Mogwai wrote:
Equinoxe wrote:Anyone who wants that Original Model D would mainly want it for its Nostalgic status and legendary name more than wanting it simply for the Sound alone,and those who wouldn't settle for anything less than the Minimoog would be willing to pay the Price of service and upkeep,not me thanks
Me neither thanks!
I think that today many people want a MM just for the prestige in owning one. But I know that many people, including me, thinks that the MM is a unique sounding synth. One oscillator patches sound so fat and big. I have yet to hear a monosynth that's capable of doing that. Other Moog synths, especially the Micromoog, come close - closer than anything else. But the Mini is still special. It is that punch - pure magic.
But to be totally fair. You can't hear that when you put in a good mix on a CD or - even more horrible - a Mp3.
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Being a Model D owner for several years I'd like to add my 2 cents here...
First of all, unless you abandon your Model D in a moist cold garage collecting dust, I don't think it would give you more problems than an other synth or workstation.
Think of the Roland digital synth/workstations of the 90s... The backlight of LCDs completely faded, the buttons with the microswitches almost nonworking, the rubber contacts under the keyboard making troubles like no more velocity etc.
It can be more expensive to fix a D-70 or a JD-800 than a Minimoog! (and try to ask a D-70 owner if that is true!)
If you play an Analog synth regularly, you cover it when you don't play it and leave it in a safe environment you can get from it several years of "trusty collaboration"
As to the sound I never compared a Model D with a Voyager. I played the Voyager in a shop and heard a Voyager rack in a studio and they are for sure first class synths. Very interesting was the SoundOnSound article from
Gordon Reid
The purists may tell you that even the first 10,000 Minimoogs Model D sound better than the last production units, because of the oscillator board change since serial number 10175...
Anyway to me it's limiting to consider The Voyager and the Little Phatty just emulations of the good old-legendary Model D.
They are modern analog monosynths, and they excel in that. They offer more in terms of features than the 70's model.
Another crucial point is what happens to the sound when you convert it in the digital domain. I was impressed when I plugged the MINI into a digital effects processor to quickly add a delay. The sound immediately became a "fraction" of what it was in the analog domain.
The converters are so important, especially when you have open sounds with lots of harmonics. Even a decent soundcard like the MOTU 828 mkI lost the magic of "that" sound when I recorded it at 44.1/24 bit. So very good converters are recommended when you need to capture a so large sound.
My last point is about the price. Someone is selling the original Model D at insane prices.
But if you are not afraid of buying them from the US, considering the Dollar/EUR/Pound change it may be worth the risk of a worldwide shipment.
I paid mine a lot less than a Voyager few years ago.
Especially not now when there's a Voyager OS coming soon.
