Voyager Sequencer Compatibility

[archer]

Just purchased a Roland CSQ 100 sequencer for a great price. I hear it's basically the same thing as the SH101's step-sequencer, which I find extremely handy.

Question: Would this be compatible with my Voyager Old School? I don't see why not, but I don't know if this sequencer was built for just Roland products or if it can handle moogs, etc.

Thanks.

[latigid on]

What are the voltage and gate outputs on the CSQ100?

[archer]

What are the voltage and gate outputs on the CSQ100?

[latigid on]

Great, so it's a CV/Gate sequencer. Now we need to find out the values of the gate and CV scaling in volts.

[archer]

All I know is that it was made for american voltage. the card on the back will read 117v. I don't know if this is what you're referring to or not.

[latigid on]

Hehe, okay.

You should download the manual from the Rolandus site and this will give you the specifications of the voltage _outputs_ (the mains voltage is not important).

The Old School should work with a +5V gate and 1 volt per octave scaling. The range for the pitch CV is also important but you can sometimes get around this by transposing.

[thealien666]

The Old School should work with a +5V gate and 1 volt per octave scaling.

That is in theory. The reality is different. The gate is effectively +5v. But the scaling is not precisely 1 volt per octave (but close). The good news is that you might still be able to achieve acceptable results because on the CSQ100 you can calibrate the output with a simple procedure involving the "Push Cal" button and associated calibration knob. As per indicate on page 3 of the user manual available here:

http://dl.lojinx.com/analoghell/RolandC ... Manual.pdf

[archer]

If I try and it doesn't work, will it mess up my minimoog? would it mess up the sequencer? i don't want to ruin anything, since I'm dealing with volts.

[thealien666]

Perfectly safe. You might just need to calibrate the sequencer (as mentioned before with the Push Cal button) to get the Voyager to play perfectly in tune, that's all.

[EMwhite]

Just to be safe, you should hook up a voltmeter to the CSQ to see what it is actually putting out.

The manual states that the CV range is -2 to +6 and that's fine. But the Gate out is said to be +15V. That's on the edge of what would make me uncomfortable.

As for quantizing voltage, I think this occurs be default so provided that you are near the edge of tracking (but off by a small amount), you might see notes being recognized properly but then played back for a perfect 1V/oct synth.

Unsure of how the calibrate procedure effects matters, you'll have to play with it to see.

I used to own an MSQ-100 and it was a fun little box, very immediate and accessible; very much unlike using a sequencer app or other hardware. Hope you get it working. If you end up having problems, you should definitely consider having your Old School modded so that it tracks 100% (I did to mine).

On the subject of Midi to CV converters (which you may need to do), the MP-201 is the best I've seen. Very fine grain control over voltage, nice built in slew, etc.

[Berlin Heritage]

The manual states that the CV range is -2 to +6 and that's fine.

The PDF sais "CV OUTPUT (1V/oct -2V to +8V)"!