Unfortunately, this made it expensive and unreliable so, in 1978, the powers-that-be at Norlin (who owned the Moog brand) decided to release a cheaper, simpler, preset version that lacked its synthesis controls. The Polymoog was much enhanced when compared with the Apollo the single oscillator per note had become two oscillators per note, a sustain phase had been added to its contour generators, and its keyboard had been extended so that it could be played more like a piano. But the polyphonic bit in the middle, the four-octave, single-oscillator-per-note instrument described by Moog as “a true polyphonic synth and electric piano” was never seen or heard again, although much of its technology later appeared in the Polymoog Keyboard, which was released in 1975. The bass synth also survived in part as the Taurus pedals. The monophonic instrument, the Lyra, was also used by ELP, and bits of it eventually ended up in the Micromoog and Multimoog. The first instrument to bear this name was built in 1973 as part of the unreleased Moog Constellation mono/poly/bass synth. To answer this, we need to look at the history of the Apollo. The UVI PX Apollo appears to be one of the former, inspired by the legendary Moog Apollo whose only outing was ELP’s Brain Salad Surgery tour of 1974. Does the world need another Minimoog or Hammond B3 emulation, or yet another way to slice up waveforms, modulate them according to the positions of the planets on your 21st birthday, chop the results into little pieces and then reassemble them according to some algorithm unknown outside the maths departments of major universities? As a consequence, I’ve started looking for products that break new ground, either in terms of recreating something rare and unobtainable, or in terms of introducing new - but understandable and playable - methods of synthesis. The imitative ones have gotten closer to emulating the sounds and responses of their inspirations, and the innovative ones have incorporated more ways to generate, twist and play sounds. Since I started playing soft synths about 15 years ago, I’ve noticed two things happening. UVI are offering a very reasonably priced emulation of a classic Moog - but which classic Moog is it? PX Apollo’s main screen, containing all of the principal controls.
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