22 Producer’s Edge Jan-Feb 2009

Dave Smith Instruments

Mopho

Monophonic Analogue Synthesizer

$439.00

Words by Drew Spence

Smaller than a Breadbox with Knobs

I

t’s metal. I don’t know why I expected a hard plastic

chassis. Maybe Dave Smith took design inspiration

from guitar pedals for the size, build and striking color

scheme. It’s going to be that

mustardy metal box

that

stands out in all the studio pics. The knobs are detented

and endless rotaries placed just close enough for

uninterrupted tweaks. There is a raised notch for a pointer

that’s easily read by the finger tips although I wish there

was a colored stripe to indicate its value at a glance.

The knobs on the Prophet 08 are of a higher quality but

exhibit play just below the surface whereas the Mopho

plastic encoders are studded firmly in place. Clearly labeled

on front are Pitch, Cutoff, Resonance, Attack and Decay/

Release. When I first saw the unit I thought 8 knobs- killer!

But then I saw four were ‘assignable’ which was code

speak for

‘do some programming before you have any

fun’

. In a nice move, they are already programmed for

a

DSI-thinks-this-would-sound-cool

parameter. You

can explore each specific tweaking choice per patch.

Assigning your own parameter couldn’t be easier as

you press the Assign Parameters button to arm it, grab

your knob, scroll through the list of choices and press

the Assign button again.

Presets Test Tones

You’ll cruise through three banks of 128 Programs-

about 380 presets ranging from the classic to the

bizarre. Easy enough using the + and – and holding

23 Producer’s Edge Jan-Feb 2009

either one down briefly switches banks. And above is the

program knob which rotates through the current bank. The

Mopho retains the tone and texture of the Prophet. It’s an

aggressive sound that really shines for leads and nasty stabs.

Even the swelling bass patches have a pleasing undertone

of growl. The cutoff is default to gentle tonal shaping- that

won’t do for us! To get the oft-used hip-hop super deep and

warm bass tone, I simply grabbed my Assign and dropped

the Low-pass Frequency to…zero! Then snatched the

Low-pass (set to 4-pole) Envelope Amt and lowered it till

my bright and snappy bass was substituted and subdued

by a blue-hued mushroom boom. You can up the noise to

bring in an

I-sampled-a-crusty-source

or make variations by

altering the Oscillator shapes. Osc 2, Pulse 27 is a nice

place to be.

Soft Editor Browser

It’s a utilitarian presentation that

works just fine to display all the

programmable facets. Although

the view menu has a screen

resolution of 1024 X 768 it still

wraps onto my second monitor

and changing the resolution to

1154 X 864 had no effect. I wish

you could resize it manually. To be

fair, this is only the current (and

free) version. Soundtower has

already released new updates

since the initial launch and will

soon be releasing the MophoPRO version. We expect

the same level of detail and functionality as their well

received analog Moog Voyager soft editor. Check the

Soundtower.com website for updates.

I’m delighted to NOT see a tree system where categories

open in branches. The three banks are listed in a vertical

scroll of presets which makes jumping around a breeze.

You’ll first see the program number, name and then

category. You’ll have to go through the presets and learn

how each one sounds or you’ll overlook a great tone

or two with a misleading category, not misleading by

description, but how you’ll be using it after a few tweaks!

The virtual knobs are huge and jump to wherever you

place the mouse pointer as you engage them.

I would have liked clicking on the virtual knob

to just engage it while it stays put AND THEN

my mouse movements change the value. It’s a

minor drag. Dragging is best done in a horizontal

wide arc and I wish there was a way to right click

and enter exact numbers. There is a V-piano

to trigger the Mopho, a sequencer to edit your

steps. The little red push it button triggers the

sequencer. I dived into the step-sequencer on

the hardware by scrolling to the end and picking

a destination for each of the 4 sequencers

followed by choosing a velocity at each of the

16 steps. It was the

aha moment

in figuring how

DSI managed to get a whole electronic drum

track going on a monophonic synth. It’s an easy

enough process, but still a little too tedious. Soft

Editor to the rescue.

24 Producer’s Edge Jan-Feb 2009

Clicking in the vertical space above the step drags the velocity

bar into position. It’s wickedly fast and here you can right click

and enter exact numerical values. Let’s load

A:012 Sequence

Triangular

and see what’s good. As stated earlier, it’s a destination

that’s playing on any

step and NOT an

individual program.

For a snare to drop,

I chose sequence 1

and used Noise Level

(7). For a ‘clappier ’

type sound I could

have used the Mod 1

amount. If it seems like we’re approaching the nerdier aspects

of sound design, it’s a simple process to study and analyze

the sounds used in the different sequencer-based presets. It’s

electronic music on tap here. Never the less, the program bank

does have a good amount of usable drum hits for hip-hop and

rap and should be remembered for future sampling and as

starting points for your own kit construction.

Sub-Oscillators

The engine of the Mopho is powered by two analog oscillators.

Each is paired with a sub-oscillator- generating a square wave;

one octave down under Osc 1 and two octaves down for Osc

2. It can be raised in volume underneath the main oscillators

for more

rough support

or used as mod

sources for creative sound sculpting.

It’s one of the nice touches that keep

the Mopho from being the poor man’s

Prophet 08. Tip: since our square wave is

a pulse wave with a 50 duty cycle, you’ll

want to filter a triangle wave to reach for

a sine wave-like building block tone.

Audio In

We know the trick of using any module

with an audio in as a filter box. Usually

it’s the headphone jack that gets routed

back in to play with feedback distortion

effects. The Mopho has it hard-wired.

Simply crank the External Input up and

you get the audio output mixed back in

pre-filter. This means the headphone out

is free to be used somewhere else in your

studio chain. We’ll approach this whole

filtering audio idea from the angle that

you have your ROMpler bread and butter

sounds covered. You have strings, keys,

pads and other traditional instrument

categories covered and you want to move

beyond the few synth patches available

in your workstation. Synth sounds are

all the rage and you want to add them to

your palette. You with me.

Now you add new life to old patches by running them

through the Mopho and extend the life of your played

out

– *ahem* familiar sounding keyboard. I used

a Triton string [only because an old Triton was the

closest keyboard- honest!] and ran it through the open

filters. I then picked the

first lead I came across

A:004 Bright Lead and

merged the two together

and finally arped the

patch and dropped

drums behind it.

Tone Stop

It’s an aggressive metal box that changes the

conversation surrounding the current crop of VA

and digital synths and what manufacturers should

do about bringing back that ole analogue tone. It’s

one more indicator of the sonic renaissance ahead

and it comes at a perfect time as rap and hip-hop

continue to embrace and explore electronic and

classic synth sounds. At ~$399 it’s going to sit right

next to the Korg MicroKorg and Alesis Micron. So in

conclusion, we have a third choice for affordable synth

sounds, except this one is analogue. Well done Dave

Smith Instruments.

The review unit ain’t going back

.

davesmithinstruments.com

The Soft Editor V-Piano and Step Sequencer Screen

http://www.producersedgemagazine.com/archives/dsimopho/DSIMopho.MP3

“I wanted to give it a character of its own,

something to distinguish it from its big brother. It

has taken on a life of its own. It’s an inexpensive,

feature-rich mono synth that really excels at

basses and big, fat lead sounds." –Dave Smith

25 Producer’s Edge Jan-Feb 2009

Mopho: Hello guys, any room for a real analogue at this party.

Micron: Don’t be a pretentious a-ho --

Mopho: A whole lot of producers want my sound.

MicroKorg: A whole lot of producers HAVE my sound.

Micron: Hey, I’m selling well too.

Mopho: Didn’t your big brother bomb. Too bad nobody respects specs.

MicroKorg: My big brother is a classic!

Mopho: How old is that dude anyway.

MicroKorg: You aint even got keys!

Mopho: And nobody plays yours.

Micron: You’re yellow!

Mopho: You’re the last guy to be talking about looks. Nice end caps by the way.

MicroKorg: I have a monster sound for 399.

Mopho: Me too.

Micron: Yeah, but you don’t have a key-

Mopho: He said that. Besides, I’m an analo-

MicroKorg: You said that. We know.

Micron: I’m multitimbral and I’ve got a sequencer!

MicroKorg: No knobs.

Micron: Hey, whose side are you on.

MicroKorg: I’m just saying…

Mopho: I’m easy to tweak.

MicroKorg: Me too; Matrix Editor once you pick it up…

Mopho: Once you pick it up.

Micron: Wait, wait..wait…I’ve got drums!

MicroKorg: He’s got drums.

Mopho: I’ve got some drum sounds too.

Micron: I’ve got more.

Mopho: It’s easy to make more; I’ve got analo-

*Micron and MicroKorg: WE KNOW!

Mopho: I was saying; I’ve got two analog Oscillators and two sub-oscillators, I can –

Micron: Hold up! I’ve got 8-voice polyphony with 3 oscillators per voice!

MicroKorg: I’m a 4 voice polyphonic with two oscillators embedded inside a monophonic

mode with a dual-oscillator configuration locked in unison!

*Micron and Mopho: What.!

MicroKorg: I sound great.

Micron: Me too

Mopho: Me three!

3-Way Conversation...