You Asked, They Listened: Moog Music Releases Limited Edition Werkstatt-01 Synth Kit June 9, 2014
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Moog Music today announced that it is releasing the Moog Werkstatt – originally designed for a hands-on workshop during Moogfest 2014 – as a limited edition hackable synthesizer.

During Moogfest, the comppany facilitated a two-day workshop, in which Moog engineers assisted 125 participants in building Werkstatt, an educational, patchable analog synthesizer designed specifically for the event. It was Moog’s first workshop since 1997, when Bob Moog held a theremin workshop in Portland, Maine.

The Moogfest synth building workshop received overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants. There was substantial interest in a wider release for the Werkstatt at Synthtopia and elsewhere. The challenge, though, was that the Werkstatt was originally designed for assembly at synth-building sessions at Moogfest 2014, with the help of Moog’s product engineers & technicians.

Moog has responded to interest by creating a no-soldering-required version of Werkstatt, the Werkstatt-Ø1 Moogfest 2014 Analog Synthesizer. They are releasing it in limited quantities to a small number of US dealers only.

“We created Werkstatt specifically as an educational tool for teaching electronics assembly techniques and analog synthesizer circuit design in a workshop at Moogfest 2014.” said Moog Product Development Specialist Steve Dunnington, creator of the Werkstatt.“That workshop was very special for the Moog engineers. We learned so much from the experience and each of the participants.”

Since the end of Moogfest 2014, Moog responded to interest and decided to modify Werkstatt to make it appropriate outside of a workshop setting.

Boards are pre-built, so the Werkstatt doesn’t require soldering, just assembly. This means it’s not limited to users that have experience with soldering, but preserves the design’s patchability, expansion options and hackability.

“While we can’t duplicate the experience of the Moogfest 2014 Engineering VIP Workshop,” adds Dunnington, “Werkstatt-Ø1 will still offer a valuable and fun educational experience for customers.”

Here’s a video we shot at Moogfest, with Dunnington and Moog’s Trent Thompson:

moogfest-werkstatt-01-analog-synthesizer

The Werkstatt-Ø1 Moogfest 2014 Analog Synthesizer features a single voltage controlled oscillator with two selectable waveshapes, saw and pulse. This section also includes a control for adjusting pulse width modulation and oscillator frequency, which extends from 8Hz to 16KHz.

The voltage controlled filter section houses a classic 4-pole Moog Ladder Filter with 20Hz-20kHz frequency response, and a variable resonance control that is capable of driving the filter into self oscillation.

Werkstatt-Ø1 has two selectable modulation sources; a dual waveshape LFO with 0.2Hz-600Hz sweepable range, and a variable attack/decay envelope section with sustain on/off switch. Modulation sources are easily assigned via dedicated VCO and VCF modulation sections, each with a variable control for modulation amount.

Also included in each Werkstatt-Ø1 is a breadboard-style patchable header, which expands its sonic abilities. This patchable header features a dedicated external audio input, and control voltage inputs for VCO linear FM, VCO exponential FM, VCF, VCA, and LFO. CV outputs are in pairs, and include dual outputs for Keyboard CV, EG, LFO, VCF, VCO, Gate, and Trigger.

Pricing and Availability

The Moog Music Werkstatt-01 is priced at US $329, and will be available in limited quantities through the following list of retailers:

Retailers are taking pre-orders now and expect to be able to ship initial units later this month. For additional information, see the Moog Music website.

[Synthtopia]