Vintage Synth Explorer

Moog • Source

Moog's Source was their first to offer patch memory storage as well as some other new features. It boasted 16 memory locations so you could finally save and recall your synth patches. A casette-tape jack was also implemented to transfer your patches to and from an external tape and free up the on-board memory for additional new patches. But in an effort to modernize with the eighties, the Moog had replaced all buttons, knobs and sliders with flat-panel membrane buttons and a single data-wheel assignment format. At the time, this may have seemed far-out, but in all actuality it is the Source's downfall.

Parameters are edited not with hands-on sliders and knobs but by assigning a selected parameter to the dedicated data wheel. This is very tedious and does not allow for true hands-on tweaking during performances nor can you adjust different parameters simultaneously or while playing. These days, the membrane buttons don't always seem to work quite right either. However, those famous monophonic Moog sounds are still inside this synth which has two fat analog oscillators and the legendary 24 dB Moog filter.

The Source has been used by Tangerine Dream, Jan Hammer, Depeche Mode, Devo, Vince Clarke, New Order, Ultravox, Josh Wink, Front Line Assembly, Moog Cookbook, Kitaro, Imperial Drag, The Cars, Phish, The Rentals, King Crimson, Blur, and Gary Numan.

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

john

Posted 5 hours ago

there is promo videos for love 2 on airs website its shows them in the studio playing this for the synth lead at the beginning of "do the joy"

Stef

Posted 17 days ago

AIR uses SOURCE only for live performance. It happened in Milan 2 days ago. Amazing sound, especially Basses

Luca

Posted 18 days ago

Air use the source ;)

Pablo Roberto

Posted 19 days ago

This was my very first synth back when i was a kid (it was my toy!). I had also had the "Speak and Spell" toy in combination with this and i remember pressing those membrane buttons. It was so cool and fun, i do admit i miss them a lot for nostalgic reasons.

Sadly, i have no idea whatever happened to them. If i had known this would become extremely valuable, i would have kept them.

Dan

Posted 40 days ago

Benny...How can you say this synth is ugly? I think it is one of the best looking synths ever made. But that is down to individual taste I guess. The picture does not do it justice - you have to see it up close. Colour coordination is great and the brushed aluminum against the wood looks great in my opinion. Very individual and nice to see a bit of colour added to a synth. Then there is the sound! Very fat. The LFO goes so fast and despite some people not liking the fact that there is only one wheel to control the parameters, it is actually a good idea in my opinion as the wheel is free spinning and it is very quick and easy to navigate around. I think it makes live playing a lot easier with the memories. I think it sounds nearly as nice as a Minimoog - maybe not as sweet in tone but I think it is next in line of all the Moog range and by far the best sounding synth I have ever owned

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