The KMA Moai Maea is a fully analogue octaver with three octave voices. There is one octave up and two octave levels down, each with its own independent mix control and footswitch.
That last point is unusual and genuinely useful. You can engage or disengage the upper octave and the sub-octave separately mid-performance without affecting the others.
Like all analogue octavers, it tracks in mono so single notes played cleanly and with reasonable attack, give the clearest tracking.
Chords and overlapping notes give a glitchy, disintegrating, chaotic sound.
KMA are upfront about this and that chaotic sound is also available intentionally, and in the right context very useful.
The difference between this and digital octavers is feel and character. Analogue octavers are gritty and direct but digital tracking smooths this out.
The sub-octave section has a three-position switch that selects either or both of the first and second sub-octave.
Both together gives a genuinely huge, thunderous sub-bass foundation. The serial buffered FX loop in the clean path allows effects to be inserted into just the clean signal without affecting the octave voices.
Controls
- Clean mix: Sets the level of the dry clean signal.
- Upper octave mix: Sets the level of the one-octave-up voice.
- Sub octave mix: Sets the level of the selected sub-octave voice(s).
- Sub octave selector (rotary): Selects between first and secondsub-octave or both
- Bypass footswitch: Full bypass — kills all octave voices simultaneously.
- Shriek footswitch: Turns the upper octave on and off independently.
- Drone footswitch: Turns the sub-octave on and off independently.
- FX loop: Serial buffered loop in the clean path — insert effects into the clean signal only.
Key Features
- Fully analogue octaver — one octave up and two sub-octaves
- Individual mix controls for clean, upper octave, and sub-octave
- Sub-octave rotary — first, second, or both sub-octaves
- Three independent footswitches — bypass, Shriek (upper octave), Drone (sub-octave)
- Serial buffered FX loop in clean path
- Monophonic tracking — optimised for single notes
- Made in Berlin, Germany
Power
9V DC centre-negative at 20mA.
Watch The KMA Machines Moai Maea In Action
FAQs
Three — one octave up and two sub-octaves. Each has its own independent mix control and each can be independently footswitched. The sub-octave section uses a rotary switch to select between first sub-octave only, second sub-octave only, or both simultaneously.
No — it’s a monophonic analogue octaver, so it tracks single notes cleanly. Chords and overlapping notes produce a glitchy, disintegrating, chaotic sound. KMA are upfront that this chaotic sound is also usable intentionally in the right context.
It’s a serial buffered effects loop inserted into the clean signal path only. Effects placed in the loop affect only the dry clean signal — the octave voices are not affected. Useful for adding compression, EQ, or other effects to the clean signal while leaving the octaves unprocessed.
Yes — the Shriek footswitch controls only the upper octave; the Drone footswitch controls only the sub-octave. The bypass footswitch kills both simultaneously. You can have any combination of voices active or bypassed independently.
Yes — the sub-octave voices are particularly useful on bass, and KMA specifically mention bass and mono synths as compatible sources alongside guitar.
9V DC centre-negative at 20mA.
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