Moog taurus 3
Author: N | 2025-04-24
Moog Taurus 3 VS The Moog Taurus 1 – Which Sounds The Best? RetroSound compares similar patches on the original Moog Taurus bass synth vs the Moog Taurus III .
Moog Taurus 3 question? - Moog Music Forum
As a Moog Rogue on a stick, the Taurus II offered more audio waveforms, oscillator sync and overdrive, as well as pitch modulation, filter modulation and envelope triggering from its multi‑waveform LFO. But to this day, the Taurus II has the unhappy distinction of being the most reviled of all analogue synthesizers. The Rogue has a small band of devoted followers, but players loved to hate the same synth engine in the Taurus II, simply because it didn't generate 'that' sound.By the start of 1983, digital synthesis had arrived, MIDI was just round the corner, and MIDI bass pedals were to appear not long after. The original Moog company ceased trading in 1984, but in 1998, a short‑lived Welsh company (Moog Music Limited) announced the re‑release of the Taurus to accompany its Model 204E recreation of the Minimoog. The pedals never appeared, but shortly thereafter Bob Moog regained the rights to his name in the USA, Moog Music was reborn, the Voyager was announced, and the clamour for Taurus pedals began anew. In the autumn of 2008, Moog Music asked aficionados to put their money where their mouths were and to pay $500 each to fund the development of a limited edition of 1000 units. Many players were willing to do so, and the Taurus 3 was born.An Unusual Playing StyleThe most famous users of Taurus pedals are rooted in the prog‑rock of the late 1970s: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and, most significantly, Mike Rutherford of Genesis, as well as Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush. Later users included Saga, Marillion, Asia, and the Police. But my favourite Taurus player was Steve Hackett's brother John, who played a set with his fists, most notably on 'Clocks' (1979), in which he used one hand to press the pedals, while the other 'played' the octave switch to give the pedals an apparent two‑octave range.It's More Than Just SoundIt's easy to understand why the original Taurus pedals remain so desirable. There's the sound, of course. But just as important, there's the essential 'rightness' of the design, which inserts no impediments between the player and the performance. Big, chunky sliders designed for your oversize wellies, footswitches placed far enough apart so that you don't hit the wrong one on a gloomy stage, and pedals that are easy to play when you're balancing on one leg... all are important factors that helped to make The Moog Taurus pedal is an analog synthesizer that is played with your feet. It helps fill out the song your playing with that real church pipe organ/deep base register sound. The best example of this sound is when The Police used this pedal at the beginning of Don’t stand so close to me. This ancient, blast for the past, is precisely what your looking for, if you want that little extra something for your sound!If you’ve ever seen a church organ up close or in pictures, then you may have a better idea of what this instrument looks like. Hey, if you ever went to someone’s home and they had one of those ‘ol cheezy home organs, then you’d have a good idea as well! The Moog Taurus pedal looks exactly like the pedals at the bottom of these organs. You play it with you feet!The Moog Taurus Pedal has been around for ages. Bands that have or had them in their musical arsenal are bands like RUSH, YES, Pink Floyd, the Police and many other rock, fusion and metal performers from yesterday, right up to the present day scene!The thing that got me thinking of this was while playing with CounterPoint the other night. Chris Noto, the best bass player that I have ever had the privilege of playing with, brought it up while taking a break. He said his brother has one and that he’d love to get it from him if he could, and believe you me, this guy REALLY knows what he is talking about. The way this guy plays the bass, if he had one of these things, it would sound like he is playing 3 instruments at once! Just imagine what it could do with your sound.So check out the links on this page and learn for yourself what this could do for your band’s sound.Keep on Jammin’ -->Moog Taurus 3 Stand - Moog Music Forum
The Taurus pedals what they were.SpecificationsPolyphony: one note (13 notes over MIDI)Oscillators: two.Waveforms: one (sawtooth).Filter: 24dB/oct resonant low‑pass.Filter contour: AD.Amplifier contour: ASR.LFO: one.LFO waveforms: four.LFO range: 0.1-100Hz.LFO destinations: two (oscillator pitch, filter cutoff frequency).Pedalboard: 13 keys, C-C.Note range (pedals): 24-60 (three octaves down from middle C).Note range (MIDI): 0-60 (five octaves down from middle C).Velocity sensitivity: Over MIDI only.Controllers: two (one volume, one assignable).Audio output: Single channel, quarter‑inch high‑Z and low‑Z outputs provided.Analogue control inputs: four (pitch, filter cutoff frequency, volume, gate).Digital control: MIDI Input/Output (five‑pin DIN connector and USB), channels 1-16.Power supply: 90-250V, 50/60Hz.ProsA faithful homage to the original Taurus, both physically and sonically.Easy to control with your feet in live situations.Lots of analogue and MIDI control.ConsIt's unwieldy and can be difficult to move.There's a bug in the arpeggiator.At over two grand, it's not cheap.SummaryIf ever a synthesizer was bought for just one purpose, it was the Moog Taurus, whose eponymous preset helped to define the sound of the late '70s. The Taurus 3 is a genuine successor to the original, with a similar look and feel but, most importantly, much of the depth and power that has eluded most (if not all) other bass synthesizers. If you've been waiting for an affordable set of second‑hand Taurus pedals to appear, try the Taurus 3.information. Moog Taurus 3 VS The Moog Taurus 1 – Which Sounds The Best? RetroSound compares similar patches on the original Moog Taurus bass synth vs the Moog Taurus III .Moog Taurus 3 VS The Moog Taurus 1 – Which Sounds The Best?
Envisage some owners cutting holes in the wooden side panels to help move it around, so somebody at Moog really should have noticed this and done something about it in the design stages. But, this aside, it looks and feels the business and, once you've managed to move it to the desired position, connecting it up couldn't be easier. Plug in mains power (the PSU is universal, so you don't need to worry about line voltages or frequencies), plug a cable into the audio output, switch it on, and you're ready to go. If you have an urge to do so, you can also connect MIDI via the five‑pin DIN In/Out sockets and USB socket, as well as an analogue Gate plus three CVs to control the pitch, filter cutoff frequency and volume.In its normal mode of operation (which Moog call Preset mode), you can play the pedals as you would expect and edit patches using the facilities provided on the control panel. It's fortunate that the synth engine is so basic, because editing is a bit '1980s', with a 16 x 2-character screen and a single LED bar-graph next to the right‑hand foot-wheel to indicate parameter values.Talking of the foot‑wheels, there are two of these, and both are illuminated for use on gloomy stages. The one on the left is a dedicated volume control but, whereas the equivalent on the Taurus could never reduce the volume to zero, the Taurus 3 wheel can silence it completely, which is not good given that you're going to be controlling it (or mis‑controlling it) with your size 12s. In contrast, the wheel on the right can be assigned all manner of functions and parameters. Using it to control things such as the modulation depth is useful if you've run out of hands, and both the wheel and the Value encoder (the edit knob in the Master section) send MIDI CC messages corresponding to the parameter in focus, which means that you can use them to control other instruments, and even sequence the results.While we're discussing MIDI, it's worth noting that, although the Taurus 3 has a fairly complete MIDI implementation, it has no MIDI Thru socket, although you can echo any MIDI received via the USB socket through the five‑pin DIN 'Out' socket. The incoming MIDI can be merged with any data being generated by the Taurus 3 itself, which, in truth, Register. This may be a consequence of the age and decrepitude of my Taurus (let's face it... we all tend to get fatter and more authoritative as we get older), but I think that it's more than that. As a knowledgeable friend said when he visited me during the course of this review, the sound of the Taurus 3 proclaims "hey, listen to me… I'm big and fat and authoritative and gorgeous” whereas the original Taurus pedals simply are big and fat and authoritative and gorgeous and didn't give a flying f*** whether you appreciated the difference or not.ConclusionsSome people say that the Mariana Trench is the deepest thing on Earth. Others believe that the teachings of René Descartes ("I drink, therefore I am”) are pretty deep too. But musicians of a certain age will tell you that there's nothing deeper than a set of Taurus pedals. It's not a matter of pitch; there are all manner of synthesizers with oscillators that reach down to subsonic frequencies. It's a matter of authority. A few instruments have it; most do not. Despite the small differences between the new model and the original, the Taurus 3 has it. Sure, it sounds cleaner and more civilised than my 30‑something Taurus pedals, but it nevertheless recreates the restrained snarl and depth of the originals. A worthy successor. The Multiple Births Of The BullIn 1973, Moog Music announced the Constellation, three synthesizers that could be purchased as a "completely co‑ordinated performance ensemble” or as individual instruments. The upper manual was to have been the Lyra monosynth. This never reached production, but was later cut down to become the basis of the Multimoog. The lower manual, called the Apollo, was to have combined preset synthesizer voices with programmable features. The prototype was used by Keith Emerson for ELP's Brain Salad Surgery tour, but also failed to enter production in its original form, reappearing a couple of years later as the Polymoog. The third was a single‑octave bass-pedal unit called the Taurus. Again, this never reached manufacture in its original form, but the name, as well as the concept, survived, and the redesigned Taurus pedals sold in small numbers for five years from 1976 onward.In 1981, Norlin Music replaced the Taurus with the Taurus II, comprising a wider pedalboard and a separate sound generator that could be mounted on a pole at waist height. Described by manyMoog Taurus 3 VS The Moog Taurus 1 Which Sounds The Best?
The resurrection of Moog's stellar bass synth has caused a considerable stir. Can the Taurus 3 live up to the venerable reputation of its ancestor?Taurus bass pedals are perhaps the finest demonstration in the synthesizer world of the fact that it is better to do one thing extremely well than it is to do lots of things quite well. With just a single octave of pedals, three hard‑wired bass sounds and a single 'Variable' patch that you can adjust using their mere 13 voicing controls, they were used by almost everyone to produce just one sound, still known universally as 'the Taurus'.Today, the Taurus 3 is the grandchild of the Taurus, and its designers have been wise not to tinker too much with the iconic look or feel of the original. Sure, there are two extra footswitches, the pedals are slightly longer than before, the chunky volume and filter sliders have been replaced by wheels, and the control panel is more complex, but there's much here to suggest that the new product has been designed to slot in precisely where the old one did.Homage, Copy Or Something Different?Although Moog Music claim that the voicing circuitry in the Taurus 3 is copied slavishly from the original, I'm not sure how true this can be. Some of the original components are no longer available, and certain circuit designs were adopted in 1976 because there were no modulation sources in the original. This, as you will see, is no longer the case. Similarly, the inclusion of a pitch-calibration procedure but no filter-calibration procedure hints at things decidedly non‑'70s in the Taurus 3's architecture. Happily, the new model has retained many of the limitations that helped to define the character of the original. So, for example, there are no audio waveform controls, no cross‑modulation, no sync... Each of the two oscillators generates nothing more than a distorted sawtooth wave. As on the original, you can adjust the oscillator mix and alter the tuning of Osc B with respect to Osc A, to obtain the wonderful fat sounds that are the bedrock of the Taurus's appeal, but that's it. Likewise, the original configuration of the Taurus's VCA and its sluggish AR contour generator have been retained, with the (still misnamed) Decay button determining whether the release stage is active or not.The Taurus's front panel controls, bookended by the large volume and control foot‑wheels.The Taurus 3'sSynthmuseum.com - Moog : Moog Taurus
24dB/oct resonant filter and its associated AD contour generator are also based upon the original's, which was itself derived from the 904A low‑pass filter in Moog's modular synths. The controls are the same as on the Taurus — cutoff frequency, resonance, attack, decay and contour amount, but nothing more. There must have been a great temptation to incorporate a more conventional ADSR contour generator here, so it's to Moog's credit that they resisted. They also retained the relationship between the attack time and the contour amount (on the original, increasing the former decreased the latter) and declined to speed up the envelope generated by the AD circuit, which is another good thing; the relative tardiness of this was an important aspect of the character of the original. However, they seem to have got one subtle aspect of the voicing wrong. On my Taurus, the maximum filter cutoff frequency attained by the contour decreases when I play notes rapidly; on the Taurus 3 it increases, as it does on the Minimoog.Additions to the original voicing come in the form of an LFO and an arpeggiator. The LFO offers four waveforms, can modulate the oscillator pitch and filter cut‑off frequency, and can create effects ranging from gentle filter sweeps to full‑fledged 'the aliens are coming...' idiocy. MIDI sync is also provided, with 20 options ranging from two clocks per note to 384 clocks per note.The addition of an arpeggiator isn't as strange as you might think; it's great to be able to trigger and transpose latched, arpeggiated bass lines using your feet. What's more, the arpeggiator in the Taurus 3 will play back notes in the order in which you enter them, so it isn't just an arpeggiator, it's a sequencer. You can store an individual note sequence in every patch, which suggests all manner of possibilities. Unfortunately, there's a bug. I created four patches that contained the same voicing but different patterns and attempted to trigger a complete bass track with my feet. Unfortunately, each time that I selected a new patch (ie. a new pattern), the Taurus 3 injected a couple of spurious notes. Hopefully, Moog will correct this, because the principle is an attractive one.In UseAt around 20kg, the Taurus 3 is far from light; indeed, it's chunky, it's difficult to lift, and it's almost impossible to get a grip on when it's sitting on the floor. I can. Moog Taurus 3 VS The Moog Taurus 1 – Which Sounds The Best? RetroSound compares similar patches on the original Moog Taurus bass synth vs the Moog Taurus III . Matrixsynth: vintage moog taurus ii synthesizer w floor pedals patchTaurus moog Retro synth ads: moog taurus ii bass pedals, keyboard 2025Moog taurus 3. The Moog Taurus is awesome. - YouTube Matrixsynth moog matrix posted am. Matrixsynth: moog taurus iiiMoog taurus ii 2025 Moog taurus iii limited edition pedals sweetwater bass minitaurMoog Taurus 3 vs. Taurus 1 - matrixsynth.com
Microphone Reviews --> Moog Sub Phatty PROS Emulates vintage Minimoog and Taurus sounds affordably Intuitive interface, easy for beginners Features hidden functions for sound exploration Signature Moog sound with fat bass and scorching leads Multidrive circuit allows for a wide range of sounds Excellent build and sound quality over time Offers powerful analog bass and lead sounds Compact and portable for live and studio use USB/MIDI integration for modern workflow Free software editor enhances usability See 6 more CONS Side panels and keys may degrade over time Limited to monophonic sounds; not a poly synth Hidden functions could be confusing without manual Some users find the keyboard quality lacking Overdrive may be tamer than expected See 1 more Bob Moog was both an engineer and electronic music pioneer, and you probably know him best as being the inventor of the Moog synthesizer. Today, the words Moog and synthesizer are all but synonymous. For any musician, owning a Moog synth is special, since the Moog sound is something that has been often imitated, but never quite replicated. Books have been written on the Moog legacy, so we’ll stop here with the history and cut to the chase. In the modern hardware synth renaissance, Moog is a force to be reckoned with, with a lineup of synths that are visually and sonically drool-worthy. One particular synth stands out amongst the rest when it comes to the most recommended “starter” Moog, and one of the most recommended starter synths in general - the Moog Sub Phatty.So, what exactly is the Sub Phatty? It’s a 25-key, fully analog, monophonic synthesizer (a.k.a. monosynth , meaning it only produces one note at a time). Don’t be let down about the fact that it’s monophonic; Considering it’s under $1,000 and an extremely well built all-analog Moog synth, that’s par for the course. Besides, its strength is not playing chords. The Sub Phatty is an absolute monster (in a good way) when it comes to basses and leads, for which one note at a time is fully sufficient. We’ll talk more about the sound later. First, let’s get into the features.After a straightforward unboxing, you’re looking at a compact 25-key (i.e. 2 octave) synth with a small footprint, which is great for carrying to and from gigs or if desk space is at a premium. Because it’s a Moog, the build quality, fit, and finish is outstanding. The unit just feels solid, and nothing seems to have been compromised. The most striking thing about the Sub Phatty is its layout. Every single knob and button is right there, waiting to be tweaked (the knobs feel great to turn, by the way). There are no LED screens or menusComments
As a Moog Rogue on a stick, the Taurus II offered more audio waveforms, oscillator sync and overdrive, as well as pitch modulation, filter modulation and envelope triggering from its multi‑waveform LFO. But to this day, the Taurus II has the unhappy distinction of being the most reviled of all analogue synthesizers. The Rogue has a small band of devoted followers, but players loved to hate the same synth engine in the Taurus II, simply because it didn't generate 'that' sound.By the start of 1983, digital synthesis had arrived, MIDI was just round the corner, and MIDI bass pedals were to appear not long after. The original Moog company ceased trading in 1984, but in 1998, a short‑lived Welsh company (Moog Music Limited) announced the re‑release of the Taurus to accompany its Model 204E recreation of the Minimoog. The pedals never appeared, but shortly thereafter Bob Moog regained the rights to his name in the USA, Moog Music was reborn, the Voyager was announced, and the clamour for Taurus pedals began anew. In the autumn of 2008, Moog Music asked aficionados to put their money where their mouths were and to pay $500 each to fund the development of a limited edition of 1000 units. Many players were willing to do so, and the Taurus 3 was born.An Unusual Playing StyleThe most famous users of Taurus pedals are rooted in the prog‑rock of the late 1970s: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and, most significantly, Mike Rutherford of Genesis, as well as Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush. Later users included Saga, Marillion, Asia, and the Police. But my favourite Taurus player was Steve Hackett's brother John, who played a set with his fists, most notably on 'Clocks' (1979), in which he used one hand to press the pedals, while the other 'played' the octave switch to give the pedals an apparent two‑octave range.It's More Than Just SoundIt's easy to understand why the original Taurus pedals remain so desirable. There's the sound, of course. But just as important, there's the essential 'rightness' of the design, which inserts no impediments between the player and the performance. Big, chunky sliders designed for your oversize wellies, footswitches placed far enough apart so that you don't hit the wrong one on a gloomy stage, and pedals that are easy to play when you're balancing on one leg... all are important factors that helped to make
2025-04-04The Moog Taurus pedal is an analog synthesizer that is played with your feet. It helps fill out the song your playing with that real church pipe organ/deep base register sound. The best example of this sound is when The Police used this pedal at the beginning of Don’t stand so close to me. This ancient, blast for the past, is precisely what your looking for, if you want that little extra something for your sound!If you’ve ever seen a church organ up close or in pictures, then you may have a better idea of what this instrument looks like. Hey, if you ever went to someone’s home and they had one of those ‘ol cheezy home organs, then you’d have a good idea as well! The Moog Taurus pedal looks exactly like the pedals at the bottom of these organs. You play it with you feet!The Moog Taurus Pedal has been around for ages. Bands that have or had them in their musical arsenal are bands like RUSH, YES, Pink Floyd, the Police and many other rock, fusion and metal performers from yesterday, right up to the present day scene!The thing that got me thinking of this was while playing with CounterPoint the other night. Chris Noto, the best bass player that I have ever had the privilege of playing with, brought it up while taking a break. He said his brother has one and that he’d love to get it from him if he could, and believe you me, this guy REALLY knows what he is talking about. The way this guy plays the bass, if he had one of these things, it would sound like he is playing 3 instruments at once! Just imagine what it could do with your sound.So check out the links on this page and learn for yourself what this could do for your band’s sound.Keep on Jammin’ -->
2025-04-19The Taurus pedals what they were.SpecificationsPolyphony: one note (13 notes over MIDI)Oscillators: two.Waveforms: one (sawtooth).Filter: 24dB/oct resonant low‑pass.Filter contour: AD.Amplifier contour: ASR.LFO: one.LFO waveforms: four.LFO range: 0.1-100Hz.LFO destinations: two (oscillator pitch, filter cutoff frequency).Pedalboard: 13 keys, C-C.Note range (pedals): 24-60 (three octaves down from middle C).Note range (MIDI): 0-60 (five octaves down from middle C).Velocity sensitivity: Over MIDI only.Controllers: two (one volume, one assignable).Audio output: Single channel, quarter‑inch high‑Z and low‑Z outputs provided.Analogue control inputs: four (pitch, filter cutoff frequency, volume, gate).Digital control: MIDI Input/Output (five‑pin DIN connector and USB), channels 1-16.Power supply: 90-250V, 50/60Hz.ProsA faithful homage to the original Taurus, both physically and sonically.Easy to control with your feet in live situations.Lots of analogue and MIDI control.ConsIt's unwieldy and can be difficult to move.There's a bug in the arpeggiator.At over two grand, it's not cheap.SummaryIf ever a synthesizer was bought for just one purpose, it was the Moog Taurus, whose eponymous preset helped to define the sound of the late '70s. The Taurus 3 is a genuine successor to the original, with a similar look and feel but, most importantly, much of the depth and power that has eluded most (if not all) other bass synthesizers. If you've been waiting for an affordable set of second‑hand Taurus pedals to appear, try the Taurus 3.information
2025-04-06Envisage some owners cutting holes in the wooden side panels to help move it around, so somebody at Moog really should have noticed this and done something about it in the design stages. But, this aside, it looks and feels the business and, once you've managed to move it to the desired position, connecting it up couldn't be easier. Plug in mains power (the PSU is universal, so you don't need to worry about line voltages or frequencies), plug a cable into the audio output, switch it on, and you're ready to go. If you have an urge to do so, you can also connect MIDI via the five‑pin DIN In/Out sockets and USB socket, as well as an analogue Gate plus three CVs to control the pitch, filter cutoff frequency and volume.In its normal mode of operation (which Moog call Preset mode), you can play the pedals as you would expect and edit patches using the facilities provided on the control panel. It's fortunate that the synth engine is so basic, because editing is a bit '1980s', with a 16 x 2-character screen and a single LED bar-graph next to the right‑hand foot-wheel to indicate parameter values.Talking of the foot‑wheels, there are two of these, and both are illuminated for use on gloomy stages. The one on the left is a dedicated volume control but, whereas the equivalent on the Taurus could never reduce the volume to zero, the Taurus 3 wheel can silence it completely, which is not good given that you're going to be controlling it (or mis‑controlling it) with your size 12s. In contrast, the wheel on the right can be assigned all manner of functions and parameters. Using it to control things such as the modulation depth is useful if you've run out of hands, and both the wheel and the Value encoder (the edit knob in the Master section) send MIDI CC messages corresponding to the parameter in focus, which means that you can use them to control other instruments, and even sequence the results.While we're discussing MIDI, it's worth noting that, although the Taurus 3 has a fairly complete MIDI implementation, it has no MIDI Thru socket, although you can echo any MIDI received via the USB socket through the five‑pin DIN 'Out' socket. The incoming MIDI can be merged with any data being generated by the Taurus 3 itself, which, in truth,
2025-03-27