1972 Moog Minimoog Model D + Kenton ProSolo MkII + Ableton Live Arpeggiator

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Published on Mar 30, 2015 turunturun

"Here we have a 1972 Minimoog Model D being sequenced by Ableton Live 9's arpeggiator on a Macbook Air. I am running MIDI out of the Air through a M-Audio Midisport Uno into a Kenton ProSolo MkII which is handling MIDI-to-CV conversion to control the Model D."

SN 4704 via this auction

"Up for sale is a 1973 (or possibly 1974) Minimoog Model D serial #4704 , with Kenton ProSolo MkII and cables.

Here you can see and hear this actual Model D in action, being controlled by the Kenton, which is getting MIDI from a Macbook Air (not included in auction):

What can be said that hasn't already been said about this beauty of a musical instrument? I am literally cringing at the fact that I am considering selling this. I am uncertain the exact year, but it was almost certainly manufactured in 1973 or 1974. (At the start of 1972 the serials were 1000, at the start of 1975 they were on 6500 so 4704 is probably 73 or 74 I'm guessing.)

It is in fantastic condition, with the usual nicks, dings and scratches of a 40 year old instrument that has been through the war, and lived to tell the stories.

It is functioning perfectly to the best of my knowledge. I purchased it 6 years ago from a gentleman who owned it for a couple decades and it has lived the entire time since then in my non-smoking, non-food/drink, non-pet high-rise condo project studio.

All knobs, switches, jacks, and wheels function as expected with no audible or tactile scratches, rubbing, or other weirdness. I have seen others describe theirs as "could probably use new key bushings". I presume that means that keys "clack" if you bottom them out when hitting them hard. Mine doesn't do that. Each key feels easy to press but cushioned when bottomed out. I tuned it to reference pitch across its range per the instructions in the manual about 3 years ago and it was still spot on when I checked it a few days ago.

The caveats:
1) The original two prong power cord was replaced with a three prong grounded cord at some point. I build guitar amps, and while inspecting the guts of this I checked out the conversion job and it looks professionally and correctly done.
2) While inspecting the guts, I noticed that someone manually soldered individual jumper wires from each of the modular circuit board connections to the correct and corresponding socket plug terminal. I presume this was originally done because the physical design of the electronics was done in such a way as to allow the boards to shift slightly if the case is stressed and this could cause electrical continuity to be broken between the cards and the sockets. This was presumably done to increase the reliability of the synth, and seeing as how it involved soldering about 150 1/2" long wires from 150 card contacts to 150 socket contacts, someone spent a significant amount of patience to complete this. Seeing as how the work looks extremely tidy and well-executed, I have to believe a professional completed the work. It should be noted that I believe this means that the electronics cannot be fully removed from the wood case anymore because the soldered jumpers connect hardwired keyboard components to the circuit boards. I didn't exhaustively investigate it, but I concluded this is likely the case. In 6 years of owning it however, I have never needed or desired to remove it from the case. Just wanted to alert any potential buyers to this however.

And now for the MIDI: After I bought this synth, I realized that I had to have a MIDI interface for it because I am not a good enough keyboard player to make anything interesting happen. So my research suggested the Kenton ProSolo MkII was the way to go. It works like a charm and has been configured to control the S-Trig (note-on/note-off), Oscillator (pitch), and Filter (frequency). The sale will include the appropriate cables to connect the 1/8" outs on the Kenton for both the special S-Trig plug, and the standard 1/4" Oscillator input. If you want to control the filter then you just need any old 1/8" to 1/4" TS-plug cable."