I wonder why Moog, today, seems more about reissuing their very first products with the “Voyager” tag, including reissues of the Minimoog Model D and the Taurus bass pedal, than for their later offerings like the Multimoog/Micromoog or the Satellite, or the Source (the first Moog synth with numbered presets, predating the polyphonic Memorymoog by one year) and Opus-3?
But I don’t want to think of them putting out the Polymoog Voyager, since the Polymoog effort was a total nightmare from the get-go.
What I mean is that someday Moog should bring back the Source and also possibly make the Source XL.
Do you think that the Source was better in any aspect over the Minimoog Model D?
The Source is The Source and a Minimoog D is a Minimoog D. Period.
A Voyager is a Voyager, and a Minimoog d is a Minimoog D. Period.
A Multimoog is a Multimoog and… well you get my drift ?
Now as for why Moog Music seems to want to re-issue/update some older models, and not some others ? They’re probably trying to recapture past glory IMHO, and bet on the more successful models like the Minimoog D, the Taurus 1, and to some extent The Source with its evolution into the Little Phatty (although sound wise I’m not convinced of that).
But as I said in the beginning, a Little Phatty is a Little Phatty, and The Source is The Source. Period.
Bob has said himself that the Voyager was never meant to be a reissue of the Model D. It was never supposed to be a Model D. The Little phatty is nothing like anything that has come before it, either sound wise or feature wise. To me, it’s most like a Prodigy, but has more features. The closest things Moog has to reissued products is the Taurus 3 and 12 stage phaser. Even those are their own thing, and not reissues per se.
Actually, I’d LOVE them to reissue some of their very first products, like 921 oscillators, 904 filters, 914 filter bank…
The “reissue” Taurus 3 paved the way to a derivative product - the Minitaur. There isn’t a desktop synth elsewhere with the taurus voice architecture.
Moog is not in the nostalgia business, that’s why Bob never claimed the Voyager was a reissue of the model D.
Legacy connections aside, both products filled a market gap. Heck this is the 8th year the Voyager has been in production - an eternity for any keyboard product!
I see no business potential from reissuing polymoogs - I own one and frankly it is the last polysynth I would want to see reissued as its sound palette is very limited. A Source reissue would place it in a very competitive market when you look at other products in its price range and function set.
With the moogerfooger line aimed at guitarists, the phaser was a natural addition but is not a “reissue” of the old rackmount phaser - the circuits are very different.
The Moog Voyager has been in production for 10 years now…
Similar to the original Minimoog that was produced from late 1970 to early 1981 (although not continuously, since production was stopped from 1975 to 1977).
Just over 12,000 units of the Mini were produced during that time.
I wonder how many Voyagers (keyboard only, but all versions except XL) were made up to this day ?
Same thing with DSI. Look to the future, while remembering the past. Have the essence of the originals, but have a modern instrument that applies to the music world today. If you want a new Model D, the closest thing would be a Studio Electronics SE-1x probably. It uses discrete components like the Model D and it’s purpose was to model it, and supposedly Bob Moog approved the original SE-1 design.
The reason Moog Music releases modern instruments inspired by early Moog instruments like the Model D and Taurus, is because Bob was originally calling the shots. He desgned the Mini. He designed the Voyager. They were bound to have similarities. He did not design the Taurus 3, but Moog needed a bass synth. What better way to release a bass synth than to put a name on it that people already know and love? It’s sure to sell!
Not to mention, design the sound engine based on the one used in the original, which was the most powerful bass synth until the release of the 3. That helps, too.
According to a book I just finished reading “Analog Days”, Bob had very little to do with the actual design of the MiniMoog. It was put together quickly while he was out of town because the engineers working there realized that the company would go under soon if they didn’t come up with a popular, viable, big-seller. He was pissed when he came back and saw what they did without his permission. And even then, it was ‘too little too late’ and the company was sold after a while because they couldn’t pay their debts.
Bob initially wasn’t sold on the idea of a minimoog at first. When Bill Hemsath built the model A prototype which got some attention from David Borden of Mother Mallard, Bob saw the potential and authorized two model B prototypes which were built with PC boards from the modulars. That led to the four model Cs which had new circuits derived from the modulars. Bob designed the oscillators and the wood case with flip-up panel for the model C, he assigned other engineers on different parts of the minimoog. He directed the development of the model B and C, but the model D was indeed brought into production in his absence against his orders, driven by the 1969 slump in the market for moog modulars during which time the Moog company was struggling and the engineers felt that they desparately needed to get this instrument to market before things got worse.
