On the other, you can make the instrument as complex as you like and allocate multiple functions to every knob and button using parameter access and some form of menu‑driven operating system. You want to change the sound? Just twist the appropriate knob or flip the appropriate switch and something interesting will happen. On one hand, you can keep everything simple.
There are two ways to approach analogue synth design. At the far right, we find an IEC port for the internal power supply, along with the less than conveniently placed on/off switch.
The Slim Phatty's rear panel features a USB2 port, headphone socket, audio output and audio input (on quarter‑inch jack sockets), CV inputs for volume, filter, pitch and gate (again on quarter‑inch jack sockets) and MIDI In, Out and Thru ports. Talking of rackmounting, I was also disappointed to see that the rack ears cost £23.99 $25 extra, while those who wish to use the Slim Phatty as a desktop module will be asked for another £99 $89 for the optional Wood Kit. While I give Moog credit for incorporating a universal power supply rather than using a wall‑wart, placing the power switch on the rear of something designed to be rackmounted is silly. Worse still is the position of its on/off switch. This feels chunky and solid, as do its positive buttons, but I was less reassured by its knobs, all seven of which demonstrate an unnerving amount of wobble. Physically, the Slim Phatty has eschewed the curvaceous design of its keyboard‑endowed sibling, and comes instead in an angular pressed steel case. But, in essence, all three of these synths are hewn from the same lump of rock. Inevitably, however, the Phatties offer more in most (although not all) departments more waveforms for the oscillators and modulator, PWM, cross‑mod, overdrive, positive and negative filter contour tracking, an external audio input, MIDI via five‑pin DIN or USB (or both), updatable firmware, and so on. All three sport a 'parameter access' programming system, all three offer dual oscillators with hard sync and portamento, all have a single, self‑oscillating 24dB/oct low‑pass filter, all offer independent ADSR envelope generators for the VCF and VCA, and all have a single modulation source with two destinations. Philosophically, the similarity of the two Phatties to the Moog Source is striking. So where does the appallingly named Slim Phatty sit in the Moog pantheon? As the module derived from the equally appallingly named Little Phatty, is it a classic for a new generation, or should it be consigned to the bin of unfulfilled promises? Nowadays, I find the same to be true of the company's reincarnation, whose price list contains sufficient curate's eggs for a large omelette. none of these will be accompanying anybody to any desert islands. As for the likes of the Opus III, the Polymoog Keyboard and the Micromoog. My Minimoog has been a thing of joy for more than three decades, whereas my Source was unusable until the Synthesiser Service Centre fixed a design fault in its power supply.
I always found Moog to be the most ambiguous of companies. Moog's Little Phatty has shed some pounds (in both senses of the word), but does this new, lightweight synth have what it takes to be a contender?