Moog Music Forum

What do you guys think of the synthesizers.com portable system 22? I have a moog voyager could I just midi it to the system 22, I don’t really use cv. Would the system 22give me everything I need if I just used the voyager as a midi controller as the master and the sysrem22 as a slave? I assume the system 22 has a mono audio output un like the voyager that has stereo audio outs. Thanks don’t really understand Modular’s that well would appreciate your input

I have no direct experience with synthesizers.com but looks cool and lots of capability (the system 22). I can't tell if the midi interface allows for duophonic. Looks like would be a fun system to me.

I would love to get a modular but before I ever did that I would get a analog poly synth . Like that prophet5 rev4. Modular is such a different world. I realize now even more since I’ve been browsing the modular forums. I read a post that said they viewed synths with memory and a keyboard as a different thing., saying that some Modular’s don’t even come with a keyboard and you might have to get CV
to MIDI. Seems like modular can be very technical. All the routing looks like it could get confusing very quickly. I would think you would know synthisis very well from working with a modular.

I use MIDI less & less. CV is more fun, and more reliable.

Screw MIDI's stuck notes, low data bandwidth, serial signal path & glitching gear.

CV is super fast & responsive. And creatively more interesting to me.

MIDI is a pain in the ass to set up with all the channels, chaining, distribution etc.

I might go back to using it if I want to automate stuff in the DAW.

Sorry: to answer your question the voyager does have CV outs you can feed to modular. Even more if you get a CP 251 or whatever it's called.

I don’t think that is correct. The voyager has a bunch of cv inputs but no outs unless you have the vx351 I’m pretty sure.

My old school has both cv ins and outs but no midi.

Oh, you're right! I just checked out the manual, the 1/4" jacks are all CV in.

I thought the different colors were in/out, but I guess they specify which have 5v for power.

So you either need a 351, or could make an adaptor to tap into the CV outs present at the multipin interface.

(The Voyager Old School has built-in keyboard CV and gate outputs, though.)

I really wish they had put cv outs on the voyager!

I think that breakout box is not even available anymore , not sure

There are some advantages using MIDI, as it was developed for stage use by using current-loop-physics. This means that it is immune to voltage spikes of light arrangements, PA, radio signals, noise induction etc. and the instruments are not physically coupled, but optically, which reduces the risk of ripple pickups. This might not be important for a standard studio, but eases the possibility of connecting various devices using this standard, so no thinking about S/GATE <=> V/GATE, gate voltages, CV ranges and so on.
A possible disadvantage might be that newer devices might use MIDI via USB though.

That is a whole bunch of stuff I never was aware of: it's good to hear they got some things right!

So much for my rant.

I really wish they had figured out how to make it bidirectional instead of serial.

Everyone now makes USB audio interfaces that send audio + MIDI in the same cable, so audio stutters & MIDI data lags as well. If you have too much MIDI going on you just lose data & get dropouts.

I try to use DIN MIDI between devices though, I avoid USB midi.

I was watching a Don Buchla interview where he said he didn't think they would be successful with MIDI as they were missing some important features. He said he tried to get them to commit to higher bitrate/bandwidth too.

Back to the Voyager again: it shouldn't be too hard to build a breakout box & get to all the CV the V351 taps into?

ummagumma wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 6:44 am I really wish they had figured out how to make it bidirectional instead of serial.

As always If you want to do things work properly, you must develop / build them yourself. A combination of a serial interface (e.g. RS232) and MIDI would be perfect then, meaning replacing at least RXD and TXD with MIDI physics (I developed that kind of a bidirectional MIDI communication for my µNet feasibility study as internal inter-module link a long time ago)

ummagumma wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 6:44 am Everyone now makes USB audio interfaces that send audio + MIDI in the same cable, so audio stutters & MIDI data lags as well. If you have too much MIDI going on you just lose data & get dropouts.

Oh yes, that's bad USB isn't a good medium for that, and you always need interface controllers for that.

ummagumma wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 6:44 am I try to use DIN MIDI between devices though, I avoid USB midi.

Yes, and this hardware / physics is so easy to implement, that I used it in my internal module interconnections of my µNet feasibility study as communication platform, as mentioned above, so others (the "professionals") could do the same

That’s some heavy stuff man ,that’s pretty deep.

My piano is from the DDR

VCO wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 10:34 pm My piano is from the DDR

As many might not know what "DDR" stands for:

DDR = former East Germany in the german abbreviation for Deutsche Demokratische Republik.
GDR = english abbreviation for the very same former country: German Democratic Republic