What are the easiests ways to add an oscillator or two to the Voyager (Old School)? I’ve been hoping that a Moogerfooger oscillator module would appear, but that doesn’t seem likely. It seems like the most obvious module of all to me, but I guess not the Moog. So what are the options for adding a nice stable oscillator that will track the keyboard as well as the Voyager’s other three?
You can get the ring mod to track (see Lord of the Ring Mod) and I was going to try the Freq box tonight. I’ve got my RM tracking using the VX and a CP to get the scaling.
I’m going to use my Encore on the Freq box. (But I have the advantage of MIDI on the Signature Voyager)
Way back in 1975, adding an extra oscillator or two to the Minimoog, the SEM was a popular choice. Tom’s new SEM with patch panel would be a nice addition to a Voyager OS. Many different way to configure that combo.
i see a modular synth system in your future…
in the meantime, start with 2 of these
http://www.synthesizers.com/q106.html
one of these
http://www.synthesizers.com/q124.html
and one of these
You could also do an ARP Little Brother as an add-on OSC and LFO.
But don’t forget the Rack mount frame for the Arrick stuff shown above. Or a nice 22 space ‘starter’ cabinet. LOL
I’ve had good luck with a Little Phatty (w/ CV Outs) and the MF-107 FreqBox’s OSC Out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkm-2OuIOhI
(About 4:00 into the video.)
It’d certainly be worth trying.
Yes, I saw that video of the Little Phatty with the Freqbox. Very interesting. But because I don’t have the Freqbox and don’t want to blow $350, I want to hear your opinions on this. I have the Voyager OS and the CP-251. First, what is required to connect the Freqbox to the Voyager? And second, is the tracking accurate enough so that the oscillator beating between one oscillator from the Voyager and one from the Freqbox will not change as I play up and down the keyboard? I don’t want a clumsy oscillator thrown in with the three from the Voyager. That would defeat my purposes.
My next (rhetorical) question would be, why on earth did Moog make the Freqbox into a pedal, rather than a module like the CP-251?!
Hi TAO,
As I don’t have access to any Voyagers right now, I’ll have to defer to someone who owns both
(and is at least as persnickety as you and me about such things).
But I will try a more exhaustive test on the Little Phatty/FreqBox when my time eases up a little.
(Unless some kind soul beats me to it with either synth.)
Persnickety? Hmph! 
Acorkos -
I was looking at those oscillators this morning. Very nice, indeed.
I’ve just tried adding another osc to my OS using FreqBox. KB CV out to Freq in - tune it a bit and there you go! Simple as that.
Great fun!
I tuned all the oscillators to a major minor triad with a flat 7. 1-3-5-7
WOW - massive
another funny thing you can do is to modulate second osc with your modwheel so that you change the interval by a half step. With a flip of a modwheel you have major triad!
Basically Maj7 and Min7 in one patch. On a monosynth! 
The freqbox will track well with the Voyager, all you need is the pitch out, and I don’t know if the Old School comes with that already. I know there is a slight difference in the jackson the rear panel of the OS than the regular voyagers.
It only tracks about 4 or 5 octaves because its not designed to be a fully functional osc. The ringmod tracks easier and over a wider range but you are limited to only 1 waveform.
The 101 will also serve as an extra sine wae Osc in oscillitory mode with the resonance all the way up and from what I understand, gets LOOOOOW and tracks well.
I like to use the Freq as an extra voice, like a great destination for S&H or Lagged out LFOs. I rarely use it as an extra Osc but for no particular reason.
If theres no Pitch output on the Old School then unfortunately youll have to get a Vx351, which is another 300 or so.
The freqbox is fairly stable but within there are no temp regulation devices so it will drift, but ive never noticed it, probably because it never really goes anywhere. Nothing wront with a little instabillity in the old osc department every now and again, right?
Keep Novamusik in mind for your purchases because they do great deals.
Id go with the dotcom route if you are interested in that.
Voyager Old School has convenient KB PITCH CV and KB GATE jacks on the back panel…along with all the CV/GATE/PEDAL INPUTS
I have a RME… would I need the VX351? or VX352?
VX351.
The VX352 provides the CV inputs that all other voyagers have built-in.
My local store will make a deal on the 351 and 352. They are blowing out the Moog stuff right now. They have 2 of each left, I think.
Now I know why my RME was incredibly cheaper.
So I would need both then to have the full CV capabilities of the Voyager? At least I could use these with the LP too?
Where’s your local store?
Another point of view:
I’m not sure what you’d really gain from adding another analog oscillator. If you had independent outpus and CV inputs for each of the oscs on the Voyager, I could see how another analog oscillator might be useful (you could sync osc 1&2 and 3&4 together, for example). But you can’t do that sort of thing… you can only mix in the 4th osc. Also, 3 Moog oscs fill up sonic space pretty well… I don’t know that another one would add much to the thickness of the voyager.
That said, I’ve recently purchased a few oscillators to compliment my Voyager (and my FutureRetro XS). They’re (gasp!) digital! There are some wild digital oscillators on the market out there, and they are really capable of some special results that you just can’t get from a Voyager alone.
So far I have a Modcan 58B VCDO ( http://modcan.com/bseries/VCDO.html ), a Synthtech Morphing Terrarium ( http://www.synthtech.com/demo/e350/ ) and a Harvestman Piston Honda ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYJyXXs9_dA ). I’m planning on adding a Modcan B Miniwave as well.
Any one of these would open way more gateways from a sound-design standpoint than adding another analog oscillator.
I also see a modular in your future!
Theres no such thing as too many oscs and filters!
The more oscillators, the better. First, adding more than three oscillators to a single note can greatly increase its depth and richness. (What sounds fuller - three violins, or twenty?) Second, having multiple oscillators allows you to build up tone qualities that normally are the domain of digital additive synthesis. If you want to imitate an oboe on a Voyager, the normal approach is to use a narrow pulse wave. But this doesn’t quite do the job. Since an oboe is the result of a whole series of pitches (harmonics) that are softer than the fundamental pitch, the proper way to imitate it is by adding those softer pitches using multiple oscillators.
I’m not that interested in imitating instruments, but only in borrowing their qualities. I like to create waveforms and timbres by adding upper harmonics to a fundamental pitch.
Adding an upper fifth is one of the distinctive Moog sounds. But if you take a triangle waveform, and then add softer triangles at different higher pitches - an octave, a fifth, a fourth, a third - then you create your own waveforms and timbres. This takes a great deal of experimentation, but in the end you have tones that sound very natural and acoustic, like woodwinds and reeds in an orchestra or on a pipe organ.
With only two or three oscillators, it’s nearly impossible to do this - to design your own sounds - except those that are typically synthesizer-ish. The truth is, I could put ten oscillators to good use, but I’d be happy with only five or six.