The Studio Electronics SE-1 is a programmable monophonic synth faithful to the heritage of the original Minimoog. The synth captures the essence of the orignal Minimoog, while adding programmability, oscillator sync, dual-slope multi-mode filters, two extra envelopes, and three additional LFOs. If you've always dreamed of a hot-rodded MIDI Minimoog, go check out the SE-1, you can't go wrong.
The SE-1's front panel is laid out in the familiar Minimoog style. On first glance the SE-1's front panel appears similiar to the Minimoog, however, while controls for the three oscillators now reside in the middle of the panel, the mixer section is no longer seperate and the envelope and filter controls have been shuffled around. The voice architecture of the SE-1 consists of three multi-waveform oscillators with sync and ring modulation, a mixer with noise source, dual-slope multi-mode filter, VCA, four envelopes, and three LFOs. Each oscillator is capable of generating one or all of the waveforms simultaneously which opens up some new sonic possiblities, while tuning range has been expanded to five octaves. The SE-1 has two filters: one the classic Moog 24db/oct filter, and the other a low-pass/band-pass switchable 12db/oct SEM type filter. With the addition of three LFOs, oscillator 3 no longer needs to be dedicated to LFO, allowing even thicker basses. The three LFOs have a multitude of waveforms including sample and hold, and the modulation destinations are also quite generous. Envelopes 1 and 2 are hardwired to VCF and VCA respectively, but envelopes 3 and 4 can be routed to several destinations. It is also worth noting the envelopes 1 and 3 can be inverted and envelope response can be linear or exponential. MIDI capabilites include aftertouch, pitchbend, modulation, and several continous controllers routable to almost any destination, in addition to velocity response. The SE-1 seems to retain much of the fatness of the original Minimoog sound, while bringing the mini into the '90s with good tuning stability, MIDI capabilities, and expanded modulation routing and sources. I whole-heartedly recommend the SE-1 to anyone searching for a flexible killer sounding lead synth.

Studio Electronics Online