UADx Minimoog vs Moog Minimoog - A Sonic Showdown

[@nonsuch]

If you really wanna hear the differences best, you need to do fast switching with no long pauses between them and they have to be gain matched to the decimal point.

[@jorgiewtf]

They are nearly identical. I think the plugin completely worth the money. I’m wearing very high-end headphones and the o to differenceI hear is a tiny bit more low-end information on the real one but damn. No one is going to notice that in a mix! Great video and thank you very much for the comparison!

[@henrikhansson1]

Like someone already said: Useless to compare two sounds with lots of silence and talking in between. And not even playing the same thing on both units...

[@logicalblackman8228]

What? Lol. I’m just starting the video. Is that what he did?

[@logicalblackman8228]

Oh shit!! He’s got a Trumansburg Moog!!!

[@keithwilliams942]

Great video and amazing comparisons !

[@patrickscottmusica]

FYI: The "golden unit" that UADx Minimoog aka modeled after is late '70s (serial in the 7000s or so). There were two other Minis in the room for comparison of unit to unit variation, of which there was plenty. One was early '70s and the other was early '80s with the later oscillator design. There were no re-issues on the bench during development.

[@astrangeandmysteriouspodca7168]

Wow they sound almost identical.Great job to UAD. Amazing that in 2024 everyone can own a minimoog without the cost and repair.

[@SPD87327]

Well I would go as far to say it's PERFECTLY modeled. I mean people have to take into account that although yes you own the same piece of gear, they still emulated a ''different'' one. Its hardware it's gonna have its own characteristics slightly different than someone else's, whether that's due to wear and tear, or being kept in the utmost pristine condition resulting in more of a brighter or darker sound, ect.

[@fedrek01]

The UADx Minimoog was modeled after the Model D reissue, so there may be some differences because of it.

[@SPD87327]

exactly!

[@100haymaker]

Think you’re all being unfair to poster. Gives me a good idea what a well serviced Minimoog sounds like compared to UAD plug in. They’re getting closer but as he says himself the real one just has that extra beef to the sound. Pity. As Id love to go completely in the box. They’re improving but still it not there. Thanks for demo. Cheers 👍

[@igorstetsyuk]

The difference in the spectrum of waveforms is very noticeable. The difference between hardware Moog and plug-in is especially striking in Pulse Width signals. In the Square waveform from the plugin, you can definitely hear the presence of even harmonics, which should not be the case.

[@jeffagoddard]

Great video! Doesn’t matter at all.

[@HaroldMaude]

Like the other plugins you just are not getting that full Moog expierence. The raw sonic power just isn't there. And like you say the weight in the sound.

[@alainthiry3965]

depend of your dac

[@rockyhill9965]

Sometimes you don't always want "weight" to the sound. Like when style of impressionistic music. Is having "more raw sonic power" good for a flute type patch? How would you control that "raw sonic power" that you might get on a hardware Mini-moog? And from hardware Mini-moog to another hardware Mini-moog, you have circuitry capacitors that will vary.

[@RoomAtTheTopStudio]

Wow. Same sound but different dynamics. The plugin doesn't have the low end frequency of the real thing or the high end screech. When it came to the filter the plugin was more balanced than the real Moog to my ears. The real Moog sound needs more taming to be musically usable for certain types of tracks. With the plugin all three oscillators sound more melodic where as the real Moog sounds more in unison and thicker. It all depends on what sound you are going for. Both are good. Personally I'm a real Moog fan so I don't mind taming the sound

[@asoundlab]

Thank you for your additional insight. As far the the unison oscillators are concerned, well I obviously didn't get the UAD in the same zone as the RA, but it's still an interesting listen! The UAD offers so much functionality and I find myself in that world often as of late.

[@RoomAtTheTopStudio]

@@asoundlab Plugins are great for the unlimited instances that you can create and they do make a similar tone to the originals most of the time but they don't have that physical umph in their sound. It's hard to find a plugin of anything that does. As long as it translates the basic effect many nowadays work effectively with that. Being a stickler for the authentic sound having the real hardware and learning to actually use it to get the most out of the limitations is what makes hardware appealing to me. I prefer the less is more approach but I respect those who are wizards with the plugins.

[@briandavidofficial]

Helpful! Thanks!

[@thomass9457]

As musicians and producers we can tell but what about the people listening to our music? Can they? I doubt it.

[@saardean4481]

i never got this argument. I mean i predominantly care about if the things i use inspire me to use them. I only care if i would want something and if i like the sound. Some people need the original, some others will be happy with a great emulation. , others will want an emulation and an expensive midi keyboard and others a cheap one, others will be happy with a clone etc etc. I don`t think anyone really cares if the 0,1% of listeners that know something about synths will be able to tell. If the groove is right nobody will care. Not even i care tbh, if i hear a good player play anything at all it sounds good somehow. You don`t need the greatest sounding piano to create a touching song. Of course only my opinion

[@JM_2019]

It‘s not about whether the people listening can tell what is used, it‘s about whether they feel the same emotion when they are listening.

[@saardean4481]

@ I know right? After all the -5lufs sausage they will listen 10 times on the radio and Spotify is the best way to hear the minuscule differences between synth engines and exactly what the artist experienced in the dozens or hundreds of hours when they play the instruments uncompressed and before composing the songs in the first place! I agree completely

[@ThePhiCode]

Nice video But please edit the videos without long poses in between examples No need to say that you’re moving between the two Because it’s obvious

[@asoundlab]

Thank you for the constructive criticism.

[@amanray]

Hardware still win , and we are listening to a mp3 sound that kills many subtleties

[@logicalblackman8228]

Well, 90% of sound comes through MP3’s these days.

[@Allious131]

And no one still will notice the difference so this comment was dumb to begin with

[@Music73777]

Hardware analog synths definitely aren’t necessary to produce music, but they still tend to bring more richness and life to a project. How useful that is to a creative person may depend on how they learned and approach music.

[@LaMusicaEsTuDios]

The set up of your software can not be the same as the set up of your hardware to achieve the same exact sound. Perfection vs. imperfection. 😉

[@transpermeance1535]

All these tonal comparisons are pointless as that is only part of what constitutes a musical instrument. Most modern attempts to recreate the tonal character of vintage instruments are good and convincing . So what do all these VSTs and midi hardware instruments give up? They cannot reproduce the note precisely when the player intends. Vintage Mini Moogs have a resistor ladder keyboard which which provides the control voltage without delay to the VCO as well as the triggers for the VCA and EVG. Single channel midi hardware synths have matrix scan and debounce delays which are random and then go through the 1-10ms midi communication pipeline plus mapping through the midi to digital to analog tables before the change in control voltage gets to the VCO and VCA . VST's have to deal with the random delays in audio buffers. These random delays distract the player and listener from the intent of the player; it's like like trying to have a phone conversation with random delays in the voice. It is fast enough to fool the majority of players and is good enough to conjure the memory of what is already a known riff in the listeners mind but lacks the realtime precision of a real instrument. It is this realtime connection between the player and the instrument that is interpreted as a better feel. Sequencers and DAWs can send quantized timed midi notes to the VST but this is more like a robotic musician and not a real time musician who can retard and speedup within a riff for musical intent. Polyphonic midi is even worse and you can see this in the thousands of press and wait for sound phasing demos on KZbin . Midi is serial so all chords are fast arpeggios with random delays between the notes.

[@HaroldMaude]

Well put

[@zerocrossing]

So, you must not be able to play in a band, where there are multiple sound sources at different distances. That sounds like a terrible disability.

[@sharathkumar83]

Hi, do you teach how to use modular synthesizers?

[@Cluless02]

The actual thing sounds organic whilst the virtual thing just doesn't.

[@vimfuego8827]

Why ?

[@HaroldMaude]

Yes @@DeeKay68

[@Cluless02]

This dude kind of gets on one's last nerve.

[@vimfuego8827]

I know what you mean, it doesn't flow

[@falangistavaleroso9689]

This is like comparing a 1950s Ferrari sound with his awful modern Honda like sounding engines. R.A vs a pc is like a Ducati sound vs. a skate sound

[@asoundlab]

Fun analogy. There are many who might never have a chance to experience a proper Mini, so I believe the perspective is important. Thanks for chiming in, very much appreciated.

[@falangistavaleroso9689]

@@asoundlab I love early analogues, anything cant pass them, specially any VST or similar. Even as you know, there is huge difference between a RA MOOG and a normal Minimoog. A collector friend who sold me a 12.000 series Mini back in the 90s got 3 Minis at once, a RA, a norma early Mini and a 12.000 serial of the early 80s, the latests produced, being the "worst" sounding to my ears of all, sadly he never sold me his RA, supposedly their OSC are the same or similar as on the modulars.

[@urbanman1516]

Useless. U can't just play waves. Gotta let them dance.