It’s impossible to overstate how iconic the Minimoog is and how it defined everything that came thereafter. Fundamentally, after its 1970 launch, the Minimoog took the synthesiser out of the hands of academia and the elite, and made synthesis more ‘inclusive’.

Prior to the Minimoog, with a few notable exceptions, such as the British EMS VCS3, modular synths reined supreme. The holy grails of these were either the ARP 2500 or Moog’s own systems. But given they cost about the same price as a house, they were the polar opposite of inclusive.

So, via a carefully considered set of hardwired modules, regarded by Moog engineer Bill Hemsath to be the essential building blocks of synthesis, and who firmly stated to his colleagues… “These are musicians and not PHD’s, guys. Get rid of the patch cords and shrink it down to something less intimidating”… the Minimoog provided a more cost effective and portable way for keyboard players to get access to the tones hitherto the preserve of the very well-heeled.

That’s not to say the Minimoog was cheap - from its wood casing to its robust knobs and switches, everything about this little marvel shouted “quality” including its sound.

Pricewise, in 1974 it cost $1595, the equivalent to about $10k in 2022 and while that’s still a chunk of change, consider that a modular system cost anything between $2k and $10k - that’s between $15k and $80k today.

And while Bob Moog wasn’t initially keen on the idea of the Mini, once he saw and heard its potential he authorised an initial batch of 100, and in 1970 R A Moog Inc released the instrument into the wild.

Within a relatively short time anyone who was anyone owned a Minimoog. From Rick Wright to Rick Wakeman, the latter owning six at one point with each sounding slightly different. From Kraftwerk to Abba. Bernie Worrell to Gary Numan, and countless more. The Minimoog changed the face of music forever.

Between 1970 and 1981 approximately 12,000 were produced, but by the mid 80s with the advent of affordable polyphonic synths, the Minimoog was largely considered a relic.

However, to those who knew its power and versatility, it remained supremely relevant. So buoyed by the success of M-Tron and Oddity, in the early 2000’s we embarked on our own tribute to this iconic instrument with fellow co-conspirators, OhmForce.

The result was Minimonsta - a Mini emulation on steroids, which, via the ability to add LFOs and ASDRs to many of the main controls, took its majestic tones to new horizons.

The original GForce Minimonsta, 2005.

Minimonsta won numerous awards and despite the inevitable barrage of subsequent emulations from others, Minimonsta remained the choice of many since its release in 2005.

Minimonsta2 builds on this legacy via a raft of carefully considered changes.

Firstly, as with Oddity3, the previous patch morphing has been removed in favour of four macros for easy realtime control of multiple parameters. The interface is completely resizable and features three different looks including light wood, dark wood and black. An additional filter is included, where unlike the original filter, you don’t lose all that lovely bottom end the moment you crank the resonance up.

The ability to remain faithful to the original’s three stage envelopes has now been augmented by a four stage option.

We’ve included another global LFO option, influenced by the 2016 (and 2022) hardware reissues, as well as retaining Minimonsta’s X-LFO and X-ADSR possibilities, the latter effectively turning a Mini into a Modular without the clutter of patch cables.

There’s a luscious Reverb, a vintage knob, voice detune and pan spread in unison mode, plus comprehensive velocity & aftertouch destinations.

The patch management system has also been completely redesigned and now includes search, favourites and tagging. And compared to original Minimonsta’s Autobind, the new CC assignment method is a joy.

Last but not least, many of the primary patches from Minimonsta are included, as are the Rick Wakeman patches, and these have been augmented with over 200 new or updated patches, each carefully crafted by some seriously good patch designers including Tom Wolfe, Andrew Schlesinger and more.

While many other Mini emulations have appeared since its launch in 2005, in reality there’s only one Minimonsta…boldly going where no Mini has gone before.