How are you finding it? I splurged on a Moog Muse last year for a milestone birthday, and it is gorgeous and tactile.
Having said that it has allowed me to check how good the VST clones are against real hardware, and they are really close!
Hi Derek,
I unpacked it and tested the switches, knobs and the keys.
Then, I turned everything off, and now Iām on an overseas holiday.
Youāre right. I just enjoy the pleasure of touching a synth. 
I know, which is why I love the Muse as a studio synth and how approachable all those knobs and switches are, but I will never need to gig it as I know I can get the sound in software (or close enough for a gig)
I strongly agree. Any emulation of an analog synth is good for a gig, unless you are performing Tangerine Dreams style music (just to mention one).
This may be an overly simplistic way of looking at it, but itās, nonetheless, true.
Iād like to know more 
Iām not sure why a specific genre of music would stop you from using soft synths. I am doing exactly this type of music (amongst other things) in Spectral Streams with a combination of hardware and software synths.
Itās fair to say that the software emulations these days are superb including giving me access to synths I will never own in hardware. Up until last October that included a Moog. Now I own one, I can calibrate how good the emulations are, and the answer is extremely good. But there is still something nice about a hardware synth with a really well thought out and high quality interface. It was a completely extravagant purchase of course, but I think Iām worth it!
No doubt that you can accomplish the same things with software as with hardware. I never said one was better than the other. Itās not a holy war!
If I see an attractive synth (better if not so expensive), Iāll buy it. I guess the next one will be the Muse, but the Trigon 6 is intriguing.
Deinitely true. Iām still excited by hardware pieces. After all, I grew up with them.
TD used some custom synthesizers for which there is no VSTs equivalent.
It would be interesting to try to reproduce TD in VST-only mode.
Thereās not a lot that canāt be accomplished with Cherryās Voltage Modular - but can tax CPU.
It would be surprising if a texture from TD couldnāt be emulated with the current generation of virtual synths.
Iād love an example of something outside the āconventionalā.
Yes, it is not the intent to start a āsoftware is better than hardwareā holy war. I use the best of both to (hopefully) good effect. I could not do the show I do without a combination of hardware/software.
I guess what I was trying to say is I have the Muse and it is an amazing synth, but it will be studio use only as I can get a good enough sound out of the VSTs
It is also a message to people who do not have the budget for a hardware Moog to say ādonāt sweat about itā as the software synths will give you a similar sound (but obviously without the level of hands on interaction all of those knobs and switches on the Muse).
Horses for courses
Yeah - but itās fun to visit the topic.
There are players whoāve never experienced the real thing, those that have straddled both worlds, and those who are visiting hardware for the first time. And to complicate things, we also have hardware tributes and recreations that invite a whole new debate.
Having owned quite a few of the desirables, I am constantly amazed at how little I miss them, if at all!
What piqued my interest was the talk of ācustom synthsā which could, presumably, do something out of the ordinary, and for which no VST equivalent exists. No doubt, it would be a great topic to see how one might go after reproducing such sounds.
All good points. I am thinking of trying Voltage Modular myself to see how it measures up to my old and faithful Nord G2 engine
Voltage Modular is a bit of a drug because, although it comes with a very nice clutch of modules, there are tons of fabulous modules in the store from Cherry and other 3rd party authors. Very addictive - but OMG, you can build some stuff.
I watched loads of Omri Cohenās VCV rack tutorials which map directly onto Voltage Modular.
The advantages of running such a system in the virtual world, for the kind of thing we Cantabilists do, are obvious; if what you want doesnāt exist as an off the shelf plugin - build it, and recall it for near instant use.
In many ways, itās far beyond what conventional modular synthesis can do, and certainly way beyond earlier virtual offerings, such as those from Arturia.
I enjoyed and still (occasionally ) enjoy my Nord G2 Engine (a modular synth in a 1U rack, which despite being off the market for a long time is still working on Windows (albeit connecting is a bit glitchy). So the Voltage Modular concept is calling to meā¦.
I love Voltage Modular, especially the stuff Mark Burton has done.
Mark Barton is a brilliant guy, no doubt.
Thereās a great interview with Anthony Marinelli to whom Mark sold his āPlantasiaā Moog. For those that havenāt seen it:
