Voyager and Little Phatty - worth it?

doctorp · Post by **doctorp** » Thu May 15, 2008 3:14 am

Greetings forum. I would appreciate some opinions on my next synth purchase. I am a keyboard player for an indie rock band (www.myspace.com\birdydenver) and own a Little Phatty tribute. I use this with my Wurlitzer 200a and Clavinet. I love the Little phatty and it seems to cut through our brand of harder indie rock well. However, as I have become more familiar with synthesis, I find myself wanting a more complex synth. This brings me to my question. Is the Voyager a complementary synth to The Phatty or is it redundant? I need patch memory for quick change between songs and am looking for a monosynth.

Thanks,

Mark

till · Post by **till** » Thu May 15, 2008 5:46 am

The Voyager got many more parameters to tweak then the LP.
You can get modular like sounds and strong lead lines.
And the ability to switch each of the two filters to 2, 3 or 4 pole operation changes the overall sound really nice. The two modulation busses are really nice. And the two lowpass filters are adding some nice stereo image if you detune them with the "Spacing" knob or some modulations. And the highpass+lopass mode is nice for some tonal sound and all kind of noise FX sounds.

And the performance control with the touch pad adding nice expressions if used.

So if you use the Voyager for the special sounds and the LP for the more traditional sounds, you could use them at the same time. And to me the filter distortion of the LP sounds more aggressive. This is really nice for some really cutting leads the Voyager is not able to do this way.

doctorp · Post by **doctorp** » Thu May 15, 2008 6:41 am

Thanks Till. That sounds very intriguing and I also like the idea of someday controlling a modular synth with the Voyager. I toyed with the idea of a MEK which would be cheaper but I'm loving the moog sound. Anybody else out there that would vote for another monosynth with patch memory?

Mark

GregAE · Post by **GregAE** » Thu May 15, 2008 11:09 am

doctorp wrote:Thanks Till. That sounds very intriguing and I also like the idea of someday controlling a modular synth with the Voyager. I toyed with the idea of a MEK which would be cheaper but I'm loving the moog sound. Anybody else out there that would vote for another monosynth with patch memory?

Mark

Hi Mark,

Dittos to everything that Till said. The Voyager's 3rd oscillator, filter options and additional modulation routings allow it to produce sounds the LP can't. Of course, the Voyager is missing the LP's cool Overload circuit, but you could always process the Voyager through the LP if you needed a more complex sound with overdrive.

I would also add that having both synths will allow you to play them duophonically, using either matched, contrasting or complimentary sounds. Makes for some interesting possibilities.

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Thu May 15, 2008 11:17 am

You won/t be dissapointed with the Voyager and if you are then your standards are unfathomable.
I owned a voyager before and Im building a modular synth and I want the Voyager to be part of the centerpeice that I can also use independantly.
THe only thing that would really keep the Voyager from being the main controller for a modular system is its limited range...and thats the only thing. So there are a lot of different options if you are wanting a voyager and a modular. Like you can go the RME route and get the dotcom keyboard controller.

I think about the greatest value in modulars are the synthesizers.com modulars.

$2658 for the Studio Version

$2550 for the portable version

This is all just the type of stuff that ive been thinking about for when my modular gets finished....which will take a long time!

EricK

doctorp · Post by **doctorp** » Thu May 15, 2008 7:43 pm

Thanks gents. It looks like I'll be taking the plunge. Playing duophonically would be key to many of the pieces we're writing now. Thanks for all the input.