Hey guys,
without causing a scene here, i love my MMV But, it is a monophonic synthesiser learning tool, folks who CAN use it live do so sparingly. I can happily use my alesis ION, which btw has, octave up/down, transopse and sounds so darn near a minimoog on stage, that the everyday punters are unable to tell the difference!. Thanks to the lessons learnt on the MMv, i now know how to manipulate sounds from my Nord Lead 3 in glorious polyphonic sound, without having to take the heavy beast out of the studio.
Ok i would have at one point sold my MMV, but now i will keep it for basic educational synthesis…and hope that one day it will be worth a whole pile of money. The Alesis ION Rocks..check it out for 1/4 the price of a MMV, with near perfect filter emulations of moog, oberheim,roland jupiters etc.
Thanks to Moog for the latest OS which loaded perfectly, but we are desperatley needing some hardware mods now, and maybee a new polyphonic all singing and dancing MOOG!
regards
KJM
I totally disagree.
I’ve got plenty of Creamware plugins, and they are as close as you can get to analog synthesis sound, but the MMV stand it’s ground IMO.
That Moog sound is perfection in my ears, and I think most VA-keyboards today aren’t even close to that brilliant sound of the MMV.
IMHO, MMV is a performer synth meant to be played (in it’s true form) by technically proficient keyboardists by the like of Chick Corea, Keith Emerson, Jan Hammer, Rick Wakeman. If one is solely using MMV for techno/electronica index finger noodling (or an occasional note buried in a top20 song mix), I could understand why such a MMV-owner could feel like the MMV is an unecessary purchase (esp. for gigs). For me the Voyager is an instrument with its own idiosyncratic form of expression and limitations, just like the Hammond organ, the Clavinet, the Mellotron etc… It’s about using it for the right job. That said, there’s nothing wrong with using the MMV on the beforementioned genres, but for me it’s primary a tool for proficient keyboardists to be used as a soloinstrument, much like a trumpet, sax, flute, whatever…
Unfortuantely the modern pop/rock music scene in large seems to discourage virtuosity/proficient playing, contrary to the earlier 70s, when the original minimoog made it’s entrance. That’s a part of the reason why there so little explisit Voyager playing heard on new records, I believe. IMHO of course…
Get Brain Salad Surgery with ELP, and see what I mean! 
I agree with Ingenius.
I think you can’t beat the MMV (other then a model D, which IMHO sounds better) but i wouldn’t want to lug my Signature Edition out on stage as it’s way too valuable to me. Sure, if you earn the money like Wakeman or Emerson then take a performer out on stage but most of us are happy to have our MMV’s tucked up warm in the studio . . . never to leave the stand.
With that in mind, some years ago i went through a range of VA’s and settled on the ION, which, side by side does a fine moog sound . . . I am not saying it would replace my moogs (and I have virtually all the models from 1971 to 1984) but it’s cheap, replaceable, robust and a “near perfect” moog sound (or any other analog sound you might want).
Put through analog effects and mixed hot, on stage it sounds just as analog as the real deal. Now I have owned several Novation, Korg and Access VA’s in the past and none of them did it for me, they all had their own unique sound which was too plasticy, or too harsh . . . only the ION so far, to me anyway goes somewhere close to real analog (just buy a later model as I had huge problems with the knobs on my ION and in the end sold it).
Mal