Creating Chords with a Voyager

[johnxjay]

Hey everyone,

Sort of new to the community, but not new to moogs. I'm trying to make chords with minimoog voyager (RME). I was wondering how some of you create chords using the minimoog. If lets say I wanted to create a cmaj chord, CEG, and considering that its a monosynth, would you just play the notes separately, record each note into audio, then merge audio together? I'm trying to get a sound like Deadmau5, some of his xfer samples has moog chords in it and I was wondering how he did it. The explanation I described above? Or did he combine his 50 moogs into 1 or something... Any thoughts/ideas appreciated. Thanks for reading

Best,

JJ

[midilifestyle]

Not a huge Deadmau5 fan, but I like some progressive techno, and it's ok to like different music than other people

So. Given that I haven't heard the examples you give, here are some ideas:

-Yes. Multitrack. Try recording a note with an automated filter sweep to midi, capturing both the note and the automation. Play that midi, recording the audio. Then copy the midi to a new track, keeping the automation the same but changing the note. Playback, record to new audio track, repeat.

-Poly it up! I can't afford multiple voyagers, but given that you can get three used slim phatties for less than the price of a used voyager keyboard (or four depending on ebay season), I have three phatties. I modulate them all simultaneously with external cv stuff like the cp-251. And they sound absolutely f--ing gorgeous doing huge house-y chords

-arpeggiate a chord, either with a seq or by hand (like the cavemen once did!), while you run it through a tempo-synced delay.or a huge reverb. This won't sound like a single chord, but the delays or reverb tail will have all the chord's notes ringing through simultaneously.

-change the frequencies of osc 2 and 3 to make a chord. Many presets have this going on. If you are super slick with your midi skillz, you can use midi automation to change the frequencies (thus changing the chord) over time. Use the midi implementation chart at the back of the voyager manual to see which cc's control what. If you have Max for Live, there is probably a patch some genius wrote that might help you do this.

-cheat. Use plugins, that's most likely what yr boy Joel is often doing, despite his massive room full of toys. I'm sure he uses his modulars on stuff, but there are some pretty rad plugins that he's probably using when he writes on tour, etc. I use NI's Monark along with some clever max for live routings to get three Monarks going poly on three different tracks at once. As they all have randomness and voltage leaks programmed into them, the three instances wiggling together sounds pretty damn close to my tri-phatty.

[stiiiiiiive]

I once set my Voyager Old School oscilators to play a major chord, and had a mod bus dealing with the mid oscillator frequency: a semitone.
That way, with the modwheel up, I had my I-III-V and with the modwhell down, I had my I-IIIb-V.

I recorded a modest SP with this setting, no techno but ambient though: The Voyagers.

[misterpete]

Yes, Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiive is right. You can simply tune the 3 oscillators to play a chord ~ check out the factory presets for a few examples
eg. I think there's one called "Minor Interval" ~ "MAJORWERK" is another

I once set my Voyager Old School oscilators to play a major chord, and had a mod bus dealing with the mid oscillator frequency: a semitone.
That way, with the modwheel up, I had my I-III-V and with the modwhell down, I had my I-IIIb-V.

[midilifestyle]

That mod wheel trick sounds rad. Thanks for sharing.

[stiiiiiiive]

Glad you find some interest in it

[unfiltered37]

The crazy thing about detuning the oscillators into a chord is that is doesn't really function like a chord. Meaning that you can detune to say major chord, but play a minor scale and will not really sound major-minor, it will sound minor.

But the only real way to get polyphony from a voyager is to just sample it or get multiple voyagers. You could sample some unfiltered notes and play back through the voyager's filters.

[Kenneth]

Also keep in mind that Deadmau5 has several Voyagers. I know he's got an Old School, an Electric Blue, as well as at least three RME Voyagers. He is likely using some sort of poly-chain method, or sending separate MIDI data to each of the RMEs to create chords.

[ColorForm2113]

this is a great video Marc Doty (museslave/automatic gainsay) did for the Bob moog foundation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDxaRwT ... ata_player

[johnxjay]

I completely forgot that I posted this. Good thing I book marked it. All great tips guys thankyou! I figured for the most part that he makes them poly using the 20k worth of moogs that he has. The semitone idea was a great one. I ended up just racking my brain and figuring that one out, but the mod wheel tip.. wow thanks man! Decided that I'm going to use the voyager and pickup a slim phatty. Still trying to figure out how to incorporate my sub into the mix once i get the slim. I like the overall sound of the slim and the voyager and I can see how they would go well together, but I"m having issues right now trying to get my voyager and sub phatty clicking. The sound of the phatty is just too deep at the low end and too tingy at the high end. I think I should just leave that to the bassier low end stuff. Any opinions appreciated. Thanks yall

[beyourdog]

You can either record note by note OR tune the oscillators appart, ... both are interesting, bringing a different sound/athmosphere...

I made this pad some months ago to illustrate how oscillators tuned appart sounded,... one of the oscillators CV is being shifter from Maj to Min with the help of the great modulation bus of the Voyager which gives access to VCO2 and VCO3 CV...it is all recorded in one take from a Voyager XL...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VKuLaGgD28

[nezzyidy]

Or if you have ableton Live 8 or 9 and more than one synth you can use this maxforlive patch I built for this very purpose. It's a poly midi router. http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/2192/polymind

[vasago]

Or if you have ableton Live 8 or 9 and more than one synth you can use this maxforlive patch I built for this very purpose. It's a poly midi router. http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/2192/polymind

People like you are what the music community awesome.

[midilifestyle]

Vasago and people like Vasago

I keep returning to this thread, as I love my Voyager and the challenge of working with its limitations.

I've been inspired by what a lot of the modular synth guys have been doing with their crazy sequences and clock divisions and LFO tomfoolery and their Makenoise Maths shenanigans, etc. As I do not want to jump down the heroin-habit-rivaling rabbit hole of module purchasing, I've been figuring out how to do a lot of that stuff in Ableton. If you have Max for Live, you can do SO much.

-This opens up ever knob on the Voyager for MIDI programming: http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device.php?id=1033

-This lets you write sequences for parameter values: http://www.maxforlive.com/library/devic ... -sequencer (i.e., it lets you designate a series of values (for, say, osc 2 frequency) that proceed stepwise every time you hit a new note

-This lets you draw crazy LFO shapes that can modulate any parameter of your Voyager http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/1838/flex

And that's just a start.

CV is cool and all, but if you can't spend the money on a gaggle of CV modules, remember that wiring up crazy midi routing can also be fun and super creative. Plus, if you're limited to the Voyager, midi lets you modulate far more parameters than CV.

[ColorForm2113]

argh I really need to get max for live!