alesis andromeda opinions

[Indeed]

I seriously doubt that Moog Music is 'getting rich.' Running any sort of business that is not a sole proprietorship, where you have to PAY PEOPLE livable salaries for their efforts takes A LOT OF MONEY. Personally, I wonder how they do it...how they stay afloat with such a limited market for their products. What you ARE paying for is

1. Time tested, intelligent design, inside and out.

2. Retro-technology with the benefits of modern innovations, but without the drawbacks of EITHER.

3. a hand made instrument, made in the usa (quality craftmanship)

4. the signature Moog sound (filters, controllers, modularity, oscillators)

5. The Moog aesthetic (classy feeling instruments designed for a certain type of connoiseur/musician.)

I'm no connoiseur, but I was able to tell from my first listen, that this was the synth for me! Every friend of mine that sits down to play my Voyager says that 'this thing is such a character!'

Now, what exactly does that mean?
Sit down to play a Virus, or Triton or Motif and you might see the difference.

just some insight

peace
MU

[Demokid]

AnalogVoyager:

Just a question… Do you own a Voyager or any analogue sizer at all? I see an analogue sizer as an Italian super car. It is a pain sometimes, expensive to buy and repair but when working really really fun to drive.
You can buy Japanese sports car that will take you fairly fast from A to B. It is cheaper and will probably not have to be serviced as much as a Ferrari but the handeling, engine sound, exterior and interior is a bit so so… If I had the money I would by myself a Ferrari F430 Spider but I don’t… I drive a Japanese sport car.

Nothing wrong with Japanese sports car or virtual synthesizer but it lacks that extra oomph.

Regards
Demokid

[AnalogVoyager]

AnalogVoyager:

Just a question… Do you own a Voyager or any analogue sizer

Yep, I do man. I got an Analog Voyager anv edition , but am not too happy with it due to it's limitations. I only now find out that I have to buy an expansion board to it , and the Librarian. I never owned a one note synth before and was actually excited about getting a moog at first , but for my music , the Moog did not deliver. This ferrari is not up to speed :)I have to change gears. But I guess the synth is not made for the type of music I am into , so I might as well stop talking smack and return it ( what I am actually in the process of doing now ) . I think I will replace my moog with a Cwejman Sound S1 MkII and a Virus Ti , these are a better take for the Goa Trance sound. Dj Tiesto gave props to Moog's bass lines , and I gotta give it that - they are awesome, but again Goa does not even use too much of that. So to make the story short , my Moog experience was just not what I needed.

[AnalogVoyager]

Hey kid , what do you think of A6 ? Do you like the sound and filters ?

[ikazlar]

If you think synthesizer X is fatter than Y this is what you are going to hear.

[Demokid]

Hey kid , what do you think of A6 ? Do you like the sound and filters ?

I bought the A6 in 2003… I didn’t even try it first. It was analogue, had knobs and totally controllable by MIDI.
I must say I was a bit disappointed at first. It is a very complex sizer with a lot of stuff going on in inside. It is quit hard to program even if it has loads of knobs and buttons. What I think is most hard is the envelopes… 6 stages with different levels and you can set different slopes on the stages or loop stages. I would love to have a “simple” button that turns it to an ordinary ADSR. It took me a few months before I really started to get a hang of all the possibilities. This sizer will grow with time…
I have made a few default programs so I can e.g. start with a clean ADSR sound or a more complex structure. The sound programming goes so much faster…

I don’t like the presets… almost every sound has the arpeggios and/or the sequencer turned on. A few hours in your local music store is not enough to hear the A6 sonic possibilities.

So how does the A6 sound… Well it has a moogish sound in it’s 4-pole filter and a bit of Oberheim in the 2-pole. But you can’t compare it to the real deal. The A6 has it’s own unique sound which is good. It blows away all VA sizers on the market when it comes to a organic sound, deep bass.

I mostly do sounds like say Depeche Mode, Vince Clark and other 80’s electronic pop sounds. The A6 is able to do all modulated techno stuff perfectly synced to MIDI and I know it can do all Virus sounds as well.

Kind regards
Demokid

[AnalogVoyager]

.. and I know it can do all Virus sounds as well....

Hey , thanks for the info man. So you say you know know ? ALL sounds ? I am not sure if you are familiar with Astral Projection , a goa trance band. That kind of sound is exactly what I am after and when I tired A6 I thought it was more of trancey than goa .

[Mike Braithwaite]

Andromeda is rather weak , I do not recommend it at all . It's ratings are at most 3 out of 10. Although it has neat twists to it , it does not come close to Omega 8 , 6 or even 4, or Cwejman Sound S1 MkII. There is nothing for the price that can beat these machines. Moog is nice , but one voice is just one voice. I like it alot , and even own one , but Voyager is VERY limited . I am interested in Goa trance , and it does not do much for me in that sense . Bass lines ?-- sure, but that is almost where it ends. People praise moog for it's , as they say " Phaaaat Bass" , but honestly , I say shame on Moog for jacking up a price that high , the product is not worth 3 and a half grand. I am thinking about returning my Moog within 30 days.


Oh , and shame on "Moog music" for selling Voyager Editor Librarian instead of just giving it with the synth !" Money greedy slobs"-- Have I not paid you enough money by purchasing your 3 and a half thousand dollar synth ?

--SHAME ON YOU BOB--SHAME ON YOUR COMPANY'S GREED--GIVE FROM YOUR HEART AND NOT YOUR GREED--GOD IS WATCHING- WE GIVE AS MUCH AS WE LOVE-- AND IF WE TAKE MORE THAN WE GIVE - WE FAIL FROM THE START TO LIVE IN TRUTH.

Can it get any lamer than that? Maybe so, but it's hard to imagine.

[donato]

Wait until he finds out the Cwejman doesn't have presets LOL. I'd pay to see him even try to program the Cwejman.

[suthnear]

I am not sure if you are familiar with Astral Projection , a goa trance band. That kind of sound is exactly what I am after and when I tired A6 I thought it was more of trancey than goa .

AV,

As far as the astral projection 'sound' is concerned. AP always used loads of synths. Go and check out the list on their website and you'll understand, I am sure, that there is no one synth in existence that will enable you to replicate all or even many of the sounds that they create. However, being familiar with a lot of the equipment they use and having read interviews with them years ago, I can say that certain pieces bubble to the top (as it were).

The first is that like all goa trance, old roland synths predominate - most of their albums sound like demo pieces for the shs, jupiters and junos. They were apparently very fond of the xpander, too (at least from interviews). There aren't any modern synths that sound like old rolands, I'm afraid (and certainly not your prospective choices) but the a6 will go some way to sounding like an xpander (at least in terms of the routing possibilities) and one a6 owner has made a number of a6 patches that sound roland-ish (google for a6 and coolcolj).

As for your comment about the sound of the a6 being more trance than goa, that's just your inexperience talking, I'm afraid. A good synth will sound whatever the hell you want it to sound like. Furthermore, you seem to have fallen into the trap of thinking that other gear will get you closer to a particular sound - witness your desire to get the cwejman (which you more than likely have never heard in person) and the virus ti (which you have definitely not heard in person). I would say that you need to get one good synth and stick with it: learn it inside and out and then you will know what you need to emulate the sounds of your heroes and (hopefully) one day make your own sounds.

rgds

suth.

[suthnear]

p.s. also, if you want to slag moog off for being expensive, please be consistent. The cwejman is the same price as the voyager (at bigcity music anyway) and it doesn't have a keyboard, performance controls or patch memories. And the editor that you slag off moog for not providing for free is not avaliable for the cwejman at any price and never will be.

[AnalogVoyager]

Hey thanks suth. Yeah , I think I will do just that. TI is going to take too long to come out. They seem to have come across some software issue and will delay their shipment into the US untill perhaps july. Meanwhile I will examine Virus C for what its worth. I think you will agree with me that Astral Projection use alot of Virus sound. In fact I think it takes up a good deal of their mids. Thank you for the advise my friend. What I wanted to say by " getting better sound out of a particular synth as opposed to Moog , is that Moog is a single note synth. and to my understanding or "short term" experience with it , I did not get what I wanted out of it , nor thought I could within the 30 days that I had it for, fearing that after 30 days I would be stuck with it with out being able to get the sounds that I actually needed.

I also think Astral Projection generate a good deal of their sound on the ARP2600. As for Cwejman, I did not yet try it except for the samples they had on the Bigcitymusic, but I liked those ! So maybe that too.

[Boeing 737-400]

The bloke thats saying Moog should have given us the editor free does have a point. Dave Smith Instruments have their editors available free.

[optimusrob]

The bloke thats saying Moog should have given us the editor free does have a point. Dave Smith Instruments have their editors available free.

Well said.

One of the things I love about the Voyager is the effort that Bob Moog made to ensure that it was still a forward-thinking instrument, current with the modern demands of being an electronic musician.

[please no mono-cracks...it is what it is -- and many like it]

The touchpad, pot-mapping implementation, configurable filters, MIDI-usability, preset-storage, osc. stability, and os-updates make it an easy integration into a 2005 set-up.

The one thing, however, it's missing in the 'included' list is an editor. This should be included in the box, just like the power cord. It's becoming standard for any high-level synth.

I understand the need to pay the programmer, that's a no-brainer -- but the software should be included in the box. If it boosts the price and/or cuts the profit margin, so be it -- but it needs to be there.

Think of it like this...the touchpad increased the price because it's an essential part of the instrument. Because of the limited space for presets, the patch-editor is essential as well. It should just be part of the package.

I still haven't purchased it on general principle...just forcing myself to get 128 perfect patches...you know?

With that said, it's the best piece of gear I've touched....

[Boeing 737-400]

The Moog Librarian is made by the same company that did the one for the Dave Smith Evolvers, right?