Pittsburgh Modular Taiga Review

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Pittsburgh is amazing. There aren’t many people out there trying to invent something *new* in voltage. Lots of people remaking famous filters and such… but Pittsburgh is making crazy new sh*t! Like their recent module the Flamingo, which creates new harmonics through unprecedented analogue means. I had a semi-religious harmonic experience putting a slowly morphing wavetable oscillator through the Flamingo (also slowly morphing) and then thru their Crow filter. Outstanding work they’re doing… but for seriously i’m waiting for their DRUM MACHINE. Yes they are working on a drum machine. I want it. 😊

[@EiseniaFoetida]

Pittsburgh Modular does not disappoint. This thing looks and sounds amazing! I just ordered mine

[@AndyVonal]

Robin, that shirt is a triumph! Wonderful! The synth is pretty cool, too!

[@simonfenn3791]

That shirt is tame to the ones I used to wear 🤣. My wife has eased me into my autumn years...........

[@AndyVonal]

@@simonfenn3791 lol Simon! So nice russet shades, redolent of the 70s???

[@simonfenn3791]

@@AndyVonal reminiscent of my parents wallpaper lol. PS. Hope you have you're wheels back.

[@AndyVonal]

@@simonfenn3791 And our 3 piece suit... leaves and everything.... hideous!

[@simonfenn3791]

@@AndyVonal hahaha. Having said that the last car we had in the UK was a Vauxhall Astra coupe in metallic gold! Will let you get on with your evening. Love all you do solo and with Grace. Best wishes.

[@corrosiveabuser]

very nice piece of kit, and a quality review too, - as always much appreciated - also, great to finally see a synth that matches the colours of your exquisite shirt collection

[@soysos.tuffsound]

I knew you would bring the poetry! Just lovely...

[@Paintopia_VR]

You know it's a Pittsburgh Synth when it has filter cutoff knob the size of a dinner plate. Seems like a cool synth but i would prefer a bigger cutoff knob, maybe on the galactic scale. It should be so large that it has its own gravitational field and when you get too close you are sucked into its orbit constantly adjusting the cutoff with the inertia of your fragile human form hurtling though space.

[@michaelhurt490]

I mean, cutoff is one of the most playable aspects of modular...

[@inevitablecraftslab]

ok ..

[@D1570R73D]

Tell me you don't understand product design without telling me you don't understand product design.

[@studiokosmische]

I would like to see a cutoff knob so terrifyingly large and powerful that a mere nudge might collapse quantum spacetime, thus enabling the user to penetrate Shatner’s Bassoon.

[@BF-up5xw]

Thank you for the wonderful exploration. I have a Taiga now. It's actually my first serious hardware synth, though I have experience with plugin synths. It really is a little bit amazing! I wanted something that could be playable in a regular way, but also invite me to interact with it in other ways directly rather than through my keyboard. It delivers in spades in both areas - and with a bit of sampling I can get some great polyphonic versions too.

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Glad it was helpful!

[@fischergreen4134]

I've now had mine just over a month so time to dive back into this video to try to get my head around it. I keep getting these amazing sounds but I don't have a clue how

[@gamma_noize]

Seems like the Microvolt 3900 has grown up quite a bit. :D The Microvolt was like a fusion of a SH-101 and westcoast, the Taiga now is a Minimoog fused with Buchla essence. But the Microvolt has many of these things already. A folder on a sine wave, a halfwave clipper on the "regular" sine channel, a saw and a pulse. But only one osicalltor with a mixer. Then an earlier version of the Lowpass filter and the LPG/VCA (as it was called on the MV) which had the Pluck mode and the switching between VCA or LPG. Also the preamp was already present on the Microvolt. Ah... I just love my Microvolt. ^^' The Taiga now has multiple oscillators with waveshaping and a multimode filter and is just a way more grown synth. I wish they had put this halfwave clipper on the waveforms, perhaps as a shift function on the waveform button. On the Microvolt this circuit clips off the lower 25% of the wave cycle of the sine wave and makes it asymmetric which adds more even harmonics to the wave. This would've been cool to see for every of Taigas waveforms. Also i'd rather have the function generator of the Microvolt instead of that delay. The delay is, in my opinion, the one little sore spot on the Taiga. It's kinda nice to see this kind of evolution in the Pittsburgh synths and i'm excited to see, where they can take this in the future. Maybeee loose the semi-modular side of it, add a mod matrix and more LFOs and envelopes on the digital part of it and pack it into an poly synth? That would be kinda cool and would shake up the poly synth segment for sure. I'd really like to see an analog poly with this kind of waveshaping capabilities! There's currently only the PolyBrute which offers folding on its triangle wave. Now imagine the oscillators of the Taiga in a poly synth! I hope Pittsburgh considers this possibility.

[@joelschwartz6480]

Kudos for your enthusiastic and task-specific review of the features and interactions of the modules in the Taiga. I am very new to the modular world, and I have been turning the knobs of my new Taiga and scratching my head at the manual for about three days now. Your video both clarifies some of the workflow intricacies of this machine and celebrates the occasionally opaque technical and sonic mysteries that are built into the Taiga by design. I really hope you make more content with the Taiga for us to enjoy and learn from. Thank you.

[@NuisanceMan]

Nice synth, but I heard a really sad story about it. Dude had just bought one and was loving it. As he played, he got happier and happier, but also drunker and drunker. He ended up naked, falling asleep on top of it. When he woke up, the synth didn't work any more. The moral? Don't lie on your Taiga while bare.

[@Gmartin4049]

Great starter synth for people who don't dare enter the modular world. Its has some nice features. Looks lovely and sounds great. LPG's rock as does wave folding. This should make a lot of people happy. Great job Pittsburgh.

[@daveapple205]

Yeah. I got a AE Modular by Tangible Waves and I am up to my eyeballs in that thing! I would recommend this synth to those who are a little intimidated.

[@digital_crickets]

I just knew your take on this one was going to be entertaining!

[@al.cavalu]

And the shirt... ❤

[@andrewmarshall195]

This just seems awesome, and what a tempting price point.... a great run-through dude!!

[@philippepetit8147]

Really enjoyed the way you express your passion, merci

[@nsbd90now]

Holy lord that sounds good. I just came here from their live stream about it... I have a West Pest.... Pittsburgh Modular is an amazing company. I want this. I think it is really fun to be able to see the oscilloscope waves of the sounds.

[@ProfessorHumblesDelusions]

What is he using as an oscilloscope?

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Melda Productions plugins running on a Surface Pro

[@samprock]

We having a party! :) cool explorations Robin!

[@mgscheue]

When I started in Eurorack some years ago, they struck me as being the American Doepfer. Nothing against Doepfer but we have that so I like the direction they've taken.

[@keythinwatford7153]

Inspiring as a way into Eurorack or as a desktop unit. @ €799 a very reasonable price. Sounds very good too. And I watched yours first of the 3 reviews that are up👍

[@JungleDogRecords]

Good, thorough demo. Really helped me get my head around the "dynamics" module. And a very nice shirt to boot.

[@allkeyspro6606]

Really great and quite unique sounding! Evocative to say the least! Great review!😊

[@ridgerider7402]

Great review Robin, very intrigued by this one. I can hear a little beast in there 😁

[@al.cavalu]

I can hear quite a pest...

[@daniel_mana]

Awesome review and awesome machine! It’s on my buying list !

[@elektrenai219]

Want one.Sounds lovely Robin

[@PatternMusic]

Very nice. Pittsburgh have upped their aesthetic game quite a bit over last-year’s East Beast & West Pest design fiascos. This Taiga is very attractive. And the sound is very sweat. Taiga seems like an SV-2. ie. the logical extension of the laudable SV-1/SV-1b. The poor usability of the SV-1’s digital module was a weak point of that unit. And the SV-1 lacked enough CV inputs IMO. I hope this version addresses those issues.

[@valdir7426]

they're not that bad; and it's the basic same design language

[@AgonalRhythm]

Fiasco goes away too far - I love the way the beasts look. I also love the way taiga looks. More importantly, they all sound great

[@reecedeyoung6595]

​@@valdir7426 I gotta disagree. The old stuff looked like 60s lab equipment 🤌 the new stuff looks like children's toys 🤮

[@valdir7426]

@@reecedeyoung6595 ok; it's entirely a question of personal taste, but I'm talking design langage of the west pest/east beast vs taiga which is similar. People hate on the west pest aesthetic but it's not so bad. Besides there's an entire aftermarket for custom plates if that's your thing

[@electronicbagatelle]

I tried the Pest and the Beast and they both had lovely sounds this sounds fab!!

[@guitarbombdotcom]

Sounds pretty sweet to me. Nice review!

[@re8et355]

Ahhhh you did the separate osc patching... please make another paraphonic video only playing around, with separate sequencing. I truly enjoyed the listening. Big Up Molten!

[@petethomas1013]

The IN jacks correspond to what is under the bottom row. Nice overview.

[@gsboss]

i loved the idea of this synth and its design but i hadnt heard it used once well enough to say, "i want to play with that" but this video made the taiga sound great.

[@cbloch]

What a great review and synth

[@m3rcuryslaboratory322]

This is awesome. What a tool to have. Great review my friend!!!

[@QuentinLamerand]

Seems really nice and it could be a perfect module for the NiftyKEYZ *but* they should have put the patch bay on top especially Pittsburgh Modular and Cre8audio work together

[@AdamTheAd-vanc3d]

Mind blowing . I love it 🤯🔥🔥🔥❤

[@jameslechner726]

The Two IN jacks above the ADSR Envelopes are actually the GATE/TRIGGER inputs useful to know if you're Euroracking only with CV/Gate .

[@psysword]

Very smooth and powerful sounds

[@onedrumcomputeraday196]

very nice demo - sounds amazing!

[@gunnarwaage4343]

I have had it now for a few weeks and I love it, it is a living breathing organism. This is a synth like no other. I made the mistake in the beginning of not feeding it enough power for the first couple of days and that resulted in the synth not behaving correctly. Once I discovered that, happy with not having ruined it, it has been nothing short of amasing. I would not recomend it as a first instrument for a beginner though.

[@TwinCitiesOxygen]

Not feeding it enough power?

[@gunnarwaage4343]

@@TwinCitiesOxygen I installed it in a eurorack in a row which is fed with a Behringer power module, bad idea.

[@temporoboto]

very helpful🙃💙thanks for sharing

[@blaueswunder]

great in depth review! thank you very much. a pearl in the sea of flat look me open up the parcel videos on youtube... man i want this little machine

[@Nachtdwaler]

Nice proggy-ish playing, great sounding bit of kit.

[@Subtronik]

If this synth had patch recall I’d buy one for sure.

[@GizzyDillespee]

34:30 for the next 45 seconds or so... if someone has to bail early, at least check this part out

[@ogasi1798]

quite the achievement, very nice price all things being equal and sounds great

[@edrift3d]

Hashtag - must Preorder

[@freejazzbone]

heartfelt review, thanks, tuning/calibration, does one need to open the unit frequently to tune/calibrate with Phillips screw driver or is Taiga good to go for months straight from the factory?

[@jjjohny_a5965]

its cool makes some great sound not sure if its worth the 800$ price tag

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

Alot of this sound can be easily made in software of various brands all of which cost under $200

[@jjjohny_a5965]

that and a mother 32 used 350-400$

[@Markplaysmusic]

Nice bit of kit - just need £750 to buy one. I stupidly sold a DX7 some years ago - I now think I might want another and a Roland 80.

[@machinelanguage5108]

21:51 very nice

[@johannesherschel5831]

I think you maybe got it wrong in saying that you can play Taiga only with midi incorporated and not only with cv and gates (at circa 1:00:41)? The ADSR and Dynamic Modules do have gate/trigger in, that’s where those four ins are in the upper row. (see 37:04) Your review was passionate and great again. :)

[@MoltenMusicTech]

That's not quite what i said. You have 1v/oct inputs on each oscillator and then gate inputs for the envelopes and Dynamics. So you can address it all via CV. What you can't do is plug in a single pitch patch cable and control all three oscillators together. There could have been a Mult or something to help with that but you'd have to do that elsewhere. Is that a bit clearer?

[@johannesherschel5831]

Yes, that is a bit clearer and almost right: There really is only one dual splitter. You might sync the third OSC but that workaround doesn’t quite count, so ok. On the other hand, if using additional CV hardware you probably have a sequencer running more than one channel or at least one mult there. To say that the instrument can not really be played without MIDI is a bit too much imo. One should use the third OSC better as a complex waveshaped or FMed LFO would be my advice. Sarah Belle Reid has made a great Taiga Video almost(!) not using MIDI at all. She has a 0-Control for the CV and gate/trigger tasks. She has to use MIDI only for the purpose of sequencing the OSCs waveforms and the different filters combinations (by incoming MIDI note). To use this feature you really have to use MIDI, there is no trigger for that afaik. :) l deeply appreciate the way you approach a new instrument and how you relate to it and share your impressions thoughtfully. Your VRL video was a very cool one too, I look forward to your video on the upcoming VRL2 later this year :D

[@MoltenMusicTech]

"Almost right" - lol :D that's good enough for me.

[@heliconcodex]

Robin, I can send you a box of stackable cables for your birthday. Mults are sad.

[@MoltenMusicTech]

be my guest, that's very kind

[@bauhnguefyische667]

Instinctualy I want to hate this synth, but my muse hears something hiding behind the work surface that’s quite appealing for experimenting. I’m gonna wait a bit, but it seems it’s a fit in my collection of original sounding synths.

[@michaelevan9184]

It sounds good but if I’m correct. No on board sequencer? And you can’t control it completely via CV? So as a eurorack synth addition & wanting to use exclusively CV for control….. it’s useless without MIDI ….???

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Hmmm… I’d say it has a couple of extra things on the midi side but certainly isn’t useless without it

[@wicky4473]

Might need to take a photo of the setup when you find a good patch! And keep a running record?

[@synthsamuraiproductions]

Awesome brother!!!!!

[@mishadoumnov]

Hi there- really enjoyed your video. A bit of concern - the octave in paraphonic mode sounded really out of tune (flat). Hopefully due to oscillators being tuned differently? Care to check it out? Thanks again for the detailed video.

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Yes, in my preproduction model oscillator 1 isn't all it could be

[@mishadoumnov]

​@@MoltenMusicTech cool hopefully they will fix it - thanks for repying :)

[@Somewhere_sometime_somehow]

Probably be selling my 0 coast to fund this

[@TwinCitiesOxygen]

For some reason when using my keystep pro it will only respond to pitch bend when no sequence is running or when other tracks are muted while a sequence is running

[@MoltenMusicTech]

sounds crazy - call the MIDI police

[@TwinCitiesOxygen]

@@MoltenMusicTech I’d willingly pay taxes for that

[@Dogboy73]

Got my Taiga today. Really struggling with it! 😕 I thought it would be pretty easy to get going with it. Took me a while to get a sound out of it. Then the sound was very odd and hard to control. Tried to follow the quick start guide. Helped a little. But envelope behavior is really odd. Not like any ADSR I've used before! And the whole thing sounds a bit off. Pretty disappointment so far. Not really what I expected out of the box.

[@MoltenMusicTech]

I can be a bit weird - I know what you mean about it being difficult out of the box, it took me a while to get there. There's lots of things to check and set in order to get a regular sound and that dynamics section can be odd. Come back later and have another go at it, i found it did open up in the end.

[@Dogboy73]

@@MoltenMusicTech Yeah, I'm totally baffed! This was part of a modular rethink. A semi-modular that would just work out of the box, with little thought, to act as my new mainstay. But, struggling with it more than a full modular set-up!! Not what I expected at all. Sounded amazing from the demos. I've been struggling to get a sound out of it. And when I did I had no control! ADSR behaves FUCKING weird. No idea what's going on. It's a mess! 😕 I'll be back after weekends activities to give it another whirl. If I don't get anywhere I'll message Pittsburgh for help. Apparently they are very good with customer support ;-)

[@tonalaxis]

Looks very deep!

[@livefromtheglampad]

Total noob question; I can’t get the isolators to close ( to reach silence ) When I use a midi controller a note keeps on droning in the background, the pitch changes and even when the filter and the envelopes close, y can hear a note in the background.

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Turn down the dynamics

[@hvegel]

Do the knobs feel better on this machine than they do on say those smaller Beast and Pest units? (The SV-1 had gorgeous feeling potentiometers with gooey and even resistance)

[@MoltenMusicTech]

These are very smooth and even. Grippy and a bit close together in places, but overall a nice feel.

[@KirillIgumenshchev]

what is the setup to see the wave frequency and shape?

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Melda Productions plugins

[@GizzyDillespee]

7:14 when you say this, I can totally hear the similar character in that woody nasally knocking ( the lpg or folding or both), but it's hard to tell without hearing both side by side... my question: would you say one (West Pest vs Taiga) has a clearer sounding high end (high freqs)?

[@GizzyDillespee]

I mean, it sounds to me like they both have a similar, "not gonna step on the hi-hats" vibe, until the resonance increases on this one (I'm assuming that's the chirpiness I hear sometimes)... but I can't tell for sure, from separate videos

[@MoltenMusicTech]

I went into it a bit in the Dynamics section where you can hear that I'm using it completely without the filter - kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIbVoXmafa2rgMk

[@GizzyDillespee]

@@MoltenMusicTech yup, I got to that section after my first comment... I'm still wondering how the West Pest and Taiga compare when doing similar things. It's hard to tell for sure from watching separate videos. I know they don't compare functionally... and this is the next iteration of their ideas. But it's a valid question. Someone could ask the sake about 2 Moogs that are similar but one does a lot more and costs more... I could still wonder if the more expensive one sounds a little clearer, or not. I can understand if the question doesn't make sense to you. If I had access to both, I'd know pretty quickly, but I haven't explained very well what I'd be listening for. Later on, I'll be somewhere where I can load 2 videos and switch back and forth between them quickly... I can't do that here. That will give me a little better idea, at least.

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Oh i see, you want to see them side-by-side. It might be interesting to run them together as a comparison - not sure i have the time, but i'll pencil it in

[@SandcastleTheory]

This makes three units out for review now wherein the sine wave is distorted and has more harmonics than the triangle. On top of that, neither the filter or the lowpass gate close all the way, and the BBD circuit suffers from bleed. Key tracking has been consistently off as well. Interesting synth, but every unit exhibiting the same calibration issues is suspect. Cheers!

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Not sure about that. My filter and lowpass gate close fine and I've not noticed any bleed from the delay. Not sure what you mean about key tracking - seems fine. Loopop probably got his before the rest of us - there are often some quirks on pre-production samples. The waveforms are not pure - they are not supposed to be.

[@SandcastleTheory]

@@MoltenMusicTech Far be it for me to tell you what you're experiencing there, Robin. But if you watch Loopop's review, he actually mentions these issues and demonstrates them. I'm seeing and hearing the same issues on your unit there. Anyway, as you were, my good man... Blippity-bloop on. ;) Cheers!

[@MoltenMusicTech]

I have watched his review but with mine i can walk over there and close the filter... and the dynamics all the way. So i don't know what to tell you. Now if you've got CV going to them then no they are not going to close because it pushes the position of the knob up - so maybe that's what Loopop is experiencing, he is, after all, new at this :D I think a fight to the death is the only appropriate way to decide an outcome on matters such as these.

[@SandcastleTheory]

@@MoltenMusicTech Haha... Is it still legal to challenge someone to a duel? Name your synth, and say when. ;) Cheers!

[@thomasfokas]

What app is that on the screen?

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Melda Productions plugins - it's running on s Microsoft Surface Pro (I am an ipad-free zone)

[@Gmartin4049]

Be nice to see it patched right up.

[@anothercouture]

Wow, what a great sounding machine. Not since I first heard Vlads denos of the Pulsar 23 has a machine so instantly made me go I have to get one of those. Just wonderful. (Other than the molten meter obviously )

[@valdir7426]

I wonder what happens if you have a long attack and the LPG pluck mode activated

[@MoltenMusicTech]

You lose the pluck. It's weirdly dependent on the envelope even when the CV knob is at zero

[@valdir7426]

@@MoltenMusicTech mysterious

[@fischergreen4134]

Just found your channel Love it, thanks for helping me empty my bank account indulging in my new semi modular habit. I ordered this within ten minutes of your video. When you are sequencing the three oscillators what sequencer are you using Ta

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Ha, you're welcome. It's the Korg SQ-64.

[@fischergreen4134]

@@MoltenMusicTech Cheers fella 10 sleeps till my Taiga arrives. Until then I will keep watching your video. Hopefully, by the time it comes, I will have some idea of what to do with it

[@rafaarnau3575]

damm! i should buy i should buy🥵🥵

[@puppetsnob]

Some of your test patches sound like the weird world of the EMS VCS!

[@kallemustonen]

I wish they would have continued the graphic style of the animal modules. I think Taiga looks a bit boring. I don't know if they saved money with the knobs, but the look like something from aliexpress. Functionally the system seems inviting

[@MoltenMusicTech]

The knobs were designed by Pittsburgh and Cre8audio and they had to buy a container load to make it worth it - so we're stuck with them for the forseeable future. They have a good grippy feel but the colours can be a bit challenging. I know what you mean about the design but i dont think there's much room on there.

[@kallemustonen]

@@MoltenMusicTech Maybe it's that knob colors are all over the place. Wooden ends give nice vintage vibes from the seventies, but the knobs bring me to 90s. Dealing with that container of knobs could have worked out by offering different color schemes 🤔

[@MoltenMusicTech]

Yes, it doesn't make you go "Oooo", it's more of an "hmmmm". If they had gone with something more muted, darker and with complimentary shades it could perhaps be more impressive. But at least it's different and they get top marks for that.

[@GizzyDillespee]

The color scheme reminds me of the SSL prosumer audio interface, which I think was trying to remind of their 80s console? Kinda reminds me of an 80s mixer, and 70s psychedelia, and 90s ecco the dolphin vibes too

[@jammystraub488]

In person I really like the knobs, they feel good and don't look like standard off the shelf components. It's also handy from a workflow perspective to have them color coded.

[@dillipphunbar7924]

Wish I had 800bucks to spare. Peninsula or Cape Coast synthesis.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

You can easily make all these sounds in software.

[@FastRCToys]

Awful... It would have done better to stay in the taiga...

[@originalfallinggirl]

Sick! I love their stuff!