This isn’t about old vs. new in my opinion. If the Model D were made today in its original form with original components, it would still be the best ever by far. Yes it has a “vintage” sound and feel, but its one of the few pieces that is timeless and never sounds dated, except in the 80’s and 90’s, but that’s over, thank the f*ck christ.
And, don’t forgot, the person who points out all the things all things that someone might give as a response.
And the person who points out the pointing out. 
having both
i prefer the mini-d, but for practical reasons mostly play the voyager.
different instruments like all moog synth’s ( and some other brands too ).
If you can hear a difference from a Bechstein and a Bösendorfer grand piano, you will hear the difference of a Voyager to the minimoog model D as well.
I own both synths for some years. Using the very same speakers. And they do not sound alike 100%. But you can hear also differences from one minimoog D with the old oscillators to a newer one.
And my late minimoog is a pitch stabil as my Voyager.
Although I was sceptical at first and tried a variety of monosynths live and in my studio, I eventually realized how special the Minimoog Model D is. However after owning and selling a few Minimoog Ds I can say with certainty that they do not all sound the same - which can account for the varying opinions here. I owned a 1975, 1978 and now have a 1973 Mini D which to me sounds the best of the three. I am not saying that all older Mini Ds sound better, but for me my 1973 model is richer than my 1975 & 1978 and is also more stable than its 1975 vintage sibling. How much of the Mini Ds variation in sound is due to aging / maintenance or original manufacturing changes is a question I will leave to those who know far more than me about these issues.
Personally, now that I finally got my hands on a Minimoog, I can tell what all the fuss is about. It’s a lot of little things that make a Minimoog a synth unlike any other synths, including other…Minimoogs !
All the little imprecision in tuning, the slight slow drift of its oscillators, the curve of its sawtooth slope, the snappiness of the sawtooth waveform that adds sizzle to it, the smooth action of it keyboard, its 440 reference (very useful and missing from the Old School), the “feedback trick” effect that results in unpredictable results at high settings, etc etc…
I’ve had an Old School a couple of years ago, and sold it. I didn’t like the continually variable waveforms of its oscillators (making it difficult to obtain an exact sawtooth without an oscilloscope). And although is sounded really great, it didn’t appeal that much to me. True that it has much more versatile modulation capabilities, and a dedicated LFO, but the “perfectness” of its tuning and its lack of drift, combined with “squeaky clean”, although still beefy, sound made it seem somewhat less appealing to me.
And moreover, its keyboard action feels “cheap” when compared to the silky smooth Pratt-Read of the Minimoog. The Electric Blue Voyager as a better quality keyboard than the Old School, but still not quite there.
Don’t get me wrong. The Old School, and other Voyagers, are still a great successors to the original Mini, having corrected most of the “bugs” out of it and added a lot of functionality. But I prefer a synth with an attitude, a mind all it’s own, and one that you must work with continually to get the most out of it or just to keep it in tune. I guess it could be compared to a guitarist wanting to keep playing an old beat-up Strat that might have become hard to maintain and to keep in tune, instead of getting a brand new one, because he loves it and couldn’t find another guitar that sounded like that. Stevie Ray Vaughan comes to mind…
My two cents on it.
Al.
The model D just feels like an instrument in your hands, like a violin or something. When I had the voyager, I felt more of a disconnect between myself and the instrument, like hitting a key was more like pressing a button, while with the model D it’s to me more like plucking a string. And the process of firing it up and the way it makes you wait for it, and how using the tune knob is like turning a tuning peg on a stringed instrument, all these things though maybe seen as unnecessary annoyances to some, are to me part of the experience. And there’s something to be said about using every feature of an instrument almost every time you play it, there is a certain satisfaction to it, whereas with the voyager I was sometimes not quite content that I was not using everything, it always seemed like I wasn’t using it to its full potential. With the D, its simple layout lets you dial in a great patch, alter the sound with a few knobs and the wheels here and there, but still feel a sense of pushing it to it’s boundaries while still being able to concentrate on playing music. To me music is first and synthesis is second, but that’s just me.
I wish i lived on the same planet as people who can drop four grand on a synth with no warranty.I’m from planet “making monthly payments!”
Got mine for $2300 on ebay about 2 years ago. Has been totally problem free except for a worn pitch wheel detent, but just flipped it around. Worth every penny. I realize though that it is made for a keyboard player specifically. If you’re more of a music programmer, the voyager is a better choice.
I’ve reached that planet simply by setting aside a monthly amount, and when I had finally enough I bought my Mini.
You could also do like some people, and sell some of your stuff to get enough money too.
Also, I’m an electronics hobbyist, so buying an expensive old analog synth like a Minimoog didn’t scare me too much. I can always try to fix it myself if it ever breaks.
In fact, when I bought mine, I had to clean it thoroughly because it had been in storage for many years in a damp and humid basement. But I got a good deal because of this.
And even if you stay on planet “making monthly payments”, there’s no certainty that your new synth won’t break outside of its warranty… My Old School effectively broke during the first 6 months I had it (defective sample-and-hold FET transistor), incidentally, but I was lucky it was under warranty and was fixed.
Whatever people happen to invest in, they will tout, whether its a psychological need to tell themselves that they made the right choice and are not missing out; or seeking out gear that appeals to them specifically, its a confirmed phenomenon
right, and I’ve also noticed most of the Model D touters on this thread coincidentally(?) have invested in such…
my bad for a pointless topic- hey moderator! let’s bag this party? 
bit of a strange/cheap way of ending a discussion when arguments seems to be short ?
the above works for voyager and models d owners the same way and in the same amount i guess
an open comparison of the goods and bads of both machines everybody could benefit from, mho
I own neither a voyager or a mini. I can hear a difference when someone is playing one or the other live. I like the sound of both. Most of the time in a mix with a band it doesn’t make a difference to me. It’s just those moments when the sound hits you in a special place. Hairs stand up on end and I get a slow forming grinch grin. It has happen with the voyager, it just has always been more intense of a feeling with a mini D.
bit of a strange/cheap way of ending a discussion when arguments seems to be short ?
sorry, you’re right-
And let’s all remember, these are TOOLS for us as artists to create with- A kid with chutzpa can provoke a night full of goosebumps with a MG-1, vs a low-on-soul collector could ever do with a trunkful of Ds, Voyagers, whatever-
I suppose I’m just getting weary of the daily affirmations that the synth I sold a roomful of gear for is lacking in the tone department…
now can we move on?
as said before, i more often touch the voyager then any other synth i own, including the model-d.
the voyager really is a good sounding synth and pleasant to play ( execpt for the “spread”" on the place where i always expect the “resonance” knob )
but i would shed a real tear if that model-d would ever break too. it’s really two different moogs.
indeed i guess for my studio the voyager offers so much more, for just tweaking the model -d still is unsurpassed
Well, some are rather living on the “look at my fancy car” planet. I rather invest in synths and use a small car. And most cars will loose its value faster then a good synth. My 1979 Minimoog I bought more then 25 years ago is still doing fine and the value went up and up.
Yeah I drive a beat up 11 year old POS. I’d much rather look like an ass driving than playing a softsynth.
Has anyone ever modified a Model D to include patch memory/recall?
Sort of…Sequential Circuits made a programer that could be used for your Model D back in the 70’s called the Model 700. It was more of a helping hand than a complete patch storage. The Mini needed the oscillator card to have the osc CV inputs seperated to three seperate inputs. Then you would use the 700’s two programable envelope generators CV to control the Mini VCF and VCA with the jacks in the back. So for each patch program you had three seperate oscillator tunings and two delay, attack, decay, sustain, release envelope generators. The envelope for VCF had a programable ammount like the contour ammount dial on the Mini. There was no way to program the mixer settings, osc waveforms, filter resonance, modulation routing and such. But it would help in a live setting. The programer on the early modulars like the one Keith Emerson had was similar in what the patch contained, oscillator tunings and envelope settings. Had 8 banks of 8 presets, and could be sequenced through any number from 1 to 8 in a bank. So you could patch it to change on every keypress or external sequencer step.
Works on one of my Model D’s seen here:
And a close up of the SCI 700.
Still it did not make the Mini sound like a Voyager. 