Andromeda is rather weak , I do not recommend it at all . It’s ratings are at most 3 out of 10. Although it has neat twists to it , it does not come close to Omega 8 , 6 or even 4, or Cwejman Sound S1 MkII. There is nothing for the price that can beat these machines. Moog is nice , but one voice is just one voice. I like it alot , and even own one , but Voyager is VERY limited . I am interested in Goa trance , and it does not do much for me in that sense . Bass lines ?-- sure, but that is almost where it ends. People praise moog for it’s , as they say " Phaaaat Bass" , but honestly , I say shame on Moog for jacking up a price that high , the product is not worth 3 and a half grand. I am thinking about returning my Moog within 30 days.
Oh , and shame on “Moog music” for selling Voyager Editor Librarian instead of just giving it with the synth !" Money greedy slobs"-- Have I not paid you enough money by purchasing your 3 and a half thousand dollar synth ?
–SHAME ON YOU BOB–SHAME ON YOUR COMPANY’S GREED–GIVE FROM YOUR HEART AND NOT YOUR GREED–GOD IS WATCHING- WE GIVE AS MUCH AS WE LOVE-- AND IF WE TAKE MORE THAN WE GIVE - WE FAIL FROM THE START TO LIVE IN TRUTH.
I’ve had the voyager for almost a year now, and I do agree with you Analogue, that it has its limitations. However so are a lot of other insruments that make phenomenal music like the sp1200, mpc3000, 2000, fender rhodes, piano, saxophone, the drum…buying the voyager is like buying a $2-3000 violin, or flute or whatever! If you can’t percieve the value in it, you must need something else.
I personally like an instrument that is bold, simple, lets me express music in a tactile, cathartic way…I owned an Access Virus KB, which I think, sound wise, is much more suited to Goa PsyTrance, and it took me 2 years to see what it was about that synth that urked me in sucha subtlely profound way! It was the INTERFACE. I was not able to express music as I needed to though that tool. I could never get tones out of that synth to complement my beats. The voyager becomes a friggin interdimensional comet-blade wailing the songs of eternity, lovingly slicing through my silly concepts whence it meets the defying drums of my mpc2000! She then becomes a sweet crooner of romantic vision in duets with the fender rhodes…
With the voyager, you have to DIG a litte. expand it…its like buying a vintage Les Paul or something…its your baby now, dress it up, make it do all it can!
Or just return it, realize its just not for you, get somethin else to suit your desires.
Simon Posford (Hallucinogen, Shpongle) uses an ARP2600… maybe you might want something like that? Lots of tranceHeads use Viruses, Novations, um…Tritons, waldorfs…
Anyways, enough of my rag…good luck in your process
The Voyager is a real instrument.
A synthesizer-Strativari just like the original minimoog and other all time classics like the CS80, T8, …
It features something most synth miss today:
expression through the interface (touch-panel, atleast two pedals and the left-hand wheels). Its not about fancy sounds and superb build in reverbs and bells and whistles only that makes up an real intsrument.
Thank you much ! Yes, I am looking into buying an ARP2600 and a Virus TI . I think I will be getting it this month. I wonder if I can get one under 7K in good shape ? And I appreciate your kind response twoards the Moog , and agree that indeed to each their own. I still don’t agree with them trying to sell every inch of the way though . The program to edit moog is being sold too ? How greedy can they get ? I guess there is still space left , since they have the nerve to buy a couple boards from Home Depot for 30 something bucks , stick it into their peoduction line ,make a case and add another 1500$ to the price fo the synth, and call it some super edition crap . — SICKOS !
You do know, don’t you, that the Voyager editor software isn’t made in-house at Moog, but rather by a third party who designs synth editors for a living. You know that, right?
Let’s say you were a guy who writes synth editor software for a living. Wouldn’t it be good and proper that you get paid for your expertise? I’m sure most of us wish that we had the financial security and independence so that we could work with our synths for the sheer love of it alone. However, we do live in this world, and in this world you need money or skills to get by.
You proposed solution was for Moog to include the software in the price of the Voyager. Public-relations-wise, that’d seem to be a smart move. But realize that the average cost of a Voyager would go up then, even for the people (like myself) who don’t want editing software and who prefer the hardware. Seems kind of silly to charge everybody for a feature which only some of the users would need or want.
“But Moog could throw it in for free!” you say. Right? Well, I guess. Then realize that Moog Music would be making less money on each product sold.
Ignoring the fact that this is bad business sense (which, in one perspective, drove the original Moog Music out of business and caused Dr. Bob to lose the right to use his own name!) and instead approaching it from our “idealist” standpoint: Where will this lost money come from to restore the bottom line to the same as before? By Moog trying to sell a greater number of units to make the same profit? The Voyager is a no-compromises synth. It’s not for everybody. It’s not, in fact, for most people. It’s for the discerning synthesist. It’s for the chef who can tell a the difference between a Wusthof Classic chef’s knife and the chef’s knife you get in the $75 knife kit.
So what’s Moog to do to sell more units? Cut some corners? Outsource the assembly to China? Don’t be ridiculous. Me, I’d rather that money stay in-house at Moog and go toward keeping development rolling, on things like the Murf, the Voyager Rack, the Etherwave Pro, the next Moogerfooger we haven’t even heard of yet… I think that’s a much smarter approach than charging everybody for something that only some people want.
I seriously doubt that Moog Music is ‘getting rich.’ Running any sort of business that is not a sole proprietorship, where you have to PAY PEOPLE livable salaries for their efforts takes A LOT OF MONEY. Personally, I wonder how they do it…how they stay afloat with such a limited market for their products. What you ARE paying for is
Time tested, intelligent design, inside and out.
Retro-technology with the benefits of modern innovations, but without the drawbacks of EITHER.
a hand made instrument, made in the usa (quality craftmanship)
the signature Moog sound (filters, controllers, modularity, oscillators)
The Moog aesthetic (classy feeling instruments designed for a certain type of connoiseur/musician.)
I’m no connoiseur, but I was able to tell from my first listen, that this was the synth for me! Every friend of mine that sits down to play my Voyager says that ‘this thing is such a character!’
Now, what exactly does that mean?
Sit down to play a Virus, or Triton or Motif and you might see the difference.
Just a question… Do you own a Voyager or any analogue sizer at all? I see an analogue sizer as an Italian super car. It is a pain sometimes, expensive to buy and repair but when working really really fun to drive.
You can buy Japanese sports car that will take you fairly fast from A to B. It is cheaper and will probably not have to be serviced as much as a Ferrari but the handeling, engine sound, exterior and interior is a bit so so… If I had the money I would by myself a Ferrari F430 Spider but I don’t… I drive a Japanese sport car.
Nothing wrong with Japanese sports car or virtual synthesizer but it lacks that extra oomph.
Yep, I do man. I got an Analog Voyager anv edition , but am not too happy with it due to it’s limitations. I only now find out that I have to buy an expansion board to it , and the Librarian. I never owned a one note synth before and was actually excited about getting a moog at first , but for my music , the Moog did not deliver. This ferrari is not up to speed :)I have to change gears. But I guess the synth is not made for the type of music I am into , so I might as well stop talking smack and return it ( what I am actually in the process of doing now ) . I think I will replace my moog with a Cwejman Sound S1 MkII and a Virus Ti , these are a better take for the Goa Trance sound. Dj Tiesto gave props to Moog’s bass lines , and I gotta give it that - they are awesome, but again Goa does not even use too much of that. So to make the story short , my Moog experience was just not what I needed.
I bought the A6 in 2003… I didn’t even try it first. It was analogue, had knobs and totally controllable by MIDI.
I must say I was a bit disappointed at first. It is a very complex sizer with a lot of stuff going on in inside. It is quit hard to program even if it has loads of knobs and buttons. What I think is most hard is the envelopes… 6 stages with different levels and you can set different slopes on the stages or loop stages. I would love to have a “simple” button that turns it to an ordinary ADSR. It took me a few months before I really started to get a hang of all the possibilities. This sizer will grow with time…
I have made a few default programs so I can e.g. start with a clean ADSR sound or a more complex structure. The sound programming goes so much faster…
I don’t like the presets… almost every sound has the arpeggios and/or the sequencer turned on. A few hours in your local music store is not enough to hear the A6 sonic possibilities.
So how does the A6 sound… Well it has a moogish sound in it’s 4-pole filter and a bit of Oberheim in the 2-pole. But you can’t compare it to the real deal. The A6 has it’s own unique sound which is good. It blows away all VA sizers on the market when it comes to a organic sound, deep bass.
I mostly do sounds like say Depeche Mode, Vince Clark and other 80’s electronic pop sounds. The A6 is able to do all modulated techno stuff perfectly synced to MIDI and I know it can do all Virus sounds as well.
Hey , thanks for the info man. So you say you know know ? ALL sounds ? I am not sure if you are familiar with Astral Projection , a goa trance band. That kind of sound is exactly what I am after and when I tired A6 I thought it was more of trancey than goa .
As far as the astral projection ‘sound’ is concerned. AP always used loads of synths. Go and check out the list on their website and you’ll understand, I am sure, that there is no one synth in existence that will enable you to replicate all or even many of the sounds that they create. However, being familiar with a lot of the equipment they use and having read interviews with them years ago, I can say that certain pieces bubble to the top (as it were).
The first is that like all goa trance, old roland synths predominate - most of their albums sound like demo pieces for the shs, jupiters and junos. They were apparently very fond of the xpander, too (at least from interviews). There aren’t any modern synths that sound like old rolands, I’m afraid (and certainly not your prospective choices) but the a6 will go some way to sounding like an xpander (at least in terms of the routing possibilities) and one a6 owner has made a number of a6 patches that sound roland-ish (google for a6 and coolcolj).
As for your comment about the sound of the a6 being more trance than goa, that’s just your inexperience talking, I’m afraid. A good synth will sound whatever the hell you want it to sound like. Furthermore, you seem to have fallen into the trap of thinking that other gear will get you closer to a particular sound - witness your desire to get the cwejman (which you more than likely have never heard in person) and the virus ti (which you have definitely not heard in person). I would say that you need to get one good synth and stick with it: learn it inside and out and then you will know what you need to emulate the sounds of your heroes and (hopefully) one day make your own sounds.
p.s. also, if you want to slag moog off for being expensive, please be consistent. The cwejman is the same price as the voyager (at bigcity music anyway) and it doesn’t have a keyboard, performance controls or patch memories. And the editor that you slag off moog for not providing for free is not avaliable for the cwejman at any price and never will be.
Hey thanks suth. Yeah , I think I will do just that. TI is going to take too long to come out. They seem to have come across some software issue and will delay their shipment into the US untill perhaps july. Meanwhile I will examine Virus C for what its worth. I think you will agree with me that Astral Projection use alot of Virus sound. In fact I think it takes up a good deal of their mids. Thank you for the advise my friend. What I wanted to say by " getting better sound out of a particular synth as opposed to Moog , is that Moog is a single note synth. and to my understanding or “short term” experience with it , I did not get what I wanted out of it , nor thought I could within the 30 days that I had it for, fearing that after 30 days I would be stuck with it with out being able to get the sounds that I actually needed.
I also think Astral Projection generate a good deal of their sound on the ARP2600. As for Cwejman, I did not yet try it except for the samples they had on the Bigcitymusic, but I liked those ! So maybe that too.
One of the things I love about the Voyager is the effort that Bob Moog made to ensure that it was still a forward-thinking instrument, current with the modern demands of being an electronic musician.
[please no mono-cracks…it is what it is – and many like it]
The touchpad, pot-mapping implementation, configurable filters, MIDI-usability, preset-storage, osc. stability, and os-updates make it an easy integration into a 2005 set-up.
The one thing, however, it’s missing in the ‘included’ list is an editor. This should be included in the box, just like the power cord. It’s becoming standard for any high-level synth.
I understand the need to pay the programmer, that’s a no-brainer – but the software should be included in the box. If it boosts the price and/or cuts the profit margin, so be it – but it needs to be there.
Think of it like this…the touchpad increased the price because it’s an essential part of the instrument. Because of the limited space for presets, the patch-editor is essential as well. It should just be part of the package.
I still haven’t purchased it on general principle…just forcing myself to get 128 perfect patches…you know?
With that said, it’s the best piece of gear I’ve touched…
? And I appreciate your kind response twoards the Moog , and agree that indeed to each their own. I still don’t agree with them trying to sell every inch of the way though . The program to edit moog is being sold too ? How greedy can they get ? I guess there is still space left , since they have the nerve to buy a couple boards from Home Depot for 30 something bucks , stick it into their peoduction line ,make a case and add another 1500$ to the price fo the synth, and call it some super edition crap . — SICKOS !
