Compared to traditional instruments, the learning curve associated with learning how to use a synthesizer can seem intimidating. There’s a degree of technical proficiency with synths absent while learning how to strike a key or strum a string. Electronic musical equipment brand Moog Music wants to help demystify their equipment by offering beginners comprehensively outfitted kits that include two of the brand’s most versatile synths – the Moog Mother-32 & DFAM and DFAM & Subharmonicon.
Designed as a starter pack, each kit includes all necessary cables, accessories and educational tools required to set forth exploring the realms of synthesized analog soundscapes. And they’ve done so with collaborative work with two illustrators, emphasizing these kits’ friendly entry point spirit.
Moog invited illustrator Jim Stoten to embellish the Mother-32 & DFAM kit alongside Philip Lindeman to complement the Subharmonicon & DFAM pairing with their distinct, yet complementary colorful custom artwork in the form of characters, posters and other interactive objects for each instrument setup.
Both illustrator’s menagerie of characters and colorful landscapes/backdrops impart more than a little bit of the spirit of Highlights magazine and a Richard Scarry book.
Moog also is releasing Explorations in Analog Synthesis, a seven-song EP showcasing the possibilities of each Moog Sound Studio synthesizer combo, with works from Bonobo, Peter Cottontale, an entrancing vocal drone from Julianna Barwick, and more.
The Moog Sound Studio with the Mother-32 & DFAM will be available for $1,399, with the Moog Sound Studio including the Subharmonicon & DFAM priced at $1,449. For more information, visit moogmusic.com.
Gregory Han is Tech Editor of Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.
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