Moog Muse doesn’t need nostalgia — it’s an outstanding synth for the new generation£2998/$3499, moogmusic.com
Having a legacy like Moog’s is a double-edged sword. The more beloved the brand, the higher the expectations. And the more iconic the sound, the harder it is to change things up.
So when the North Carolina company set out to build a new bi-timbral polyphonic flagship, it must’ve known it was walking a tightrope. It has to have that Moog sound, it has to suit multiple playing styles, it has to be ready for both studio and stage, and it has to stand out in an increasingly crowded field.
Luckily, the Muse not only walks that line – it dances along it.

READ MORE: “We’re honouring the legacy of Bob Moog; making instruments that give you his iconic sound” Moog talks Muse

A brief history of Muse
The sound of Muse is firmly rooted in Moog’s storied past. Working across its different modules – oscillators, filters, envelopes – is like taking a tour through some of the best gear the company has ever produced.
Two analogue oscillators, inspired by 1997’s Minimoog Voyager, form the beating heart of the instrument. The sound is immediately rich and full, with options to blend between triangle, sawtooth, and square wave with variable pulse width. Using these, and little else, you can quickly bang out deep bass tones and vibrant leads that you’d usually associate with the Moog name.
There’s also bi-directional FM (frequency modulation) between the two oscillators. This, too, is inspired by a classic piece of gear – the Moogerfooger MF-102, released in 1998 – and enables everything from beautifully clear bell tones to truly harsh and chaotic ear candy.
Another handy addition is Muse’s modulation oscillator. On one level, it’s the primary hub for quick and easy LFO modulation, with dedicated assignment buttons and depth knobs for the oscillator’s pitch and pulse width, the filters, and the VCA. But this isn’t just an ordinary LFO; it can also be used to produce audio-rate modulation, or as a third oscillator. Pressing the Audio button extends its frequency range all the way up to 20Hz and, with keyboard tracking mode and a selection of waveforms to choose from, you can fatten up the texture even further.
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To hear the modulation oscillator at audio-rate, or to hear anything for that matter, head to the mixer panel. It’s a simple thing, but having all your audio signals in one place is incredibly useful, and, in addition to the oscillators, FM, and modulation oscillator, there’s also a noise generator and an overload circuit to provide soft analogue clipping.
The filter module is outstanding, with two discrete Moog Ladder filters at a 24dB-per-octave slope. Taking inspiration from the classic 904-A module of 1966, the filters are supremely satisfying to use, with rich harmonics that get wonderfully crunchy once you start to drive the incoming signal. The first filter also boasts a switchable high-pass mode and, with the ability to link the two filters, you can do tasty band, notch, and formant filtering. There’s also keyboard tracking, and the ability to run these filters in sequence, parallel, or stereo.
Moog Muse is bi-timbral, so all of the above settings can be independently set for timbre A and B. Switching between the two timbres is instant and you can split them across the keyboard or stack them for amazingly deep and complex sounds. Muse has eight voices to work with and, while this is plenty when working with a single timbre, once you stack or split the timbres then voice stealing is something you’ll become aware of.
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Moog Muse’s arpeggiator and sequencer
The sound palate may be like a warm hug from an old friend, but this is not an instrument that rests on nostalgia alone. Once you start to dig into the arpeggiator and sequencer, the modulation matrix, and the additional parameter settings, it becomes clear that Muse not only meets the current moment, but outlines a path to the future.
Muse’s arpeggiator and chord memory functions are excellent, but the sequencer, in particular, deserves special praise. Where Arturia’s new PolyBrute 12 caught some criticism for its underwhelming sequencer, Muse’s counter offer is packed with deeply-considered features for stage and studio. There are 64 steps with up to eight notes being stored per step, and notes can be entered manually, recorded in live, or overdubbed. Once you have your sequence, every aspect of it, right down to the micro-timing between notes, is opened up for editing and tweaking via Muse’s small, centrally-positioned OLED screen. There’s also a parameter recording function that allows for detailed sound design of each individual step, or on-the-fly sculpting during live performance.
If there’s one downside here, it’s the sequencer presets. On the one hand, sequences are globally available – meaning that you can write a sequence on one patch and then use it elsewhere, which is fantastic. However, the included factory presets for the sequencer are a mixed bag. Loading up a combined patch-plus-sequence preset might get you something that sounds great, or, at worst, you’ll get a pattern that sounds like it was arbitrarily slapped on top of a patch rather than written specifically for it. It’s not a huge problem, but it does stand out in comparison to the patch presets themselves, which are generally excellent.
On its own, the sequencer is highly functional, but it’s the new Probabilistic features that set it apart. These days, the word ‘generative’ is often a red flag for a cash grab, but Moog has thankfully packed Muse full of genuinely useful, undeniably cool probability functions. For starters, you can set the gate probability for each step – meaning a step may or may not trigger — but you can also set probability for the note values themselves. In practice, this means each step can trigger random notes within a preset melodic scale and within a set number of semitones. But that’s not all: if your sequence is made up of chords, then the note probability function will instead trigger a chord inversion or alternate chord voicing.

There’s even a Coin Toss feature that allows you to record an entire new 64-step sequence and then randomly switch between the two sequences on a step-by-step basis. These features open up a huge range of possibilities for producers and composers who want to add some generative music to their studio workflow, or even live performers who want to add the element of unpredictability to a jam.
Muse’s layout
All of that might sound complicated, but, in practice, Muse is surprisingly easy to set up and play with. This is a testament to the instrument’s layout and design, which prioritises creative flow and tactile controls without skimping on deeper-level parameters.
The modulation and routing workflow is a prime example. Muse features two dedicated LFO’s, a pitch LFO with a modulation depth fine-tuned for vibrato, and two loopable envelope generators. Each one features an Assign button for quick mapping – simply press a modulator’s assign button, move the desired dial or slider, and the connection is made.
However, if you want to get more specific with your mappings, there’s a dedicated menu to define control sources for your modulation. You can also add mathematical functions, such as slew time and cubic waveshaping, to drastically transform how the modulator affects its destination.
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Musing deeper
You can go deeper across many elements of the Muse. Each module features a small triangle button in the top right corner that exposes a More menu, and it’s here that Muse’s more complex capabilities are revealed.
Take the digital delay module – by default, its Character dial will act as a DJ mixer-style filter. But, in the More menu, this can be set to control a multi-tap delay for rhythmic timings, to shape the style of diffusion into a chorus-like sound, or to control all three parameters simultaneously. You can change the bit depth, pitch-shift the delayed signals, and drastically increase the delay time to get washes of sound. The options are deep enough that a happy afternoon could be spent exploring just the delay section alone.
Should you get the Moog Muse?
All that said, there are moments when you feel its limitations. The Muse doesn’t have the expansive sound design capabilities of an analogue digital hybrid like the UDO Super Gemini, or the innovative performance features or Full-Touch MIDI Polyphonic Expression of the PolyBrute 12. It doesn’t even have a polyphonic aftertouch keybed or a USB-C port – something that feels like a missed opportunity.
Make no mistake, Muse is a synth for the new era, but Moog has, perhaps wisely, chosen not to go all in on the latest innovations. Instead it’s clearly focused its efforts and production budget on what matters most: the sound.
Ultimately, this is an instrument that you will want to play. With its considered feature set, tactile control surfaces, and an oh-so-premium analogue sound, Muse has an addictive quality that keeps you coming back for more, and more, and more.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Key features

Bi-timbral analogue sound engine
Eight polyphonic voices
Dual voltage-controlled oscillators per voice
Dual voltage-controlled Moog filters
Analogue ring modulator
Analogue modulation Ooscillator
Arpeggiator and sequencer
224 preset patches per timbre, totalling 448 unique patch sounds.
Bright OLED panel for presets, global settings, module specific settings
CV in/out, clock in/out and MIDI in/out/thru
Size: 99 x 42 x 11 cm
Weight: 14.55 kg

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