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Falling In Love Again, by Roger O'Donnell of The Cure

Let me explain my love affair with the Voyager. Early synthesizers, the size of a railway carriage, were never going to be of much use to a musician, even ones with loads of patch cords and random elements plugged together. Fortunately, the legendary synthesizer builder Bob Moog came along and put the parts that everyone wanted to use in a single cabinet with a determined and logical flow, added a pitch and modulation wheel and turned keyboard playing on its head overnight.

This was the Mini Moog, with which you can synthesize any sound, you can recreate any natural sound and of course sounds from around the universe. But the trouble was it never stayed in tune and with the advent of samplers in the 80’s it was redundant for many and set aside for all but a very few purists.

Ultimately a new generation of keyboard players came along that had no idea what subtractive analogue synthesis was, the 'preset', ruled the day and Moogs, Oberheims and Prophets just gathered dust in the corner. That was until Bob got "Moog", his name-his brand, back from legal limbo and started making an evolution of the Mini Moog’s again. This time they stayed in tune, had a memory, and were called Voyagers. I fell in love again, as I had in 1970, when I first saw the original. In fact this time we got married, we didn’t just fool around!

Our first date was to write and record a song for Hans Fjellestad's film about Bob. I decided to go back to the way I used to use synths and record an entire song with just that instrument. The one song turned into two albums ("Songs From The Silver Box" and "The Truth In Me") and many, many remixes. The sound of the Voyager became my voice and I felt at home again.

I have two very different Voyagers in my studio, both of them hand built for me by Bob. My Black one is a 50th Anniversary Edition, which I first played on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, I think? After my Apple Store tour (that I did in 2006) I sent it back to the factory for tuning. They took it apart and spent about three months tweaking the circuits. Mainly they customized the touch sensitivity and made it incredibly expressive. They then put red back lighting on it. I think they had just got the ability to change the colour so they tried it out on mine. It’s the only 50th Anniversary edition with red lights! It's my every day go to Voyager, the touch sensitivity is just amazing and very very organic and emotional. My Powder Blue one was built specifically for me to my specifications. The custom colour is the most obvious sign but internally it's pretty much a standard Voyager. It was one of the very last that Bob actually signed at my request before he sadly died in 2006 long before his time.

Samplers have moved on and become pretty pictures on our computer screens, built in to our sequencers, but the Voyager sits alone, glowing and magnificent in the real world. I describe it as my palette, it has an infinite range of colours that I can mix into tones and shapes at the flick of a switch and twist of a knob. Every time I switch my Voyagers on, which is every time I enter my studio, I see Bob’s digital face appear on the little screen and I smile. I couldn’t imagine playing or recording without a Voyager to hand.

Roger O'Donnell Apple Tour Demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9zDet4qTGE&noredirect=1

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Learn more about Roger's work at www.rogerodonnell.com and Roger O'Donnell Discography

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