Moog Satellite

A rinky dink version of the Minitmoog for budding synthesists from the early seventies. The Satellite is shaped after the organ-type synthesizers from its era. Although cased in a nice looking wood case the Satellite boasts little features. It's a single-vco monophonic preset synthesizer. Preset sounds include brass, reeds, strings, bell, and the far-out new lunar sound. The 37-note keyboard is slim and presets are selected from the clunky flip-switches just below the keyboard. Left hand performance controls offer modulation, pitch bend and filter sweeps. You won't find much use for a synth like the Satellite these days but it would make a nice collector's item. It has been used by Vangelis.

12 Visitor comments

Xces

September 28, 2011 @ 9:12 pm

This is an amazing synthesizer and even though it is pretty low on features the sound is so great, and I don't really care whether it's useful or useless it is on my list of synths to buy for my band. I personally rate it 5/5 and recommend it for anyone who doesn't have enough money to buy all the other more cooler moogs like Memorymoog, Minimoog, Source and so on.

Bob Moog

January 10, 2011 @ 8:53 am

YOU THREW IT AWAY!?? Blasphemy!

I just got one of these to go with my micromoog & minimoog. Lovely little machine, great sounds. Not a freaky machine, but a very tasteful, warm monosynth.

axel

February 3, 2010 @ 6:03 pm

this little synth is very good for reproducing natural instrument sounds..especially bass..the bass sounds great on this. the filter isnt so great and there really isnt much of an ADSR section at all..which would have made this much more useful. but it is fun..good horn sounds..brass woodwind etc..and the modulation is pretty good. it has a very nice sounds..just very limited. i got one really cheap, so it was worth it for me. i have a lot of fun with it.

Heat Like Me

May 17, 2009 @ 5:49 pm

Actually I agree with Felip and Vudu12 - this is a steal if you can pick one up for cheap. Stuff you have control over: //
* Oct down, 2 oct down
* Resonance (slider)
* Cutoff frequency (slider)
* LFO rate and depth (sliders)
* LFO sine/square
* Route LFO to VCO pitch (on square at 100% depth it jumps octaves)
* Route LFO to VCA
* Portamento (slider)
* Portamento on/off
* Add sustain to the VCA (switch)
* The 'presets' give you actually quite usable combinations of VCA env, VCF env, VCF bp/lp, and VCF res/cutoff settings - instead of messing with the ADSR to get those settings you use all the time, you just flip a switch. //
If you spend a bit of time learning how to get the best out of this little guy, you have basically got yourself a ruling little single-VCO Moog! If you have some guitar effects to run it thru, you'll find some extremely evil noises ;-) //

Felip

April 16, 2009 @ 12:44 am

I used one of these for several years in the 70's. It worked very well for me - I couldn't afford an Arp or Mini, and this little guy did the job. It was based on organ technology, for sure, but it had a surprising amount of flexibility, and I used it to good effect. I'd love to have one now! I think you're being too critical. For the money, it did a lot.