Moog Music Forum

Box wrote: Just like the Andromeda, I remember it sold for $2,400 or so at the end new and look at it now...

Yeah but, frankly let's be honest, the A6 offers much more than a Voyager...

The Andromeda was also cheaply made in Taiwan and full of bugs. I'll take the Voyager.

Maybe it's because it's been 10 years or maybe the individual(s) that wrote the code on the Voyager really had their act together but I haven't heard anything about bugs on the Voyager product line.

I know the platform 'struggles' with a less than speedy processor (suppose this was before all of the ATMega type controllers really took off) but if you are into that sort of thing, it seems like a very stable synth. Hats off to Moog on this one.

Yes, hats-off to Rudi Linhard for programming the Voyager !

The Alesis A6 was programmed by a team of people, and was/is still full of bugs indeed (and somewhat underpowered when rapid modulation is programmed, although there's a "fast mode" available ). And no more firmware updates will ever be done, since the team was fired from Alesis, when the Andromeda project was abruptly terminated, just prior to going bankrupt. A huge amount of money had been invested in this ambitious endeavour by designing in-house custom analog chips, but the final product was never profitable despite a high price point.

The company was bought by Jack O'Donnell, who owns Numark and Akai Professional. He decided to restart the production of the A6 for a short run to use all the remaining available parts and try to recoup some of the money lost in the A6 project by the company he had just bought.

Too bad. Because the A6, with its 2 oscillators per voice @16 voices is another milestone in analog polyphonic synthesizers. And if Jack O'Donnell would have created a small team just to iron-out the remaining software bugs, and offered firmware updates, I'm convinced that the A6 would have eventually paid for itself at least. But alas that was not to be.

thealien666 wrote: The Alesis A6 was programmed by a team of people

Don't know too much about the Andromeda, but it's little brother, the Micron, now turned into the Akai Miniak, that's master programming. Sounds real good too.

The Alesis Micron (and its twin brother the Akai Miniak) was the brainchild of a single electronics and software engineer, Bret Victor who was part of the original Alesis Ion development team, who took the existing operating system and synth engine of the previous Ion and designed the Micron from the ground up using a hardware design of his own, but still compatible with the Ion to some great extent. Only the onboard effects differ, the Micron and Miniak having an onboard reverb which the Ion lacks.

Very powerful little virtual analog machine. And he has even received awards for his VA sound engine software used in both the Ion and Micron, and Miniak of course.

thealien666 wrote:Very powerful little virtual analog machine. And he has even received awards for his VA sound engine software used in both the Ion and Micron, and Miniak of course.

I had a Micron (before Moogs). Loved it. I gave it to a young, broke hungry artist. I missed it, so I got myself a Miniak. Love it even better although the Micron keyboard had a better feel. I am more into knobs now, but the Miniak is a powerhouse, very much underspoken about.

thealien666 wrote:The backlight can be turned completely off when the brightness knob is fully counterclockwise. Underneath the mod wheel assembly, there is already a switch provided to turn the mod wheel LEDs off.

My backlight doesn't turn off, even at completely counter-clockwise. In fact it's quite noticeable even there. I figured the pot wasn't calibrated properly or is faulty. Seeing as my Voyager is now out of warranty and on the other side of the world to Asheville, I guess I'll probably just live with it and hope the light doesn't burn out too soon! Has any one ever swapped out the brightness pot?

Box wrote:

thealien666 wrote:

Box wrote: Just like the Andromeda, I remember it sold for $2,400 or so at the end new and look at it now...

they still are when you are in europe..
so what is the price now in the states ?