Sub 37 and Minitaur or just Sub 37?

[H_M_D]

Hello everyone!

I currently have the Minitaur and a large amount of lust towards the Sub 37. Before I decide on exactly what to do in this situation I have a few questions. I'd be much obliged to hear your helpful opinions.

1. What will the polychaining feature be like between the two machines?

2. Would the Minitaur fall out of favour because of the high amount of modulation and hands on tweaking available on the Sub 37?

3. What are the differences between the quality of the components used and if so how does this effect the output?

4. Are there any differences in sound quality?

5. Has anybody been in my situation? Does anybody own both?

6. In a bass fight... Who wins?

7. Should I consider a Voyager (think the Model D will be financially out of reach) or any other synth?

If there is something else of importance then please add it to your reply. Thanks

[jsharpphoto]

I have owned both, concurrently.

1. Polychaining. Polychaining 1 minitaur to the sub37 is pretty fruitless. Since the sub can't polychain in DUO mode, adding the minitaur to the equation converts it to 2 voice polyphonic from 2 voice paraphonic. Improvement? I guess. Worth it? No.

2. I don't think you'd fall out of love with the minitaur. Modulation is awesome on the sub37, but modulation was never a key component of classic synth bass. Midi clock the LFO and send it to the filter cutoff, and you're set.

3. I wouldn't say there are any differences in build components.

4. They have different oscillators and a different filter. The sound different. HOW different is up to you.

5. Bass fight.... well that depends. On how you build your bass and what kind of bass you want. If your bass sounds are all about low frequencies, I'd go with minitaur, but if you want to mimic 3 oscillator bass sounds made by the Minimoog, both of these synths have 2 VCO's but the sub37's sub oscillator will help cover the gap.

[MaxFerency]

I have both and they work great together. The sound quality is comparable between the two so that's not a worry. I don't ever use polychaining because it really only works for solid chords because it functions by alternating between each synth for each note played. If you are trying to play two melodies (i.e. bass and melody lines) it sounds odd alternating between the two synths. Instead I have a Roland A-49 midi controller that I use w the Minitaur to play that separately. The great thing about having both those is how fat of a tone you can get when you connect the Sub 37 midi out into the Minitaur and the Minitaur audio out into the Sub 37 audio in. You basically get a 5 oscillator synth capible of reproducing and organ sound! (Treat each oscillator as a drawbar.) My set up also includes a MF Drive on the Minitaur so I can have the distortion and a CP-251 so I can modulate them together if I want. Its very versile that way.

In short, I recommend having both.

[H_M_D]

Hello there!

Great reports! Thank you so much.
Definitely keeping both.
I understand that polychaining is pointless and the Mod possibilities aren't as necessary for bass tones.
Cool.
What I am looking forward to is following MaxFerency and his advice regarding setting them up. When I read it I knew that was what I was looking for. I will be trying that out for sure. I record everything into an Octatrack so when I want to just use the Minitaur I'll simply turn the volume down and visa versa. Do you have any audio examples where you have used this thick 5 oscillator tone Max?
How did you have yours set up together jsharp?