This little monster is very robust, the solid metal casing has a matte black finish covered in top-grade knobs that travel very smoothly without any lateral movement - it just oozes quality.
The knobby interface might look fairly basic, but once you register and download the software you can set a lot more parameters Under-The-Hood like 'Note Sync' (Osc Sync), Legato settings and you can even set how it reacts to the Mod-Wheel (up & down independently from 2 to 24 semitones).
From the software you can access the Presets or create your own and upload them to the Minitaur. You can access the presets when the it's not connected to the computer by holding down Glide and scrolling through it's internal bank of 100 using the Osc 1 & 2 buttons.
This is where it becomes apparent that there is some 'Phatty-Tech' involved as the knobs don't suddenly jump to their new values, but you can set it so that if you do start tweaking a knob when it's physical position doesn't relate to the preset it can either jump straight to the new value or gradually & smoothly catch up with it's new position. Genius!
Soundwise this beast has bass covered, it can make even inanimate objects dance. Of course it can do that round-bottomed Moog bass but also gorgeous Oberheim phasey horns, thick n squelchy TB-303 acid, face-ripping Electro, heavy Dubstep wobble, cinematic low-end rumbles, classic House bass and even zaps and FX. Some of the presets really compel you to play with a bit more funk.
The lack of a sine wave osc might seem like a glaring omission at first, but closing the filter to remove the harmonics on either the square and triangle waves reveals a healthy fundamental sine. The note range is capped at CC 72 (1 octave above Middle C, I think) but, as it's a bass machine, it's not a problem - it still reaches into the mids range, especially with patches that utilise the Resonance.
Whilst we're on Resonance, engaging it scoops out a lot of lower frequencies (when the filter is also closed somewhat) so it kind of acts like a high/band pass filter, up to the point where it starts self-resonating - here it doesn't blend very well (maybe I just haven't found the sweet-spot yet) but for FX/Zaps it's very useable.
I originally bought this to go with my Minibrute. It's worth noting that even though Moog SAY on their website their gear operates at 1 volt per octave over CV it actually operates at around 0.96/0.97 volts per octave. What this means is that the Minibrute IS outputting 1 volt po, which translates on the Minitaur as each octave has 13 notes! D'oh!. This also means that the arpeggiator over CV is also wrong. Changing back to Midi the keys work fine, but the arpeggiator only repeats the lowest note and not the whole arp sequence. Audio-In is fantastic though, running stuff through the Minitaurs Filter and Envelopes can impart punch and weight.
This was a bit of an impulse buy (a treat for stopping smoking) but it's found a permanent place in my set-up. If you're unhappy with your synth bass then this is a no-brainer! Small enough to fit into any set-up, tough enough to survive 10 years of gigging with a gorgeous tone that slays any other synth or soft-synth that pretends to 'do' bass :)
