If you haven’t been reading the ongoing controversy over the Minimoog Voyager Old School, here’s the best part of the comments yet. Original internal slogan for the project:
“Got Balls?”
I couldn’t let anyone miss that. (Hey, I think it could have worked as an ad campaign.) I’m not going to touch the debate any more; if you don’t like the Voyager OS, you’ll use something else. But I will say, useful as presets and MIDI are, it is possible to make music without them.
Hmm, I can come up with a few alternate slogans for other products we saw:
The not-yet-functional LinnDrum II prototype: “Silence is golden.”
Camoflage X-50 Korg: “Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit …”
Roland’s C-30 digital harpsichord? Um, well, “Are you old school?” really covers that one.
"Got Balls?" could've been sweet!
“Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit …†would've been absolutely perfect for the Camoflage X-50! Haha!
for the harpsichord "Taken' yah to church!"
Some people never mastered presets and midi… Funnily enough, the very friendly guy at the booth that I talked with said the Minimoog OS would be better for the studio where changing patches isn't an urgent matter like it is on stage. I have to say that I agree. I can imagine taking digital photos of patches for future reference, though, and I guess that is not very old school…
Plenty of people used the original Mini Moog on stage without presets. Sure Rick Wakeman just kept buying new ones as a way of storing patches but there is something to be said for not being able to rely on stored sounds. Having to dial up a sound when you need it will force you to know the instrument inside out.
BTW, the "got balls" catch phrase is spot on. I played with one at NAMM for a bit and it certainly had some serious cojones. More so than the Little Fatty.
Indeed, remembering patches is certainly a possible skill.
I do recall a key point from the staff about one of the differences between the OS and the standard Voyager. On the OS, all the knobs are also analog. Thus, a connoisseur might be able to hear the difference when sweeping the filter, for example.
I have to say, every time I get to play with a Moog or one of Dave Smith's synths, I really start to want a real analog unit.