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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planetplayer

Posted 312 days ago

I have dreamed about owning this since I saw it in A radio schack catalogue. I played it in about 1999 or 1999. The quality was rusted a bit and damaged. They were asking $500 which is $5 or $105 more than list if I remember. It sounds good, but for that price I could put on a memorymoog. Sounds on the MG-1 are spacey and bell type. The one I played was a bit noisy compared to other MOOGs.

Thomas kenny

Posted 365 days ago

The First monophonic synthersizer I Demonstrate back in 1982 was the moog realistic concertmate MG-1 back in tandy electrical shop everywhere in Birmingham so I couldn't understand using those controls for sounds it really sounded very strange using the envelope generator whilst it faded away for 10-15 seconds.

Vidmagic

Posted 409 days ago

This was my first and I have loved it. Too bad Moog are so overpriced due to Ebay right now. To give you an idea, I paid $75.00 for mine in a Montana second hand shop (they are selling for $350.00 + on Ebay). If you can find one in the Midwest like that, grab it. Otherwise, so many more advanced keyboards can be had now for so much less. If you want to program for cheap, Ensonic is a big bang for a little price. A Juno-106 has lots of bass and can be had for less than an MG-1. If you need some thick bass and rumble pick up a Moog but you could do better at this current time.

Justin

Posted 440 days ago

Love it. Love it, love it, love it. Simple to use and delivers that Moog tone for under $500 (if you're not getting ripped off). Delivers great leads and basses and the poly section makes it a little more versatile than the two other cheap Moogs.
Only complaint is that you can't mix-and-match waveforms and that you'll have to mod it to gain a standard 1/4" line-out (but many purchased thru auction are already modded!).

ALSO: Note that this synth is used by Motion City Soundtrack for most of their synth lead parts. Yeah, I was shocked too . . .

keith mitchell

Posted 445 days ago

I bought one of these little monsters about 6 months ago, and have had nothing but fun with it.....great value for the money, but some may find the lack of programming and no pitch bend a little frustrating. A great source of cheap, old school Moog sounds nonetheless, and with a bit of imagination (and fiddling) you can make most sounds that a rogue or liberation can, along with some extras they can't with the poly section. All in all, a great find if you can get one on e-bay....snap 'em up, they go fast. Also, if you get one (or a Liberation or Opus-3), take the time to clean up the foam underneath (lots of info available on this). There are replacement slider kits all over e-bay.

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