Moog was very savvy to have you lay your hands on this synth. No doubt they will see a dramatic uptick in orders as a result.

This has to be the most over-rated and limited synth ever. Why anyone would want to buy this other than the fact that it’s a Moog is beyond me.

Hi, I’m the local idiot, please be nice… I am relatively new to synths. I am having tons of fun but also feel like I am not catching on quite quickly enough with respect to sound design aspect of the whole ordeal. How would one generate harmonic graphs or visual oscillator output graphs like what he is using here @2:40 ? Thank you in advance, sorry for being ignorant.

Discrete circuits would have been nice at that price for the things that are on offer, instead of SMD. And the reports of the DC plug not sitting well ain’t making me crack my wallet open.
Never the less, decent sound, fun interface, very limited and an overblown price because of the brand name…yup its a Moog synth.

Great synth with stupidest name ever.

Ramp down xD Aw Nick, I love you 😀

It would have been nice if they’d put in a few routing switches, for some of the more obvious patching choices – like key velocity to filter cut off. I like modular synths, but having wires everywhere, getting in the way of the knobs, is my least favourite part.

A switch to select the number of poles on the filter would be good too. Sometimes you want a 4 pole filter, sometimes you want a 2 pole one. Filters that let you select from 1 to 4 poles do exist. It doesn’t seem like a major engineering challenge.

time to sell some stuff!

What is this light up cable that he plugs in at 16.29? Looks cool.

I had a few minutes with one and I really enjoyed the sound… love that spring reverb. I’d like to hear something running through its input.
That jam at the end of this video was excellent!

That sequence you have going in amazing!

When I had the luck to visit the factory in Asheville, I was particularly surprised by the Grandmother. Nice sound, nice feel, and actually a pretty nice look.

i died at 6:53

I kinda felt the same way about its looks when this thing was announced. I looked at the pictures and all I could think was “Fisher Price toy”, but now I kind of like it and it sounds awesome too.

How does this compare with the subsequent 37?

9:20 Having a different type of control element for Sustain actually makes sense, because Sustain is the only level-based parameter whereas Attack, Decay and Release are time-based parameters.

kinda reminds me of the Moog source, idk why it just does. The pitchbend wheels design and the colorful scheme

Looks ghastly – a little bit of Source, a little bit of Opus III, but mostly it’s Radio Shack.
If only it sounded as shit as it looks, I wouldn’t want one.
Dreadful name too.

I want to like this, but it mostly looks like an expensive way to downgrade from a Minibrute 2.

Always nice to have Nick’s reviews on the synth you look forward to get. I believe the sustain fader choice is just because S is an amplitude level, whereas AD-R are all time based. I agree it would’ve been more useful to have a fader on the decay instead.

Hmmm been browsing the manual while I watched this. Really seems like the oscillator section is the only “module” in ol’ grandmama here that doesn’t have some significant caveat or compromise. Only one LFO with fairly limited capabilities. No way to adjust behavior of the mod wheel -it always modulates the LFO’s affect on the filter cutoff, pulse width modulation AND *pitch* at the same time?! I hope I’m mis-reading that, because I’d want the option of turning off that pitch modulation, and I’d definitely want to be able to affect LFO rate (speed) with the mod wheel. No CV control over attenuator, passive mult ok those are always handy but trivially cheap. Only one envelope and yeah it is ridiculous that they gave the sustain – the most boring stage of an ADSR and worst choice to modulate in a performance – a special focus-grabbing control mechanism. The spring reverb was one of he most interesting parts to me and it seems like it’s just kinda meh. But most disappointing of all – the filter… What a bummer. No CV control over resonance… lame but unfortunately maybe for the best when you consider: increasing the resonance dramatically kills the bass frequencies. And all in all, those dramatic volume variations caused by modulating the cutoff and res will be a nightmare to mix in a full track. All of these are unfortunately “classic” vcf problems, but they’re problems that have been solved in numerous other filters.

Some undeniable pros though:
Those oscillators. Yes. Was strongly considering this unit from those alone.
Good to see the patch points accept standard voltage ranges. Most are -5v – 5v. The CV ins of the subsequent 37 are all 0v-5v, which you really have to watch out for if trying to patch it to other synth gear.
Hopefully the keybed is decent?
Price. This serves as a reminder that the best components come at a price. Sure, a Subsequent 37 can run 2x the price, but it easily brings 10x the features and arguably 100x the possibilities. Even more if you consider the Sub/Subsequent’s preset memory and great vst & DAW compatibility. But I’d still maybe snatch up a used Grandmother if I saw it going for the price of a new Mother 32, even with these limitations.

Prime example of why moog is so great.

Great video as always. The past week or so has seen a few cracking videos on the Grandmother come out.

So, a Grandmother or an Minibrute 2? Both look a lot of fun – tough to decide!!!