Moog Filtatron Now Available For $4.99 – Does It Live Up To The Moog Name?

Moog has announced that their first mobile music app, the Moog Filtatron, is now available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store for $4.99.

The Moog Filtatron inspired a lot of discussion, before it was released – with some excited about the prospect of an official Moog mobile app and others thinking the idea of it would make Bob Moog roll over in his grave.

If you’ve tried it out, weigh in with your thoughts. How do you think it sounds? And do you think this is a good direction for Moog Music?

If you’ve got audio or video examples of what you’ve done with Filtatron, leave a link in the comments!

Key Features Of the Moog Filtatron:

  • 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.

34 thoughts on “Moog Filtatron Now Available For $4.99 – Does It Live Up To The Moog Name?

  1. Forgive my ignorance, but is it still considered a Ladder filter even though it's emulated?

    Also… I thought the moog filter sounded unique because of it's tendency to distort… Due to a flaw in it's design… So they emulated the ladder array and the moog filter's deficiencies?

    Not that it's a bad thing… Just curious as to why they don't just make a clean filter with an overdrive circuit modulated by the resonance amount… It would be way more versatile.

    Anyone play with this thing yet?

  2. Elry

    It’s much cheaper to make a good iPhone app than a good VST because you only need to test on a couple os/device combinations.

  3. If you even have to ponder whether or not this $4.99 app is going to accurately sound like a Model D ladder filter, you should buy this app immediately.

    Arrrgh this cell-phone generation!

  4. like it. apps to me are for happy accidents waiting in line while recording or whatever reason this is all i had to use- not to replace hardware. bandwagon is ridin' jump on board

  5. It's a fun app. There are some areas that could use improvement that will hopefully get addressed in future revisions.

    I really need to get an input cable like the iRig soon!

  6. Well, I'm guilty of having it downloaded yesterday. If you skip the Moog part it is a well designed filter app and sounds nice. It is easy to use and has a good extent of possibilities. But for what it is and considering the price of other apps, the 4,99$ are a bit too much asked for.

  7. i ve made some loops in Beatmaker and dropped them in Filtatron…. It was really exciting playing with it…. I hope it will be improved in the (near hopefully) future so it can move completely away from the "toy" category.

  8. downloaded it immediately after checking some videos. It's one of the few apps that really make sense to have on an iPhone, at least from my perspective. So far I must say the best thing is to forget that is comes from Moog. There's a huge lot of expectations that come with the name, and to be earnest this is still just an iPhone app, a good one, but having it branded Moog doesn't really help to overcome the limitations of the platform. And of course this app will never sound like the hardware equivalents. But does it have to?
    This said, the app is pretty good imho, has some nice features like tap tempo and sample playback/recording, supports audio copy/paste and enables you to use your iPhone as an additional fx processor in a live situation. The two xy pads make interaction with quick and easy.
    So far I can't find any negative aspects, especially given the price. There apps that cost more and do a lot less…
    but of course I'll have to play with it a bit more…

  9. It's nice to play with, not an overly serious tool though, however a 16 step analog sequencer would have been a superb addition and really made it useful for me.

  10. Got it on iPad – not sure how you can LineIn on iPad but have had a lot of fun twiddling with virtual knobs. The pads are great. Just sillyness that will make you smile.

    People need to lighten up. It a £3 noise maker that should make you smile and kill some time inbetween proper music sessions.

    If you feel like you need the accuracy of the Voyager XL, then buy one of those. Ahem.

  11. @ rumplefilter:

    moog is selling this as if it's a viable replacement for an analog filter (they explicitly say that in their promotional liturature) if that's the case it really does need to sound like the real thing.

    If it sounds good, use it, but on principle they shouldn't say it's "the moog sound on your iphone" if they can't back it up, it hurts their brand integrity and is just plain dishonest. When you talk about the sound quality of software generated audio it's just as important to look at the hardware (analog/digital converters and such) as it is on the software itself. You could theoretically have a plugin or app that can accurately recreate the sound, but unless you move it to your DAW digitally, it'll still be bottlenecked through the iphone's a/d converters, and if those suck, you'll never get an accurate sound.

  12. what scares me about this app is that if moog is claiming you can get their signature sound with software, the layperson dipping their toe in the analog synth world would probably believe them and have no incentive to actually buy the analog version. This means moog will have an even smaller market for their true analog gear, which will motivate them to use digital methods to cut more corners in the future, which would TOTALLY KILL the purist philosophy that made them so cool in the past.

  13. I think it's pretty much a toy. Well that's why I bought it anyway. Don't expect blood from stone here. Just a time killer, which it does that for sure. Does it replace a real Moog filter? Not a chance. But it is only $5 so I would not expect it to no matter what their marketing says.

  14. Thanks to rumpelfilter and others who actually posted info about the topic question.

    As for Moog<tm>, the Bob is deceased, so now it's just the executives and relatives milking the brand for all its worth.

  15. My question was of a technical nature… Not emotionally based…. And I didn't ask if it sounded like a moo filter… Just wanted specifics, that's all..

  16. The most enjoyable sound app I've had the opportunity to fiddle around with yet, analogue wankers piss and moan about the Moog brand finding its way into anything digital, but lets forget about the name and analogue purity for a minute and focus on the app itself, which is quite the impressive little sound mangler in its own right.

    The VCO and VCF both sound great but the real corker is the delay which sounds downright amazing, deliciously liquid and round sound that wouldn't look bad next to your array of delay-plugins. The sampler is a great and very time-killing feature which you can use to record sounds straight from the iphone mic or via one you plug in, then you can overdub by playing a sample while playing sounds into the line in, everything in real time.

    Moog or not, I haven't had this much fun with my phone for a very long time and I've come up with lots of new sounds and ideas to implement into my studio projects as well, perhaps it won't cater to everyones taste but if you happen to enjoy knob-twiddling and soundmangling in general and own an iPhone then this is an app you can't afford to pass on. Performed rock-steady on my 3GS so far, no freezes or crashes, and the interface is beautifully laid out and works just as you'd expect.

    5/5 from me, a real bargain that makes those long train and bus-journeys not quite so long 😉

  17. I'm with you Benny.
    Great little app. Plain fun to mess with sounds.
    I bet if the Moog name wasn't on this, the same guys would be all over it.
    Its fun, easy and very well made.
    I look forward to more of the same from Moog

  18. I generally find people who moan about something without actually trying it, they re usually people who are stuck in the past, and hate change. Moan about the latest music trends, about hardware, software – get a fucking grip. Who cares what you use to make music, if you have fun using then it really dosent matter if it’s an iPhone app.

    Music production snobbery does my fucking head in.

  19. Why are vst’s so expensive. Dont tell me it easier to test on an iPhone. That’s bullshit. And wouldn’t make up for the vst being 10x the cost. We get ripped of on software. But we just take it. Because we are now consumers. We buy to make us feel a little better and kill time. Time is valuable. We shouldn’t be killing it using average apps.

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