Bass Pedals - of the synth / Taurus kind

[WalMan]

I have been looking round for a better unit to be driven by my Roland PK5 pedals to provide a bit of earth shaking bass for the prog band I work with.

I picked up a Roland D110 rack really cheap on eBay and it is OK but not great. So with a bit more free cash burning a hole in my pocket I had started thinking of getting a [url="http://www.moogmusic.com/products/phattys/slim-phatty"]Moog Slim Phatty[/url] however in a bit of surfing tonight I have just chanced upon the new [url="http://www.moogmusic.com/products/taurus/minitaur"]Moog Minitaur[/url] which seems to have only just been released, and has got me thinking.

Looks interesting, but the only thing that is still tipping me towards the Phatty is that for not a great deal more on current prices (presumably largely down to the fact that the Minitaur has only just been released to the wild) the Phatty has memory slots that would probably make life a bit easier in changing patches mid gig. Possibly #2 son & even I might be able to make more use in recording as well.

So really my question is; has anyone seen / used either (possibly difficult for the Minitaur) or any thoughts on relative merits of the two? I suppose I ought to save a bit of cash and look for a Minitaur, but at the best price found tonight the difference is around £70 for what looks like quite a bit more in faciliies on the Phatty.

One other question for anyone more used to using synths than me, CV input pedals; is that just a standard volume / expression pedal like the Technics SZ-E1 I already have kicking around at home or is there more to it than that? I was looking to be able to control the volume for fade in/out as the Roland pedals set to Hold (as I use them so I can just hit a note and it keeps going without needing to keep holding the pedal down) seems to kill the note dead with the D110 so there is no tail to the sound, just an immediate off.

[WalMan]

Well in the end I got neither, but I did pick up a DSI MoPho from eBay today and it has some corkers in there that'll work just fine methinks. The "Tom Sawyer" & "Bass Pedals" patches are particularly thunderous (well through the headphones anyway)

[doctor_of_the_bass]

Allo! What you really want is a set of Taurus III's - I was very lucky just prior to Christmas in sourcing a set complete with flightcase, they simply destroy buildings, literally! Did a rock function gig up in Derby a couple of weeks ago and suddenly it looked as though some builders were knocking the plaster off of the ceiling each time I hit a note!!! There's me thinking, where's that dust coming from!?

I also use (now kind of spare!) a set of PK-5's hooked up to a Nord Lead rack module and with careful tweakage, you can almost produce a Taurus sound but having AB'ed them in my studio, there is something about the Moog which just cannot be emulated. There are some clips on Youtube featuring the Minitaur but for whatever reason, there is no demo of the Taurus sound!? Sounds good though!

Cheers! Nick

[KevB]

[sub]To the OP, I started out with a D110 unit too (still have it somewhere in case of emergencies) but then found a JV unit that was much more sophisticated in what it could do and had the 'Vintage Synths' card (plus 3 others) installed as an expansion board. This card has some pretty decent Moog emulations as well as Oberheims, Junos etc. Works fine with my PK5's. [/sub]
[sub]The JV unit is like this one;[/sub]
[sub][url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-JV1080-Sound-Module-/300653661520?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Pro_Audio_Synthesisers_CV&hash=item46005acd50"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-JV1080-Sound-Module-/300653661520?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Pro_Audio_Synthesisers_CV&hash=item46005acd50[/url][/sub]
[sub]The vintage synth card is this one;[/sub]
[sub][url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-SR-JV80-04-Vintage-Synth-Board-JV1080-JV2080-JV1010-etc-/180804570882?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Pro_Audio_Synthesisers_CV&hash=item2a18cacf02"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roland-SR-JV80-04-Vintage-Synth-Board-JV1080-JV2080-JV1010-etc-/180804570882?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Pro_Audio_Synthesisers_CV&hash=item2a18cacf02[/url][/sub]