Ring Modulation in the Voyager

ebg31 · Post by **ebg31** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 4:58 pm

I have done a fair amount of research about the Voyager, but there's one thing that I'm curious about. Does, or doesn't the Voyager contain ring modulation? I've read reference to using it with a Moogerfooger 102 module, but is this because there isn't a ring modulator inside it, already?

OysterRock · Post by **OysterRock** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 5:36 pm

There is no ring modulator circuit in the Voyager. However, this does not mean you can't get ring mod-like noises by using osc3 to modulate the filter. I think this is a much more "musical" effect than ring mod.

ebg31 · Post by **ebg31** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 6:24 pm

Thanks, OysterRock. Luckily, there are two seperate filters in the Voyager to be manipulated.

Hope I'm right on that count.

Indeed · Post by **Indeed** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:07 am

you know something, the MF Ring Mod is a deep pedal man. It took me 6 months to really dig into it & see what this thing does, but once that happened, man(!), I was so stoked at its applications, what it does for guitar and Rhodes(forget about it!) too!!. To me, its well worth it. But hey, in the end its all in YOUR mind.

peace

Paul W · Post by **Paul W** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:29 am

Musashidan wrote:you know something, the MF Ring Mod is a deep pedal man. It took me 6 months to really dig into it & see what this thing does, but once that happened, man(!), I was so stoked at its applications, what it does for guitar and Rhodes(forget about it!) too!!. To me, its well worth it. But hey, in the end its all in YOUR mind.

peace

General question about ring modulation - a few weeks ago I bought a Fender Jaguar baritone guitar, basically it's a guitar tuned down an octave. It's very cool - a bass you can play chords on! But for obvious reasons a lot of chord voicings come out muddy. (The Jag has a built-in high-pass filter which helps quite a bit.)

Someone suggested I try playing through a ring modulator to add overtones / de-muddify. Just wondering if you've experimented with that sort of thing.

ebg31 · Post by **ebg31** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:33 pm

From what I've gathered, you might consider another Moogerfooger choice, unless you have one already, the 101 filter. It can be used as a makeshift EQ, as easily as a sweeping filter pedal. With the cot-off freq. up to a certain point and the resonance control nearly all the way down, it could cut out some of the mud.

OysterRock · Post by **OysterRock** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:46 pm

Paul W -

Sounds like you need some EQ. A simple equalizer might help.

A ring mod is not going to "de-muddify", I suggest reading the MF-102 manual on the Moog website to understand just what a ring mod does.

Or maybe your Jaguar needs new strings! A simple soultion to a muddy-sounding bass.

Indeed · Post by **Indeed** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 3:45 am

In response to the Jaguar issue, the ring mod tends to add some sort of atonal distortion at certain 'extreme' settings that may or may not interest you. It might brighten things up on your Jag though...you can set it up so that your tones sound bell-like, real crisp and jagged or smooth...as you like... the other thing it can do is tremolo...a very very lovely trem I might add... but the aggressive bell-like f*cked up 'atonal' distortions are where its at for the guitar in my opinion... if you get one, don't be impatient with it, it'll speak to you when you are ready to hear what it has to tell you...

then again, you may not be a Ring Mod type of character

I think its prolly the most wicked pedal I've used... if you really like to scream or break sh*t with your music, this pedal facilitates such intentions wonderfully...but it can also add shimmer and shine to a slower more watery-emotion plane as well... like I said, its a deep deep pedal, superby made...

Paul W · Post by **Paul W** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 4:05 pm

Of course the real solution to not sounding muddy is, don't play mud.

A hint of flange seems to help though.

Musashidan wrote:It might brighten things up on your Jag though...you can set it up so that your tones sound bell-like, real crisp and jagged or smooth...as you like...

Yeah it's a very versatile effect, I don't understand why it's not more popular. It must be one of those circuits that can't be simulated digitally very well - price factor.

Musashidan wrote:the other thing it can do is tremolo...a very very lovely trem I might add... but the aggressive bell-like f*cked up 'atonal' distortions are where its at for the guitar in my opinion... if you get one, don't be impatient with it, it'll speak to you when you are ready to hear what it has to tell you...

It's all good, love that psychedelia! I'll eventually get one, I'm saving up for the MF All-in-one package. The demo clips on this site actually don't do it justice, they have it turned to 'brain-melt'. Which is cool in its own right, but a lot of these effects take on a different character at low settings.