Moog Messenger is something new. Because that’s the first major product entirely developed under new owners inMusic*, that might make you nervous. But this synth is full of surprises—and could be the Moog synth your rig has been missing. Moog’s Erik Norlander, Director of Keyboard Product Development, walked us through the synth. I think it might wind up being his biggest hit since the Alesis Andromeda.
Actually, let’s start there, because to me, it’s great seeing the veteran Moog engineering team team up with Erik; that’s a match that’s been waiting to happen. The Alesis Andromeda is the breakthrough 2000 synth that helped bring back analog synthesis, partly by making it hands-on and accessible to a new generation. It helped lead the way for the 2000s synth buyer’s embrace of analog instruments from Moog, Korg, Dave Smith/Sequential, Oberheim, and others. Erik was also behind Alesis’ 1990s QS, DM5, DM Pro, and more, plus more recently IK Multimedia’s UNO Synth series I’ve also written about at length. What these products all have in common is that they’re affordable and accessible to newcomers, but not in a way that compromises them as instruments. They’re just as beloved by a broad range of users.
Now, there’s a Messenger-shaped box that just arrived today as I was finishing this edit. So I’ll keep this from being a review. I can tell you this, though: Messenger is not a “budget” version of Moog instruments. It’s a from-scratch new design, a successor in many ways to synths like Moog Matriarch and even the mighty Voyager. It’s something different from those synths. It’s still very much a Moog, but with some new personality all its own.
And yeah, all for an $899 street price.
I spoke to Erik at Superbooth in Berlin last month. Let’s take his tour, section by section.
This might sound a little like an ad as Erik gets enthusiastic, but he’s allowed, because each of these features delivers in sound. And you can bet I’ll have Erik’s guide as I unbox the thing and play with it; it’s great to know what the instrument designers had in mind as us musicians go in and try to push what they’ve built.
* Yes, as I understand it, Messenger is the first project since not only inMusic ran this division, but under Erik Norlander’s tenure. Muse and Labyrinth were also both released under inMusic, but began their gestation much earlier. Messenger has been developed quite rapidly – but more on that below.
Oscillators and mixing
Two analog oscillators – continuous, variable shape, “much like the MUSE, the Voyager, Micromoog, Multimoog before that,” Erik says. That means you can vary them continuously from triangle to sawtooth to square, and then from 50% pulse through narrow pulse.
Now the twist: wavefolding.
Erik: “We’ve done something new, where if you go counterclockwise, we put a wavefolder on the triangle wave. You can go from a clean triangle wave all the way to a fully wave-folded triangle. You can modulate this smoothly – and it’s independent for both oscillator 1 and 2.
“This gives you, like, West Coast Sound from an East Coast company – from the East Coast company, right? I’m a California man, I’ve spent most of my life there.”
This gives you, like, West Coast Sound from an East Coast company – from the East Coast company, right?
Sub oscillator also has a continuous wave shape. “I haven’t seen this on anything before – triangle wave to 50% pulse, all the way through super narrow pulse. You can set this independent of the oscillator that it’s derived from.”
“When we were designing this, I thought – okay, you know the wave shaper and the oscillator, that’s interesting, we pull that basically from the Labyrinth. But I was talking with Steve Dunnington, our VP of engineering, who’s been at Moog now for 30 years – he goes all the way back to Big Briar with Bob. [Big Briar Electronics was the predecessor of Moog Music, before Bob got his family name back.] I said I’d really like a little more secret sauce – is there any more you can bring to this?
And he goes, you know, I had this idea of doing pulse width modulation on the sub-oscillator…
It’s independent of the oscillator it’s derived from, so it makes a two-oscillator synth sound like a three-oscillator synth. He drew it on the whiteboard and I’m like – Steve, come on, put that in! I’m super happy with that.”
Also in the oscillator section:
- Oscillator sync
- Through-zero linear FM
- White noise
- Oscillator 1 + 2 + sub + noise get mixed together “in typical Moog fashion”
- External in can be mixed in with a separate level control for that input
There’s another trick, too: with the external input disconnected, there’s a feedback loop normalled. That’s a standard model D trick, but here you an just use the external input knob.
Oscillator 2 is set up to modulate cutoff frequency “again, something from the Model D.”
Keyboard tracking is set up by default.
Filter section
This next bit is a big deal. I’ll let Erik explain:
You don’t want to throw away the old filter, so we did, of course, include the original four-pole Bob Moog transistor ladder filter. If you want the classic 60s modular sound, we do have that. Then we have a two-pole mode – to give you the Oberheim, ARP Mark I sound. We took the two-pole output [of the ladder filter], too, which is something that hasn’t been on Moog synths before. Even the Moog ONE, the two-pole was from the State Variable Filter, not the ladder filter – this is actually from the ladder filter.
Four-pole bandpass, four-pole highpass – so full multimode output from the filter.
Then we did something extra cool – our lead hardware engineer, Rick Carl, came up with this. Because we’re doing pole mixing to do the two-pole and four-pole – you know how, when you turn up the resonance on a ladder filter, you always lose all the low end? He said, I can do pole mixing, and I can do bass compensation.
We labeled it res bass – we had meeting after meeting to figure out what we were going to label the button. But basically, this brings the bass back in again.
Rick Carl had brought a similar approach with Labyrinth; as he told Music Radar, “every part of the signal path on Labyrinth is a new design for Moog.” So it’s great to see this fresh idea on
And I can tell you that bass compensation is huge. I think it’s fair to call the combination of ideas a new filter, and that’s a big early highlight of Messenger.
Modulation, envelopes, and signal path
The VCA is analog, as it the “whole signal path.” Modulation is easily accessible and normaled, but also customizable – which to be honest, I missed when I first lookaed at this.
- Two LFOs, with LFO2 hard-wired to the mod wheel.
- Assign buttons route modulation to pitch for vibrato, cutoff, amp, or the three combined.
- LFO1 can be freely routed without touching a menu: hold down LFO assign, turn whatever knob you want, and how much you turn that knob is the bipolar modulation amount. It’s very much like the flexibility we’re used to from software, but in hardware.
And you’ve got two envelopes, filter and amp. “But again,” says Erik, “if you want to route them somewhere else – you just hold down the button and say, oh I want the filter envelope to modulate oscillator 2 level.”
“So the idea was, for the most basic functionality, you’ve got all the knobs on the panel to do the common things – but if you want to do something a little deeper, we did give you the power to do some more complex mod routes.”
More envelope features:
- Traditional Moog legato and then multi-trigger if you want
- Velocity sensitive (each independently)
- Loop (each independently)
- Up to 30 seconds in length
Erik: “They can be super long and super snappy if you want – we spent a lot of time dialing those in, so they sound right.
Sequencer/arp
Erik: “It has a sequencer and arpeggiator that were basically derived from the MUSE. That’s a 64-step sequencer – and a lot of the generative probability stuff from the MUSE.”
Arpeggiator mode is fun, too: “you can do the Muse trick where you turn off individual steps and give it a pattern.”
I/O and physical features
- 5-pin MIDI in and out / out can be set to thru
- USB-C for MIDI – not audio, but that also means you can use this as a MIDI interface (as with an iPad etc.)
- Gate and CV in and out (3.5mm)
- Clock in and out for the sequencer, arpeggiator, and even LFOs
- 1/4″ expression and sustain input
- Headphone out, audio out
And they’ve added a custom semi-weighted keyboard with 32 notes, velocity, and aftertouch. That feels terrific – even an upgrade from recent Moog keybeds in the same price range
Plus you get a metal chassis and the signature Moog controls.
More thoughts from Erik
It’s clear that like the Andromeda, this is an instrument Erik is glad to be associated with.
“If you look at it closely, it’s got a ton of power in it – and it sounds like a Moog. It’s a stealth rocket.
We have this running joke – Steve our VP of engineering, we said this with the Muse, as well. After something’s been developed and we’re getting to voice sound, okay, here’s the test: does it Moog?
You’re dialing in the patches and, like, okay, it Moogs. It totally Moogs.”
“Does it Moog? It totally Moogs.”
I also talked to Erik at length about the gestation of the instrument. What’s exciting here is that it is a new design. We saw a bunch of beautiful instruments from Moog that went from the massive 5U recreations of Keith Emerson’s instrument to semi-modular creations like Grandmother and Matriarch. And they were great. As Erik reflected, “I have a 22-oscillator 1967 Moog modular. So I was more skeptical than anyone of this semi-modular thing. But when I first heard that, it was beautiful.”
But it was time for a new generation. Muse is new, Labyrinth is new, and now Messenger is new – the most accessible and affordable of those three, but also every bit as serious for those who want to get deep. And it was a from-scratch design – apart from a sequencer and arpeggiator derived from those on Muse, the rest was built up from the ground up in the analog domain:
“As far as prototyping it, we breadboard stuff and then we have this thing called a “bed of nails,” where you get the micro going with the filter circuit. Because it’s analog, you can prototype things with the actual components. And then we have our same microprocessor that we’ve used in the Sub 37 and all of that.
It’s sort of like mad scientists in the lab – but it was done the old way. The way Bob did things, actual R&D and actual engineering.
Steve would have an idea for like the sub oscillator thing – it’s like, oh I’m going to prototype that tomorrow. And by the end of the day, we could all listen to it.”
And that’s the vision of Messenger. “If you need the Moog sound, even in a small spot, you can drop it in any rig,” Erik says.
More on the Messenger soon; I’m excited to unbox this now.
Moog Messenger is available now from all Moog retailers:
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Messenger Monophonic Analog Keyboard Synthesizer [Perfect Circuit]
Moog Messenger Monophonic Analog Synthesizer [Sweetwater]
Bonus: Erik’s keyboard rig
Okay, I was curious about this. For those that don’t know, Erik is as known as a musician and artist as he is as an engineer–more so, even, since it’s only folks like me who track each product manager for each instrument. For a third axis of nerdery that even involved collabs with sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson (#iykyk).
Here’s what’s in his rig, at least with me quizzing him:
Alesis Andromeda (of course)
Minimoog Voyager (RIP Bob)
Yamaha Motif XF
Hammond XB5
Rhodes MKI (original)
Minimoog Model D (original)
Yamaha MoXF6
Wait, actually, maybe it’s time for an Andromeda II, InMusic. Moog Andromeda? Blasphemy…