- It really is difficult to overstate the Minimoog's influence on modern music. The basslines on "Thriller" and "Wanna Be Startin' Something," Kraftwerk's "Autobahn," through to regular use by E.L.P., Funkadelic and Chicago—its stamp is ubiquitous. Released in 1970, it was a monophonic synthesizer originally designed to fulfill a need for portable versions of impractical modular systems. It was redesigned as the Minimoog Voyager about ten years ago and modernized with the likes of additional functionality (another LFO, aftertouch etc), digital control and a touchpad—but some said that it fell short of recreating the original's grit.
The Voyager XL at the end of last year added modular-style patching, but at $5000, the most economically viable option in this lineage for your average bedroom producer remained the—still monophonic—Little Phatty, which used the same circuit designs as the Voyager, and of which the Slim Phatty is its keyboard-less daughter. So, the cheapest Moog available in shops, and the cheapest option altogether for those seeking Minimoog-specific sound generation architecture. And now, with the reduction of the analogue aspect of the interface to just six pots, this engine is encased almost completely in microprocessors.
Rubber buttons are used to switch the functionality of each knob. There's one pot each for modulation, oscillators, filter and amp and filter EGs, with the obvious controls available and more notably an overload control, which adds distortion by progressively hardening clipping. It's basically two oscillators, one amp envelope, one low-pass filter and single (well, OK, double—more on that later) modulation—extremely simple. There's independent control of each filter and amp envelope stage, cut-off and resonance, and keyboard and envelope influence on the filter. Additionally, you've got oscillator level control, detune amount for oscillator 2, LFO rate and modulation amount, and glide amount.
Oscillator octaves and some common modulation sources and destinations are selectable. These staples are spiced up with the likes of continuous control of the waveshapes. The potential for more interesting textures lies in the choice of modulation, with sources including various LFO waveshapes, filter envelope and oscillator 2, destinations of filter cut-off, oscillator pitch (both oscillators), waveshape (again, both) and oscillator 2 pitch. This enables, for example, routing from oscillator 2 to its own pitch, and pulse-width modulation. Plugs around the back allow input for volume, filter and pitch control voltages, and a keyboard gate trigger.
Burrowing into the digital realm unearths further capability: an arpeggiator, alternate scale editor, and sets to arrange your presets in an ordered collection for performance purposes. There's a lot for computer-based musicians to be happy about too. USB connectivity is available and easy—drivers were automatically installed on my computer upon plugging in the unit, and it was immediately available to send and receive data in Live. This data includes controller and program change values, meaning you can record parameter or patch changes and play them back within your DAW. The LFO and arpeggiator can be synced too. Some of the more useful configuration options include pot mapping, allowing you, for example, to control amp attack, delay, sustain and release parameters all at once, number of filter poles, a secondary modulation destination (using the same level as the first) and two additional modulation sources—sample and hold and noise waveforms.
It's fairly inconvenient to have to tunnel through menu options for a number of these, and although a dedicated arpeggiator panel would certainly detract from the unit's modesty of mass and controls, there's a few places—modulation sources, only one envelope knob—where the comfortable occupancy of real estate on the whole makes it hard to see the advantage of not doing so. The second modulation destination, for example, might be scantily used by those who are both put off by having to delve into menus and unimpressed by the lack of individual level control. The potentiometers, too, are not endless, so takeover becomes an issue, and to those used to having a full range of rotary controllers, the continuous button pressing required to select between functions might be uncomfortable, at least at first. It's clearly inferior, but could, however, have the potential to grow on the user as an idiosyncrasy of their workflow as they get used to it, and you can also play the selection buttons for glitchy live sounds. The more deeply buried functions—arpeggiator, pot mapping—might, on the other hand, remain largely as such.
With updates beefing up the capability with the likes of higher-accuracy MIDI handling, all of this is bound to appeal to many modern producers' features checklists. What you're really paying your money for, though, is the sound. Which is lovely. It's particularly good for bass sounds, which have an oaky solidness to them, and definition to any additional character you add. The filter, a particularly well-loved Moog feature, not only sounds but also feels steadfast as you're sweeping the cut-off.
You can use the Slim—as well as the rest of the post-oscillator signal path—to treat incoming audio if you wish. Lead sounds are attention grabbing to say the least, and using oscillator sync, and maximum resonance and oscillator 2 frequency settings, respectively, can assemble things like bells and congas. In fact, there's a surprising range of sounds possible considering its simplicity. If you're looking for a pad or drum synth, however, both sustained sounds and those that require a noise generator (there isn't one) aren't covered particularly.
Purists might lament the signal path's entrapment within a digital dictatorship, but the aim of the Slim Phatty is to deliver the Moog sound, (relatively) cheaply, in a plug-and-play package—which, fiddles notwithstanding, it does very well. Its steel case feels roadworthy, and it's got sturdy rubber buttons lit up by lots of cool LEDs. Note that you're paying more for a Moog rather than another analogue monosynth, with Dave Smith Instruments offering several options at this price point. For those who aren't especially attached to either, it'll be a question of taste. For some, though, there'll be no question.
Ratings /
Cost: 3/5
Versatility: 4/5
Sound: 5/5
Ease of use: 2.5/5