If you love that original Minimoog sound, but you’ve run out of space in your flat and money for used bank accounts and don’t like the notion of maintaining pots and oscillators and lifting heavy vintage gear, the Arturia minimoog-V remains a lovely, economical, liftable alternative. It’s the one software plug-in to receive the endorsement of the Moog Music company. (Bob Moog himself got involved when the software was developed.)
And for one day, it’s completely free. You’ll want to grab it right away – that day, today June 21, ends when it does as the clock strikes midnight in Grenoble, France. That’s CEST (summer time!), summer offset CUT/GMT +2, or:
5:59 PM New York City (former home of CDM!)
3:59 PM Calgary, Canada (home of MeeBlip!)
2:59 PM San Francisco (West Coast outpost of CDM!)
5:59 AM Friday in Shanghai (International dateline FTW!)
Via Facebook: Arturia’s site is up and down as demand surges for this, but the deal itself is available on Facebook. You’ll need a Facebook login, and you do have to provide your email address. (It doesn’t appear, however, that you’re added to a mailing list; the email address is used to send you a code, which should arrive in 48 hours.)
Just hit “Like” on the Arturia page:
https://www.facebook.com/arturia2
I expect this will make Arturia just about the most-liked software page on Facebook. I hope they use their powers for awesome.
If you don’t want to use Facebook: Go easy, as their server is already straining as I write this (before the Americas even wake up), but Matt sends us this alternative link:
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/minimoogv/minimoogv-original.html
— which you can use if you don’t want to use a Facebook login or share data with an app.
For file downloads, Arturia is using torrent links. (Wisely. Unfortunately, their server appears to be unable to handle the load of people just requesting activation codes, which are separate from the torrent links.)
You can download the file later – you only have to request the activation code today; the download you can grab whenever you like. But if you’re in a hurry, those official torrent links are duplicated on the blog of one Aaron Isles:
Arturia Released The MiniMoog V Classic Synth!! FREE TODAY ONLY June 21st 2012! Torrent Links here. (thanks to those who sent it in, and apologies for my own confusion)
Here’s the story behind the deal: Arturia is at the end of their agreement with Moog Music for licensing the name. (Idle speculation: with Moog Music getting into iOS software, and Arturia making a hardware synth keyboard, it should be no surprise that deal didn’t get renewed.)
Today is also, nicely, World Music Day. (We could do something to celebrate, but … that’s sort of every day on this site.)
The software will be renamed, more generically, Modular V and Mini-V. The Original version still gives you 1,000 presets, the latest version of the software, 32-voice polyphony, and Moo– uh, synth modeling.
Hope you’re able to grab the download. Enjoy! And happy World Music Day! I’m going to use that as an excuse to get out and hear some live music, switching off the Blog Command Station early evening.