Can any one tell me why Moog keyboards are monophonic. It seems like such a waste of potential ! !
You didn’t read the monophonic keyboard chops thread, did you? A lot of it is tied up in the history of synthesizers. I’m sure others here will get into that. Sorry I don’t have any answer of my own! I just happen to be up at 4 AM…
Listen, I don’t want any long, lengthy posts about how synths aren’t tradtional instruments and so on. I just think the Moog keyboards should play chords as well. That’s one of my favorite things about synths, the way they can produce some of the most mind-altering, beautiful harmonies.
Besides the excellent points made in the other thread, size and cost are the 2 big reasons. If the Voyager was polyphonic you’d need a forklift to move it and it would cost as much as a car. If you need a polyphonic Voyager you can add the RMEs to it or buy a modular.
you can track up harmonies with monos one at the time or tune the 3 oscs on a voyager to make chords. But its not all about chords is it? There are ways to hint at harmony without having to play chords.
Also look at the dsi polyevolver. 4 note poly? whats all that about? useless to me a poly needs to be at least 5 note to be useful. It doesnt bother me you cant play chords on a mono as i dont expect it to. if you want a moog poly buy a memorymoog or buy a voyager with extra rme’s to use as voice expanders. If you want a moog poly youll need to cough up the cash or wait till a new moog poly appears.
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You might consider a Virus then, instead… 
rachel
also the mg-1 has a 10-voice polyphonic organ sound. bam
Those synths with all of that sweet sounding mind altering beautiful harmonies don’t sound quite as good as a Moog either.
You don’t buy a violin so you can get 10 note stacked chords. A violin does what a violin does and a Moog does what a Moog does.
This debate has been going on since the first Monophonic synths hit the market.
Getting back to the original question, the simple answer is simply cost!
Look at the circuitry involved in the Voyager or even the Little Phatty.
There are was to do this, such as with the Andromeda where custom IC’s are manufactured (ASIC’s, etc) but thenyou will get some complaints about it lacking “warmth”, etc…
I haven’t looked inside of the Voyager but in general descrete compnents oscillators are known to be warmer (because they are not as stable) where as an oscillator on a chip (all components on the same substrate) will be smaller (and less “warm/fat”).
I suppose if MoogMusic wanted to build a poly synth, the AFFORDABLE solution would be to use an oscillator on an IC, along with IC filters, etc but bear in mind that Moog’s are also know for their unique ladder filter…
That is not an entirely bad idea (and maybe this is how the voyager is internally, I don’t know) as you could put everything on an IC or simply buy them from a manufacturer of such chips - such as curtis, the exception being the filter if they expect to keep it “sounding like a Moog”.
This is the method used by Dave Smith in the Evolvers, use as many off the shelf components as possible, but then they have sound of their own.
So, it may also be a matter of what compromises are acceptable to the potential customer.
I own an Andromeda and I think it sounds pretty warm and organic, especially if you turn off Background/Temp tune. If you want really soft and warm sound keep the Pre-Filter mixer below 50 on the VCO:s otherwise it can sometimes sound a bit harsh. The A6 might not be as fat as Model D, Prophet~5 but a lot better then all the VA:s out there. But then again the Voyager isn’t as warm and fat as the original Model D. And take the Memorymoog… uses Curtis VCO:s and envelopes but moog filter. It does not sound as fat as the Model D 
I just bought a DSI P.E.K and I think it is a fantastic new analogue polysizer. It really got that Sequential sole. I have been able to recreate my favourite Prophet sounds plus a lot of other cool stuff. I have no problem playing small three key string chords even four sounds good.
The only thing I don’t like is that the envelopes are too fast. At low settings (lower then 10) you hear a popping sound in the beginning of the sound. Especially if the Cut-off is turned down.
Both the P.E.K and A6 are excellent polysizers with a lot of nice features to a reasonable price.
Kind regards
Demokid
Personally, I have an old Oberheim Matrix 6R linked to a Matrix 1000, giving a massive 12-voice analog (with digital control) synth. It’s not a 12-voice Moog, but it sounds pretty darn close and costs far less than 12 Voyagers!
It is what it is. If you don’t like it, buy the Virus. Why do some people wish the Voyager would be something that it isn’t? (Gee, why can’t they make the Virus an analogue synth? Why must it be digital? What’s with a saxophone? Why can’t they make it play chords? The tuba. . .why can’t it play higher notes? It’s so limiting just playing bass notes. What a waste of potential!)
why are nearly all flutes, saxophones and so on only monophonic? Such a waste of potential
the interesting thing about monophonic synthesizers is their ability to be controlled in subtle and not so subtle ways.
on the voyager, you can play a note with your right hand, simultaneously control the pitch and vibrato with your left hand and control the filter with your nose on the touchscreen.
can’t do that with a glass harmonica.
moog has made some polyphonic synthesizers. It’s just that, in oder to make the instrument polyphonic, you have to have more oscillators and route them differently…now, if you’ve ever played a voyager or an old modular, you know that you can detune each individual oscillator so you can play a chord. So, you still have that option…it’s just not the traditional way of playing a chord on a piano or the likes…
I seem to always reach for my Voyager first when I start to write, play chords using it as well - the joys of midi. I bought it for what it is - a great kybd with the sound that I luv. As you can see from my sig I have a few other Moogs, and yes all mono. Over the years I have had more poly synths than I care to remember but there has been a Moog in my stable for over 30 yrs.
I think I read in Analog Days that there was an electronic music composer who was perturbed by the fact that the Moog had a keyboard controller at all! He wanted to have non-traditional controllers in order to break free of the tyranny of Western music, or something like that. So be happy that you even have a keyboard at all!
I’d like a Moog Electronic Waterphone…
True but of course that person could have bought a modular back then (or an RME now!) Neither actually come with a keyboard though you could buy one separately or get a configured modular system with one included. The observation as a concept I guess was best embodied in contrast with Don Buchla who was pretty adamant that his synths didn’t have conventional keyboards and he initially didn’t even offer one even if you wanted one. But he eventually did offer a conventional keyboard many years later (perhaps because investors wanted him to, I’m not sure of the back story)
Also one should point out that while the Moog/Realistic Concertmate MG-1 does have a square wave organ sound. It’s not 10 voices as someone mentioned, you can hit all the keys at once, but it’s not a polyphonic synth in the modern sense because there is only one shared filter. That means not only is the tone limited in color but the individual notes don’t have separate envelopes or filters. Fortunaltely it contains a real monosynth also so you have that in there too. The popular, though still sort of esoteric term for this is “paraphonic” not polyphonic, the former term more or less means a monosynth with some additional electric organ technology inside.
As for new Moog polyphonic synths, I’m not sure it’s in the works, but one would think that it would not be overly complex to create a racked “slave” Voyager (I don’t like that word “slave” but it’s been used by others to describe what I’m talking about). A good piece of the RME price goes to the cost of the knobs, fine casing and complete stand alone interface. Other manufacturers have made MIDI modules with no interface for voice expansion use. You would only be able to program it with another Voyager or software. Something like that would seriously cut down the size and price, though it would still be fairly costly. (so the enormous size someone suggests isn’t accurate unless we are talking about a 12 voice instrument or something like that with lots of voices - but it sure will never be a super cheap instrument).
Or in theory moog could do a Little Poly Phatty Expander. Put say 4 voices in a rack with minimal user interface, that would be more viable because you’d save the price of 3 enclosures and power supplies, etc. and the Little Phatty voice surely costs less to build making the whole thing potentially priced better than doing the same thing with the Voyager voice.
i strongly disagree with a couple of points mentioned earlier in another post. The memorymoog is every bit as phat as the model d. The voyager is a different sound to the minimoog d but is just as warm and phat but just has a slightly different character. so there.