The legendary Moog name continues to innovate. Could the Spectravox be an essential addition to any studio setup?
The Moog brand has existed in various incarnations since the 1950s, most of which have been defined by quite simple synthesisers. They’ve mainly been iconic and legendary synths – Moog is virtually synonymous with the concept of fat analogue sounds – but in earlier years Bob Moog’s interests were about as experimental as they get. The Moog Spectravox harks back to those pioneering origins of Moog’s early years: a ‘spectral processor’ synth built on a bank of filters. That makes it more complicated than a basic synth, but this is a device which can truly expand your horizons.
The Spectravox follows a similar formula to lots of recent Moog releases: it’s a standalone instrument which is fully compatible with Eurorack modular synths or other Moog instruments if you choose to expand your setup. What that means is that you can build a studio hardware system around the Spectravox, although for various reasons we’d suggest that the Spectravox works best as an addition to existing instruments or sound sources. If you’ve already got a synth, a microphone or a drum machine, the Spectravox will enhance your options massively.
The Spectravox is a curious instrument if you’re expecting a conventional analogue synth, but quite easy to understand when you break it down into sections. The ‘program’ input is self-explanatory, feeding the main sound into the device to be analysed in terms of frequency spectrum, while the ‘carrier’ part is a basic voltage-controlled oscillator, with sawtooth or pulse waves plus a random noise generator. This feeds into a bank of 10 filters, arranged in sequential order and each with its own level control and envelope follower. This is all controlled by a spectral shift and resonance section, plus a VCA section with decay control.
You can use the Spectravox in two main ways. Think of it as a type of vocoder or a synth voice in its own right. Playing it as an instrument, the unit works surprisingly well; you can shift and twist the frequency spectrum to create unusual tones, quite different to conventional synths but also harking back to those vintage 60s vibes. As a sound processing tool, though, is where the Spectravox really shines: feed in a synth, a voice or even a drum machine and you can then get creative with the frequency bands and the spectral shift control, tweaking and altering the tonal balance.
By Moog standards, the Spectravox takes some getting used to, but it’s worth putting in the effort. The carrier part is maybe best considered to be the basic sound source of the system, and essentially defines the output based upon the frequency balance of the program section. Switching between vocoder and filter bank modes changes the behaviour of the setup but not necessarily in radically different ways; you’re using one set of frequencies to control the other here either way, and generating something new entirely based upon them both.
The Spectravox probably isn’t going to appeal to everyone, but it’s a fitting reminder of just how much Moog have defined the world of electronic music. This is an instrument which harks back to iconic Moog Modular designs of the 1960s and brings them right up to date, expanding horizons of sound and allowing you to think about music in a different way.
Greg Scarth
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