Moog's latest offering, on display for the first time at the Winter NAMM exhibition in California, is the Sub 37 Tribute: a two-oscillator paraphonic synthesizer that's broadly based on the Sub Phatty synth. As the name suggests, the synth sports 37 keys as opposed to 25 on the Sub Phatty, and it also has aftertouch.
The synth engine itself has had a series of upgrades including an arpeggiator, a step sequencer, and second oscillator which can be played in unison or in duo mode for creating non-octave intervals. Another improvement to the oscillator section is the addition of a keyboard reset mode which resets the oscillators so each note attack has the same punch as the last - something that is a requirement in certain modern electronic genres.
There are also now two modulation busses, providing two independent LFOs that can be synchronised to clock and routed to a variety of sources and destinations.
As expected, the filter is the classic Moog ladder type, but this has variable slopes and can be run in 1, 2, 3 or 4-pole modes. Like the Sub Phatty, this also features MultiDrive distortion, and if you're after further sonic destruction, there is a Feedback control in the synth's mixer that takes the mixer output and feeds it back into the external input before sending the signal to the filter section.
The Envelope section has been expanded to allow different triggering modes to be accessed directly from the front panel. Clock synchronisation allows the envelopes to be looped and latched so they can be used for moulation like LFOs with complex shapes.
The Sub 37 Tribute also ships with preset editor software which can be used in both standalone mode or with a DAW. Moog's new synth is set to retail for around $1500 in the US and a limited run will be available from May 2014.
