Duophonic Voyager

[The Analog Organist]

Has anybody on this forum linked a Voyager keyboard with a Voyager Rack Mount to create a duophonic synthesizer? I'd be interested to hear if this works and about the results.

[CZ Rider]

I did, but did not find the duophonic all that great for what it cost, as it was limited to playing only intervals. But using three vioces made a big difference, as you can play chords.

The multi voice system depends on MIDI, and the master Voyager must be set to local off, with MIDI looped back into it, and X amount of vioces MIDI chained. A stereo mixer is also required. The voice allocation is simple and playable, each key held down in order is assigned. So the second voice only sounds when more than one key held down, and so on. No cycling of voices, hold one key it will always be voice 1. This system has it's advantages and disadvantages, depends on how you approach it. For example, with a long sustaning patch, playing an arpeggio, you are not going to get X amount of voiced sustaning, but only the one. But if played sloppy and accidently press more than one key, that second note will sustain at that point. Realizing this, it is still a very playable voice allocation. So even with 16 Voyagers, you will not be able to play a piano patch with sustain and play a 16 note arpegio and hear all 16. It would sound just like a single Voyager. You only hear as many voices as keys you hold down. So an ideal system would be 4 voices tops using the 3 1/2 octave Voyager keyboard, perhaps 6 voices with a larger 5/6 octave MIDI controller.
Control and saving patches is one of the fun parts. Any change on the master Voyager changes all voices seemlessly. Saving a patch is an extra step and saved to the master, then the single saved patch sent out to the chain. Any changes made in the menu and not sent via MIDI (like PB amount or filter poles) must be saved then sent to the chain. Also note there are seperate LFO's on each patch, that are free running. This can be very pleasing or chaotic.
The Moog system is not perfect, and will surely dissappoint anyone that would have any expectations before trying this. It seems to require it's own playing style. It works for me! I'm sure there are MIDI processors that could split up a master keyboard into seperate MIDI channels for a different ployphonic voice allocation, or a DIY solution using the many polyphonic MIDI to CV converters.
I'm planning a DIY extended Poly-Voyager solution in the future.

[mayidunk]

That's a nice setup, CZ! Are those velcro pads in front of the panel hinge on the Voyager?

[CZ Rider]

That's a nice setup, CZ! Are those velcro pads in front of the panel hinge on the Voyager?

That's an older pic, they are gone now. The velcro was there to hold a Kurzweil ribbon controller. But the poly Voyager has so much MIDI going on, I would get hung notes with the Kurzweil in the MIDI chain. So I had to ditch the ribbon. Too bad, as that was a fun controller and included an arpegiator.

[dingebre]

I have a duphonic system going and I like it because I'm a bit sloppy with my playing and don't always get one finger up before the other has started down when I need to, and so a duophonic system playing it as a monophonic system is nice for me. Pricey, yes, but it's also nice to have two for sequencing, and for in studio, multi-track recording.

David

[The Analog Organist]

Dingebre -

Are your Voyager keyboard and Voyager rack connected by anything other than a MIDI cable? Does the system require a mixer or anything else? How does the duophonic keyboard perform?

[dingebre]

Dingebre -

Are your Voyager keyboard and Voyager rack connected by anything other than a MIDI cable? Does the system require a mixer or anything else? How does the duophonic keyboard perform?

My keyboard and RME are only connected through midi. I have a MOTU Midi Time Piece so I can easily re-route the midi connections. Running a duphonic system requires some funky midi cabling (see and I find the MTP to be a really slick way to do the routing. It's fast and easy to hook them together for duophonic and then separate them if I want to sequence them or do two separate patches. CZ Rider, (above) explains it really well.

Yes, you have to feed the output of each Voyager into some kind of audio mixer. I'm using a MOTU 828 MKIII and take the stereo outputs of both and mix them.

By perform, first, I'll assume you mean playing in front of real people I don't do that, just fake people. I'm a "hacker" at best regarding playing. I play really just for me and those willing to have my talent inflicted on them.

If by perform, you mean just in general how does it work together. I think it's great. CZ Rider explained some of the limitations, but they don't affect me and the way I play. It is a very cool feature for the Voyager. Duphonic Moog's were rare beasts. Being able to hook up to, what, 16. Wow.

I like CZ Riders logic about how many Voyagers make sense to connect. I'd love to have another one, but that will have to wait. I can "make do" with my two

[EricK]

When I get the T3 and the Voyager, what I want to be able to do is Drone the bass notes and lead with the right hand.

I can imagine that if you were playing fast, you have to concentrate on which one is the first and second voices, otherwise they would probably switch and instead of say, droning on a bass or playing a bass line, they might reverse themselves, triggering the wrong unit if you don't keep track of which key on which hand was played first.

Im curious to know how this actually IS, when you have two Moogs connected via midi.


Eric

[sunny pedaal]

i'm still waiting for the polyvoyager in one box, who knows ..

[The Analog Organist]

Me, too. And we're all getting a little tired of waiting for Moog to produce something....

[sunny pedaal]

well not really getting tired , as i have already a nice bunch of good moog things to keep me busy.
but being able to play those sounds with 8 fingers , would be a great idea.

[Modularfan]

How about a pile of Little Phatty RME's?

http://www.moogmusic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8476