Surely Moog’s own Minimoog Model D emulation has to be the best in town, right? Yes, probably. It’s not the only contender, but it’s the best place to start. The first thing to understand is that it’s for iOS and macOS only and so if you’re a Windows user you should skip down to the next one.

Moog’s Model D is a beautiful piece of work. They don’t have to worry about infringing copyright and so can revel in the classic design and offer up the exact interface you expect to see. Everything is in its place, beautifully rendered and laid out, ready to play.

It’s designed as a direct emulation of the original, but even Moog couldn’t help adding in a few essential enhancements. The first and most crucial being that it supports 4 notes of polyphony. The original was of course monophonic and now we have a polyphonic Minimoog – that’s amazing, but not very authentic. Moog has also added an arpeggiator with a chord mode, a bunch of excellent effects, a new take on the classic overdrive and a stereo output.

The Model D comes with over 160 presets of classic sounds, which is something else the original couldn’t do. You could argue that something is lost when you enhance an old product and give it abilities it never had. Because often it’s the limitations that drive us to moments of genius.

Specifications:

• Specs: MacOS, iOS
• Format: AU

Street Price: $29.99
MoogMusic.com

Cherry Audio has decided to full force into authenticity with their Minimoog emulation, even down to the maple cabinet. You’ll find no enhancements, no effects, and no additional LFOs, instead, you have the clean and unadulterated sound of the original.

That’s almost true. The Miniverse does in fact benefit from up to 16 polyphonic voices, although you can restrict it to 1. It also supports MPE MIDI Expressive control which can give it a very different vibe. Miniverse comes with over 250 presets from professional sound designers.

Miniverse certainly looks the part and is unashamedly Moog. It’s probably the best option for Windows users wanting something as close the Moog’s own App as possible and for a similar price.

Specifications:

• Specs: MacOS, Windows
• Format: VST, AAX, AU, and standalone

Street Price: $39
CherryAudio.com

This is probably my favourite of all the Minimoog emulations. The Model 72 is based on a single, well-loved and pristine Minimoog from 1972. It’s a synth that’s full of character, warmth and a sound that tends to lose it around the edges. The interface is stunning and really throws shade on all the other contenders.

Softube model circuits at an extraordinary level of detail, capturing every nuance and quirk and feeding that into their instrument. They also give you control over how much authenticity you want in your synth. Softube has pulled out a lot of additional parameters to tweak the finer details of the oscillators and filters so you can really push the electrons about and it will behave exactly as if you are inside the hardware with a screwdriver.

The other unique and very cool feature is that you can pull the Model 72 apart and use it in other software. You can use it as an effect plugin routing audio through the filter and overdrive. You can use the filter in Softube’s Amp Room guitar modelling software. Or you can get fully modular with Softube Modular and use the component sections of the Model 72 as individual modules.

Specifications:

• Specs: MacOS, Windows
• Format: VST, AAX, AU,

Street Price: $79
Softube.com

Arturia’s Mini V is remarkable in being the only software emulation officially endorsed by Bob Moog. It was this partnership in 2003 that really launched Arturia into the software emulation game, resulting originally in the Modular V, an emulation of the Moog 3C and Moog 55 modular system.

They developed TAE (or True Analog Emulation), which is the technology by which they model analog circuitry in order to capture every nuance of this sound. The Mini V came out a couple of years later and really stunned people with its authenticity.

The Mini V is modeled using a combination of mathematical models, physical models, and simulations of the circuitry. They then spend a lot of time comparing the emulation with the original hardware and work out ways to reproduce the behavior.

All the original features, controls, and characteristics are present, even down to a photo-realistic interface. That includes 3 VCOs with 5 waveforms, the legendary 24 dB/octave filter, 2 envelopes, an FLO with 7 waveforms, a noise generator, a VCA, and a mixer with an external input.

Because it seems no Developer can leave well alone, Arturia added a bunch of stuff: a modulation matrix with up to 8 connections, an arpeggiator, a vocal filter with its own LFO, unison mode, chorus and delay, soft clipping and 32 voices of polyphony. It is sacrilegious to do this to a classic monosynth but we all like more stuff. And this extra stuff is awesome.

The Mini V is on version 3 and has continued to develop and improve. It now comes with 450 specially crafted presets and full automation over every parameter. But it has been around a while, and seems overpriced compared to more recent competitors.

Specifications:

• Specs: MacOS, Windows
• Format: VST, AAX, AU, NKS and standalone

Street Price: $149
arturia.com

Without official Moog recognition, most other developers have to drop to those clichéd superlatives of “legendary” and “classic.” For Monark, Native Instruments go for “King Analog.” Their intention is to capture every nuance in spectacular detail because this is the holy grail of analog modeling.

With Monark, they’ve stuck true to the monophonic nature of the original. Everything about it is designed to give a bold, fat, single note tone. The Minimoog hardware was studied in meticulous detail and recreated using cutting-edge DSP technology. It uses the low-level modular DSP framework of the Native Instruments Reaktor virtual synthesis engine, employing Zero-Delay Feedback to eliminate sample delay normally produced when digitally modeling analog circuits. The modeling is then refined through multiple stages of listening and adjustment.

The result is a virtual Minimoog with a signature tone and an uncommonly rich character. The interface is clear and simple to navigate with all the expected controls available to mouse, touch or automation. It doesn’t try to be anything else and is remarkably good at what it does.

Minimonsta has another trick up its sleeve. It can morph between 12 different patches using an extra octave of keys on the keyboard. This makes for very cool patch changes during live performance. And just for good measure they dropped a delay effect on the end of the signal chain.

Specifications:

• Specs: MacOS, Windows
• Format: Runs inside the free Reaktor Player – VST, AU, AAX

Street Price: $99
native-instruments.com

Gforce Software makes extraordinary instruments and has been doing so for a very long time. Their original Minimonsta came out almost ten years ago and has been difficult to beat ever since. However, it’s just been updated and the refresh breathes in some new life and brings it bang up to date.

The original Minimonsta was looking a bit old by today’s standards and version 2 sorts that out with a gloriously rendered and resizable front panel. While it does follow the Minimoog layout is also adds a row of modulators and effects along the top giving it a quite distinctive look.

Gforce has kept the accurate sonic replication and augmented it with some enhancements to push it into previously unexplored territory. This includes programmable macros that allow you to control multiple parameters with a single twist. There’s a new 4-stage envelope and an alternative filter that better preserves the bass. Reverb has been added to the effects roster and it can now response to velocity and aftertouch.

Minimonsta 2 takes a few enhancements to extremes. There are up to 32 notes of polyphony, 36 LFOs and 36 envelopes available for modulation. You can make it sound very unlike a Minimoog.

Specifications:

• Specs: MacOS, Windows
• Format: VST, AU, RTAS

Street Price: $49.99
gforcesoftware.com

Synapse invites us to “feel the magic of analog sound” with The Legend, a faithful emulation of our old friend the Minimoog with a fair bit of enhancement built in. Apparently, this time it was modeled to an accuracy never seen before in software. Everything was considered, including temperature drift and power supply interference. So it also includes everything that was annoying about the original hardware.

Like the Monark, it has a good well laid out front end, but unlike the Monark, it then starts traveling into all sorts of enhanced areas and extra control panels. The back panel of The Legend allows you to switch between two model revisions.

It gives you some fine-tuning options over the hardware tolerances of pitch, drift, and saturation. Synapse wants to make their emulation as real for you as you want it to be, from pristine and perfectly controlled to sloppy and characterful.

Along with polyphonic and unison modes, they’ve added some delay and reverb but that’s more or less it. There’s nothing too radical to take it too far from the roots that are so important. There’s a demo version so you can try it out for yourself.

Specifications:

• Specs: MacOS, Windows
• Format: VST, AU, Re, NKS

Street Price: $99
synapse-audio.com

Now let’s move away from pure Minimoog into a couple of virtual instruments combining a wider range of synthesizers able to offer the same feel but in a broader context.

The Mariana isn’t an emulation or replication of the Minimoog, so why is it in this list? Well, the sound of the Mariana is so authentically “Moogy” that I couldn’t resist including it. Besides the official Minimoog Model D virtual instrument is only available for iOS, whereas this is for MacOS and Windows and this level of detail needs every ounce of computer power.

Mariana is a bass synth and quite an extraordinary one. It layers together two entire synthesizers that can mirror or compliment each other. It can build into a huge monophonic sound or spread into duophonic tones through the spectacular tube, tape and saturation mixer. Each synth has two oscillators and a versatile sub-oscillator with it’s own filter. The main stereo signal path gets a pair of resonant Moog filters for everything from warm tonal changes to fierce cuts of overloaded spasms.

In a separate controller page you have a wealth of modulation opportunities with dedicated filter and amp envelopes, a modulation envelope, two random generators and three LFOs. All modulators are up for grabs to any destination so it’s very easy to push Mariana out of its comfort zone. At the end of the chain, in the saturated mixer you’ll find some multidimensional effects, compression and metering.

Behind the scenes there’s an interconnection technology to allow Mariana to patch into the Mooger Fooger effects plugins for additional modulation and audio processing.

Mariana is a superb synthesizer that drips with Moog character and takes the flavour of the Minimoog to higher and deeper levels.

Specifications:

• Specs: MacOS, Windows, iPadOS
• Format: VST, AAX, AU

Street Price: $49 ($29.99 iOS)
Moogmusic.com