Nord and not Moog

[anotherscott]

I thought about the voyager but i prefer the lead 4 because its polyphony and the price .
Now behringer come with Model D with reasonable price.

The Behringer (like the actual Minimoog it emulates) presumably won't have any preset recall, so it would be used a little differently compared to how one might use the others. How close its sound comes to a Moog remains to be seen, but I expect it won't differ from a Moog by more than one Moog can differ from another. Nord doesn't sound like Moog, but that doesn't matter to everyone... in fact, some people may even prefer a non-Moog sound. It's kind of like comparing Rhodes and Wurly EPs. They don't sound the same, and someone may clearly prefer one or the other, even though broadly speaking, they are the same general kind of sound. On some recordings, you have to listen pretty carefully to even tell which of the two is being played. I think it's the same kind of thing with synths. Depending on the sound you're using and what else is going on, different synths might sound similar, or be quite obviously different, and people aren't always looking for the same things.

[Quai34]

+1 for anotherscott.
I'Ve always always been torn between buying a Moog to have the sound (Is it just the sound or the fact that it's a Moog?) but never pulled the trigger just because of the polyphony/price ratio...
If I would have to buy one, it could be the Sub 37 or the Minitaur because they both have presets (The Minitaur via an Ipad Apps.) but with my new acquisition (Prophet 12...) I might not bother about it for a while...

[KyleM]

i have a NS2 and would like to add a Moog

I think the original question is aimed at Nord Lead owners.

Ah, i see.

[stiiiiiiive]

the polyphony/price ratio

That's an interesting point... that I tend to understand less an less.

Should chords "cost" more than solo lines? Should harmony "cost" more than melody? Should a hurdy-gurdy cost more than a violin?
I'm a bit pulling one's leg here but analogue synhs are hardly featuring voice cards nowadays (some do, ok...) and all that is digital cannot bear this point.

More seriously, Quai34, what exactly is motivating this polyphony/price ratio point? Is this the use you have of voices in your music?

[Quai34]

No, it's just that some other manufacturers like Dave Smith are able to sell poly synth cheaper than the mono synth by Moog and you could do unisson with a poly, you are not limited...So...why not have more voices for the same price...

[stiiiiiiive]

Why have more voices for the same price?

(I promise this is not free agitation )

[stiiiiiiive]

Sorry, I'll try to be clearer.

About music composing, I used to like complex music, with many layers/notes/variations. Then I discovered (yes...) that beauty can lie in simple things, not necessarily naive, but simple: less notes, lighter instrumentation.

About electronics instruments and especially synths, I used to think in terms of possibilities (read: features) but figured out at some point that in the end of the day, that aspect is only one third of what makes an instrument my instrument (the other two thirds being the sound and the interface of it).

That's why I'm asking: why search for more possibilities as an absolute or as a... "return on investment"?


Sometimes your practice does not need all that: I replaced a Kurzweil K26XX with a Nord Electro 3 back in the days because I was only using piano and Rhodes sounds. The K certainly offered more than that and I could have kept on using the 3% of it, yes. But then again... its interface was less immediate so... well: features were not everything.
On the other hand, I'm an not ready to let my G2 go Even if I use it with a handful of patches and even if I had nice, flexible, polyphonic, multitimbral analogue synths net to it (SCI Multitrak...)

[anotherscott]

No, it's just that some other manufacturers like Dave Smith are able to sell poly synth cheaper than the mono synth by Moog and you could do unisson with a poly, you are not limited...So...why not have more voices for the same price...

Because it doesn't sound like a Moog. So it's a matter of what you're looking for. Number of notes is not necessarily the priority.
Some people buy cars with only two seats. For the same price, they could get a car with four seats. It wouldn't be as fun to drive, though.

[afroskully]

I know this is far from your typical moog situation, but have any of you played around with the Animoog on either ipad or iphone? Use a Midi interface out of the nord and you have a world of synths at your disposal. It even allows you to map the nord's control knobs to control anything on the animoog. It makes my NE5 even more powerful than it already was.

Plus, it's dirt cheap. If you're even looking in the general moog direction, you have to check this out.

[analogika]

No, it's just that some other manufacturers like Dave Smith are able to sell poly synth cheaper than the mono synth by Moog and you could do unisson with a poly, you are not limited...So...why not have more voices for the same price...

Dave Smith's fully analog polyphonics are not cheaper than most of moog's monosynths, by far.

The Model D is a special case, because a) it is fabbed to 1970's spec, b) it contains custom-fabbed transistors that haven't been available off-the-shelf in many years, and c) is a bit of a collectors' item, being the legend it is.