What made you buy the LP instead of the Voyager?
Would you have done so if price wasn’t a factor ?
i have LP and the Voyager Rack,
the more i play with them, the more i realize they sound different
The price is always a factor. Even if you are a millionaire you think twice before you spend 3200,- € (at least those who stay millionaires do). If I was a millionaire I would have thought twice and would have bought a Voyager. I am not a millionaire, so I had thought that I would never be able to afford a Moog synthesizer. Now I have got one and I am very happy with it.
RAC: Real Analog Control. I actually don’t particularly want a Voyager for that reason. If I’m going for analog, I want analog all the way. I’m very glad I got the Tribute which has RAC for all functions.
I sold my Moog the Rogue in 1998 for about twice the amount I paid when I bought it new. I spent the next 9 years trying to convince myself that software synths sound equally good, if not better. Deep in my heart I knew that this was not true. I wanted to return to the analog domain, but the price of the Voyager was too high a threshold for me to take that step. The LP was not, and so I got one. Had I known beforehand how it would change my approach to music making, I would have gotten a Voyager right away. However, I will not trade my LP towards the purchase of a Voyager. When my budget allows for it, I will get a Voyager to keep my LP company! And I will not have to think about it twice (now you know why I will never become a millionaire).
RAC is a way to control different parameters of the synth with just one knob without using digital controller data. The voyager does not need such a function because there is a knob for every parameter. So you already have direct real analogue control.
I already have a Minimoog. I wanted another Moog to keep it company. Since I already
had a Mini, a Voyager was not the sound I was aiming for. I had been eyeing off
the Source for a while then the LP came along and it answered the question for me!
rachel
The following is a quote from Sound on Sound magazine:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov04/articles/moogupdate.htm
“Next, I would like to point out another slight deficiency that has become apparent on all Voyagers. The synth’s manufacturers claim that the 12-bit A-D converters used to translate the positions of the front-panel knobs into digital values, the interpolation of those values when the CVs are generated, and the scanning speed of the front panel are all sufficient to ensure that the Voyager is indistinguishable from a pure analogue synthesizer. However, this is not the case. To discover this for yourself, just sweep two knobs simultaneously while listening to a patch. If one of the parameters you’re adjusting makes obvious changes to the sound — say, the filter cutoff frequency — you will hear audible stepping. To be fair, the amount of ‘zippering’ is very small, and will bother almost no-one, but it’s there nonetheless.”
Yes you have analog knobs to change parameters on the Voyager, but they immediately get converted into digital values so that it can save the patch digitally. The digital signal then gets translated back into analog CVs to control the analog sound engine. The Little Phatty is the first synth ever that has direct analog control and digital control at the same time.
The quote from above is why I decided I didn’t want a Voyager. I’d rather go for a straight analog synth. But lo and behold, Moog came out with the LP that does have direct analog control, so I went for the TE knowing it was the last design by the good Doctor himself.
I have a SE Voyager and was going to get the LP Stage but found the RME Voyager for not much more than the LP and purchased it instead.
The only thing I thought I’d miss from the LP was the overdrive circuit as an editing option.
RAC will not affect the sound of the LP so how did this beccome the deciding factor for choosing it over the Voyager ?
you are obviously not a live “tweaker” musician…more of a “set & save” studio musician i am guessing?
There’s not possibility of stepping if you have direct analog control. As the Sound on Sound article tested, if you move more than one knob at the same time on the Voyager, you’ll get stepping. This can be very audilble if one of your parameters is this Filter Cutoff. You’ll hear it change step by step. With the LP you’ll only get a smooth sweep. It’s subtle, but for a purist, it’s a definite consideration for buying a synth.
There are plenty of suberb analog synthesizer manufacturers out there these days. If I’m going for analog, I’m much more concerned that it be all analog than having a product with the Moog name on it. Yes the Voyager can save patches, but the LP does it one better by saving patches, and having direct analog control. But I do confess to having really wanted at least one synth that was a genuine Moog, and the LP was a perfect choice: brand new (I like new), all analog sound and control, and the last design of Bob Moog.
e_e_g wrote:
you are obviously not a live “tweaker” musician…more of a “set & save” studio musician i am guessing?
You got that right e_e-g studio stuff but some tweaks are recorded while playing.
As the Sound on Sound article tested, if you move more than one knob at the same time on the Voyager, you’ll get stepping
Hmmm, I thought it’s not so easy playing notes and turning on two pots at the same time. Maybe I have to think about it again…
Is it more usual now that modern musicans turning knobs instead playing notes?
If so I have to change the pot routine.
Cheers,
Rudi
I’m a one pot at a time tweaker.
Hi Rudi,
A lot of people now let MIDI play all the notes, while they use both hands to change the sound. Can the pot routine be changed to handle this? It’s worth a try, I know a lot of people would be very happy… 
besides, I can change cutoff and resonance independently at the same time with only one hand… put thumb on Resonance, and first two fingers on cutoff… then you still have one hand to play keys!
Hehe, guilty as charged. For someone very determined to be all analog with his synth, I’m letting a digital sequencer play all the notes for me. Yes I’m more of a tweaker than a keyboardist, but I’m a very proficient tweaker. I almost never use presets - I generate nearly all my sounds from scratch. This is because I have in my head the kind of sound I want, and it’s much, much faster coming up with it by creating it than searching around for a patch that sounds similar. As a result of learning how to program sounds, I have gained a great deal of appreciation for subtleties. So yes, I’m very, very picky about the sounds I create. And I love the silky smooth texture of real analog.
OK, what do you think about that idea?
When the display parameters is “on/3sec” only one pot is active to avoid crazy display flickering. When the display parameters is “off” all turned pots stay active unless the user changes a preset.
Cheers,
Rudi
I wanted a small studio with minimal equipment. Since I am an analogue synthhead I wanted a Moog. However, I didn’t want to invest lots of money in old machines that suddenly can break down.
So I decided to buy a Moog Little Phatty. To be able to save patches, get new components, a brand new synth and built in midi made me drool.
It was also small, looked nice and gave me those sweet leads and the fat basses that my MS20 was to harsh to offer. In other words - a great companion to my old friend. The Voyager looks and sounds great but was way out of my budget.
Well, this might be true, but I hope you will not start to design your synths for these people only. The great thing about a Moog synthesizer is that you can play it as an expressive instrument: one hand on the keyboard, the other on the wheels or knobs … who needs MIDI?
People like me doing electronic dance music where everything needs strict clockwork timing. And if it weren’t for midi, the Voyager wouldn’t be having those zippering issues. It would be straight analog. I wouldn’t have a problem with that. In fact I would be extremely tempted to save up to buy one if it had analog controls.
Even if you do play notes manually: say you have a sustain pedal and want to manipulate two parameters while holding a note. True analog sound is best only when everything from the controls to the sound engine is analog.