Moog Music Forum

thealien666 wrote:Usually the NAMM show IS the horizon...

NAMM 2017 had a couple of cool innovations. I don't think its ready for prime time, needs more tweaking, but the VR addition on the Deepmind 12 is a cool addition in instruments. It was hilarious watching people trying to use the VR on the DM12. The DSI Rev 2 sounded ok, but felt like ground hog day with more voices. The WOW factor for me this year was the Relic-6. Did you guys see this 18 year old's Synth entry into NAMM ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJPsG_ws6LQ ... AMAZING!!!

We're hoping that one day SOON, Moog launches a POLY

Yep. Essentially an OB-X in a box (version 2017). Pretty impressive work for such a young man (with a small team behind him possibly ?).

In the wake of getting to be Moog Music, the organization experienced different changes of proprietorship, in the long run being purchased out by melodic instrument maker Norlin (who additionally possessed the Gibson guitar organization at the time). Norlin created various synthesizers under the Moog name in the late 1970s, yet they were less fruitful than Robert Moog's own particular plans.

Hilary999 wrote:Norlin created various synthesizers under the Moog name in the late 1970s, yet they were less fruitful than Robert Moog's own particular plans.

I wouldn't say so. They produced The Source, which was and is a great sounding Moog synth, the Prodigy, which was produced at 11000 units, and also the Memorymoog, which was a stunning polyphonic machine (despite all its shortcomings), and even outsourced to Radio Shack with the MG-1, another very popular and affordable little synth with a great sound. The only "failure" was the Polymoog. Not because it wasn't a great machine, but the R&D astronomical cost (that proprietary Polycom custom chip design) wasn't recouped with sales.

Bob Moog only really designed the initial modular systems and, much later, the Voyager. Every other Moog Music synth was designed by someone else based on Bob's ladder filter and oscillators. The Minimoog was the brainchild of Bill Hemsath. The Source, Memorymoog, Prodigy, The Rogue, Taurus (1 and 2), and Liberation, which kept Moog Music alive during the late seventies and early eighties, were all designed in large part by Dave Luce and his team. Ironically it was also a synth designed mainly by Luce that sank the company, the Polymoog.

Maybe that's the reason why the current Moog Music is reluctant to go into the polyphonic synth market, yet again ?

Bob was pretty much out of the synth design loop under the Norlin banner. Norlin put him to work on guitar amps and accessories, which Bob wasn't too excited about.

Bob did design the Satellite but that was before Norlin, as well as the 3046 oscillator board for the Minimoog. He also designed the Synamp, rackmount EQs, and string filter but they are not synths.

The Polymoog had a lot of people excited. Although it was fully polyphonic, it has a master VCF so it is a paraphonic system. A TOS system by nature has a limited palette since there is no way to implement voice modulation. Dave Luce didn't understand that distortion could be a good thing so he designed high fidelity into the PM which weakened the sound. Many customers were less than thrilled when they heard it. The assignable voice polysynths (CS80, P5, SEM polysynths, etc) put the PM to shame.

The Memorymoog was intriguing engineering with much better potential, but flawed execution - too many inferior components in the wrong places.

thealien666 wrote:Maybe that's the reason why the current Moog Music is reluctant to go into the polyphonic synth market, yet again ?

Don't believe that the Moog Asheville is stifled by New York Moog's forty year old mistakes. Moog is probably working on one right now.