The identify Moog is principally synonymous with bass. The corporate has pumped out numerous synths over time from the enduring Minimoog Mannequin D, to foot-operated Taurus, to the modern-classic Sub Phatty that ship unimaginable low-end. Now its plumbing these depths even additional, however in plug-in type, with the Mariana, which clearly will get its identify from the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth.
The structure of Mariana is totally different from virtually some other Moog on the market, in bodily or digital type. It's a dual-layer synth, with each layers function two oscillators and a sub oscillator for some critically thick tones. Every layer additionally has two filters, a low-pass and a high-pass, plus a dedicate filter only for the sub. Along with these core sound-sculpting instruments, there's three LFOs, three envelops and two random turbines per layer, plus a saturation circuit, a compressor, refrain and delay results.
When mixed with the highly effective modulation system that permits you to management virtually any a part of the synth with some other half you get an extremely wealthy and complicated instrument — particularly contemplating the worth. Mariana is $30 on iOS or $99 for Home windows or macOS, although it's 50-percent off as a part of an introductory supply ($15 and $49, respectively).
Mariana does dwell as much as its identify. I bought to play with it for a few days and, boy howdy, is it bassy. It stacks up fairly properly towards different bass-focused digital synths and Moog emulations from different corporations. It may well supply sufficient sub bass to actually rattle your cranium, with out getting tremendous muddy. Clearly that may range a bit from patch to patch, however for probably the most half the sound engine delivers on its promise.
Whereas a lot of the roughly 200 presets are targeted on bass, there are a handful that discover different sonic territory. There are some significantly strong plucky leads that hit with all of the oomph of the bassier patches, they simply shine within the increased registers. Some presets showoff the wilder aspect of Mariana that may reap the benefits of the strong modulation options to spit out some wild-sounding results and decidedly un-Moog-like tones.
Mariana additionally has MPE assist. Whereas it's a pleasant function, it's additionally of restricted use right here. When you can change it to duophonic mode and play the 2 synth layers independently, it's primarily a monophonic instrument. And whereas with the ability to carry out slides just by operating my finger over the Push or Seaboard is sweet, it doesn't actually reap the benefits of the polyphonic a part of MIDI Polyphonic Expression.
What Mariana does lack, is a sequencer, arpeggiator or a deep listing of results. That's not essentially a nasty factor, although. Chances are high, if you happen to're utilizing it in a DAW as a VST then you definately've bought loads of choices for these issues. So, whereas a number of different plugin makers are loading up their digital devices with all kinds of options, Moog stayed targeted on the synth itself.
It's not with out its quirks, nonetheless. Whereas the interface is straightforward to navigate when you've gotten used to it, I'm nonetheless not an enormous fan of skeuomorphic designs on the whole. And whereas I'm keen to chop Moog some slack on that entrance because it's attempting to keep up a constant aesthetic that capitalizes on its lengthy legacy of analog synths, there are some barely questionable decisions. For one, the 2 separate slide out panels on both aspect for modulation controls appear to be they may simply be mixed. And the buttons to show them are separated from the remainder of the synth's controls — a devoted tab inside the principle UI alongside the synth and mixer sections would most likely make extra sense.
It's additionally nigh inconceivable to learn a knob's place by default. The tiny dot that signifies what a parameter is about to all however disappears on smaller pocket book screens (and I can't even think about how exhausting it will be to make out on a telephone). There may be an choice known as "knob place spotlight" within the settings that extends a line from the middle of the knob that's a lot simpler to see. However I encountered a bug the place, each time I'd decrease the window for Mariana in my DAW the strains would disappear. I'd have to return into the settings to disable, then reenable it to make them pop again up. Apart from, that ought to most likely be on by default.
Lastly, it's price mentioning that Mariana is an absolute useful resource hog. Admittedly my studio laptop computer — a roughly five-year-old Dell XPS with an eighth gen Core i7 —isn't precisely high of the road anymore, however I by no means noticed my CPU utilization dip under 50 p.c in Ableton whereas Mariana was loaded, and it routinely spiked to round 80 p.c whereas really enjoying, resulting in quite a few audio artifacts. For comparability I can usually load six or seven situations of Arturia's Pigments or Analog Lab V with out even crossing the 25 p.c threshhold. And it's solely with all of these really enjoying that I climb above 50 p.c.
Nonetheless, Mariana sounds nice. And there's a number of energy beneath the hood. If Moog can get its useful resource utilization beneath management in a future replace it will be effectively well worth the value.
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