Hi Im new to the board.
My brother has a voyager and uses an ampeg bass head and 4x10 cab when we play and it sounds pretty good. I have all the foogers and the cp-251. Before I got my foogers(My first one was the ring mod, I was seriously hooked after the first 30 minutes, and knew i needed them all) I was happily playing my Epiphone les paul with p90 pick ups through a Vox AC-30. The more foogers I added the worse my Vox sounded. Knowing it was the Vox's fault not the wonderful moogerfoogers. I started researching brighter sounding amps and almost bought a fender deluxe reverb reissue. But through a odd turn of events ended up playing, loving, and buying a
Dr. Z maz 18 jr head with a 2x12 Z-best theile ported cabinet. IMHO this is the perfect guitar amp to use with moogerfoogers. The first time i played through it I didnt even recognize my peddles cause I was hearing sounds and frequensies i'd never heard before coming through the speakers. Now I have a little phatty on order
and im wondering what type of amp to use with it. I'm hesitant to use my Dr. Z all tube guitar amp. Im thinking a solid state keyboard amp or am I all wrong and a tube amp something like a fender champ would sound better? What kind of amps do you all use for your voyagers when you play live? Any input would be appreciated.
What kind of amps do you guys use with your voyagers
Agreed, I also go through the PA. Actually I go through an RME Multiface soundcard into the mix for my live tunes, and then the soundcard (balanced) outputs go to the house mixer.
However I used to play in a shoegaze band where everybody used their own amps, and I got surprisingly good results from a Roland JC-120 amp. It is very clean and bright (can be way too bright with the "bright" switch on), and has a decent amount of bass from its 2x12", bi-amped cones. I figured Roland knows synths, and it would be a good match... fortunately I was right. And that so-sweet Roland chorus sounds amazing on synth.
However I used to play in a shoegaze band where everybody used their own amps, and I got surprisingly good results from a Roland JC-120 amp. It is very clean and bright (can be way too bright with the "bright" switch on), and has a decent amount of bass from its 2x12", bi-amped cones. I figured Roland knows synths, and it would be a good match... fortunately I was right. And that so-sweet Roland chorus sounds amazing on synth.
After seeing the ads in Keyboard Magazine for several months (and a recent review), I checked out and bought a Groove Tubes SFX-100 amp. This is the amp that creates a stereo field using a bit of sonic trickery and a side-mounted second speaker. I can confirm that it indeed works, but's not the same as using two separate speakers, IMO.
Still, it does what it does very well. With the 'Width' control fully cranked, the amp produces a nice stereo image with all of the keyboards I tried (including the Voyager). It definately does not sound like the 'point source' image you get from a regular amp, and that's what I was going for.
One deficit I noticed with this amp was the bass response. The 8' speaker just doesn't deliver the bottom end that a synth like the Voyager is capable of. As an experiment, I connected my computer's little subwoofer to the Groove Tubes' sub output jack and immediately noticed a marked improvement in the sound. The Voyager began to speak with some authority. This lead to more experimenting with a home theater subwoofer, and ultimately resulted in the purchase of a KRK PR10S subwoofer. The KRK sub has a 10' front-ported woofer that is capable of producing enormous bass - way more than enough to fill out the bottom end of the sound.
So my amp 'rig' now consists of the SFX-100 sitting atop the KRK sub. The sub provides all of the foundation of the sound, while the SFX-100 covers the mids and highs. I really think this combined solution sounds much better than a standard keyboard amp (like the Roland KC series, for example) for comparible money and provides a stereo sound from a relatively compact setup (34" tall x 14" wide).
I should add that while the KRK is really studio-grade equipment, its' occassional use when playing out (mostly in a worship setting) presents no problems for me. While I could have opted for the Roland KCW-1 Subwoofer instead, the Roland sub was about $100 more than the KRK sub with similar specs, so the choice was clear for me.
Greg
Still, it does what it does very well. With the 'Width' control fully cranked, the amp produces a nice stereo image with all of the keyboards I tried (including the Voyager). It definately does not sound like the 'point source' image you get from a regular amp, and that's what I was going for.
One deficit I noticed with this amp was the bass response. The 8' speaker just doesn't deliver the bottom end that a synth like the Voyager is capable of. As an experiment, I connected my computer's little subwoofer to the Groove Tubes' sub output jack and immediately noticed a marked improvement in the sound. The Voyager began to speak with some authority. This lead to more experimenting with a home theater subwoofer, and ultimately resulted in the purchase of a KRK PR10S subwoofer. The KRK sub has a 10' front-ported woofer that is capable of producing enormous bass - way more than enough to fill out the bottom end of the sound.
So my amp 'rig' now consists of the SFX-100 sitting atop the KRK sub. The sub provides all of the foundation of the sound, while the SFX-100 covers the mids and highs. I really think this combined solution sounds much better than a standard keyboard amp (like the Roland KC series, for example) for comparible money and provides a stereo sound from a relatively compact setup (34" tall x 14" wide).
I should add that while the KRK is really studio-grade equipment, its' occassional use when playing out (mostly in a worship setting) presents no problems for me. While I could have opted for the Roland KCW-1 Subwoofer instead, the Roland sub was about $100 more than the KRK sub with similar specs, so the choice was clear for me.
Greg
I'm thinking about running some lead-type tones through a KLON Centaur and a Rivera Quiana 212 55watter.
Should remove paint at about 6 feet or so.
Give that dog next door something to think about too.
I use a couple different setups.
For recording, it's the instrument amps on a Davisound TB-10 direct to Lynx 2A, monitored through a mackie 1402> Carver PM-120 power amp > Klipsch 2.2 speakers.
For noodling, it's the mackie through Event Tria monitors.
Should remove paint at about 6 feet or so.
Give that dog next door something to think about too.
I use a couple different setups.
For recording, it's the instrument amps on a Davisound TB-10 direct to Lynx 2A, monitored through a mackie 1402> Carver PM-120 power amp > Klipsch 2.2 speakers.
For noodling, it's the mackie through Event Tria monitors.
Running a synth through a guitar amp shouldn't be a problem, but a guitar amp is optimized for the frequency range of a guitar, not for the (comparatively) extreme frequency range of synths. Guitar amps can definately add some 'hair' on a synth's tone (as well as some cool new sonics), but if you're after a true hi-fidelity synth tone, you won't get it from a guitar amp. That's why others here have recommended going through a PA for amplification - the PA does a better job at reproducing a wider frequency range.godzilla wrote:isn't it bad to run synths through guitar amps?
is it safe at low volumes?
Of course, you can always run the V'ger through a POD or similar device to grunge up the sound (I personally like the Boss VF-1 for this application), and then go through the PA. Fun stuff if you've never tried it!
G
Moog Speaker system?!?!
Didn't moog make a speaker system in the early 80's just for the moog synths? I remember it advertising that it shouldn't go through guitar amps, and that this system would have the widest freq range.
Gotta love the old ads
Gotta love the old ads
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