Seeing as many of us here recommend the Memorymoog over the Polymoog for purposes of its sounds; however, even the Memorymoog has its fair share of problems, such as certain voices being “stuck” or missing; and since Moog as a whole was falling apart the year this synth was released (1982), there wasn’t really a whole lot of time to work things out on this model. But still, is the Memorymoog really more reliable than the Polymoog?
The Memorymoog Plus edition is the one that can accept a MIDI retrofit, as well as boasting over 100 voices, so I’d go towards that one.
Also … would the Memorymoog Plus replace every keyboard instrument heard on the “Karn Evil 9” suite by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Minimoog, Modular 3C, Apollo, Lyra, Hammond organ)?
Why are you so hung up on recreating KE9? If you are looking for a machine to do that one song on, get an Ensoniq VFX or SQ-80. You can make every sound on one including the drums.
The idea behind Moog product development isn’t to recreate some old thing, it is to have the ability to create new sonic textures and move forward. Cite the Taurus, it can create the sound of the original and then go so much farther. The Voyager, the goodness and feel of the MINI D with many new features to go further. Why should they lock themselves into some old device that was a dead end when it was made? You want to do KE9? Watch some Youtube videos. There are some where it is done very well by guys on home theatre organs. Have you seen Keith Emerson play it in the last decade? He isn’t using the old machines that it was originally recorded with.
No way a company is going to put the hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line to develop a new machine that is going to be duplicate of a failed and limited machine.
And yes a Memory Moog had some issues. It didn’t have the time in production to get the kinks worked out. But the PolyMoog was a nightmare from the get go, and discontinued quickly because they knew there was no way to make it reliable with the technology of the era.
I’ve never owned either, but I have played around with both of them. The PolyMoog did nothing for me, while the MemoryMoog let loose the sound of the Gods. I would rather see something entirely new, voiced more like a Memorymoog, but with multiple filter configurations & the ability to produce a wider range of sounds than either of it’s predecessors. Eight voices with three oscillators per voice would work just fine for me, and plenty of modulation sources & destinations - you can never have too many mod options. Yea, it’s gonna cost an arm and a leg, but thats OK - it would be my last synth for a looooong time.
