Native Instruments has introduced Modular Icons, a new member of their Play Series, developed in conjunction with the Bob Moog Foundation.
Modular Icons is designed to give you an easy way to access the sounds of iconic modular synths. Through a collaboration with the Bob Moog Foundation, the new virtual instrument was built using samples made from some of the most influential instruments in electronic music history.
Contributions from Jean-Michel Jarre, Steve Porcaro, Mark Isham, Michael Boddicker, Jeff Rona, Benge, Walter Holland, Robin Rimbaud, Dan Goldstein, Kurt Ader, Paca Thomas, and EMEAPP provide the foundation for a collection of 150 preset patches.
The presets draw on samples of rare instruments, including Keith Emerson’s iconic Moog modular; TONTO, above, made famous by Stevie Wonder; a wide variety of other vintage Moog modular synthesizers; and a variety of other modular gear, including Buchla, ARP 2500 and 2600, Roland System 700, Polyfusion, Serge, EMS and EML.
Each preset features two blendable sound sources and eight pre-assigned macros, allowing fast expressive sound creation, performance, and editing.
Modular Icons comes pre-mapped for Maschine and Komplete Control, but users can also map parameters to any other MIDI controller.
Supporting The Bob Moog Foundation
Native Instruments is donating over 50% of sales to the Bob Moog Foundation – a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the memory of Bob Moog and his legacy. BMF plans to open their new Moogseum later this month.
Pricing and Availability
Modular Icons runs in Kontakt 6 and the free Kontakt 6 Player, and is available now at the NI Online Shop for $49 / 49 € / ¥ 6280/ £44/ AU$79 / CA$69 / CNY 379.
National Music Centre featured prominently here, but not credited.
I recognize a familiar face 🙂
the moral difference between two germans ceo´s, uli behringer and daniel haver: haver doesn´t rip competitors off. he allows moog to participate in ni´s development by sharing profits. hats off.
The Bob Moog Foundation is not Moog Music.
Two entirely separate things.
monark moog clone
fair enough.
Its a nice enough idea if you want a mix-&-match grab bag of modular fun, but the TONTO is virtually made up of all the other synths on the list. I’d like to see that one sampled to death, but it’d take 2 generations of studio moles to get there. It looks like a tidy plug for the intended goal and they deserve added cred for giving the Moog Foundation 50% of the take. WIN.
Class act on Native’s part to help put this together and to donating the bulk of the sales to support the BMF.
Cool to see that the Moogseum is finally coming together, too. Can’t wait to go to Asheville again.
In the end it is just samples for Kontakt, but it is not a modular structure. They are just sound samples. Better the Reaktor if you want to have the versatility of modular synths.