Moog Sub Phatty Review

This is considered the “grittiest Moog Synth ever” and I tend to agree, which explains why its mentioned as one of the best synthesizers. Certain analog synths take a little time to warm up before they perform at full function; this is not one of them, its fast and one of the best keyboards.  It’s ready to go and so much fun to play!  Whether you are a bassist or a keyboardist or just a musician that wants to play with some of the fattest, grittiest synth tones in the game, this synthesizer is for you!

It is vibrant and lush and can be pushed in any direction with it’s multi drive feature.  It can be one of the warmest richest sounding synths or it can scream and cut through like no other.  There are such powerful and vivid tones hidden throughout this synthesizer that you’ll never grow tired of experimenting with this machine.

You can work with the sub oscillator to create some of the fattest sounds using it’s unique square waveforms, creating a third oscillator and pushing the depth to new levels.  Add a noise generator to that and you can create whole soundspaces.

I tend to use this for making huge bass lines to play drums to and some times I just smack the keys a bit while drumming and I get really cool percussive tones and sound effects that are great for live performances.  There is definitely great lead tones on this as well.  While I don’t use it for that predominately, a lot of musicians I know that are Moog guys love to solo on this guy.  Especially since the multi drive is so awesome.

You can get some really tasty distortion including an awesome post filter overdrive that can get very dirty with classic and modern feels with the signature Moog punch and roundness, which really comes out with the ladder filter.  There is some programming that can be done with choosing destinations and specifying poles and bends but it’s very user friendly and everything is on the front panel unlike some synths and modules that require working with the front and back of the machine.

In my experience, this is a very easy synthesizer to use and really opens up a lot of creativity.  In my opinion it’s one of Moog’s best synthesizers at the best value.

I would suggest any keyboardist, producer and bass player to own one of these gems.  Guitarists too actually…just learned that you can plug your guitar in to the external input of the Sub Phatty and process your guitar to get some crazy tones through the guitar.   As a matter of fact, you can connect the Sub Phatty to lots of gear with MIDI DIN In/Out and MIDI of USB and CV connectivity.

This 25 semi-weighted keys synthesizer is a gem that gives you immediate control with even more just below the surface which gives you the opportunity to grow with the synthesizer and use it with or without the plugin editor.

Moog Sub Phatty 25-key Analog Synthesizer Features:

• An authentic Moog at a ridiculously affordable price!
• 25 semi-weighted keys; 100% analog signal path
• 31 knobs and 13 switches give you direct, immediate control
• 2 ultra-stable variable-waveshape oscillators
• Square-wave Sub Oscillator in mixer section
• Onboard noise generator
• Legendary Moog Ladder Filter
• Onboard LFO (.1Hz to100Hz)
• Multidrive delivers a wide range of classic and modern sound
• Classic 1-knob-per-function design
• 2-octave-up/-down transposition
• External audio input
• Filter CV; Pitch CV; Volume CV; keyboard gate connections
• MIDI DIN In/Out; MIDI over USB
• Editor/librarian software included

FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use this instead of bass on a gig and get fat enough tones to not worry about not have a bass guitarist?

Absolutely!  Run this through a bass amp for maximum effect and make sure there is a sub woofer and you will get deeper and fuller tones that almost any bass out there!