The instrument
The Moog Memorymoog, introduced in 1982, was Moog Music's final polyphonic synthesizer before the company declared bankruptcy in 1987.
Designed to compete with other polyphonic synthesizers of the era, such as the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and Oberheim OB-Xa, the Memorymoog distinguished itself by offering three oscillators per voice, resulting in a richer and more complex sound palette.
Details
The Memorymoog is a six-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer, with each voice featuring three VCOs generating pulse, sawtooth, and triangle waveforms. Its 24dB/octave transistor ladder filter contributed to its warm sound. Each voice includes two ADSR envelope generators and one LFO for modulation. The built-in arpeggiator and 100 patch memory were advanced features for the time. The later Memorymoog Plus model added MIDI and a sequencer. Due to tuning instability, aftermarket modifications like the Lintronics Advanced Memorymoog upgrade (LAMM) improved performance and expanded MIDI capabilities.