Overview
Simply put, if you want a straightforward copy of a Minimoog, with little to chew on besides the obvious, you might be better off looking elsewhere. However, if you want a Minimoog on steroids and with plenty of attitude the Minimonsta:Melohman is the emulation for you. Because, whereas until now the numerous Minimoog clones have simply attempted to copy the original instrument and add the odd one or two features such as polyphony and another LFO, the Minimonsta takes a radically different look at this vintage masterpiece.
The original instrument was manufactured between 1971 and 1982 and was an instant classic thanks to it's musician friendly logical layout, tactile front panel, warm oscillators and powerful 24dB lowpass filter. In it's time 13,000 were sold but in keeping with many other classic instruments, if you want one now, be prepared to pay handsomely.
The Minimonsta is a highly detailed and accurate emulation of this original instrument which operates on two levels.
Firstly, on the Mini level you have all the features and sounds of the Minimoog including accurate waveforms, a painstakingly accurate resonant filter, snappy ADS envelope generators and the wonderful Mini loop-feedback function. Using just these parameters, the Minimonsta has a huge tonal range from fat to fierce and from searing to razor sharp sizzles.
However, there is also another dark side to the beast, and it's here's where you can unleash a full-on Monsta.
Instead of being shackled to a single LFO as per the original instrument, it's possible to assign an LFO to almost any original Mini parameter including filter cutoff, resonance, individual oscillator volumes, even each envelope parameter. What's more, each LFO has several shapes, sync, and delay.
Additionally, for every parameter to which you can apply an LFO, it's also possible to apply an extra ADSR too.
Then there's the ability to assign MIDI modulation to any original Mini parameter an create effects such as dynamic glide times or velocity response to filter (both positive and negative). Put simply, the scope for sound design and sonic creativity is limitless.
And as if that's not enough, you can dynamically morph between twelve patches within a Meta-Patch thanks to the unique Melohman octave. This takes a static software instrument and adds serious performance and dynamic real-time control - a boon to those real players out there.
There are many Mini clones out there, but there is only one true Monsta !

Inside Info

One of the user secrets on the original instrument was the loop feedback trick whereby you could take the output of the Mini and feed it back into the instrument's external input. The resulting signal would then be output and could be adjusted to give anything from a heavier bass sound to extreme distortion. Many users loved it because of it's unpredictability and is faithfully recreated on the Minimonsta.