Vintage Synth Explorer

Realistic • Concertmate MG-1

This is the very source of cheap Moog bass! It is a lot like the strap-on Moog Liberation in its design and architecture and also looks and sounds very much like the Moog Rogue. The MG-1 was built by Moog for Realistic (Radio Shack), and was designed specifically for the home market. Very basic and easy to use, this is a nice cheap way to get your hands on Moog sounds!

The MG-1 is a 2-VCO monophonic/polyphonic analog synth with a genuine 24dB/oct Moog filter, however the overall sound is thin. On the MG-1, the VCOs are referred to as 'Tone Generators'. It can produce sawtooth, square and pulse waveforms, and the oscillators are detunable and syncable. A simple ASR (attack, sustain, release) envelope called 'Contour' can be applied to both the amp and the filter. The LFO section provides triangle or square wave patterns as well as Sample-and-Hold. Additionally there is a simple Ring-Mod effect called 'Bell'.

Unique to the MG-1 is a slider on the far right side of the keyboard which controls the volume of a simple 10-voice polyphonic organ sound. This feature makes it at least a little more versatile than the Rogue. There are RCA inputs and outputs (the input is routed straight to the output for playing along with music from your stereo system) but no external speakers as in most other home marketed synthesizers. There is also no sign of Midi or patch memory on the MG-1. It is used by Peter Gabriel, 808 State, Remy Shand, and KMFDM.

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Jonny

Posted 36 days ago

Owned one of these, my friend owned a Rogue. I was always jealous of his rogue. Not a piece of junk by any means. Not one of the better moog's either. Considering these go for about as much as a rogue your better off getting a rogue.

Andrew Brawley

Posted 112 days ago

Let me add my voice to those that say the Realistic version is superior. Though I have no doubt that the internal circuits *are* basicaly identical, the control options are not. The oscillators are much more independent on the MG-1, and the osc. sync can be utterly fierce. I've actually never relied on the "polyphonic organ" tone for much, but it's there, and the rudimentary ring mod is lots of fun (when it wants to work...) I've owned one since '83 when they started to close them out. I go through periods of ignoring it, but then every now and then I start to play with it. When I do, it never ceases to amaze me with new sounds even though I think I have exhausted its potential. As cheesey as this little bugger is, I just can't imagine parting with it.

RoB

Posted 235 days ago

Also Motion City Soundtrack used the Realistic Concertmate in their music.

Snod_donkey

Posted 271 days ago

The first synth i ever tried when i was 13 ish. Brand new on show in tandys (radio shack) milton keynes. couldnt afford it on my paper round money but have been addicted to analog synths since. Never owned one but ended uo with the minimoog - All down to this like thing ; )

Mr.B

Posted 303 days ago

Gene Ween said he used this synth in a "mollusk era" interview.

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