Hmmm, poly expansion via modular reintroduction?
if this were to be polyphonic - i’d bet they would sell many!
but a $5K monosynth. hrm. that’s going to be a little difficult in this economic climate IMO.
anyone want to buy my little phatty with custom wood sides, cp-251, and doepfer ribbon controller?
i’m selling everything i own to get this beast.
Then you’ll be sitting outside in the rain cuddling it. Be sure to keep a tent and an amp at least. 
I think it looks perverse.
EDIT:
Found this:
ah man. it’s gonna take a lot of bus stop handjobs to pay for this heavenly creation. well, better get started then!
Nah… I suggest you take cold shower instead and get yourself a steaming mug of coffee - and then start up your LP and relax.
It’s Real Folks!
I’m holding a copy of the October issue of Keyboard Magazine
in my hand and it’s on the front cover!
And the cover folds out so you can see the whole thing.
It’s called “The Super Special Moog Collector’s Issue”.
Inside is an article named “The Minimoog at 40”,
and another called “Bob Moog Lives” along with a review
of the Taurus 3.
Happy reading!
from matrixsynth comments:
Captain Analog said…
fear not, smaller things (and different things) are coming too. Just have to be patient. This was a quick idea to pay a bit of homage to the Minimoog, which turns 40 this year. Before you ask, no we didn’t have time to do an exact replica Minimoog in tribute to the 40th anniversary of the Mini. That would have been awesome but we did not have the time and resources to do it. Cheers!
9/9/10 1:13 PM
Well Amos said he was working on a couple of things months back.
Why is the Moog forum the last to know of such things?
i love the ribbon, i would welcome the 5 octaves if it were an upbar for a 4 voice expansion-unit ( or two of them ) too.
otherwise: why would anybody put the patchbay left and the knobs right , while most people are righthanded , so play there solo’s righthanded while turning knobs ( not occassional patching cables ) with their lefts ? guess the korg guys thought of that already.
on the whole ;i might be an exception, but i’m not waiting for another coloured voyager, i’m very happy with my model already . newcommers and collecters however might be for sure.
maybe the ribbon , with hold function, comes seperate ?
If you think about it, the Voyager already flows from left to right, BUT the Mod bus is positioned on the left. It makes sence to me that the interface is just an extended Mod bus.
Im left handed but I really reach for the knobs with my right hand, but an instrument like a synthesizer, which in a way is similar to a set of turntables, you have to train both sides of your body.
A fine piece of engineering…again.
Eric
I could get an expander, a ribbon controller and a cp-251 and pretty much have all the functionality of this beast. Minus 61 keys of course.
I’m really not impressed.
This isn’t a can’t live without it, change the music world kind of item.
Not impressed.
That said, I’d probably buy one.
Hey everyone! Long time, no post.
I saw this synth in my e-mail. I can sum it up in one word: Want!
No “affordable old-school operating-system-free small monophonic synthesizer with knobs”. Meh.
I would also say that this is not well thought out.
But we’ll see if this product gets a shame or possibly a pride for moog music.
I think it’s a very attractive synthesizer - in a musical way, not just visually. But of course it depends on what people need, so I can see why not everyone is impressed.
I’d definitely like one, but I haven’t got money at the moment so it doesn’t seem likely. But I can imagine quite a few professional players wanting to go for it.
It all comes down to the desirability of the five octave keyboard and the built-in patchbay against separate units - and the ribbon controller as a bonus. It strikes me the built-in patchbay would be a handy convenience but not necessarily better than separate boxes - maybe neater in the studio and better for live work. The larger keyboard would be a bonus for some people, and for me personally it’d be a definite attraction - so long as the build-quality is equal to the Voyager I have and to which I’m comparing it. If that quality of keyboard was available over a wider range I’d be interested. (Presumably Moog hasn’t used the inferior Chinese keyboards.)
And for some players it would be a real show-off thing for stage use - large and impressive and possible to do the Keith Emerson thing with patch-cords, but a lot more portable and cheaper than a full modular. I think we’ll start to see people posing in front of these before long, the way they tend to just happen to get photographed or interviewed in front of their Voyager now.
Separate post for this issue, I think.
I can see the logic of this. It gives you a semi-programmable modular, which is better than a totally unprogrammable one. It’s handy to have some of your signal-routings in a pre-stored patch, then patch in some extras. I have qute a few half-patches on different synths now (including the Voyager) - patches that work in connection with a second synth. You can combine them in a variety of ways, and it’s defintely more convenient than patching everything from scratch every time.
Incidentally I’ve found it helpful to label half-patches in the patch name so I can see which are the half-patches to be combined with something else and which are the complete patches. I put a tilde ~ in the patch name. With the new keyboard I can see someone having a half-patch on there and a second half-patch on a standard Voyager or rackmount, each labelled as a half-patch and matching up with an obvious connection from the patchbay. That would give very fast, useable modular capability, and it needn’t be confined to Moog gear.
I can see this synth as not being for everyone, because lots of people don’t care about going modular, and its going to be pretty bulky and hard to carry around with ease.
I don’t think that build quality is going to be an issue. THe only thing from Moog that I saw that wasn’t built that great was the Phatty Stage 1 at a guitar center (for abused instruments).
I also think that with these extra modules, more patch memory will be necessary. As Sweep mentioned, not all presets are for sounds. SOme are for combining with other instruments, some dedicated for sequences, some for audio processing, some for etra osc patches, some for Midi, and then some for all of the great patchwork that we do, dor each individual track of certian songs.
My guess is that the firmware/OS is not much different [if at all] from the latest Voyager code. Maybe just some of the welcome text.
Aside from the obvious addition of the ribbon controller and associated outputs the only difference I can see from the pictures is that the 2nd LFO is much more capable than what comes on the CP-251. There is the obvious add of the Sync light and more waveforms so judging from how I’m guessing the Voyager converts a cpu driven Midi clock to CV, they likely just took the point from the board and carried it across to the selector knob with minimal additional circuitry. Otherwise, it’s the same analog board, digital board, etc. Just sheet metal, a different cabinet and the kbd an add on. And it’s a smart marketing move as it will draw more attention, not only to Moogfest and the fact that Devo is being recognized but to everything else Moog is doing.
And they are likely a very limited edition; without publishing numbers, I would guess that Moog will make 50 of them, then after that they will be built to order (3 month order time). Of course I’m making this all up.
But it’s absolutely brilliant. If I was in the market for a Voyager and had plans to add VX351+CP251, you are really just paying a premium of about $500 and for that you get a full kbd and the ribbon all in once very unique package.
Just my opinion.