Jump to content

If Moog can reissue the Taurus.......


Sad Darwin

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 77
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

Economies of scale. Supply and demand.

 

The man hours to re-do an existing polysynth for today's hardware are prohibitive, the Taurus - not so much. I suspect there will be a "stage edition" of the Taurus 3 down the road a ways if they do well.

 

Nobody wants to spend ten grand on a brand new Memorymoog.

 

They could slap eight Little Phatty circuit boards in a big-ass case but I doubt it would cost less than six grand.

 

I think most musicians want to spend less than a thousand on a "board that does everything"...and most of them probably have no clue that there's any difference between analog and VA. Sad but true. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

If we're dreaming, why the Polymoog and not the memorymoog?


And to answer your question, the answer is that they don't think they would make money doing that.

 

Correction, I meant a Polyphonic Moog, no particular previous design. Unless that's what you guys would prefer :idk:

 

I'd prefer an update, like the voyager was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

And to answer your question, the answer is that they don't think they would make money doing that.

 

 

I'm not so sure. DSI took the Prophet 08, split it into one voice and made the MoPho. Then they took the MoPho x 4 and made the Tetra.

 

I think Moog could do it and make a profit. They seem to know just how many of an item to make.

 

Personnally, I'd like to see Moog make all their Moogerfoogers in Eurorack modules.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Correction, I meant a
Polyphonic Moog
, no particular previous design. Unless that's what you guys would prefer
:idk:

I'd prefer an update, like the voyager was.

 

I'd love a polyphonic Moog. But even I wouldn't be interested in 8 voices for $6000+ which is, realistically, what I think it would go for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'd
love
a polyphonic Moog. But even I wouldn't be interested in 8 voices for $6000+ which is, realistically, what I think it would go for.

 

I think they could sell 500 units, a limited run, at a tag between 5 and 6k. Of course I'm no businessman, all I know is the enthusiasm for Moog products on every keyboard forum I've seen. Still you have to consider that the Voyager, for what all that it is, is still just a great sounding, fairly limited, mono synth and THAT is still selling strong at 3300 bucks....... so take that for what it's worth :idk:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I'm not so sure. DSI took the Prophet 08, split it into one voice and made the MoPho. Then they took the MoPho x 4 and made the Tetra.


I think Moog could do it and make a profit. They seem to know just how many of an item to make.


Personnally, I'd like to see Moog make all their Moogerfoogers in Eurorack modules.

 

 

And how much is a mopho compared to a Voyager or little phatty? There's no comparison. DSI's synths are all based on highly integrated ICs which have the analog voice core all on one chip, so they're really inexpensive and scalable. None of Moog's synths feature that level of integration, and they don't use DCOs, so they don't scale well. Moog would be starting from square one if they chose to do a polysynth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

FWIW:

 

Some salient points in this thread have got me thinking...

 

I think we, as synth enthusiasts, have a very skewed vision of the actual market for synths in general, much less real analog ones.

 

In terms of production numbers, most synths barely go into the hundreds.

 

Sales in the thousands that the DX7 or M1 saw are rather rare. (Those were lucky enough to be the flagships during huge paradigm shifts.)

 

99% of keyboardists are looking for a workstation/all-in-one type of board. For rarely needed "exotic" sounds, there's always comparatively cheap software.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

They could slap eight Little Phatty circuit boards in a big-ass case but I doubt it would cost less than six grand.

(

 

 

I think the LP already supports poly chaining, if you were to buy two or more of them.

They could release a rack chassis with no controls on it and 8 slots inside, then sell voice cards separately to plug in. You'd need an LP to start with, but the system would be scalable for whatever a customer could afford. Similar to the the Studio Electronics Omega and Code racks (which, btw, an 8-voice Omega is $6,000 MSRP).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The SL8 was meant to be the next Moog product AFTER the Memorymoog, using DCO's..

 

:idk:

 

The sheet linked to was from the 83 NAMM and, IIRC, Moog was still making and selling the Memorymoog Plus in 1984 and maybe even later, hence my misunderstanding.

 

EDIT: Just found this: http://moogarchives.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9 Very interesting.

Funny how the DX7 torpedoed so many synths... :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

If Moog can reissue a short run of the Taurus, a relatively niche product, why then can they not release a Polyphonic Moog of some sort, only in limited quantity?


Everybody wants it to happen, but it never does........
:cry:

 

like the other guys said, I think it's scale of the project

 

doing a footpedal system is relatively simple - you can just port a lot of a current mono design and are slapping a different UI/controller on it - so the system is roughly equivalent to stuff you already have going

 

with an polyphonic system in analog you are looking at a raw complexity increase roughly equal to the number of voices (there can be some plusses and minuses).

yeh, you can leverage design pieces, but you still have production complexity costs like the guys are talking about

 

want to know something odd? I don't really want a polymoog -- really. I mean I don't think it's a bad idea or anything, I just approach monosynths as ...a system of (often linked) oscillators and associated processes as opposed to "voices" in a keyboard system

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Similar to the the Studio Electronics Omega and Code racks (which, btw, an 8-voice Omega is $6,000 MSRP).

 

 

The Omega 8 has a MSRP of $4,699, and you can buy them for under $4k from GTR Center, Sam Ashe, Sweetwater, OR Mannys (yes I know Manny's is owned by Sam Ashe)

 

http://www.studioelectronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PLST&Store_Code=SE

 

Which Aint to bad when you consider the list prices for:

 

- Rhodes Chroma $5,300 1982

- Prophet 5 $4,495 1978

- Jupiter 8 $5,295 1980

- Yamaha CS80 $6,900 1976

- ARP Quadra $4,700 1978

- Oberheim 8 Voice $8,000 1975

 

Given that, I dont think a new poly Moog would be outrageous in the 6-7K range

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I've often wondered if some sort of rackmount midi expander for the voyager might be the way for them to go. Maybe just add 2 or 3 voices and patch control from the voyager proper, so no cost on knobbage per se, slightly better economy of scale on the boards and overall cost split up into 2 purchases.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

EDIT: Just found this:
http://moogarchives.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9
Very interesting.

Funny how the DX7 torpedoed so many synths...
:(

 

The SL8 and Chroma (1981 and already computer controlled!) proved that synths were already moving towards the direction of DCOs and/or microprocessors; the DX7 just accelerated it. If it wouldn't have been the DX7, it would've been a different synth a few years later.

 

There's no reason to not pick up any of the ideas pioneered in that design; it will however have to start at a small scale. I know there are DCO eurorack modules, but I think they're more of the Juno-60 style than of the SL8 kind.

 

Did anyone recreate the ESQ's sound source in modular rack shape already, by the way?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I think we, as synth enthusiasts, have a
very
skewed vision of the actual market for synths in general, much less real analog ones. In terms of production numbers, most synths barely go into the hundreds.

 

 

Well, Moog got a 1000 run for something specialty like the Taurus. Hell, smaller companies get hundreds-of-product runs (Future Retro runs I think are in the mid hundreds).

 

I'm sure Moog knows about the poly demand, which I think is enough for a limited run personally. Probably the complexity of a project is the main factor holding them back...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Well, Moog got a 1000 run for something specialty like the Taurus. Hell, smaller companies get hundreds-of-product runs (Future Retro runs I think are in the mid hundreds).


I'm sure Moog knows about the poly demand, which I think is enough for a limited run personally. Probably the complexity of a project is the main factor holding them back...

 

I'm not saying they couldn't do it but that, if they did, it would cost more than most people would be able or willing to pay. My guesstimate was $6000-8000 for eight voices (unless they subcontract overseas and move to a largely SMT design.)

 

The reason I have this perspective is I've worked in the manufacturing biz for over two decades making ancillary parts for embedded computing. I can see both the consumer and the manufacturer's point of view pretty clearly.

 

That said, I'd love a modern-day, reimagined Memorymoog. :love:

 

Maybe when the economy strengthens a bit someone will make a nice analog poly with a great sound, a good mod matrix, an excellent UI and a nice keyboard that's easy on the budget. :idk:

 

...though some will say DSI has already done that in the P'08 - he certainly nailed that "sweet spot" price point IMHO. Unfortunate for me that just I didn't dig its sound so much. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...