Those of you who have heard the new Taurus 3 in person who also have or are familiar with the Taurus 1… how do they compare side by side soundwise? Does the new one have the mojo of the original?
Thanks
Ah, the question of the ages. Will it ever be answered? Time will tell.
I think our resident Taurus expert Mike C. (MC) should be able to answer this one for us, as he was fortunate enough to be at the studio with Moog for the critical listening & comparison tests. I believe his T-3 is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so he could give us actual side-by-side comparisons with his T-1. My T-3 should be here Weds., but my T-1 is long gone, & I’ll be comparing the two from memory (which aint what it used to be..) By all accounts, I think most folks would agree that Moog nailed it & hit this one clear out of the park. Not only can the T-3 do everything the T-1 could, it can get sounds & do things the T-1 can only dream about.
I suspect this question will be answered as quicky and definitively as the original minimoog vs. Voyager minimoog question.
One major difference - While the Voyager was never intended nor advertised to be a sonic clone of the Mini, the Taurus 3s were advertised from day one to duplicate all of the Taurus 1’s sound - and then some!
My point is that a comparrison is necessarily subjective.
Well no, because the D and Voyager don’t have the same architecture so were never meant to sound the same, so how could they be compared?
Im not trying to open up this big can of war worms, but wasn’t the point of the T3 such that it is NOT a subjective comparison?
Its essentially supposed to be a perfect clone with extra attributes.
Told 'ya. 
Exactly.
Apart from the worn components in a T1 (there are no new ones to compare to), they should sound the same. In fact a T3 probably sounds more like an original T1 than current T1s because of the aging process.
Guys – this is meant in the spirit of friendly debate . . . truly . . . but
Roland TB-303 vs. the many “clones.”
Sequential Circuits Prophet vs. DSI Prophet '08.
I could go on.
I’m sure the Moog guys have done a heck of a job.
I ordered one!
You cannot 100% re-create a classic analog sound. Maybe 98.5%. The old components are usually not available. The newer ones are close but . . .
And we “gear heads” love to argue!
I’m sure at least one T1 owner will say: great! close! but . . .
One thing I find interesting is that Ive seen the brutal battlefields that were Model D vs Voyager threads, and the development of the Taurus III plays an unique role here.
One argues that the Model D is superior on all counts…throws the word discrete around like an old rag doll, but the point always arises that Bob himself never set out to recreate the Model D.
Like it has already been stated, Moog intentionally set out to recreate the Taurus 1 in every detail, and then some.
I once compared a single oscillator of the Voyager to that of the Micro and the Micro sounded much different and in some cases, much more desirable. When they released the “Guess which one is which” sound demo, I most definately noticed a difference, and Ive never seen a T1 in person, much less could accurately guess which one it is in a blind test.
Which one is which?
http://www.moogmusic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8198
I think its a moot point to argue that they did not recreate the circuit based solely on the argument that you “cannot 100% recreate a classic analog sound.” An experienced user on another thread pointed out that even different units of the same Make and Model don’t sound exactly the same so to say Moog failed in recreating the Taurus is just splitting hairs perhaps.
I don’t know why I bothered to open my mouth, I knew Id get sucked into the much that is _____ vs _______.
i actually had a T1: T3 face-off booked for January, but the pedals got delayed. Hopefully we’ll be able to reschedule. i was going to call up the Taurus preset, match levels on the mixer (with the volume turned down) and then do a blind test with the T1 owner.
Again it’s not so much a case of differences (i bet two T1s wouldn’t sound exactly the same), but whether it sounds good/has the vibe.
PS. The SCI v DSI was another bad example i’m afraid - the P’08 is not a P5 clone.
Obviously Arturia’s Moog Modular soft synth will always be better than an old wall of Moog modules, no question there… 
Bite your tongue, you heathen!
The comparison between software emulations and the hardware emulated is like playing hunting and fishing video games. Sure you spend a lot less money and still have fun sitting in front of a screen pushing buttons while looking at a one-dimensional picture, and it can produce the same result as actually hunting or fishing, but when someone comes to your house you don’t have a bunch of shotguns and a huge tackle box to show off, you just have some virtual numbers. Even though I have synths that live inside my Macbook that can do things my Voyager can’t even imagine, the actual hardware and interface and connection between your hand and the knobs make playing and programming the instrument infinitely better than sitting in front of a computer with a mouse and some endless encoders that you had to program to control the cutoff. Yes the Moog Modular software is a million gazzilion bajillion more times convenient than actually owning the real thing, but you won’t have the same ideas and inspiration that you would if you were holding several patch cords while standing in front of a giant stack of knobs and cables which is emitting sounds that are making your neighbors scared.
Sorry to go slightly OT.
Truth be told, unless I hit the lottery or discovered that some rich relative had left me a pile of money, I’d probably go for the Arturia software before spending the money on the real thing.
As Dave Chapelle once pointed out, keepin’ it real can be really, really costly!
As a side note, I just tried to download a demo of the Moog Modular software, but Arturia requires you to have a dongle just for the demo, and the links in the email they send you don’t even work. If one company could produce native plugins and software instruments that use a registration system that works ALL the time (actually native instruments have cleaned their act up a bit), then I would be VERY happy. Here’s to Moog Music Inc. Software Division!
Yeah, for some reason Arturia got real paranoid. Too bad they don’t realize that they’d actually do better if they’d get rid of that damned dongle!
No need to apologize - you just summed up the reason why folks like Moog, DSI and other makers of real analog hardware are in business & doing well. Emulations have their uses, but they will never completely replace the real deal.