What if MOOG MUSIC were to produce a new polophonic synth...

[LeRoi]

Isn't Alesis known for lemons?

I belong to the Alesis Lemon Club. I found their products very reliable before they switched hands however many years ago.

[orangefunk]

price would be an important issue and with the economy the way it is I doubt it would be much of a success... pity..

I could see a polyphonic phatty being more likely, but I don't really dig the sound of that synth for some reason...

[Octopigeon]

Another thing to think about is wouldnt you want full control over a poly.If they chose to go with a LP style design that would sacrifice some of quick on the fly control of the sound.

[Voltor07]

Another thing to think about is wouldnt you want full control over a poly.If they chose to go with a LP style design that would sacrifice some of quick on the fly control of the sound.

Not really. Push a button, turn the knob. Works for me, anyway. A lot easier than "quick on the fly" modular control, at any rate.

And to orangefunk: do you not like the sound of the LP, or the sound of two-oscillator synths in general? The LP sounds great to my ears.

[dlearyus]

ill keep throwing this idea out...makes most sense...widest market...all existing mono moog owners would want one....3 or 4 voices would be sufficient in a nice small package....CV/Midi contol of course....cheap to build so as to be in everyones price range....Moog would make a killing!

Cheers :)

DL

[Kevin Lightner]

Here's something you might consider...

In a Jupiter 8, there's over 220 internal adjustments.
In an Andromeda, there's 1... and it's the power supply.
Very simple and rarely necessary to adjust.

The time it takes for a production bench tech to trim a synth like a JP8 costs money.
This stage is often the slowest of the whole production line.
Quality adjustment trimmers can cost over a dollar each too, even in quantity.

The custom chips and operating system of the Andromeda allow calibration through software. This also costs money, but only once.

So a synth that's well funded initially and expects to sell large numbers would benefit from the approach Alesis took.
Higher development costs, but lower production costs.

I'm not sure Moog is up to the sales target or production numbers Alesis expected.
Keep in mind that Alesis tanked right around the time of the Andy.
Financially, it may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
You wouldn't want to wish that scenario upon Moog, but the alternative might be a very high priced synth.
Hand-built real analog takes some labor and quality parts, especially for a polyphonic.
Unless Moog went into some DCO or wavetable territory, I'm not sure how they'd pull it off.
Making custom analog chips (like Alesis did) and paying programmers for over a year costs a lot of money.


Later correction 2-28-09: I counted and a JP8 has around 206 trimmers.
It can be more if the unit is a very early one.

[Voltor07]

Keep in mind that Alesis tanked right around the time of the Andy.
Financially, it may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
You wouldn't want to wish that scenario upon Moog, but the alternative might be a very high priced synth.
Hand-built real analog takes some labor and quality parts, especially for a polyphonic.
Unless Moog went into some DCO or wavetable territory, I'm not sure how they'd pull it off.
Making custom analog chips (like Alesis did) and paying programmers for over a year costs a lot of money.

So, the Andromeda is what put Alesis in the tank? That makes sense. It is, after all, the cheapest polysynth with a Moog-like sound available. It also has a ton of voices. And, as of recently, the worst build quality. All I would like from Moog is a four-voice or six voice poly. That's just me, personally.

[Octopigeon]

My Korg Polysix with its 6 notes(go figure hahaha) was plenty really.Dave Smiths Prophet 08 is still on my list of possible wants for a poly.While its no moog,its not trying to be.It seems like its sounds would be good under a Voyager.

A chord memory and 2 seperate mod wheels would be nice on a Moog poly..... wait that would probably make it more expensive..doh

[Voltor07]

ill keep throwing this idea out...makes most sense...widest market...all existing mono moog owners would want one....3 or 4 voices would be sufficient in a nice small package....CV/Midi contol of course....cheap to build so as to be in everyones price range....Moog would make a killing!

Cheers

DL

I'd like this, as well. Even on top of this, though, I'd like a polysynth from Moog. No such thing as too much gear. Just ask CZ Rider.

[Bryan B]

What if they made it more modular? You could buy a voice card and add on as many as it could fit. Have it auto tune with each of the inserted boards.

I guess you can already do something similar with the voyager and voyager rack. You can set multiple units up as a poly, but it needs to be cheaper somehow...

How about stripping a bunch of stuff off of the satellite voice modules (racks?) and have the main Voyager control all of them on separate midi channels as slaves. Add an extra menu in the OS to pick which one you are adjusting. You would need some kind of mixer, like maybe a chain of in/outs with a volume knob on each rack. Just getting rid of most the knobs, switches and lighted panel would help reduce the cost quite a bit I think.

[EricK]

I think its wierd trying to make the Voyager a polyphonic synth. It serves its purpose most righteously as a mono.

Considering trying to patch each individual voice....would it be prudent to make the Voyager polyphonic with a voice box or would it be easier just to try and rebuild the Polymoog or something similar?

I mean would these voices all sound the same or would they need their individual filtering? You guys know what im saying?

EricK

[Bryan B]

I was thinking more along the lines of a Memory Moog concept. Those have the equivalent of 6 Mini Moogs worth of oscillators, but one controller interface for all of it. If you make racked expanders, then you can add as many voices as you can afford. Moog could keep selling them forever. The worst case scenario, would be needing to upgrade the Voyager board to handle it. This could be already installed on new models.

[EricK]

So theres an output that runs the sound back into the Voyager's filters?

There would be an audio input to add other units to kep it purely at 1 input going back to the Voyager's FIlters.

[Voltor07]

I was thinking more along the lines of a Memory Moog concept. Those have the equivalent of 6 Mini Moogs worth of oscillators, but one controller interface for all of it. If you make racked expanders, then you can add as many voices as you can afford. Moog could keep selling them forever. The worst case scenario, would be needing to upgrade the Voyager board to handle it. This could be already installed on new models.

How big would these module boards be? The Voyager sound boards are HUGE! As in, 2/3 the length and the whole width of the Voyager. Great idea, but minitureizaton=Curtis chips and Curtis chips=

[Bryan B]

I am guessing the boards could be smaller if it is just a slave module without memory, and most of the switches or knobs. Even if that isn't the case, there already is a racked voyager. If you had this version (without all of the knobs and switches) it could take up less space in a rack. Those parallel ports could be quite useful if it was planned right. Put a mode switch on the back of the Voyager or in a menu, then you could cross modulate with many voyagers!

I don't think you would have to run the sound back into the filters of the main Voyager, because the slaves would all have the same filters contorlled by the main one. It is an option though to smooth all of them out in the same filter and allow a level control on the panels mixer.