[OT] Re: Big Briar and Alesis

[Mark Pulver <mark@midiwall.com>]

Allan Hoeltje (10:21 AM 10.12.2001) wrote:

 >Displeasure certainly sums it up.  The contest rules said that the name
 >could not contain the words "Mini" or "Moog".

Yeup, very true. That's because at the time that the contest started, Bob 
had not secured the rights to all the "Moog" naming derivatives. But, 
_during_ the contest timeframe, the patent/copyright/trademark offices all 
signed the paperwork and Bob re-acquired the names. The lawyers were done 
with the paperwork well over a year ago.

Then, to work within basically new guidelines, the judges were told that 
the name had to sound good prefaced with both "Big Briar" and "Moog". They 
were also told that "minimoog" was to be a new line of gear, and that it 
might preface the name of the machine.


 >My entry was "Little Big
 >Briar" thinking that it left the field wide open for a "Big Big Briar".  
 >:-)

:) There were thousands of entries, and they were shrunk down to about 100 
that the judges received.


 >I was also disappointed that the BB web site makes a big point about 
 >selling
 >the Voyager to "collectors".  No doubt that this new MiniMoog is a great
 >machine but I would rather see BB marketing aimed at musicians.

Well, Bob knows that the machine will find it's home with collectors, and 
is pretty open about the Signature series being for them. But, from day 
one, Bob wanted the machine to be attractive to _players_. The Performer 
series ($500 less than the Signature machine) is aimed there...

The price of either machine is steep, and there has been a lot of 
conversation about that on the various lists, newsgroups, web sites, etc. 
The bottom line is that the machine won't fit into everyone's budget. But, 
the cost of the machine is "fair" when you compare it to the cost of a 
vintage Mini in great condition and add in a full MIDI interface along 
with 
a bunch of mods to get to the point of the capabilities of the Voyager.

...and you still don't get patch storage and the fun that Bob has in store 
for the machine's future. :)

And yeah, I agree, don't buy on futures in this business. I'm just 
babbling. :)


Mark