍♂️

[@undulations]

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@mrchairboy]

Thanks for this! I’ve had one for about a month and love its (apparent) simplicity…not too many knobs to confuse things. Even without patching it generates such beautiful, deep sounds. Start connecting some patches and it just takes off. Thanks for the in depth explanations- it helped a lot!👍👍

[@undulations]

You're welcome! Thanks a lot for checking out the video🙏🏼!

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

Always so exciting to receive/unbox new music gear!

[@Fire_ov_Renewal]

Awesome! Just put mine together this weekend, pretty new to this synthesis thing so I looked for vids... and here we go! Thank you!

[@undulations]

I hope it's helpful! Nice work building your own!

[@justinlincoln]

Enjoy the new gear! Your explanation of EG mode was really useful for me.

[@undulations]

Awesome, glad to hear that! Thanks a lot for checking it out🙏🏼!

[@mwmusic29]

Thanks for sharing this! I got a Werkstatt a couple of months ago and plan to devote more time to dive in. This video will help a bunch!

[@undulations]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching! ps check out my other Werkstatt video if you get a chance - some things about getting noise and random behavior out of it.

[@mwmusic29]

@@undulations I definitely will. I went home yesterday evening and used one of your patch ideas on my Grandmother and it opened up a whole new world. Again, thanks so much - this video is a gamechanger for me!

[@undulations]

@@mwmusic29 Means a lot to hear that. Best of luck in your explorations!

[@matrixmirage2699]

Great video. One thing that I do with mine is using a magnet to hold my note on the keyboard so that I can use the sequencer and the envelope instead of switching the vca on.

[@undulations]

Wow, that's a great idea⚡ Thanks a lot for sharing, and thanks a lot for checking out the video🙏

[@gru_day]

Bought one for exolporing modular and it is great for this purpose. I try to apply Werkstatt to my setup but i think i will eventualy buy some CV sequencer... another gear on my shopping list... well, it is what it is.

[@undulations]

Well, I think Korg SQ-1 is a pretty nice match for it (assuming you have the cv expander). Check out the second video I did on the Werkstatt if you get a chance, covers some different uses👍🏻.

[@theleastsignificantbit4794]

You should check out the Moog MAVIS. It has sample and hold, a wave folder, an attenuator, and a fader for mixing modulation sources. It’s a bit more expensive but is a more robust synth.

[@undulations]

I've seen that, it looks amazing! Thanks for checking this one out!

[@jdssurf]

dang, great tutorial, i'm using mine again, was using it for some deep bass hits, but now i hooked it to my sl49 mk3 and trying to find settings to actually play keys and have a solid warm synth sound

[@undulations]

Thanks a lot for checking it out!

[@volcamodularbloke5816]

really hope you do more on this one! really do fancy one! sounds very smooth and organic i understand it has a good mod community and have seen it be used with the VModular you ever fancy a NS1 Nanosynth? I love to see you do a video on Dupont synths I only own a VM but am looking to ""branch" out "(with suitable attenuation) thanks again for sharing your time and energy its very appreciated Your Kastle generative patching series was fascinating an underappreciated I felt!

[@undulations]

Thanks very much for all of these kind thoughts🙏! I'm not familiar with that synth, will look it up👍 ps I'm uploading another (shorter) Werkstatt video today!

[@anonymond6697]

this rocked! thanks so much. question -- is the SQ-1 capable of sequencing the filter cutoff? like different cutoffs on different steps? very much appreciated your video!

[@undulations]

Hey, yes, absolutely! You could just do the filter sequence (cv A into vcf_in) with 16 steps, or you could do (for example) the filter AND pitch (using cv A and cv B) with 16 steps, or you could put it in 8 step mode and do something like cv A into pitch and cv B into filter, have them be independent. Thanks a lot for checking out the video🙏!

[@AnthonyGoodley]

I'm about to buy a Werkstatt real soon. If I bought 2 could I use them together at same time to get sounds that you couldn't get with just one? Or is that pointless?

[@Yourmom-ck7ss]

So how would I sequence those to my roland tr8 since it doesnt have midi? Sorry I'm very knew to these sequences without midi.

[@undulations]

Well, there's a thing called a "midi host box" that let's you plug a usb thing (the Korg SQ-1 at the end of the video, for example) into it, and then you can plug a midi cable into the host box (from the Roland). So it would go Roland into host box into sq-1 into Werkstatt-01. Kind of a lot of steps, but it can work👍!

[@SouthShoreSonics]

Great video! I have a Werkstatt coming in a week or so. Can you tell me how long the release is?

[@undulations]

Thank you! I wish I could give you that info but I let a friend borrow it as a "first synth". I really need to get it back🤔. Enjoy yours!

[@SouthShoreSonics]

@@undulations Thanks. From watching your video I'd guess it probably has about 10sx or so. it is not listed in the specs for the Werkstatt. Lots of things to experiment with: Microbrute as CV controller. Korg Modular. And even Monotribes. Will keep me busy this winter after work!

[@andrewsmall4865]

Is there a way to patch the LFO so that it is basically a sub oscillator that will follow the VCO an octave or two below?

[@undulations]

Well, I've loaned it to a friend, so what follows is hopefully some helpful speculation. I think the ingredients are there but it probably takes some external pieces to complete the puzzle. You can set the base LFO rate to sub the lowest note, for example, and then patch the keyboard tracking voltage to the LFO rate control. BUT, the first issue is scaling - it really helps to be able to scale (i.e. attenuate or amplify, not exactly sure which in this case) the keyboard voltage. For starters at least, you scale it so that playing the keyboard button one octave higher makes the LFO go up an octave, and then everything in between should be fairly well-tuned. BUT, the next issue is getting the LFO signal out. If you send it into the audio out directly then it gets rid of the main oscillator. You can try just mixing the LFO sub into the main oscillator as an FM signal but I'm not sure how clean that sounds. So one route is to send both signals (main and sub) into some sort of external mixer. The Werkstatt's cv expander makes this stuff easier to try if you have some other modular gear (but it might be doable by patching the keys-to-LFOrate with a resistor and using an FM output scheme). For reference, I do this sort of dual note scheme with the 0-Coast (see a few videos back) more easily because it has a built-in attenuverter for scaling the LFO rate and also a built-in 2-sided mixer. Sorry I can't currently try any of this to say for sure, but I hope this helps👍🏻.

[@andrewsmall4865]

@@undulations thank you for that detailed reply. I am thinking what I could do is get another Werkstatt and use Stackcable cables to patch the two units together and control the pitch/gate/mod together from my Keystep. That way I could get a fat detuned saw running both, or run one an octave below the other for a nice sub oscillator sound, and just mix to taste with a small mixer.

[@australianaliens5942]

@@andrewsmall4865 if such questions and experiments are interesting to you then im confident you will have a great journey in modular ahead ... And it doesn't need to be expensive.... eg you could buy a small/basic eurorack case and get a a simple clock divider such as the Doepfer A160 for a similar price as a second Werkstatt and if you send an audio(-rate) signal into such a module, you will be given multiple suboctaves of the original oscillator... Amazing for drones ... And such modules open up heaps of other options for routing/patching up other gear / modules eventually.

[@amirpf]

Can it be sequenced with a Korg SQ 64?

[@undulations]

Yes, but you'd need the Werkstatt cv expander module to make it easy (ie to allow regular patch cables). Since the 64 has multiple cv outs per step you could sequence pitch (and gate) plus other parameters like LFO rate, filter cutoff, etc. I bet it would be interesting and fun!

[@amirpf]

@@undulations Thanks! ❤️

[@electronicbagatelle]

I'm a noob and just bought a werkstatt and an audio interface and discovered the massive debate on what cable to use balance or unbalanced, I'm aware that most synths including the werkstatt are unbalanced. What cable area you using? I read that some moog's need unbalanced cables but most synths are ok with balanced cables.

[@undulations]

Hey, I'm just using a basic 1/4" mono (TS) cable, unbalanced, essentially a guitar cable. This is fine for many, many synths and boxes. A balanced cable (TRS) in some cases just puts the synth on one channel, but an unbalanced synth going into a balanced input can reduce the volume. Best advice is to test things, make sure they sound okay. The slipperiest is a balanced synth going into a stereo/unbalanced setup: will sound okay on headphones, weird on speakers, and possibly silent on a smartphone. Anyway, the key thing is that balanced is "mainly" important for mics with low signal voltage. the balancing scheme gets rid of line noise from long cables (note: not actual audio background noise). modern synths typically have strong signals with mininal noise, so balancing is rarely an issue. I own an Arturia MicroFreak and it has a balanced main out. I _think_ this is to simplify connection to audio interfaces, but it has led to a lot of confusion overall. anyway, hope this helps!

[@electronicbagatelle]

@@undulations Amazing thanks a brilliant explanation I really appreciate this! :) I was looking at the microfreak actually hah!

[@undulations]

@@electronicbagatelle Well, I can't recommend the MicroFreak enough😀!!!

[@paulbrocklehurst2346]

The Werkstatt 01 is _great_ at producing fart sounds!

[@zachariahpoltergeist4516]

Hangnails...

[@undulations]

Yep, I remember being very disappointed in the shot because of that. Did not have time to re-shoot. I guess just listen to it.

[@zachariahpoltergeist4516]

@@undulations it's all good, man. Love your channel!

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

@@zachariahpoltergeist4516 WTF? Who cares about that when his work is genius? As far as KZbinrs go the Doc's nails are pretty darn immaculate. I don't even notice anything OUTATIME

[@zachariahpoltergeist4516]

@@羽衣甘藍奧頓 cool.

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

@@zachariahpoltergeist4516 No worries bro, your first name is biblical and beautiful. Spread goodness. Love and peace to you.