Moog Music Minimoog Voyager Performer Edition

The Voyager was easy for me to use because of my experience with other Moog Products. THe presets sound very professional, and are easy to edit and save. Its suprisingly easy for me, but can be intimidating to someone with no knowlede or experience in analog synthesis.

Its a monophonic synth with an amazing capabillity to create various sounds and waveshapes. With other Moog products or other analog gear with a siimilar voltage range, you can do some great things by combining them in different ways. It looks beautiful, with an ash cabinet and its a heavy 45 pounds.
Its totally analog synth with a digital memory, so it has 896 presets, 704 of them are reset at the factory. If you want to edit them you just turn a knob on the front panel, and on the LCD screen, it shows the value that was stored in the preset and the current value that you turned it to, so its very easy not to lose the original sound. It has a touchpad thats capable of doing some nice things, the unit it also capable of "Pot Mapping" meaning that if you control one knob, it will control others. So with the mod wheel you can change the filter cutoff, the rate of modulation, and the waveshape of the oscilator. You can have 3 knobs set to a pot map and you can have 3 different pot maps going for some very very complicated panel changes by simply turning 1 knob. You can save your presets to a computer and recall them in realtime.

THe sounds that it will create are extremely professional quality and unmatched by any other synth out there today. Its monophonic which may dissuade alot of piano based players from buying this unit but its one very very complicated note that is heard due to its complex waveshape construction. It has 2 Modulation busses, 1 Low Frequency Oscilator, 3 oscilators, 2 filters (highpass/low pass or dualing lowpass) a filter envelope and a volume envelope. With these features in 40 knobs and maybe 10 or so switches, you have an amazing pallete with which to create your tone. You can produce the sub sub sub bass tones, sci-fi efx, great leads warm mids, beautiful sounds overall suitable for any and i mean any style of music.

I believe that it woudl last just as long as the original MiniMoog with the only exception being the operating system. Every so often they upgrade the software on the voyager and sometimes the hardware so keeping up with all of the augmentations can be costly, but the software upgrades are free. I wonder how long the lcd screen woudl last or how long the digital electronics would last compared to the analog circuitry. I woudln't personally use it on a gig because it is so expensive. I purchased mine for studio use but i would have loved to played it live on a large system.

Im writing this review though, because despite its overall greatness, mine came directly from the factory with a chip in the wood panel. I spent 2990 dollars on the Voyager and a gig bag and shipping and when I opened the box and saw the chip, i was furious. So i called the company and they stuck entirely with the warranty stipulations that said "We will repair or exchange the product at our discretion." I sent it back and they replaced the chipped panel and when i got it back, I handled it with kid gloves and inspected it very very closely. Upon its inspection I noticed dents and scuffmarks and i sent it back to the dealer and they said that it had wood filler and they took pictures and Moog absolutely denied that it left the factory this way, they said that the damage must have been done in shipping even though it was packed very very well and the box was not damaged where the dents were. THe dents were in a place surronded by high density foam. There was a hole in the box but no damage whatsoever in that spot. THe Plant manager at Moog Music INC, when i told him of the dents he asked me "Well do you want to look at it or do you want to play it." and then said "I don't think that theres anything that we can do to make you happy" Everyone at Moog Music absolutely denied that the damage came from the factory and they totally refused to send the music store a new unit.
They denied that it left the factory like that but want to mention something. WThrough very little use, the touchpad got scratched. Its just a wierd surface like that. I was originally going to upgrade to a more expensive Electric Blue unit, but the plant manager Lee Gentry told me that he woudl inspect it and if it looked good he woudl sell it as new and let me get an upgrade. He inspected it and even with the tiny scratches that i put on there, he woudl have sold it as brand new. THats why i can't take their word that their Quality Control absolutely didn't see those cosmetic defects in their self proclaimed "World class checkpoints".
I am pretty dissapointed because Im waiting on my refund to get back into my account, but the music store is the one who will take a signifigant loss because they are stuck with an ofviously refurbished Voyager that was passed off on me as brand new. Their only option is to sell it for less than what they paid for it or send it back to moog and lose 420 dollars on a 15% restocking fee.
SO I am posting this review basically to warn that they advertise this product because of its sound and its asthetics, and you pay 2800 for the basic Performer edition and you are not guarenteed to get a product that is free from cosmetic defects. If you go to www.moogmusic.com and read the forums, you will see in the past people who have purchased this expensive instrument and have gotten scratched touchpads, bent modulation wheels, and have experienced other problems with the electronics. Im sure that this kind of thing from them is rare but if you are reading harmony central for a review, please use caution when ordering this product. If the authorized dealer has it in stock ask them to scrutinize every inch of the board looking for defects. If you have a dealner close to you pick it up yourself to eliminate the possibillity that it coudl be damaged in shipping. If you do get a unit that is damaged, they will not take responsibillity for it despite how brand new it is or how much you paid for it.

As someone who really really admires and respects the Legacy that Dr. Robert Moog has created and since left behind, I was absolutely dissapointed and upset that this company treated me this way and left me either stuck with a refurbished Voyager or a refund. I got a refund.

Finally I want to say that if this was a totally brand new product that they unveiled for the first time, they woudl not send the unit that they sent to me to Keyboard Magazine for a product review.
The first few hundred off the line were individually signed and inspected by Bob Moog himself (R.I.P) and he woudl have never ever put his signature on the unit that I received, nor would he have approved of the way that I was treated as a customer who purchased their flagship product.

It was a beautiful instrument except for the cosmetic damage. Ultimately I had to get my money back because the company refused to replace it.
Ive been playing for almost 12 years, I own other moog gear, some vintage and some new, and I also own many opther different instruments of all types and brands.

I loved the Voyagers looks and sound and I hated that it had scratches and dents, and i take it as a slap in the face that i woudl spend so much money to get such a low quality handmade product for such a hugh price.

I bought this keyboard because it is frankly unequaled as a synthisizer. Its the best one on the market, but I will never again purchase a product from this company because there is no guarentee that it will be free of defects, and if I did and had to send one in to be tuned, theres no guarantee that its going to leave there in better shape than when I sent it in.

I feel really sorry that I had to write such a bad review for this company because I love Moog Products so much. Its like blasphemy for me.

Just beware if you have no choise to but to buy it sight unseen like i did because there are few moog dealers in the country.

If you want any proof of what im claming or you think that im just a bitter customer trying to spread a bad name, contact me with any questions and I will certianly show you the communications between me and the Moog company and pictures of the damage.

My overall rating for this category is a 1 because they expect me to look past all of the dents and scratches and just appreciate its sound. for 3000 I can't do that. WHy they refused to understand that is totally beyond me.