Category Archives: Moog

Moog Little Phatty Road Case Review

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This is a short review of the Moog Little Phatty Road Case from (tada!) Moog.

It works. It fits. It’s well built. Buy it.

LPCase1Now for the details. Since I’m about to move some gear and I’ve been wanting a good case for the Little Phatty I decided to go all out and order the official Moog branded Little Phatty road case.

The case is actually made by Gator as you can see on the hatches that locks the lid in place. The interior foam however has been custom fitted to a Little Phatty, including the wedge shaped front panel.

The case also comes with 2 extra pieces of thick padding that you can move around to a position that gives you the greatest confidence in terms of securing the synth.

LPCase2

I put them behind the synth to keep it from rocking back and forth. When the case arrived they were placed in the bottom to raise the synth about 3 inches, but with this configuration the lid will not  close. If you look at the official product picture on the Moog site it shows the synth sitting level with the interior foam. This will not work as the wedged front panel will then be too high for the lid of the case to close.

Overall I think the build quality and the fit is very nice. It is not exactly a cheap case, but since the Little Phatty is an oddly shaped, expensive piece of gear I think it is totally worth its premium price.

You can buy it either at the Moog site directly, or from Sweetwater and get $20 off and free shipping. (Why Moog charges such outrages shipping prices is beyond me…)

Highly recommended!

FiveG, the Vintage and Used Synth Mecca in Tokyo

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This post could also be called Day 19 in Japan, but on this day I had a very specific goal so I’ll talk mostly about that.

Since I was heading out to Tokyo, I decided to check online if there were any particularly interesting stores or other spots that a synth head should check out while in the city. I have lived in Tokyo for many years but when I did I wasn’t very interested in synthesizers or electronica beyond listening to it.

A quick search turned up a place called FiveG, close to Harajuku station on the Yamanote line. Online reviews talked about it as a place where you might find interesting used synths, and it looked like they had a selection on used Doepfer modules for sale too.

At this day, my friends Adam and Frederic were also arriving in Tokyo for the same business reasons as I, and since Adam is as much of a synth nerd as I am I decided to invite them to come with me.

fiveg1FiveG is located on the fourth floor of an anonymous looking building just outside Harajuku station. You have to walk in to the back of the entrance were you’ll find a dress up store for Japanese maid costumes. Next to this store is an elevator, which you ride to the fourth floor. Once there, you have to look around the corner of a very narrow hallway and you’ll find the store entrance.

Inside though the store is actually quite big, and stuffed from floor to ceiling, in multiple rows, with the most amazing vintage and used synths and other hardware you could ever imagine. At the time they had everything from Memory Moogs to the keyboard version of the Elektron Monomachine and several Korg MS 10, 20, and vocoders. I even spotted a used Elektron Analog 4!?

On the modular side they had hundreds of Eurorack modules and a whole section dedicated to Moog modular gear. I can’t even begin to list them all, but you can’t help but asking yourself where all that gear came from…

fiveg2The prices were reasonable too. And they offered to ship anything back to the states as well if needed. If you are in Tokyo looking for some interesting, unusual gear, and you have some space in your bags, I highly recommend checking out this store. Even if you can’t afford some of the more esoteric instruments and accessories its still a great way to spend time in the company of some of the most famous electronic instruments ever. I do recommend that you bring a friend who can speak Japanese since that makes the visit even better!

Check out the photos and the link below if you want to know more.

FiveG, Harajuku – Tokyo

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Day 5, 6 and 7 in Japan

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The past few days have been spent celebrating the New Year. Relatives and friends have been stopping by and lot’s of good times have passed. Naturally there hasn’t been much music made, but I have managed to do some sampling. Mostly different types of weather so far.

I have also spent a lot of time reading up on the Doepfer modular synth system.

I’ve been longing for a big, fat modular for so long. Right now I’m going back and forth between expanding my Moog setup by polychaining the Little Phatty with a set of Slim Phatties and add a set of MoogerFoogers for good measure, or investing in a Doepfer system.

Pricewise it’s about the same amount of money, but they are going in very different directions.

Regardless, I think my first step will be the Doepfer MAQ16/3 Analog sequencer, since I can use it to drive both either a true modular, or the Moog poly setup…

Any thoughts? Check out the sequencer on the link below:

http://www.doepfer.de/maq_e.htm