Moog Voyager vs. ???

[DevonB]

I was not impressed with the price and the fact that it is monophonic. It's a great synth for the old analogue die-hards and for the knob junkies but will they sell a lot of them?...I mean with all the great software emulations out there, how can they make money on this thing?

I think it has it's place, but it would appeal to a very small market in my estimation and anyone who wants that sound could pick up a number software packages for less than 1/10th of the cost for guys like me with a small bedroom studio.

If you have tried the Voyager, what are your thoughts and what software would you suggest comes closest to this sound?

dano

We're talking about two totally different markets here. Must realize we still have plenty of hardcore hardware junkies around, and for valid reasons which have been covered a million times on here (lack of crashing, turn the thing on and play without updates, patching this, replacing that, no running out of CPU, etc.) Again, I keep coming back to this point of we're extremely spoiled now. We can get good to excellent quality software for a fraction of the price I was spending on hardware 10 years ago. Software is getting closer and closer to hardware in its unique qualities, but still isn't quite there. Not to mention, there's still plenty of unique hardware out there that hasn't been emulated yet either. I love my hardware, and I love my software. It's all music, that's all that should matter.

Why should it matter if it only caters to a small market? It's a bigger market than say preamps you'll see in top end mastering studios, but they don't seem concerned over the price, or marketting, or anything else besides the best quality, no matter what the price.

The car analogy works very well in this aspect, and has already been covered. If all you care is that it has 4 wheels, and gets you from point A to point B, then that's what you need. If you need more speed, quality, features, etc. you spend more money.

Devon

[danielmm]

Why should it matter if it only caters to a small market?

I'm sure they have done their homework with regard to market and they wouldn't produce a product unless they thought it would make some money...however, I can't see them making money hand over fist with this synth, in fact I would think if it weren't for the MOOG name, this product might flounder. There are lots of companies that have disappeared over the years with specialized products..even bigger names like Oberheim...I could be way off here but my guess is there are very few on this forum that have a Voyager despite the obvious quality of the instrument.

It's a bigger market than say preamps you'll see in top end mastering studios, but they don't seem concerned over the price, or marketting, or anything else besides the best quality, no matter what the price.

I think it's safe to say that there are no companies that solely make preamps.(I could most definately stand corrected ) These companies I think, as with MOOG rely on sales from other products to help maintain their financial viability,no?
You are right though, we are spoiled for choice and we are very fortunate in these times of change...and I agree this thread doesn't need to turn into a software vs. hardware debate.

dano

[DevonB]

Why should it matter if it only caters to a small market?

I'm sure they have done their homework with regard to market and they wouldn't produce a product unless they thought it would make some money...however, I can't see them making money hand over fist with this synth, in fact I would think if it weren't for the MOOG name, this product might flounder.

Why do they need to make money hand over fist though? Make your money back and enough to live on, I know quite a few people that would be satisfied with that. But then again, it's Moog, and we'd probably be surpirsed on how many have sold.

Besides, if it was 'about the money' most of the VSTi makers wouldn't be in business at all.

Devon

[Joxer the Mighty]

There's definitely a market for boutique synths. Take a look at how active the Analogue Heaven mailing list is, or some of the analog/modular synth groups at yahoo for proof.

You think a Voyager is expensive? Take a look at this:

http://www.buchla.com/200e/index.html

And even more amazing than the price tag is the fact that people have placed pre-orders, putting large chunks of cash down before even hearing the thing. Then again, it's a Buchla.

[danielmm]

Besides, if it was 'about the money' most of the VSTi makers wouldn't be in business at all.

Amen..

dano

[shamann]

But then again, it's Moog, and we'd probably be surpirsed on how many have sold.

One things certain, every music shop I've been in in the past year has had one on display at some point. Someone has to be buying them.

[danielmm]

You think a Voyager is expensive?

http://www.buchla.com/200e/200e_price.html

yikes You could get 3 Voyagers and a weekend with Anna Nicole Smith for that price...

dano

[_bp]

Why should it matter if it only caters to a small market?

I think it's safe to say that there are no companies that solely make preamps.(I could most definately stand corrected ) dano

i can think of a couple of pre-amp only companies and many others which pre-amps are the primary core product. john hardy and great river come to mind as does dw fearn, tab-funkenwerk, pendulum audio, gml, phoenix audio, ...

[danielmm]

i can think of a couple of pre-amp only companies and many others which pre-amps are the primary core product. john hardy and great river come to mind as does dw fearn, tab-funkenwerk, pendulum audio, gml, phoenix audio, ...

In addition to selling Hardy’s preamps, his company also distributes a German direct box, the AMB Tube-Buffered Direct-Injection Box.

...Are you talking about this John Hardy?

dano

[paul minot]

Screw the Voyager, the Andromeda A6 looks REALLY tasty!! Wow, $1500 or so...

[mystahr]

If I were given 3K to spend at the music store, I would want more than one monophonic synth (despite it being the pinnacle of monophonic synths).

I guess we would all react differently to such an option. Personally I wouldn't have to think twice on this one; except for maybe using the money for an entry level dot com

You are buying top notch quality on an instrument that surely will keep it's value.

[suthnear]

I think they'll sell loads. When the whole software / va hardware thing eventually shakes down there will be computers and boutique "real analogues" like this.

Spot on. For a long time I bought into the notion that analogue was better, but I've come to realise that's actually crap. They're different and they have different strengths. Some people do prefer the one over the other and that's their right. But it's just a preference, not the fact that analogue purists try to portray it as. I like both.

I have a voyager and there's nothing quite like it. I'm not saying that it sounds better than vstis or anything as crass as that, but it definitely has its own sound that I haven't encountered anywhere else. And it happens to be a sound I like a lot.

but not of practical use for people like us who have budgets

In the olden days, you would need to spend an absolute fortune just to get started. Nowadays, you can have a studio with 10x the number of sound sources of similar and often superior quality with incomparably better recording facilities for a fraction of the price, which means that there's something left over in the kitty for a luxury item.

But I totally agree, if you just want a good approximation of that sound, get trilogy (which has fantastic moog samples in it), the arturia moogs or the minimonster (which I think will be fantastic) and you will be a long way there and have polyphony to boot

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the comparison of the two

I had an a6 in my studio for over a month and I liked it a lot. It is incredibly programmable and is capable of a wide variety of sounds. It's not as good as the voyager in some respects (somewhat bland filters, an underpowered cpu, build quality a bit suspect), but it's a *lot* better in others (polyphony, vfm, options). If I had to choose I'd still get the voyager, but only because I (slightly) prefer it's basic tone and I really use all its cv ins and outs. As each NAMM and Messe come around, I hope (against hope, admittedly) that alesis are going to be releasing a cut down verison of the a6 in rack form...

[suthnear]

Screw the Voyager, the Andromeda A6 looks REALLY tasty!! Wow, $1500 or so...

Where did you see it for that price? That's an incredible deal. Sell a kidney

[fitch]

dan i wish i could try a voyager too..

i've yet to see one over here though.. so it could be a long wait

good luck with your decisions


i think i saw a voyager on ebay recently.. the uk version..

[krhen]

I hope (against hope, admittedly) that alesis are going to be releasing a cut down verison of the a6 in rack form...

sorry just kidding...