Vintage Synth Explorer

Moog • Taurus I

Inspired by organ pedal boards, Moog released the Taurus Pedal Synthesizer - a monophonic analog bass synthesizer you play with your feet (so you can play other instruments with your hands). It has three Preset sound patches and one User programmable preset. The three preset sounds are Bass, Tuba and Taurus. Most users prefer the User preset which lets them create their own sounds from its simple VCO, VCF and VCA controls.

A section called VARIABLES contains the sliders for its VCO, VCF and VCA sections which will only work when the User preset is selected. It features a simple 2-oscillator design that can be tuned across a 5-octave range. An Octave button lets you shift the pedal keyboard up or down an octave. The oscillators can be slightly detuned. There's also a Glide (portamento) effect and a 24dB/oct lowpass filter with simple controls like Emphasis, Contour Amount/Attack/Decay and Cut-Off. A simple VCA with attack, sustain, decay and loudness controls. Two gigantic foot-sliders flank the sides of the Taurus and they are used to adjust the Filter cut-off and VCA Loudness on the fly using your feet. It has been used by Rush, Yes, Genesis, U2 and the Police.

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Ian

Posted 148 days ago

I bought a set of these pedals about 5 years ago after seeing a local ad. I remember turning up and praying that it was the mrk1 rather than the much less desirable mrk2. Only paid £80 so quite a find. The sound is SERIOUSLY fat! It sounds a bit like an early RA minimoog I had, maybe even fatter! The only problem I had personally with it was it ended up being totally useless in my studio as I'd have to bash out tunes with my fists! A midi'd one would be excellent though :)

Benjamin Edge

Posted 162 days ago

This pedal synth was actually intended to be produced and sold starting in 1974 as part of what was known as the Constellation ensemble of synthesizers, which included two keyboard synthesizers that never got off the ground. They were known as the Lyra (monophonic) and the Apollo (polyphonic), and were respective test-beds for the Multimoog and the Polymoog.

Two proto Apollos were known to be produced; one of these was used by Keith Emerson on the Emerson, Lake & Palmer 1973 Brain Salad Surgery album.

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