A few tips..please

[prairedust]

Had voyager for a few months, unfortunetly I have NO one to consult about tricks and basic break downs of synth....any ideas to help me "break through". Long time keyboardist/synth junky, but feel kinda lost right now.

[GregAE]

Not a trick, but something that might fill an afternoon (or more!) with some new sonic exploration:

1. If you don't already have one, get a 1/4" stereo breakout adapter. This is a stereo plug that breaks out the tip and ring (or left and right) connections. Available at Radio Shack.

2. Gather up all your effects pedals and any outboard processing gear (rack/tabletop).

3. Plug the 1/4' adapter into the Voyager's MixOut/FilterIn jack and then play around with various combinations of processing the Voyager's Oscillators through your effects (post-mixer and pre-filter). Chorus, phasing and flanging work well here. Lofi and dcimation effects can be cool, too. You could also try plugging in a graphic or parametric EQ to adjust the tone of the oscillators before they hit the filter. And if you are lucky enough to have a Sherman Filer Bank, Electrix Filter, Akai filter bank, etc., this is the place to plug 'em in! Less successful, but still worth trying, are reverbs and delays. Distortion could be interesting too. And don't forget to try different patches while experimenting. You also might want to keep a log of any interesting combinations you come across.

4. When done playing with this arrangement, try plugging a 1/4" 'Y' cable into the adapter's mixer output connection to split the oscillators. Now you've got two signal paths to modify the oscillators with and two returns back into the Vger: one that returns throught the FiltIn connection of the adapter, and the other that returns to the Voyager's Ext In.

5. What else can you try? Well, if you've got some other synths you might be able to use them in conjunction with the Vger oscillators, or process your gear through the Vger filter. (You might want to make a MIDI connection between the Vger and your gear to trigger the gear from the Vger).

6. Go nuts! Have some fun! And please report back on any interesting combinations that you find!

- G

[tunedLow]

Here's something I discovered by accident - If you use software with softsynths, play the moog into a channel that has a softsynth running at the same time. The moog should fire the it, giving you the moog sound and the softsynth sound together. This gave me a kind of pseudo-polyphony, and the moog did a good job of covering up the digital sheen.

Go through this forum, it's not that big and there's tons of info. There's even another thread about someone who didn't have anyone else to bounce ideas off of!

[Boeing 737-400]

Here's something I discovered by accident - If you use software with softsynths, play the moog into a channel that has a softsynth running at the same time. The moog should fire the it, giving you the moog sound and the softsynth sound together. This gave me a kind of pseudo-polyphony, and the moog did a good job of covering up the digital sheen.

Go through this forum, it's not that big and there's tons of info. There's even another thread about someone who didn't have anyone else to bounce ideas off of!

Hehe, I did that with the Arturia Minimoog and the Voyager! I'm gonna try it with the Polysix and MS-20!

[Cruel Hoax]

I like to control a second synth from the V-ger's keyboard (DX-7 in mono mode, or TG-33 or Siel DK-600 for me) and patch the second synth's output into the Ext In. Now you have another oscillator (or two, or three) with a totally different character, but you still control it from the Voyager keyboard, and the sound still comes from your Voyager's outputs.

Patch the output back into the Ext. In. Really - try it! Here you can get things from subtle overdrive to chaos-whammy-dive goodness.

Turn on only Osc 2 in the mixer and turn on Sync. Now play with the frequency of Osc. 2 (pitch and octave) to realize strange new tones. This can sound warm and vocal, or aggressive and "screaming". Once you understand this, try modulating Osc. 1 with Osc. 3 (with Sync still switched on, and still listening only to Osc. 2). You can find "sweet spots" doing this that sound truly incredible. Try assigning Osc 3 to modulate Osc 3 from the Mod Wheel. Weird stuff that tends to settle back when you poke it. Nice! Assign some stuff to your touchpad now, too: Osc 2 pitch and Osc 3 pitch are nice things to start with, because you already know how they behave. Now assign something odd to the A section of the touchpad. Maybe filter frequency? Maybe Resonance? Maybe External Input level for cool chaos as you "press harder" (this last thing requires having the output patched back into the input. Or making a custom cable, which I'll tell you about if you want.)

Don't neglect your second Mod Buss. Use it to assign a random wave (smoothed S/H) to something: Waveshape, maybe, or maybe pitch of one oscillator to add some life and "driftyness" to your sound.


Don't just read these as "ideas on a page". All these things are things I've done myself, and have found to be not only useful, but also very fun to do with a Voyager.

-Hoax

[prairedust]

great responses, thx everyone for time/examples/etc. this weekend I'm locking studio door (Studio Juan)

[GregAE]

Praire -

You might find it helpful to make a paper diagram of the available gear you have and consider all the I/O possibilities before you start. Besides serial connections, you can also chain devices together. Sometimes the order of the effects really makes a big difference in the sound. Having it all down on paper should help you to 'see' the connections and even give you insight on some things that you might not otherwise try.

Have fun!

G

[Cruel Hoax]

Use a rhythmic delay in the send/return loop. Set mix to 50% wet or maybe less. Weird, pseudo-polyphonic stuff. Make sure that the delay is in time with the song! Work the mod wheel in the silences so that only the delayed stuff is modded as you play notes.

-Hoax

[GregAE]

It should be pointed out that the Voyager's MixOut signal is composed of the oscillators that make up the selected patch, and is ALWAYS ON. This is why chorus, phasing and flanging work well as an insert effect here. Reverb and delays can work also, but tend to smear the signal since the Oscillators are always on. They can be an interesting effect, but really make the Voyager sound, well, un-Voyager like to my ears. CruelHoax put it best: you get "weird psuedo-poly stuff".

That said, try it anyway - you might like the effect.

[GregAE]

Regarding the Voyager’s Mix Out Loop:

The figure shown on page 18 of the Voyager User’s Manual is not correct. The figure shows the Mix Output (send) on the ring terminal, and the Filter Input (return) on the tip of the jack. This is backwards.

Mix Out is on the tip, and Filter In is on the ring.

No harm if you get these reversed - you just won't hear anything.

- G

[Joog]

Could someone post a link to a 1/4 inch stereo breakout adapter?

[LWG]

Reverb and delays can work also, but tend to smear the signal since the Oscillators are always on. They can be an interesting effect, but really make the Voyager sound, well, un-Voyager like to my ears. CruelHoax put it best: you get "weird psuedo-poly stuff".

The smear that delays create can also be a valuable element creating string sounds. On an actual string instrument, you hear a composite of
the sound of the bow, the string, and the body of the instrument.
There is a delay that occurs between the bow's harmonics and the first cycle of the string in motion. That delay seems to increase with the size of the string instrument, so it will be longer for a cello than with a violin.
This is sometimes simulated with a vc adsr envelope with an a initial delay stage however, a vc delay module can be even more effective in creating the harmonic changes that are characteristic in string sounds.


Regards,


LWG

[Cruel Hoax]

Could someone post a link to a 1/4 inch stereo breakout adapter?

Sadly, you'll have to make your own (if you want the insert-signal-without-interrupt which, I assure you, you do).

Code: Select all

  tip  ring sleeve                              sleeve   tip
   /   /    /                                    /       /
  ___ ___ ___                                  _______ ___
<'   |   |   |--------------------------------|       |   '>
 '---'---'---'                                '-------'---'
   \   \                                                /
     \   \                                            /
       \___\________________________________________/

            ^
       solder together

This is a 3-conductor cable with a TRS connector on one side and a TS (unbalanced) on the other side.

If you want to save some time, tie the T and R together on the unbalanced side.

Make your own; it's good for the soul!

-Hoax

[GregAE]

Hosa makes a number of adapters which can be found at your local music store. Either one of the following will work for the Voyager's Mix Out Loop.

For a 1/4" stereo (male) to (2) 1/4 mono (females):

http://www.hosatech.com/hosa/products/ypp-117.html


For a 1/4" stereo (male) to (2) RCA (females):

http://www.hosatech.com/hosa/products/ypr-102.html

[Joog]

thanks.

Joog.