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The Rogue is a cool little mono in a few ways, in very few ways. The coolest thing about it is it's design. It is, like virtually every other Moog, not crammed with alot of features or routings, but the features it does have perform as well as or better than on almost any other synth. It is extremely limited, and if you pay 450-650 (or whatever outrageous price Rogues command today) and think you're going to get the same features as other synths in this price range, you're going to be disappointed. It doesn't come close to the amount of features on a Pro-1, or Korg Monopoly, or even Roland SH. But, on the other hand, it has a fuller, stronger, heartier, more raw electronic sound then any of those other synths. If you haven't played all of these other synths, you have nothing to compare it to, and you might not notice or miss the difference in tone quality. It's subjective. So on paper, you will get many more features, routings, etc. from almost any other synth. But, there is still this elusive quality about the Rogue, and most all Moogs, that you can't find elsewhere. Alot of it is in their tone quality, but also much of it is in the way they are layed out and/or configured. Simplicity is the concept, and efficientcy and functionality results. This kind of simplicity allows for a kind of immediacy of sound shaping that is the complete opposite of a Pro-1 or MonoPoly. The Rogue does not make any unique FX, and you can replicate any Rogue sound on virtually any other analog monosynth, but somehow, it won't be as sharp or raw as when you play FX on the Moog. So, to all of the people who complain of the Rogues' shortcommings, I would say that they are actually part of it's strength. This is hard to grasp until you spend some time with it compared to other synths. That said, the Rogue also suffers from a very cheap build and construction. This coupled with it's simplicity could easily make you think this is the crappiest synth ever made. But don't judge this book by it's cover. Spend a little more time with it. Also worth mentioning when talking about Rogue, is the MG-1, which is a Rogue clone minus the mod+pitch wheels (which sux) but adding a few very critical additions that IMO make it a better synth overall. It has infinitely better control of the oscillators with seperate wave form and octave switches for each osc. Plus, it also has a Ring Modulator. These two alone push it past the Rogue, but it also has wierd polyphony, which should be good for something.
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