When I was fumbling around with the Voyager the other day creating a couple of leads and stuff for future use in the band, I wondered about its FM functionality.
Don’t get me wrong, I know what it does and I know my way around subtractive synthesis, but I just couldn’t get anything musically useful out of FM with the Voyager.
For one thing, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of ratio knob to go with the FM switch, it’s just either off or on.
I turned both waveforms for osc 1 and 3 to triangle, which naturally gets the least… well… horrible sound, but even so, adjusting osc 3 pitch never gets me anything musically useful.
Am I missing something? Any hints, tips, alligations and things left unsaid?
You’re on the right track by setting the Oscillator 3 waveform to Triangle. Try this:
Start with an init patch (Edit menu 1.3)
Adjust the Osc 3 waveform to Triangle (fully CCW), but leave the Osc 1 waveform at Square.
Switch ON Osc 3 in the Mixer section and play the highest note on the keyboard. Adjust the Osc 3 Frequency for zero beating (this should give you the best result across the entire keyboard). Now turn Osc 3 OFF in the Mixer section and turn the FM switch ON.
Play a few notes. You probably won’t hear much difference at this point, since Oscillator 1 & 3 are the same frequency. Change the Octave of Osc 3 down to 16’ (the default parameters have it set to 8’). Notice the change in sound as you play a few notes - it should be a rougher sound, but still musically useful. Now change the Octave to 32’. The sound should get rougher still (switch the FM ON/OFF as necessary to hear the differences).
Now adjust Osc 3’s Frequency to a musical fourth (about 4 on the dial, or a parameter value of about 89 or so), minimizing any beating. Again play a few notes while you adjust Osc 3’s Octave (try the Osc 1 Octave, too).
Finally adjust Osc. 3 to a musical fifth (about 6 on the dial, or a parameter value of about 122 - you’ll hear when it gets there). Once again, minimize the beating and play a few notes while adjusting the Octave controls. In all cases, the sound takes on a rougher tonal edge, but remains a playable, musically useful sound. In the Mixer section, you can add either Oscillator 2 or 3 to this basic sound, or drop the level on Osc 1 way down and use it as a subtle coloring with another oscillator. The trick to making it work here is to minimize the beating between Osc 1 & 3.
Thanks for the tips. I was trying to recreate a FM sound effect that I use on my Odyssey. If you’re familiar with the Ody, I turn up one of the Osc. FM sliders, route it to the ADSR and adjust the envelope. It’s a meteor or incoming artillery type effect from high to low. Pretty basic effect. I’ve tried using the Voyagers FM to no avail. How do I get this sound from the Voyager?
regards,
If you’re familiar with the Ody, I turn up one of the Osc. FM sliders, route it to the ADSR and adjust the envelope.
Hey Dizz,
I have an Ody, and you would basicly do the same modulation routing on
the Voyager. Easy to set up on the front panel. On either mod buss set
the source to on/mod1(or 2), set the destination to pitch (or osc 2, osc3),
set shaping to filter env, and ammount to 10 or so. If yo use the Mod
wheel buss the wheel must be forward to hear the effect.
Now the filter envelope is Frequency Modulating the pitch of the oscillators,
set the envelope to the desired setting, just like on the Ody.
Hours of fun with that setting.
Terry
Hey Dizz,
I have an Ody, and you would basicly do the same modulation routing on
the Voyager.
Hey thanks for the reply Terry. I wanted to do it one handed so I set up the Pedal/On buss as you described. I just had to tweak the filter env. and both amount settings a bit different but I got it fairly similar. Much different sounding on the Moog of course.
