It's very hard to compare the Doepfer to the Minimoog. If your question is "can I get the exact minimoog sound out of a Doepfer" the answer is probably no. I say "probably" because it depends on how close you want it to be -- you could certainly get the right modules and recreate the exact mini signal and modulation paths, and with the right tweaking get a sound that's reasonably close in some respects, but if your primary goal is to achieve the exact Minimoog sound, you should get the mini.

If your quesiton is does the Doepfer sound as good as a Mini, that's impossible to call as it's all personal preference. I think the Doepfer sounds great, but I use it for a lot more than basic synth sounds, and the Mini has that classic sound. Presumably, if you've gotten this far than you have some familiarity with the advantages a modular offers versus a fixed monosynth and vice versa, but if the advantages the modular offers don't specifically appeal to you, then you'd be better off with the Mini.

Regarding Doepfer versus other modulars, here's my take. Doepfer and AS offer a wide array of modules, a very reasonable price and easy portability (and take up less room in the studio) at the expense of build quality (to a certain extent -- both a pretty well made, although I've had some problems with jacks) and most significantly, the tweaking space -- i.e. with the mini-jack stuff, unless you have elvin hands you'll find it very difficult to get in an tweak things when you have a complex patch going on.

With the 1/4" stuff, you'll need a lot more space in your studio and a strong back if you're going to play live, will need more money (although the .com stuff is not that much more expensive than Doepfer) and you'll have relatively less modules to choose from. (With the caveat to that statement being that new modules are coming out all the time and you can mix and match .com, MOTM and others to get a pretty wide variety, but collectively the 1/4" stuff has a long way to go to catch up to Doepfer and AS.) In exchange, you'll get probably a slightly higher build quality, a more "classic" look and feel (.com can look very Moog-ish), more features on a lot of modules (e.g. multiple input attenuators) and a LOT more room to tweak modules.

I'm not that familiar with the bananna jack stuff, but from what I understand, with those the price goes up even more and you probably end up with a more unique/unusual instrument (with Buchla representing the extreme high end in both of those respects).

Again, it's almost impossible to objectively compare the sound. There are strong advocates of each flavor and the sound is almost entirely dependent on your module setup, how you patch things together, and what exactly you're trying to do. I suppose you could do a 1:1 comparison of this filter versus that one, etc., but even if you had a comprehensive list it would still be difficult to judge on a system by system basis.

In making your decision, I guess I'd start with the price/features/space/portability analysis and if that tilts you strongly in one direction, that's probably a good way to go. I doubt you'll be unhappy with the sound of any of them (unless you're looking to simply recreate a mini, in which case, buy a mini).

patchinsert < jcmcdonald@... > wrote:

Okay, so here is my dilemma...
I am trying to find out whether or not I should purchase an a100
system 2 (with a few addons), but since I have no way of knowing what
the sound quality is like compared to some other beasts, I figured I
would ask you guys.

What are the doepfer modules in comparison to the sound of a minimoog
(I basically want an excuse not to buy the voyager)
And lastly, are these modules really worth it compared to other
modular companies

Any of your feedback would be greatly appreciated...

James

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