Minimoog Voyager Old School SN0001 Rolls Off Assembly Line
Matrixsynth has the scoop.
Back in January, when this debuted at Winter NAMM, I made note of it.
You're probably wondering why you should care. Here's why.
There are companies, and their products, which, due to their reputation in their field, wield a power far beyond their size. Moog Music, and the Minimoog are such. Moog Music was never a titan of industry, even after merging with MuSonics, and being bought out by Norlin. Still, the Minimoog was something special.
In the early 1960's, with the encouragement of Herb Deutsch and others, Robert Moog started designing a series of electronic circuits, that when coupled together, formed a system for the electronic synthesis of musical tones: one of the first, commercially-available electronic synthesizers. The first Moog modulars were cantankerous beasts. The oscillators refused to stay in tune, and the funky "S-Trig" control logic, could be frustrating at times to use. Still, Bob Moog and the R. A. Moog Company managed to sell some 200 systems, and by 1968 had worked out most of the bugs in the oscillators. S-Trig was still funky, but it became part of the charm of the system. The only remaining issue with the Moog was that is was a cumbersome beast, suitable for the studio, but not easily taken on the road.
Musicians needed an instrument they could take with them.
Bob Moog rose to the challenge. He took the most common modules, the most common signal path, and the now legendary 24db, four-pole, Moog Transistor Low-Pass Ladder Filter, and condensed them down into the Minimoog; A half-keyboard coupled to an entire universe of sonic possibilities. The pre-production models were crude. Model A was little more than existing Moog modules crammed into a small case. Model B was more polished, and Model C was so close the the final Minimoog Model D which shipped, it was used in early sales literature.
Unbeknownst to Moog, or indeed anyone who wasn't a performing and touring musician, keyboardists had been having a problem for many years. Amplification was killing them. Keyboards lacked punch. Musicians kept quiet about it, but it was obvious, if you listened to enough music. When the keyboardist started his solo, the rest of the band went quiet so you could hear him play. You couldn't drum too heavily underneath a keyboard solo, or play guitars over the top, or interlace horns in the middle. Those things would drown a keyboard right out.
The Minimoog was different. This was a keyboard with punch. It could cut through guitars, and basses, and horns. It could cut through concrete. It could screech. It could howl. With a Minimoog, a keyboardist became a god. The Minimoog, although it represented only a tiny fragment of the potential of a full-blown modular synth, brought the performing musician unimaginable musical landscapes.
It was a revolution.
Alas, only about 12,000 Minimoog Model-Ds were ever made. That's not nearly enough to go around. And now, 37 years on, the early Minimoogs are becoming fragile pieces of aging electronics history. Musicians who love their Minimoogs are nonetheless afraid to take them on the road. They're simply too precious. And to top it off, after two buyouts, the original Moog Music went out of business.
What is THIS, then? Well, in 2002, Bob Moog won back the rights to the name "Moog Music", and renamed his Ashenvale, NC company, which had up to that point been called "Big Briar". Big Briar was supposed to be Moog's retirement. Lovingly crafting the finest modern theremins in the world. But musicians were clamoring for replacements to their aging Minimoogs, and only one man could do it right. So, the Minimoog Voyager was born. An analog synth with digital control, straight from the hand of Bob Moog himself.
Now the instrument has come full circle. Take the digital control off the Voyager, and what you have is the raw instrument, in all it's glory. No patches, no MIDI. All analog. It's not a synth for the weak of heart. The operating system is your hands and mind. Made with modern, stable components, this is a Minimoog that can go places the old Minimoogs could never go.
"Where?" You ask?
Frequency modulation, for example. You couldn't do it on the old analog gear. The oscillators weren't stable enough. Many people thought that analog gear would NEVER be stable enough, and that FM would always be a digital realm.
Modular. Look at this. Those are control voltage outputs. A ton of them. No MIDI? No big deal. 1 volt/octave will control external devices like you cannot imagine. The original Minimoog didn't do this, but this remake does.
Still... $2600...
There's always the t-shirt.
Back in January, when this debuted at Winter NAMM, I made note of it.
You're probably wondering why you should care. Here's why.
There are companies, and their products, which, due to their reputation in their field, wield a power far beyond their size. Moog Music, and the Minimoog are such. Moog Music was never a titan of industry, even after merging with MuSonics, and being bought out by Norlin. Still, the Minimoog was something special.
In the early 1960's, with the encouragement of Herb Deutsch and others, Robert Moog started designing a series of electronic circuits, that when coupled together, formed a system for the electronic synthesis of musical tones: one of the first, commercially-available electronic synthesizers. The first Moog modulars were cantankerous beasts. The oscillators refused to stay in tune, and the funky "S-Trig" control logic, could be frustrating at times to use. Still, Bob Moog and the R. A. Moog Company managed to sell some 200 systems, and by 1968 had worked out most of the bugs in the oscillators. S-Trig was still funky, but it became part of the charm of the system. The only remaining issue with the Moog was that is was a cumbersome beast, suitable for the studio, but not easily taken on the road.
Musicians needed an instrument they could take with them.
Bob Moog rose to the challenge. He took the most common modules, the most common signal path, and the now legendary 24db, four-pole, Moog Transistor Low-Pass Ladder Filter, and condensed them down into the Minimoog; A half-keyboard coupled to an entire universe of sonic possibilities. The pre-production models were crude. Model A was little more than existing Moog modules crammed into a small case. Model B was more polished, and Model C was so close the the final Minimoog Model D which shipped, it was used in early sales literature.
Unbeknownst to Moog, or indeed anyone who wasn't a performing and touring musician, keyboardists had been having a problem for many years. Amplification was killing them. Keyboards lacked punch. Musicians kept quiet about it, but it was obvious, if you listened to enough music. When the keyboardist started his solo, the rest of the band went quiet so you could hear him play. You couldn't drum too heavily underneath a keyboard solo, or play guitars over the top, or interlace horns in the middle. Those things would drown a keyboard right out.
The Minimoog was different. This was a keyboard with punch. It could cut through guitars, and basses, and horns. It could cut through concrete. It could screech. It could howl. With a Minimoog, a keyboardist became a god. The Minimoog, although it represented only a tiny fragment of the potential of a full-blown modular synth, brought the performing musician unimaginable musical landscapes.
It was a revolution.
Alas, only about 12,000 Minimoog Model-Ds were ever made. That's not nearly enough to go around. And now, 37 years on, the early Minimoogs are becoming fragile pieces of aging electronics history. Musicians who love their Minimoogs are nonetheless afraid to take them on the road. They're simply too precious. And to top it off, after two buyouts, the original Moog Music went out of business.
What is THIS, then? Well, in 2002, Bob Moog won back the rights to the name "Moog Music", and renamed his Ashenvale, NC company, which had up to that point been called "Big Briar". Big Briar was supposed to be Moog's retirement. Lovingly crafting the finest modern theremins in the world. But musicians were clamoring for replacements to their aging Minimoogs, and only one man could do it right. So, the Minimoog Voyager was born. An analog synth with digital control, straight from the hand of Bob Moog himself.
Now the instrument has come full circle. Take the digital control off the Voyager, and what you have is the raw instrument, in all it's glory. No patches, no MIDI. All analog. It's not a synth for the weak of heart. The operating system is your hands and mind. Made with modern, stable components, this is a Minimoog that can go places the old Minimoogs could never go.
"Where?" You ask?
Frequency modulation, for example. You couldn't do it on the old analog gear. The oscillators weren't stable enough. Many people thought that analog gear would NEVER be stable enough, and that FM would always be a digital realm.
Modular. Look at this. Those are control voltage outputs. A ton of them. No MIDI? No big deal. 1 volt/octave will control external devices like you cannot imagine. The original Minimoog didn't do this, but this remake does.
Still... $2600...
There's always the t-shirt.