The Moog Sonic Six [video]

The Moog Sonic Six is an an outgrowth of Moog's expansion in the early seventies, when it took over a smaller company called Musonics, which made a synth called the Sonic V.

Moog took the Sonic V design, updated it with more Moog-like features (S-trig, three-stage Minimoog-like envelopes, etc) and released it as the attache-case-mounted Sonic VI.




The Sonic Six is a two-oscillator duophonic synth. It can be set for duophonic, (two notes at a time... one oscillator takes high-note priority and one oscillator takes low note priority), monophonic (both oscs), or monophonic with a drone (one osc changes pitch, one does not). Available waveshapes are pulse (variable), saw, and triangle. The pitch of each oscillator can be controlled by dual LFO, one by contour, and the other by the other oscillator. One can adjust the temperament of the Sonic Six to play scales that have less than 12 notes per octave. The Sonic Six also features pink or white noise.

The Dual LFO design is unique. A mix control allows mixing of each LFO source, while voltage control of each LFO allows additional rate control not often seen in portable synthesizers. Each LFO can produce saw, reverse saw, triangle, and square wave outputs.