poly voyager chain

[unfiltered37]

I can't find any videos on multi voyager poly chains. there is one with 2 voices, but nothing more. I guess it never caught on, or is way too cost prohibitive?

[CZ Rider]

One of these?

Way too many problems and bugs to list. Did sound good though.
Cons:
1) It needed a seperate analog mixer with a master volume, like you would find on an Oberheim 4 voice. Any adjustment to the panel volume threw out the other Voyagers in the poly chain, and the next preset it would all change again. It's as if Moog never actually tested this?
2) It needs to be MIDI controlled, including the master Voyager. So you need local off. The MIDI output on the Voyager is crappy at best, and you only get 255 steps to every knob, just like the panel readout. So you get noticable stepping without fine adjustments possible.
3) Voice allocation was 1,2,3,4,X. So it would play like a mono voyager on long sustained patches, and only play the second/third voice when two or more notes are held down. So a four voice you will only hear the fourth voice if you are holding four keys at once. So a five or more voice would be almost useless.
4) They never got the patch saving right. I would setup patches, then try to save on the other RME's. But the patch sent was in a buffer that did not save correctly. At first it did not save any switch settings, only the knob settings. Then after an upgrade it still did not save patches right, especially under the hood settings. So you could not make a great patch and save it without a major hassel. Again, it's like Moog never even tried to do any of this.

There were more issues. Some could be solved using external gear. The poly voice allocation could be done better with a polyphonic MIDI to CV, but you would need breakout boxes for each RME voice to access the pitch and gate in.
This is alll a big part of why an Oberheim 4 voice or a CS-80 worked so well. The designers made sure it was playable. I don't see that at all in the Poly-Voyager setup. Would be fun to try with a Voyager XL though, as the 3 1/2 octave keyboard on my standard Voyager was a bit small for poly playing. I did use the big Moog for bass via a small 2 octave keyboard along side the three voice Voyager. Kind of like a four voice Moog.
A few demos with a three voice Voyager and Moog modular bass.
Moog modular bass with 3 Voice Voyager MP3 2.2MEG download



I gave up on the poly Voyager. Those 2 RME's are more fun as mono synths, then as extra voices. YMMV!

[analogmadness]

This is a dream for allot of moog lovers, sad to hear about the bug's. Sounds great. But saving problems are hell. Moog should get this right!
Always wonderd why nobody who entered the moog room insisted to make a poly voyager (xl). That would be the first thing i would do.
Thanx for the info about the problems.

[CZ Rider]

The glitch in saving patches makes sense though. The problem is really the need to do MIDI sort order, having the master Voyager local off. So you loop the MIDI out back into the MIDI in. This is where the saving problem comes from, because you are making changes via MIDI. Same I guess if you made a MIDI change to filter cutoff via an external MIDI controller. When you save the patch, it won't save any changes you made via MIDI, only the front panel changes. And the front panel is disabled and only sending MIDI. They may have updated the MIDI implimentation, since I gave up.
If you eliminate the master needing MIDI note on/off, that Voyager could operate as a normal Voyager, with the slave Voyagers via MIDI. This would have to be done via a software upgrade. But the whole way it worked was kind of spotty anyhow. It is never mentioned in the manual how exactly it works, and it took me many hours to iron out why it did not work properly. If you do not do the MIDI local off/MIDI loop back, the Voyager acts like a normal mono synth where the second note pressed, the Voyager either has low,high,next note priority. In the poly setup you don't want this, you want the second note held to trigger the next Voyager and the first one to still hold that first note. The Voyager will only do this correct behavior via MIDI note order. Causing the saving MIDI changes problem. Like a dog chasing it's tail. I got the impression Moog never really thought this through, or tested it enough. I think they got it right on the Phatty line though, and did it quite differently.

[EricK]

That was a beautiful link. I thought my speakers were going to need repair after that.

[CZ Rider]

That was a beautiful link. I thought my speakers were going to need repair after that.

Thanks EricK! I posted that a long time ago, and honestly have not tried the PolyVoyager for a few years now. It did sound nice, but there are more cost effective ways of doing something similar. Having too much fun with those RME's as stand alone modules now. Found a set of those wood ends on the Bay for 20 bucks. I'm thinking about stacking two RME's in a single Moog style IP case with breakout patch points on the bottom. Would make a nice 2 voice unit I think.

[EricK]

I really bought the T3 hoping to achieve polyphony like that, but It never really worked out like that and I have not installed any of the updates on mine past v1.11 to see if the midi filtering worked.

Eric

[EMwhite]

I really bought the T3 hoping to achieve polyphony like that, but It never really worked out like that and I have not installed any of the updates on mine past v1.11 to see if the midi filtering worked.

Eric

What. You can't do a simple split on the Voyager where it sends keys south of a certain split point to midi channel x?

Do you have the option of using a MidiPal or Mac software like MidiPatchbay to do the splitting for you and set the Voyager into Local mode off?

[CZ Rider]

Might be refering to the small demo I posted. Where I had a three voice Voyager with a small 2 octave Novation keyboard next to the Voyager to add a fourth modular Moog voice. Could use a Sub-Phatty too , sitting next to your Voyager.
But there is no resaon why you could not assign the Taurus 3 as the second voice and a Voyager or Phatty as the first, or the other way around from one keyboard. First note held is one voice, second note is the second voice. Can have the split anywhere as is depends on the note order. The Oberheim two voice works the same way by note order.

Found another crappy demo of the 4 voice with Moog bass and a three voice Voyager. Trying to sound like my CS-80.
Poly Voyager and Moog bass MP3 2.1MEG download

[JamesWoods]

Its terrifying hilarious system setup for me,how you guys handle these all?I am happy alone with my Moog guitar.