The release of the Sub Phatty got me thinking, and I just can’t stop thinking about it. Is there room for a new Voyager Old School, with the same type of OSC’s, Mixer and Multidrive from the Sub Phatty incorporated? That together with the addition of MIDI/USB like the Sub Phatty has, but no presets etc. Maybe even call it Voyager Model E? I just can’t help thinking that this would be awesome, as far as Moog synths go.
And before anyone of you ask “why” these are my reasons:
According to Amos on the new OSC design the saw etc is brighter than the previous designs, giving the Mixer saturation and Multi Drive more work with, which brings me to the fact that the new Mixer is inspired after the Model D mixer behaviour and saturates a little (it goes to 12!). Finally, the thought of Multi Drive on a 3 OSC beast makes me drool…
I think the Voyager OS is a beautiful instrument and it would be nice to see it “revived” with these new features.
If one has an Old School and wants Multidrive equivalent distortion, just add a FET distortion stomp box in the audio chain. That’s basically what the Sub Phatty does internally.
Or one could try the “overload” trick on the filter, using the external input in the mixer section. The results won’t be exactly the same, however, but distorted nonetheless.
And finally to get a somewhat brighter saw on the OS, don’t forget to bias the filter cutoff, since it does really open all the way just with the cutoff knob control. I used the filter sustain envelope to do this.
As for MIDI, one can use either a MIDI to CV, or a CV to MIDI with an OS to provide control with that interface.
I don’t claim to know anything, but I can’t imagine the Voyager will see a new model. I think Moog may release another 3 osc synth, 44 key synth, with the same architecture as the Sub, but they may call it something else. I’m really surprised actually that the Sub is a part of the Phatty family, seeing as it sounds so different from the others. I thought they would have been wise to come up with a new name altogether.
