Voyager Old School Headphone Jack/Other Issues

[archer]

Hello,

Just got a Voyager Old School for X-mas, it's my 1st 100% analog synth as well as my first Moog product, and I have a few questions...

1.) The headphone jack - sometimes when I am playing my voyager and have my headphones plugged in, sound only comes out of one side of the headphones. Isn't the headphone jack designed to output sound out of both headphones? It does on my Juno 6, but on my Voyager, when I mess with my settings, I can sometimes make it come out of both sides. I know older Moog products are Mono but am trying to figure out if my headphone jack is busted.

2.) When adjusting the frequency of my oscillator 2 and 3, my 3 requires me to turn the frequency a slightly right of the center mark for it to be in tune. Is this normal? My 2nd osc is perfectly in tune with my 1st when its frequency knob is dead-center, so it makes me slightly worried about osc 3. Does this mean I need a calibration?

3.) Any tips on how to get a great sounding snare drum sound? How about bass drum/ hi-hits/ etc? The patchbook only gives a patch for synth drum, but I wanna emulate some real sounding drums if I can. I'm not that familiar with making my own patches to know exactly how to do this yet.

4.) I'm interested in eventually acquiring a Moog Little Phatty. Is it even worth it if I own this voyager? Do they sound any different or is the little phatty just a scaled-back voyager (with the digital presets/memory/midi etc.) Please try and factor out the digital controls and portability; I'm going off the sounds the synth can make? Similarly, would a minitaur be worth aquiring? Or should I look for an Arturia minibrute?

5.) Any recommended expanders/moogerfoogers? I currently own a Roland Sh-09/Rs-09 and juno 6 along with my Voyager old school.

Thanks!

[stiiiiiiive]

Hey Archer, congratulations for your new baby, and welcome to the forum

I'll answer to what I can.

1- The headphones should work both sides. Maybe you altready knw this: the Voyager is a stereo instrument. The path "becomes" stereo at the filter stage. Anyone correct me.

2- I'm not sure this is so bad... but YOU decide. I think it may be a problem if you want to set the oscillator to the fifth and the knob doesn't go far enough.

3- Never tried. Not yet!

4- The Phatty is definitely not a down sized Voyager. Soundwise, ok, it sounds like a Moog. However some Moogers here will tell you it has something the Voyager has not. Something I'm not sure I've detected yet myself... maybe... not sure.
That being said, the Minibrute will certainly provide you with more sonic diversity than a second Moog instrument.

5- It all depends on what effect you need/want.

[astricii]

Congrats,

The Headphones thing may be an issue. though if it's intermitted try another set of headphones when it's happening and make sure it's not that first.

Analogue oscillators can drift and take a while to stay in tune obviously, does osc.3 get any better or worse after about 10-30 minutes of run time? if it's not dead on it's usually not that bad. The voyager manual even says it may never be 100% spot on tuning wise. now if it's like 1-2 semitones off then it'll be a problem and require a calibration. For now, I say you're fine. if you want a perfect fifth you can always set Osc. 3 an octave up and then tune it down 5 semi-tones and get a perfect fifth

Drums wise, not sure what exactly you're going for regarding synth drums vs. drum sounds. if you mean like an acoustic instrument, I don't think you'll have great luck. Most modern drum sounds are sample based or DSP modeled. You can make cool 808 and such style kicks, snares and so on with your old school, but that's probably about it. If you're hell bent I can only recommend messing with the linear FM "3-1 FM" switch to give your self a more complex base timbre.

Differences between the Phatty and Voyager:

• Phatty has a digital LFO, which offers more wave shapes and digital control
  Phatty has a built in overdrive circuit that makes the overall sound a little more aggressive like a mix between Moog and Korg tonality
  Presets (compared to your oldschool)
  Arppegiator
  Midi Control (compared to your oldschool)

I'd say it's worth having both if you want a more versatile live instrument. if you're not playing out, it comes down to how you want things to sound. The phatty and voyager can sound very similar, if you want them to. But they both do different things that the other can't. I'd say maybe get a slim phatty down the line if you really want the sound of it.

I'd go mini-brute all day over the Minitaur.

Does the Old School accept the VX-351? if so I'd start with that and a CP-251. that basically gets you close to the patch-ability of the XL and leave you open to adding more control/integration with a modular later.


If I'm not mistaken the SH-09 is fully analogue as well no? The little black 1 osc. synth from the early 80's?

[stiiiiiiive]

Does the Old School accept the VX-351? if so I'd start with that and a CP-251. that basically gets you close to the patch-ability of the XL and leave you open to adding more control/integration with a modular later.

Yes sir!

I have to agree a Slim Phatty can be a try-out alternative. The Voyager Old School keyboard CV outs would take care of controlling it.

[archer]

Congrats,

The Headphones thing may be an issue. though if it's intermitted try another set of headphones when it's happening and make sure it's not that first.

Analogue oscillators can drift and take a while to stay in tune obviously, does osc.3 get any better or worse after about 10-30 minutes of run time? if it's not dead on it's usually not that bad. The voyager manual even says it may never be 100% spot on tuning wise. now if it's like 1-2 semitones off then it'll be a problem and require a calibration. For now, I say you're fine. if you want a perfect fifth you can always set Osc. 3 an octave up and then tune it down 5 semi-tones and get a perfect fifth

Drums wise, not sure what exactly you're going for regarding synth drums vs. drum sounds. if you mean like an acoustic instrument, I don't think you'll have great luck. Most modern drum sounds are sample based or DSP modeled. You can make cool 808 and such style kicks, snares and so on with your old school, but that's probably about it. If you're hell bent I can only recommend messing with the linear FM "3-1 FM" switch to give your self a more complex base timbre.

Differences between the Phatty and Voyager:

• Phatty has a digital LFO, which offers more wave shapes and digital control
  Phatty has a built in overdrive circuit that makes the overall sound a little more aggressive like a mix between Moog and Korg tonality
  Presets (compared to your oldschool)
  Arppegiator
  Midi Control (compared to your oldschool)

I'd say it's worth having both if you want a more versatile live instrument. if you're not playing out, it comes down to how you want things to sound. The phatty and voyager can sound very similar, if you want them to. But they both do different things that the other can't. I'd say maybe get a slim phatty down the line if you really want the sound of it.

I'd go mini-brute all day over the Minitaur.

Does the Old School accept the VX-351? if so I'd start with that and a CP-251. that basically gets you close to the patch-ability of the XL and leave you open to adding more control/integration with a modular later.


If I'm not mistaken the SH-09 is fully analogue as well no? The little black 1 osc. synth from the early 80's?

I called Moog and the tech verified that my Synth is just drifting slightly, so you're right - nothing to worry about.

As for the drum sounds - I know I'm not going to get "real" sounding acoustic snares. The synth drum I'm talking about is that disco sounding pulse that is seen in songs like "ring my bell" and songs from that era.

I'm actually planning on getting a MPC 1000 and sample a tr 808/linndrum, but in the meantime, i'd like to gt some drum sounds from this voyager. There's this band I really like called Joy electric and their recent album used moogs for all the drum and bass sounds. Here's a track I like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K63-olXNoc

So shouldn't a snare like that be achievable?

[astricii]

Yeah drum machine sounds should not be a problem route the filter env to pitch. Set up one osc and noise. Close the filter, up the res a little set both envelopes to quick attacks decay to taste no sustain or release maybe short release if you feel like it. That should get you a decent snare/ kick depending on how you mix the sound sources and osc. Range switch.

[thealien666]

In reading your first post, archer, you obviously don't know what you're talking about.

You said that the Moog Voyager Old School is your first 100% analog synth. That's not true, because you also said you have a Roland SH09 and RS09, which are 100% analog synths, and a Juno 6 which is 99% analog (yes, a DCO is an analog oscillator controlled digitally).

One advice: read about analog music synthesis methods and machines and learn how they work. That's how everyone else here that have experience with them learned how to operate, enjoy, and create music and sounds with them.

Have you even taken 1 minute to read the manual about the twin filters of your Voyager Old School ? I doubt it...

[archer]

In reading your first post, archer, you obviously don't know what you're talking about.

You said that the Moog Voyager Old School is your first 100% analog synth. That's not true, because you also said you have a Roland SH09 and RS09, which are 100% analog synths, and a Juno 6 which is 99% analog (yes, a DCO is an analog oscillator controlled digitally).

One advice: read about analog music synthesis methods and machines and learn how they work. That's how everyone else here that have experience with them learned how to operate, enjoy, and create music and sounds with them.

Have you even taken 1 minute to read the manual about the twin filters of your Voyager Old School ? I doubt it...

Sorry. Should have stated that this is my first NEW analog synth. My Rolands were all given to me by other musicians, and I'm mainly a guitarist so I'm not 100% familiar with all of them. But I do know that the Juno 6 has DCO's, so I've never had an issue with that. Similarly, my Sh09 only has 1 oscillator, so I've never had a synth with more than 1 osc, which means before this, i've never had a reference point to compare them.

My Rolands have issues, but I thought these were largely due to the fact that they are vintage. I thought a newer analog wouldn't have nearly as many issues, but from what I'm seeing on this page, analog in general is plagued with issues - which I'm fine with, as long as it's normal.

Now my voyager was an Xmas gift, so I just got it. The problem is, I only have 3 more days to determine if it isn't functioning properly, so then I could return it. And Alien, yes, I will most likely read up on anlog synthesis in the future, but the whole point of me turning to the forums is to get a quick opinion of my new synth and if it's behaving normally. In addition with the 3 osc, I've never experienced so many modulation options before, so this IS all new to me.

I'm just trying to find out if there are any issues, and like you said, I pretty much don't know what I'm doing. I know the basics, but I don't know how these modulation busses and extra osc functions are supposed to function, because they don't exist on my other synths (well the sh09 has some modulation, but not nearly as much as this).

Sorry if I'm bothering you

[thealien666]

You're not bothering me. Sorry if I was a bit sarcastic. I apologize. This IS a good place to come for advice, and you were right to do so. But you have to take other peoples advice sometime, and stop having doubts at one point.

I just think you're maybe overreacting a bit. Why would you assume that your Moog Voyager Old School would be defective just because it's not brand new ? There are several hundreds of them out there that are still working flawlessly.

You're a guitarist, so you must know about guitar amps and effet pedals, right ? Why would you assume that a Marshall JCM800 would be defective just because it uses vacuum tubes (valves), or that it will necessarily fail just because it uses that technology ? Yes, it can fail if you don't let it warm-up properly, and don't use the standby mode, or if you knock it around or drop it from 3 meters. And even if you're careful with it, there's no guarantee that it won't ever fail either.

Same thing with used effect pedals, sometimes they can fail if the wrong power supply is used (some old Boss or EHX products especially) but that's not that common.

Yes, analog synths are complex electronic devices, and yes some things can fail sometimes. But that's not a rule of thumb.

There is a 99.99% probability that you're Moog Voyager Old School is perfectly working (can't put 100% because that 99.99% is also an analog value ).

[Voltor07]

...analog in general is plagued with issues - which I'm fine with, as long as it's normal.

Analog is NOT plagued with issues anymore than a guitar is plagued with six strings that go out of tune on occasion. Analog synths are full of quirks which give them superior tonal quality. Show me a digital synth that can accurately recreate the warm phatness of the Taurus 3 or Minitaur, or the bright searing leads of the Little Phatty, or the lush pads of the Voyager. You won't find one. The reason you won't find one is because there are too many variables that create the sound in an analog instrument. From the tolerances of the individual resistors and capacitors to the temperature of the oscillators, it all adds up to one thing: Full, lush, pleasing-to-the-ear sound that is perfect in it's imperfections.