Moog Animoog Z $19.99

Proving that the old masters can still show us new tricks, we get animated by Moog’s latest update to their affordable software synth

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Within the world of hardware synths, brands don’t come more highly prized and regarded than Moog. This has everything to do with the history of the brand, largely informed by the development of subtractive synthesis as we know it, but they also continue to develop other interesting areas of electronic music. In more recent times, Moog have been busy developing some incredibly fine software incarnations of synthesisers. We only have to look back at their reincarnation of the MiniMoog model D for iPad to see and hear just how successful this can be. In our tests, it gave an original hardware Model D an enormous run for its money, and that’s quite a feat, when you consider the huge difference in price.

Getting animated

Moog’s latest offering is the Animoog Z softsynth, which is an incredibly appealing update to their previous Animoog software. The original sound engine has been exploited in a number of professional and musical settings, with esteemed artists like Suzanne Ciani being devotees, while the sound engine itself takes centre stage in the appealing Moog Theremini instrument. Now Animoog Z offers a full 16-note polyphony, with extensive performance control, particularly if played via a touchscreen device.