Moog Filtatron iPhone App – The ‘Gateway Drug To Analog Gear’?

Moog Music has announced a new iOS app, the Moog Filtatron, that combines filtering, effects and sampling.

The heart of the Filtatron is a modeled Moog Ladder Filter, the same filter that gives Moog instruments their warm character. It musically shapes the sounds supplied by the filtatron’s on-board oscillator, sampler and line/microphone input.

The Filtratron also has Multi-Touch Pads that offer an intuitive performance interface and provide hands-on control of all major sound-sculpting parameters.  Filtatron comes with presets, running the gamut from cutting rhythms and ambient drones to out-there effects workouts.

Filtatron also comes with an array of loopable samples and you can use the Sampler to record and play your own unique sounds. Built-in effects include Delay and Amp controls provide tones ranging from warm analog overdrive to extreme distortion.

It’s Moog, it sounds good and it’s on the iPhone.

This is really going to torment the anti-iOS analog traditionalists.

Filtatron will be available October 18, 2010 for the iPhone and iPod Touch for $4.99.

Key Features:

  • Moog Ladder Filter – 4 pole resonant Moog Ladder Filter, with Lowpass and Highpass modes and adjustable cutoff and resonance parameters.
  • Oscillator – a high-resolution, alias-free DSP oscillator with sawtooth and square waveforms, adjustable frequency from 0.3 Hz to 2kHz.
  • LFO – five waveforms: sine, ramp, sawtooth, square, sample & hold, with crossfade and morph between adjacent LFO shapes.
  • Envelope Follower – uses the volume envelope of sound inputs to sweep the filter, with controls for amount and speed.
  • Amp and Delay FX Modules – Amp provides warm, smooth overdrive with feedback control. Delay can be modulated by its own LFO (with rate and depth controls) and delay time is smoothly interpolated for analog-style delay time tweaks.
  • File Sharing – Easily move audio files back and forth between the Filtatron and your computer. Audio Copy and Audio Paste enables sharing audio between the Filtatron and other compatible apps. Built-in email function allows sharing presets with other Filtatron users.
  • Record and Playback – All audio processed in stereo, 16bit, 44.1kHz resolution. Filtatron will record samples up to 10MB. Tap and Drag sets start and end points for seamless looping. Playback control can be adjusted from double-speed playback all the way down through zero to double-speed reverse.

The Moog Sound = Crack

“Filtatron represents the first time that the signature Moog sound is available outside of a high-end, hand-made Moog synthesizer,” said Mike Adams, president of Moog Music. “This powerful app extends the studio capabilities of traditional Moog users, and also provides music enthusiasts and Moog fans a fantastic way to create and share their personalized presets. All for a price that makes the Moog sound accessible to a wide audience.”

And, as early user Peter Kirn says, “It’s a lot of fun to use. This could be a gateway drug to Moog’s genuine analog gear for the mass market on iOS.”

What do you think about Moog doing iPhone apps? Can the Moog sound be recreated in software? And is “the Moog sound” as addictive as crack?

Let me know what you think of this development in the comments!

16 thoughts on “Moog Filtatron iPhone App – The ‘Gateway Drug To Analog Gear’?

  1. The question is: how does it really sound? But running on an iPhone I would not expect it to sound anything comparable with the analogue hardware… so I agree, it's marketing, everybody has an iApp so Moog makes one as well…

  2. I don't feel tormented by this. It's good for a laugh. If they have done something extraordinary with this software why not release it as a regular AudioUnit, VST, RTAS, etc. plugin so we could use it as part of our already established workflow if we cared? As others already mentioned: This seems to be a marketing gimmick. If this were the 90s they just would have given us an inflatable MiniMoog or some such thing instead. 😉

  3. Inflatable moogs! Now that is a good idea. 🙂 a cheap alternative to creating a cool looking studio until you can afford the real thing! 🙂

  4. Random Chance –

    It sounds like you haven't thought this through, yet.

    Think for a moment about how big an audience there is for iOS apps. There are 100 million+ iOS devices out there.

    Then think about how small an audience there is for DAW plugins. That tiny audience of DAW users is fragmented into people who need different formats (AudioUnit, VST, etc.). Now, subtract 2/3rds of the PC users, who rip off their software.

    If you were a developer, where would you put your time?

  5. Comments on the workflow aspects of this? Enhanced field recorder, or solo an iMS20 (ipad) track, render to file, process in Filtatron?

  6. I bought it. It’s ok. More of just kind of a fool around app to show your friends. I work in Nanostudio and Beatmaker 2. Those have all you need. I don’t know why but the Filtatron pops and makes lots of audio artifacts that make it unpleasant to use most of the time. Bummer.

  7. yeah…so i’m assuming at this point the naysayers of Moog iOS apps have eaten their fill of crow.

    or they never looked twice at them 😀

    Just had to throw out how nice iOS has turned out for workflow, especially with Animoog, Garageband, Music Studio, NanoStudio, FiltatronCOUGH,

    iRIG and so on…

    not saying they are an end-all, but for portable development sleeker than a laptop 😉

    Complaint: using Animoog for multiple tracks requires a *massive* hunt for methods, since it overdubs onto the looped sample.

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