I currently have a Voyager RME, Slim Phatty and Minitaur.
I have the opportunity to trade these in as part payment towards a new voyager xl.
Bearing in mind what Im parting with, I wonder what your opinions would be on this? I could always buy the CV inputs as an addition to the rack mount. As a package though theres just something about the XL.
I’m giving it some serious thought, I do take use out of all 3 Moogs and am afraid of having sellers remorse.
Its not really an option for me just to buy it straight, its an expensive bit of kit and I couldnt justify having all 4. Mrs P would go mad!!! So I have to make a decision one way or another.
If you think your creativity will be better off with the Voyager, then do it. I recently sold my Little Phatty and bought a Voyager Old School and I am so glad I did. They aren’t the same synth though, so I’ve had to get used to not being able to recreate Phatty patches on my Voyager. Not a big deal, since the Voyager has a sound of its own that is INSANELY pertinent and useful. I’d do it again.
Its funny you should mention recreating Phatty patches. Thats what I’m doing right now. I really like the patch Deep and Dark, I usually put Oscillator 2 up an Octave when I play it as well as a few more tweaks and have just created a remarkably similar one with my Voyager RME, going to try a bit of Polyphony now to see how it sounds. I don’t think I’ll miss the Arp as I can use my Virus Ti which has a huge Arp selection and is also fully customisable for that.
I guess what I’m doing is seeing what sounds I’ll miss and how close can get to them.
Just been emailed the trade in. Its going to cost me roughly £1000(UK Sterling) to change plus my trades.
I wouldn’t exchange those three synthesizers for one. I have the lust for the XL, and tried to offer my Voyager, CP and VX for the expanded keyboard, ribbon and extra LFO, but the store wouldn’t give me anything for my stuff. Theirs was a demo unit and my logic in thinking I might get an even trade was that they might have problems moving an XL whereas they would make more money off my stuff as individual units.
I would consider exchanging the RME for a Performer edition, though and a VX351. Less expense on your end, and you get the pitch and mod wheels,keyboard, and touch surface. You would be able to do so much more by keeping what you have with this route.
I know that the Voyager XL is like the stretched limo of synths though. I feel your pain.
In my humble opinion, and FWIW, I wouldn’t trade all those for an XL. Not worth it.
You would end-up with only one monophonic synth with some added patchcord capabilities.
Both your RME and Phatty together can run circles around the capabilities, sound wise, of a single Voyager XL. And the Minitaur is the icing on the cake for bass sounds.
Good decision! There’s NO WAY the XL can reproduce Minitaur and Phatty sounds. What you have right now is the two best monosynths in the world and the greatest bass synth since the Taurus 3. You have everything I want…pads, leads, and bass. I have the leads and bass, no pads…yet.
It’s true. It has much more complex modulation, but while it will get excrutiatingly powerful bass, it won’t match the Minitaur.
They are different instruments and each has their own features. The XL is great and excells (no pun intended) as many cv controllers and as a modulation powerhouse. The Phatty synths bring filter overdrive and an arpeggiator to the equation, and the minutaur is a bass synth, though not as powerful as a T3. The difference is in the circuitry. In this instance, more money spent doesn’t equal more bass.
