Moog — pronounced “Moog” — is famous for its awesome-sounding synthesizers. But recently it has has also become famous for making dome of the best iOS music apps. For instance, Moog’s Model 15 is a perfect digital reproduction of its modular synth that sounds as good as the real thing. Which is to say, it sounds incredible. Now Moog has made the Model D, an app version of the original 1970 Minimoog keyboard. And it is just as rad as you might hope,
Old-school Minimoog hardware
Photo: Cult of Mac
The Model D is a faithful recreation of the original Minimoog synth, with some added modern extras. Like the 1970 versions, you can design your own sounds using the knobs and switches arrayed across the front of the keyboard. Previously you could create sounds buy hooking up various synth modules and patching them together with cables, but the Minimoog was way easier to use, and portable. Kind of like the iPad of synths.
The app comes packed with presets (something not possible in the hardware version), and you can buy more form the in-app store.
Modern conveniences
Photo: Cult of Mac
To be honest, the Model D would be perfect if all it did was mimic the original hardware. After all, if it was good enough for Kraftwerk, it’s good enough for anyone. But Moog has added a bunch of iOS-only features. One of those is the aforementioned presets, which can be saved and shared to and from iCloud. More entertaining are the effects. The app includes a looper, an arpeggiator, a delay module, and something called a Bender, which does exactly that.
You can also hook up an external MIDI keyboard to play the app as nature intended, and easily map any off the knobs on that keyboard to the control knobs in the app.
And most modern of all — Model D works with Ableton Link for tempo syncing, it supports Inter-App Audio and Audiobus, as well as AUv3 Audio Unit Extensions. This last means that you can use the keyboard inside other host apps, like GarageBand. It even works on the iPhone.
All this for $5! Go grab it now.
Price: $4.99 introductory price
Download: Moog Model D from the App Store (iOS)
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
