Moog Music have found a way to get rid of all those Chinese keyboards, they’ve installed them all on the Old School model. I know, because I had both an OS and an Electric Blue at one point. And the difference between the quality of the two keyboard keys was easily evident. Just by the feel and the finnish. The Chinese keys had sharp edges on their sides from non-sanded plastic molding. The Fatar was smooth all around. The key action on the Chinese is “cheap”. The Fatar has a quality feel. Not as “buttery smooth” as a Pratt-Reed from a well maintained Minimoog D, but still nice.
Moog Music is slowly evolving into a musical instrument mass production company. It used to be a musical instrument shop, producing high quality custom-made analog synths. But under Mike Adams management, profits are more important than complete customer satisfaction. After all, they have to pay for that fancy building they have renovated (at great cost) and now own.
My own Old School broke down under warranty (like many other members here). And had to be sent back twice because it wasn’t fixed properly the first time. Even when it came back with a completely new analog circuit board (because they couldn’t find the cause of the problem on the original one) it wasn’t as carefully calibrated as the original one from the factory. When I complained about that, they told me that it was “within specifications”.
Much like the noise issue in question in this thread.
Shortly after, I sold my Old School (The Electric Blue was a gracious loan from my local music store, while my OS was out for repairs all that time).
I will never buy another current Moog Music product again. Although I love Moog synthesizers from other eras. But that’s just me.
I’m sorry to say that since Bob Moog died, the company he had (re)created ins’t in very good hands with Mike Adams, who doesn’t know shit about quality analog synthesizers and 100% customer satisfaction but only sees dollar signs.
Proof of that are some of the products his company came out with: glow-in-the-dark Theremin, the completely ugly and useless (not to mention ridiculously expensive) 10th anniversary Gold Voyager, the also ridiculously expensive and faulty Moog Guitar (see threads about the Wilkinson Wobble issues on this very forum) that they had to slash the price in order to get rid of over-stock, etc…
If Bob was alive and still in charge of his company, a returned synth for repairs would not leave his shop until it was 100% perfect, not just “within specs”… Bob was a tool maker, a true artisan, with a passion for his work and a dedication to all his customers. Mike Adams is a business man, with a passion for profits and some disregard towards complete customer satisfaction. After all, repairs done under warranty aren’t profitable. And like any business man, he’s trying to cut costs in order to generate more profits. But, more often than not, cost cutting measures against the number of returned defective units under warranty can be a hazardous balancing act.
All this to say that Moog Music ain’t what it used to be, and that the quality level of their products and repairs aren’t the same either. So a little noise is to be expected, sadly.
That’s my humble opinion on it.
Please try to record your Voyager directly into your DAW without saturating the audio signal.
)
