The Little Phatty is the next great thing to emerge from the revitalized Moog Music synthesizer company. It is sort of a notch below the Voyager, but should not really be categorized as such because the Little Phatty is a powerful synth with a layout and design that looks less into the past and more towards the future.

The Little Phatty boasts a 100 percent analog signal path, 100 user editable presets and a 37-note keyboard. It is a monophonic synth with two oscillators (the Voyager has three osc). Waveform selector is continuously variable between waveforms (tri, saw, square, pulse) and there is oscillator-sync. The filter is the classic Moog ladder design. Two ADSR envelope generators are available for the volume and the filter. And finally a nice LFO with six waveshapes, four destinations and rate/depth controls helps to get things moving. The 'Master' section of the keyboard has controls for Tuning, +/-2 Octave Transpose, Glide, Pitch/Mod wheels and some data entry controls. There are no on-board sequencers or effects, however.

The interface couldn't be simpler and despite the minimized number of buttons and knobs, there are no hidden pages or sub-layers of button functions - all controls are still very hands-on and provide excellent visual feedback via two-tone back-lit buttons, dials and pitch bend / mod wheels. Beautiful, hand-built, simple, effective, powerful - classic Moog design. The Little Phatty is designed to offer a 21st century analog Moog synthesizer in a compact portable package and at a price every musician can afford.

The standard edition is the Stage model (pictured top). Moog initially released a special, limited edition run of 1,200 individually numbered Bob Moog Tribute Edition synths. The limited run, Tribute Edition of the Little Phatty (pictured above) has special Moog wood side panels, a Bob Moog signature plate across the front and rear, comes with a CD-ROM featuring highlights of the Bob Moog Memorial Celebration Service and a special Bob Moog poster.

OK so they aren't that cheap. And they aren't very feature-rich compared with some of its competitors. But it is a genuine Moog. Its sound engine was designed by the late and great Bob Moog himself. It's the final synth he built for us. And it simply sounds amazing! It's analog but with such ultra-stability and such a modern and expressive interface, using the Little Phatty is an absolute joy - for experimenting, learning, jamming and having fun - it's one of the best 21st century synths for analog basses, leads, effects, noises and more.

LDT

November 2, 2009 @ 11:22 pm

I have had a LPSII for a year and those who scoff at these need to sit with one and spend some time. There is no way to discribe the sounds that are available once you get past the 'analog' sounding presets. I swear by this beast. I also now have a CP-251 and the results are unbelievable. It is also amazing to use live.

madrasputin

October 4, 2009 @ 10:06 am

first off, the little phatty is one of the BEST moog synths made in the past ten years. i own the stage 2 of this beast and it's one of the most versatile synths i've ever owned! people seem to be complaining about the one modulation source and that the cv251's price is insulting. well look at it this way, get a voyager and pay 4,000 for it and then you can stop whining about it! the coolness of there being so many ways to trick out the little phatty is the beauty of it! you have the cv251, all the moogerfooger boxes as well, like the freqbox, ring mod, etc. plus, this is the last synth bob moog himself drew the specifications up for instead of others working for moog music in quite a while and it was right (relatively) before his death (god i miss him! he was a genius!)! so all in all, if you want a really bad [beep] synth with homemade patch ability and as trammell said filters and envelopes that are seriously top notch, get one of these amazing beasts and enjoy!

dreamdemolitionfact

September 20, 2009 @ 8:35 am

Some people are saying that the Phatty sounds 'digital'. Huh? Naw, this is an ANALOGUE synthesizer, and it SOUNDS like an ANALOGUE synthesizer. No, it doesn't sound like a MiniMoog or a Voyager, it sounds more abrasive and cutting than that. I don't think Moog Music were trying to make an old-school synth here. It depends what you want to do: if you want a more contemporary sound, get the Phatty. If you're more into sounding like 'Rubycon' or 'Wish You Were Here', get the Voyager, as the latter is basically an extended MiniMoog. The only thing I really miss with the Phatty is an independent white noise source, though noise is present as a modulation feature.

saunders

August 28, 2009 @ 11:51 am

tried this one a while back at the music store and i think my boots melted. a great synth for people of a newer generation who respect the old school sound but want reliable technology. as far as the sound goes, don't even ask. it's fat as hell, fluid and utterly moog. well worth the price in my opinion, but one should always try the voyager to be sure what's the best for one's use.

Christian

August 22, 2009 @ 7:21 pm

Rush also uses this... on when they're on tour. VERY unfortunately, Rush doesn't seem to use any synths in their new songs.

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