Voyager XL - if you were doing it all over again...

The Moog Forum Minimoog Forum
1

Would you still go for the XL?

If so, why?

If not, Why?

thx!

2

Yes. For a few reasons.

  1. I love the semi-modular approach. Yes, the “regular” voyager’s have jacks on the top, but in a sonic exploration, getting up to peer over the top and plug jacks in and out doesn’t work. Also, I always HATED how the jacks went through the name “voyager” on the top. Seemed like an afterthought.
  2. Ribbon controller. It’s fun, and flexible. Before I got the XL, I briefly had the Walking Stick and Doefer ribbon controllers. Neither offered the immediacy that the internal one does. It’s also not normalized to any parameters, so I can patch it to my go-to destination, and the patching will transcend from preset to preset.
  3. I think it will be a more collectible model in the future. Just given the price and that they’ve only made about 1100 of them.
  4. With the XL, the only other place to grow is modular. And the XL is probably the best modular interface synth available (the jury is still out on the new MatrixBrute).

Here will be the most common complaints from other people, which may be valid points, depending on your perspective.

  1. Too big. Takes up a lot of room.
  2. Too heavy. Hard to gig with.
  3. Too spendy. It’s more expensive than a regular voyager with all of the add-ons, yes. But it’s so much more than that, at least to me.

My bottom line.
It’s the best version, of the best synth ever made. It’s a beautiful interpretation of the model D, housed in an homage to where Moog started, modularity in a walnut cabinet.

3

100% yes. It is the most gratifying sound design tool I own, and now that I have it routed through a Strymon Big Sky, along with the MF-104M, the sonic palette is almost limitless.

4

Thanks guys.

I’ve been on the fence about it, mostly because of the price tag, as I won’t be gigging with it.

I got an amazing deal on one and haven’t received it yet, but was a little nervous about the expenditure.

Just needed some validation.

Thanks.

5

i got mine with the 20% off black friday sale. that $1,000 discount was what took it from my “dream synth” to my “next synth”.

6

Got the same set-up! :slight_smile:

7

Same here - picked up my white XL from Noisebug, factory refurb, for $4k. Now sits as the centerpiece in my studio, and has lived up to my years of imagining what it would be like to actually own a Moog synth.

The other night I spent about 1.5 hours envisioning, and then dialing in a patch… followed by an extended session with the Cloud algorithm in the Big Sky. Then, I realized that I hadn’t even touched the 104M… there went another 30 minutes. :mrgreen:

I keep telling myself I ought to just record my musings into Ableton Live, but there is something about just noodling around, knowing that you will never hear that exact same performance / experiment in exactly the same way again.