Moog Music today announced that – after 13 years & 14,000 instruments, it will be ending production of the Minimoog Voyager, the last synth designed by Moog founder Bob Moog, right.
According to the company, the introduction of the Minimoog Voyager in 2002 “signaled the rebirth of Moog Music, and the re-emergence of the analog synthesizer as a viable creative tool in our increasingly digital world”.
“The Minimoog Voyager is the last synthesizer that Bob Moog designed from start to finish,” notes the company, in their announcement. “His DNA is in the circuits of this machine, and it is the culmination of Dr. Moog’s life’s work, which was dedicated to electronic musical instrument design.”
Moog has created a video to commemorate the end of production of the Minimoog Voyager, featuring NIN’s Trent Reznor:
In the interview, Reznor recounts his relationship with the Minimoog Voyager, which he feels “is the archetype of what a synthesizer is and should be.” The video is set to an original score by British electronic music producer, The Haxan Cloak, co-producer of Bjork’s Vulnicura. He used a Minimoog Voyager and a prototype Mother-32, Moog’s newest synthesizer, to create the score.
Moog says that about 600 final units of the Minimoog Voyager are in the pipelines at its plant, in addition to stock at dealers.
As a thank you to existing Minimoog Voyager owners, Moog Music is offering 20% off on all Minimoog Voyager upgrades, modifications and calibrations to domestic customers until the end of the year. Contact techsupport at moogmusic.com for details.
Update: We originally reported that “We contacted Moog and asked them if they were discontinuing all versions of the Minimoog Voyager, including variations like the Voyager XL, and they confirmed that they are discontinuing ‘all of them’.”
We got a follow up from a contact at Moog Music, who said that “[e]verything except the Minimoog Voyager XL is being discontinued.”
Does that include the Voyager XL as well?
XL is sticking around for now.
Keeping the XL around makes sense: if you can afford a high-end product like a Voyager you can probably afford the really high end XL model. And Moog have clearly covered the mid-price range well covered (I don’t think they sell anything in a low/cheap range! 🙂
Meanwhile it’ll make playing my Voyager (signed by Bob) just that little bit more special.
Not sticking arround: quoted from original post:
“We contacted Moog and asked them if they were discontinuing all versions of the Minimoog Voyager, including variations like the Voyager XL, and they confirmed that they are discontinuing ‘all of them’.”
…and right after that was this follow up which contradicted what you posted:
“We got a follow up from a contact at Moog Music, who said that “[e]verything EXCEPT the Minimoog Voyager XL is being discontinued.”
Just FYI – the Werkstat is getting pretty cheap
it seems to me that Moog has been discontinuing a lot of their products lately… should we be concerned?
Have you seen how many products that they make these days?
It just means that the fastest growing area of synths is at the lower end – ranging from the Arturia Mini/MicroBrutes to Moog’s own Sub 37. They’ll still have at least 7 analog synths in their lineup, plus the new Mother32, which looks like it will be a really big deal.
It does look like the end of them selling a flagship 3-oscillator synth, though, which is too bad. My guess is that they’ll be introducing a new 3 vco ‘Big Phatty’ or something like that.
No reason to be concerned. The Voyager has become too limited and too expensive compared to other available synths.
Moog is hugely successful right now, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. If anything, I think they realized that with the Sub 37, they stumbled upon a form-factor that people really like. I would imagine that if the Voyager was continued, the Sub 37 would cannibalize a lot of sales from it. It looks like they’re rearranging their product lines – modular for the high-end, Sub 37 (and the like) for mid-market, and Werkstatt and/or Minitaur for the low-end. Between that and the success they’ve seen with the Minifooger pedals, I think we have a lot to look forward to with Moog.
They have to answer to dsi’s prophet 6, and moogs 8 voices successor
will eat dsi for breakfast. just saying…
Speculation won’t eat anyone for breakfast.
Bring back the Old School!!!!
that is a long production run for such a nice, high end synth. good job guys.
I think the Mother 32 is clearly the way forward for me. I’ve wanted a Voyager for a long time but they never came down in price to be affordable. The Mother 32 looks altogether different – see https://www.facebook.com/EquinoxOzShop for more details.
Combine a Mother 32 (or more than one) with a Sub 37, and you’d have a fairly powerful synth capability on a par with a Voyager.
End of a classic, but low cost 3 osc synths like mfb dominion 1 provide great alternatives for a third of the cost. I also think the mother 32 is going to be big for Moog, and you can get 3 osc for 1500 usd (I hear they are even doing a triple case) , that’s 3 osc with independent filters and sequencers with full modular capability …..the future looks great to me!
I’m waiting for Moog’s new analog poly the Opus 6.
I’d buy a poly Sub 37!
its probably more dictated by the fact the voyager has reached a point where sales vs production costs make the cost of continuing production uneconomical. the demand in the market has dropped of due to the fact people have already bought it, or their is now a lack of potential customers.
hopefully this will bringing in something new to replace it in that end of the market, a new moog at the high end will create a buzz.
“box of circuits” and they zoom in on a prophet 12. man, thats wrong. 🙂
Love’s me some Haxan Cloak. Great when NIN seems too upbeat.
This could possibly mean that the future market value of the Voyager could become a great long term investment as supply will be low and demand may increase due to those buyers graduating into a more specialized maket either from personal and professional interest to those that collect products with deeper pockets like the Linndrum, Prophet 5, and Oberheim OBX series throughout the years.