Newbie Voyager Questions

solar · Post by **solar** » Mon May 10, 2004 12:28 pm

Hi guys,

To introduce myself, I’m an audio engineer / studio geek who’s been playing effect-heavy guitar for 15 years. You can make a lot of crazy noises with a guitar through 50 effect pedals, but this year I decided I needed a new muse.

Enter the ae minimoog.

Now I have this wonderful tool of sonic terror in front of me and life is wonderful…but having never played a synth, let alone a real analog one, ummm I have a bag of newbie questions for the masters:

1) ¼” CV jacks: OK, what’s the deal here. I look at a ¼” jack and I think audio. But no, it’s controlled voltage, whatever that is. So what happens if you route a line level audio signal into a CV jack? Will it modify the sound in any way or will it have no effect or will it damage the moog or what?

2) Audio control of LFO: I’ll frequently need to sync the LFO rate to the tracks playing on my Powerbook/Nuendo rig. Sending an audio drum submix from Nuendo, into the LFO rate, to make the LFO pulse with the beat would be ideal (like a comp/gate sidechain in mixing), but I’m thinking it doesn’t work like that in CV world. Is there any sort of audio-to-CV converter in this world of synth stuff? Or maybe I can send some sort of midi click info into the LFO (I don’t normally use midi). Midi-to-CV? I’m lost, how is this sync normally performed by people who work primarily with audio signals?

3) Tuning: Exact noon doesn’t seem to put oscillators 2 & 3 perfectly in tune with 1. It’s more like a few minutes past noon on my moog. Is there a way to adj this to get it dead on? I can tune buy ear no prob, but if I do this and save a preset will the relationships between the oscillators remain what they are now or will there be drift over time? Also, do the 3, 5, 7 numberings represent a 3rd, 5th, 7th of the root, or something totally different?

4) Glide of Filter Self-oscillation: The keyboard control of the filter self oscillation is way cool. Is there a way to glide the filter as well?

5) Midi box: OK, so the keyboard will generate polyphonic midi data so… (again, I’m not a midi guy) you would go “midi out” on the Voyager, to some sort of midi box, this would generate full cords, and then out the audio-out of the midi box, into the ext audio in of the moog? So then you can mix in the midi box with the oscillators from the moog mixer. Is this how it’s normally done? What if you route if from the midi box back in to the “midi in” on the Voyager, will something explode? I’ve got no clue.

6) Midi sounds that don’t suck?: I’ll confess to not having that high of an opinion of midi sounds. But perhaps I just haven’t heard the good stuff. Does someone make a box of sounds that are bearable and NOT like an Air Supply album? I want a simple bank of legit, retro, warm, soft, muddy, organic tones. Can anyone recommend a starting place?

7) Noise Floor: Obviously some noise goes with all analog circuitry. In working with ultra low sounds without high frequency content you can really hear the gate open and close (hiss turning on and off with the bass line). Hey, it kinda adds to the character and that’s why I bought a moog, and I can always run a low-pass later in the mix to get rid of it, but is there a way to decrease noise levels? I did an online search and some guy mentioned a factory mod to decrease this.

Sorry if some of my questions are retarded and sorry for the sheer quantity of them, I’m just trying to get my bearings in this new wonderful world of moogness!

By the way, the sound quality of this thing is beyond all comparison and that touch pad is just insane. Hats off to Moog Music!!!

-solar

MC · Post by MC » Mon May 10, 2004 2:48 pm

1) ¼” CV jacks: OK, what’s the deal here. I look at a ¼” jack and I think audio. But no, it’s controlled voltage, whatever that is. So what happens if you route a line level audio signal into a CV jack? Will it modify the sound in any way or will it have no effect or will it damage the moog or what?

Control voltages to the Voyager are in the 0-5 volt range, line level audio is barely over one volt so it may have to be amplified depending on where you use it in the Voyager. One quick example is FM of the filter with the resonance cranked. This will get clangorous sounds or special FX depending on the audio signal. A CP-251 will would be a really good tool when using external signals.

2) Audio control of LFO: I’ll frequently need to sync the LFO rate to the tracks playing on my Powerbook/Nuendo rig. Sending an audio drum submix from Nuendo, into the LFO rate, to make the LFO pulse with the beat would be ideal (like a comp/gate sidechain in mixing), but I’m thinking it doesn’t work like that in CV world. Is there any sort of audio-to-CV converter in this world of synth stuff? Or maybe I can send some sort of midi click info into the LFO (I don’t normally use midi). Midi-to-CV? I’m lost, how is this sync normally performed by people who work primarily with audio signals?

Sending the drum submix into LFO Rate will not get a comp/gate sidechain effect. The LFO Rate jack on the Voyager is not intended for sync; it changes the LFO frequency continually over a voltage range IE a slowing increasing voltage from zero to five volts will cause the LFO frequency to increase.

There is a new feature introduced in OS v1.5. You can set LFO SYNC to MIDI and the MIDI Clock will reset the LFO cycle. Note that it does NOT synchronize the LFO to MIDI; the LFO is analog and there is no digital control over its frequency. This feature works best by setting the LFO frequency slightly longer than the BPM; just before the LFO cycle resets itself, the MIDI Clock will reset it.

OS v2.0 adds a clock divider for the MIDI Clock.

3) Tuning: Exact noon doesn’t seem to put oscillators 2 & 3 perfectly in tune with 1. It’s more like a few minutes past noon on my moog. Is there a way to adj this to get it dead on? I can tune buy ear no prob, but if I do this and save a preset will the relationships between the oscillators remain what they are now or will there be drift over time? Also, do the 3, 5, 7 numberings represent a 3rd, 5th, 7th of the root, or something totally different?

The simplest way is to tune them at unison (perfectly in tune), then loosen the knobs and position them at "noon".

The 3/5/7 do indeed represent 3rd/5th/7th relative to the root.

4) Glide of Filter Self-oscillation: The keyboard control of the filter self oscillation is way cool. Is there a way to glide the filter as well?

Call Moog Music.

5) Midi box: OK, so the keyboard will generate polyphonic midi data so… (again, I’m not a midi guy) you would go “midi out” on the Voyager, to some sort of midi box, this would generate full cords, and then out the audio-out of the midi box, into the ext audio in of the moog? So then you can mix in the midi box with the oscillators from the moog mixer. Is this how it’s normally done?

That's one application that will work. With OS v2.0, the Voyager is a useful (albiet short) MIDI controller for external MIDI modules in that it transmits key velocity, aftertouch, touchpad, and pitch & mod wheel MIDI data. The knobs also transmit MIDI data so you can use your MIDI sequencer to record and playback panel tweaks in real time.

You can do whatever you want with the audio from the modules, you don't have to route it through the audio in on the Voyager.

6) Midi sounds that don’t suck?: I’ll confess to not having that high of an opinion of midi sounds. But perhaps I just haven’t heard the good stuff. Does someone make a box of sounds that are bearable and NOT like an Air Supply album? I want a simple bank of legit, retro, warm, soft, muddy, organic tones. Can anyone recommend a starting place?

There is so much out there that I haven't kept up in years. Since you have a Powerbook there are lots of software synths out there.

7) Noise Floor: Obviously some noise goes with all analog circuitry. In working with ultra low sounds without high frequency content you can really hear the gate open and close (hiss turning on and off with the bass line). Hey, it kinda adds to the character and that’s why I bought a moog, and I can always run a low-pass later in the mix to get rid of it, but is there a way to decrease noise levels? I did an online search and some guy mentioned a factory mod to decrease this.

There was a factory fix for the early Signature Voyagers that was implemented in later models, your AE should have all the latest fixes. Other than that I am not aware of a mod to improve the hiss, which is already really low - the Voyager's internal audio are really high level and the VCAs are high quality, together should yield excellent signal/noise ratio.

solar · Post by **solar** » Mon May 10, 2004 6:20 pm

MC, thanks for all the good info. Things are starting (slowly) to click. Still processing.

I can run numerous percussion tracks of audio out my DAW's D/A converters and use the output gain to jack it up some. Guess I'll try plugging some into the CV ins and see if I can get some interesting rhythmic textures going...just didn't want to blow the Voyager up. [I did this with my friend's moogerfooger lo-pass once and got some cool ultra-low self-oscillating filter-movement on kick hits which I mixed in with the beat. Fun, but I couldn't get much action out of it... now I know why, too low of a signal it seems to cause the filter to open much?]

Ahhhh just loosen and move the knobs. Why didn't I think of that.

-sm

TonyR · Post by **TonyR** » Tue May 11, 2004 12:09 am

The simplest way is to tune them at unison (perfectly in tune), then loosen the knobs and position them at "noon".

That might not work as the pots used have flat spots so the room to adjust is minimal. Not like older analog gear that use plastic wiper adjusters so u can adjust anywhere to "true" your tuning to the silkscreen position when it is sometimes needed and no calibration procedures are given. My OSC2 is quite a bit off and I tried to adjust by loosening to no avail.

Boeing 737-400 · Post by **Boeing 737-400** » Tue May 11, 2004 4:37 pm

My frequency knobs are quite a few mm to the right.

Cruel Hoax · Post by **Cruel Hoax** » Thu May 13, 2004 10:20 pm

Yup, my tuning controls always live a few degrees right of "high noon". I'm not bothered. When I tune a guitar, I don't worry if the tuners are at pleasing angles to the headstock. Y'tune 'em by ear.

-Hoax

TonyR · Post by **TonyR** » Fri May 14, 2004 12:27 am

good thing guitars dont have screenprinted value points that are supposed to be a solid legend as every other decent synth has and seems to be correct in position that didnt carry such a hefty price tag, last thing people want to hear in a live performance between/during songs is your tuning , and u cant always expect the tune to hold after a patch change, im expecting it to be even worse after a few years of use. If i looked at this situation compared to when ive played guitar live then I guess I would just buy a couple more voyagers each in a different tune and swap em out for song changes....HAAAA