Hi
To all the lucky owners of Voyager XLs out there…I am sure I speak for most of the visitors to this forum when I say ‘Let us hear some of the unique sounds your Voyager XL can make…please!’ 
I would love to hear some of the patches you have made with all those extra sound shaping abilities the XL has.
Have any XL owners uploaded some samples of their new monster in action? youtube, soundcloud, etc?
Cheers
Andy
I would expect that the most outstanding effect the Voyager XL would have on synthesizer music would come, not from the parameters, but from the keyboard size. Solo playing will certainly make use of the effects that only a five-octave range will allow.
Dear Organist,
Connect a 88 midi keyboard and that’s it. The difference should be in something else!
A large controller keyboard would allow you to do the same thing with a standard Voyager though.
I am thinking more along the lines of what sounds can the Voyager XL make that the Voyager can’t?
Come on XL owners, post your sounds that you have made using the patchbay so we can hear them!
Cheers
Andy
the XL is like the Cadillac Escalade XL, big, flashy, and prohibitively expensive.
So glad to see that topic.What makes my XL so special is that I woke up this morning,turned this GENIUS on ,it was dumb.No sound out of it . 
EXTREMELY REFRESHING for this great morning .And a big THANK YOU to Moog.YOU ARE GREAT!CHEERS!
er- will an xl owner please post up something, or are our xl owners buying them just cuz they look cool? i like my pudding with proof in it! haha
agreed. I’m still debating on whether to get the Voyager or the XL in May, and I’d love to hear what the XL can do that sets it apart. Does it really offer that much more if you already have a CP-251, VX-351, and ribbon controller for your standard Voyager?
Come on guys . . . give us some sounds
It stops existing as soon as I wake up. 
I think thats the 1.000.000$ question there, i’d also like to know more about the extra’s. Some demo’s on youtube but only a few.
Here in europe a xl set you back 4699€
http://www.thomann.de/be/moog_voyager_xl.htm
thats like 6222$ and thats allot of money for the working guy’s hobby.
So bring em on
I don’t own one, but I can list the reasons why I want one…
Value. Even if I bought a Voyager, ribbon controller, VX351, and CP251 it would add up to more than the going price and still not have 61 keys.
It has 61 keys.
It’s a VOYAGER with 61 keys.
I like big heavy synthesizers, and this thing is MASSIVE.
Ribbon controller, VX351, CP251 AND touch pad…do you know how much modulation that adds up to? A lot.
Just MHO.
When I got to number 3, I laughed pretty loud and my coworkers all stared at me. Excellent points. Guess I’m just trying to talk myself the other way since that means saving a little less money, which means less time until there’s a Voyager sitting in front of me. Thing is, I already have a ribbon controller and a CP-251 . . . so I’d save a little money, even if I still had to get the VX-351. I’d just be missing the 61 keys, but damnit you’re right, “It’s a VOYAGER with 61 keys.”
Let’s say the XL is $5k USD. That’s 5k/300, which is one Moog Financial Unit. Comes out to 16 MFU’s and some change. Surely you can justify that.
Ah yes, when you put it in terms of MFU’s it really does seem practical. Let the saving commence . . . or, continue rather.
Hi,
Kinda new here, and not a Moog expert by any measure. I don’t even own a Voyager yet (though I did order one recently). But I have been researching this exact topic, and this is my impression.
The Voyager XL is not an entirely different instrument than the regular Voyager. And if you add in the CP-251 and the VX-351, you really are something like 95% of the way two having an XL, in terms of capabilities. So it’s not that an XL makes sounds that are just clearly and obviously different from anything a standard Voyager can make. It’s more about what you want or plan to do and how much time you want to spend setting it up vs playing it.
So, one obvious difference is more keys. Which of course you can get with a bigger controller.
Another obvious difference is the patch points. Which of course you can get with the CP-251 and VX-351.
There’s the ribbon controller, but you can get a 3rd party ribbon MIDI controller.
Another apparent difference which I have read about (though hard to verify) is that the XL has additional parameters for LFO2. You can read another person explaining this in the 7th post in this thread on another forum: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/576377-moog-voyager-xl-vs-voyager-vx-351-a.html
The XL isn’t backlit like the Electric Blue and Select series, so I guess you could call that a point against the XL. Unless you’re going with the Performer Edition. And if money is a big concern, you’re probably looking at the Performer Editiion, so in a way that point is kind of moot.
But think about all that. You’re comparing one monolithic unit compared to a synth + larger controller, + two add-on modules (probably including a rack and rack cabinet unless you want them laying on a desk or something) which also involves the interface cable for the 351 + an additional ribbon controller, and 2 or three power cables (not sure if the VX-351 has it’s own power or sucks it in through the interface cable). That’s just a lot of stuff. Not so bad if you plan to set it up in a studio or a bedroom and leave it all alone. Not so bad if you already own the controllers and rack cabinet and stuff. Though even still, it takes up more room and is harder to move around.
So, the Voyager + add-on route gives you everything the XL has except (supposed, unverified by me) extra parameters on LFO2.
The XL route gives you everything except the cool colored back lighting (unless you’re looking at a Performer edition).
Personally, I had shopped everything out so that I had a shopping cart with a Voyager Select, CP-251, VX-351, the rack for those two modules, a 4U rack cabinet to contain them, a stand, a second tier for the stand to rest the cabinet on, a Furman to power all of that stuff, a bench to sit on, a patch cable set, the expression pedal and the FS-1 footswitch. Basically, a from-scratch piecemeal Voyager rig in one shopping cart, and it was $400 less than buying the XL.
Then they announced the $500 off sale for the XL this month. That turned everything upside down. So I just ordered the XL. Don’t need the patch cables because the XL comes with a set. Don’t need the Furman because the XL only needs one outlet. Don’t need the rack or cab. The on-sale XL with stand and bench is about the same price as everything I had selected before. Take money out of the equation and it becomes a decision about convenience and simplicity. Clearly the XL is going to be a lot easier to set up and move than the Voyager + add-ons.
So, if you’re not able to buy during the sale, then the question is about whether or not it’s worth the extra money to just plug & play. For me it wasn’t worth it, until they lowered the price. Now it is.
All that being said, I expect it would be very difficult to point to a specific sound and say “That. That right there is what the XL gives you.” At the end of the day, you can only get back-lighting from select and Electric Blue Voyagers. And you can only get the (again, unverified) additional LFO2 parameters from the XL. Everything else is attainable in various other ways.
Also, if I were a gigging musician, and my music was the kind that I needed to do patching and stuff like that on stage, I would absolutely want the XL, just so I could have one instrument, one case, and everything all in one unit. If my music just needed sweet synth sounds, and I didn’t need or want to fiddle with patch cables on stage, I’d definitely go with the regular Voyager, so I would still have one instrument in one case, but it would be smaller and lighter.
So, basically I guess it all comes down to personal preference. Like everything else.
wow, Cpt, that was very comprehensive and informative. Much love and thanks for your response, your input has definitely helped me get closer to a decision. Luckily, it’ll take me until May to save up the money, so I still have time to weigh out my options and make the best choice.
On the other hand, I don’t want to take away from the initial request of this thread with my business. And, even if the XL only has the extra LFO and ribbon controller, I think we’d all still like to hear some crazy sounds that XL-owners have made using all the bells and whistles.
Good choice, Captain Beardheart!
Here’s the quote about the LFO2 module:
“. . .also a completely-new LFO2 module that is not found in any other Moog gear. It has simultaneous (+) and (-) outputs, 7 different waveforms including sinus and smoothed sample-and-hold… can sync precisely to MIDI clock, you can select MIDI-clock divisions via voltage control (or via MIDI CC of course; all parameters controllable via MIDI)… let’s see, what else: LFO2 has a single-shot trigger input and a rate CV input… via MIDI you can set two different waveforms for the two LFO CV outputs (one doing triangle wave and one S&H, for instance)… it’s a pretty nifty little module.”
In addition to all this, the manual says that you can use midi CCs to control the rate of the pos and neg signals independently of each other, which gives you something of a 3rd LFO (or a 4th one, if you consider that you can use the 3rd oscillator as well). This thing in particular I have yet to confirm (I am waiting to hear back from tech support on why I can seem to get it going, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do.)
I can confirm all of this is true. Also, because the modular section is a part of the synth, you can access the few remaining parameters that do not have their own dedicated CV input by assigning that parameter to either the Mod 1 or Mod 2 CV input. This allows you to very easily expand the modular capabilities to include things like filter resonance, spacing, or amount.
I have had my XL since last september. I absolutely love it to death. I’ll try to get some sounds posted soon. . . I’m a newbie to posting here, but I’ve really enjoyed reading what everyone has to offer. Great forum!
Thanks, Tommyecho. Great post, very informative, but now I want an XL even more. Glad to have you here. This is a great forum indeed. Looking forward to some sounds from your XL. Also, we’d love to see some photos, all patched-out and lit up.
Hi guys,
As I obsessively research every tidbit I can find online while waiting for the delivery of my XL, I came across this addendum to the user’s manual. It’s all about the LFO2 module. Thought it might be helpful in this thread.
http://www.moogmusic.com/sites/default/files/xl_man_add__lfo2_midi.pdf
The addendum spells it all out pretty well. There is a indiscrepancy between the manual and the addendum regarding a few CCs that enable the positive and negative outputs to have their own rate in addition to having their own waveform. The addendum lists these CCs as being reserved for future use, while the manual lists them as controlling rate for + and -. I emailed moog about it, and they cleared it up for me: Amos (the firmware designer), when he has the time, will be updating the OS to have these midi CCs enabled to control the independent rates. I guess the manual jumped the gun on this one. So, at present, you can control the individual waveforms with midi CCs, something I had fun trying out the other day, but the rates will remain in sync.