Voyager home studio setup

[tunedLow]

Hello All,

I've ordered a Voyager and it should arrive next week. I'm also getting a Berhinger mixer. I currntly have a Marshall amp (1 10" speaker I believe), and a home stereo, as well as my pc's card a and speakers. I wish to do some home recording.

I've read that running my Moog through stereo speakers can ruin them, so I was planning running it through the Marshall.

I have no exeperience in setting up a home studio, so here's what I was thinking:

Code: Select all

 
| Moog | ---> | Marshall | ---> | Mixer | ----> | PC |
                                    |      
                                    |---<--| Guitars  |             
                                               

Here are my questions:

1) Is going direcly into the marshall and then sending the marshall into the mixer a bad idea?

2) If the above setup works, and the I wish to put my guitar amp through the Marshall (I want the amp through it so I can get the Marshall's distortion as well as the Moog filters), would it be safe enough to just remember (ha) to turn my pc and stereo speakers down in the mix, running guitar -> amp -> moog -> mix -> pc ?

3) I may be able to borrow an accoustic guitar amp. I would then be able to run that as a dedicated monitor for the Moog, and run the guitar amp into the Moog whenever I choose? Any problems with the Moog into an accoustic amp?

4) Is it ever safe to have the Moog first into a mixer and then out through stereo speakers (I assume not)?

Any suggestions on how I can rearrange this would be most appreciated - Thanks!

[MFenkner]

Running the MMV through a Marshall amp would be a disservice to it. With a guitar amp, you're not going to hear the full range of the synth. Maybe when playing live, using an amp would be ok, though a full-range keyboard amp would be preferable.

Running it through a stereo wouldn't hurt it, as long as you keep the volume reasonable. I personally use a pair of amplified monitor speakers made by M-Audio for all my keyboards. I usually am an audio snob with my stereo gear, using high-end B&W speakers, but I'm quite impressed by the fairly inexpensive M-Audio speakers. If you're looking to set up a home studio, I'd recommend getting some monitors and a mixer. I'm using a rack-mount Rolls mixer that is around the same price as the Behringer.

Compare the sound of the MMV with a decent pair of headphones to your amp. You'll hear the difference.

Have fun!

Mark

[tunedLow]

Thanks for the reply, I'll be careful when listening through the speakers, and rely on my headphones othersise.

I'll look into monitors, and I've seen some threads here about which ones people prefer. However, the mmv, mixer (Berhriger 1002) and new sound card (m-audio lower end 24bit) have tapped me for now.

[Demokid]

I would connect the Voyager direct into the mixer in stereo, which will give the best sound quality. Don’t know that kind of Behringer mixer you have.
If the mixer as a Control Room Out (or Aux Out) and Main Out then I would connect the Main Out to the sound card and the Control Room Out to your amplifier or active monitors.

Regards
Demokid

[Qwave]

Running a synth through a guitar amp and adding a bit of distortion will get some nice sounds you can't get from straight into the mixer plugged synths. And its very common for certain synth players to to run their synth through a guitar amp. Just listen to some Jan Hammer records. And Klaus Schulze used the very nice sounding TC-Overdrive with his Minimoogs for soloing for about 20 years live.
I would recommed noot to use this or that way. Experiment with different options and deceide for your self.
BTW: I use good HIFI boxes here in my office when I am playing a synth for some releaxing. But I use studio monitors for my synths in my home to listen to my synths. And I prefer a rather cheap and light weight bass amp for my synth when playing gig in small rooms. But I also used this little amp when playing my Voyager and my Waldorf Q in a cooling dome of a never used atomic power plant in Kalkar/Germany in mid July this year.
http://www.schallwen.de (all german page)

[Don]

[quote="tunedLow"]Hello All,

I've ordered a Voyager and it should arrive next week. I'm also getting a Berhinger mixer. I currntly have a Marshall amp (1 10" speaker I believe), and a home stereo, as well as my pc's card a and speakers. I wish to do some home recording.

I've read that running my Moog through stereo speakers can ruin them, so I was planning running it through the Marshall.

1) Is going direcly into the marshall and then sending the marshall into the mixer a bad idea?

2) If the above setup works, and the I wish to put my guitar amp through the Marshall (I want the amp through it so I can get the Marshall's distortion as well as the Moog filters), would it be safe enough to just remember (ha) to turn my pc and stereo speakers down in the mix, running guitar -> amp -> moog -> mix -> pc ?

3) I may be able to borrow an accoustic guitar amp. I would then be able to run that as a dedicated monitor for the Moog, and run the guitar amp into the Moog whenever I choose? Any problems with the Moog into an accoustic amp?

4) Is it ever safe to have the Moog first into a mixer and then out through stereo speakers (I assume not)?

Any suggestions on how I can rearrange this would be most appreciated - Thanks![/quote]

Running a synth through a standard home stereo (one- or two-way speakers with 6" or smaller woofers) can absolutely ruin them. Your Moog can produce long drones with highs and lows that those speakers simply can't handle. My home stereo has speakers with two 12" woofers, a mid and a high on each side. They could probably handle it, but my receiver might not be up to the task.

In general (and IMO), the best set up would be to run your synth into a mixer and then into a P.A. system. Even a cheap stereo P.A. (look at eBay--you can get them for under $500) will do a better job than a home stereo.

Can you run it thru your Marshall? If you were talking about a 100W head with one cab of 4 12" Celestions, I'd say, "Go for it...if you want the Marshall sound." But I'm not so sure that one 10" speaker will be able to provide the full range of tone that a Moog can produce. It's sort of like driving a Porche only on crowded toll roads. It may look nice but you'll have no idea of what it can do.

So let's say that you have a Moog>mixer>amp set-up. You will have at least three and maybe five or more amplitude (volume) controls to deal with:

Levels in the Moog itself
Master volume in the Moog
Trim on the mixer (if available)
EQ on the mixer (if available)
Individual channel volume on mixer
Master volume on mixer
Volumes on amp

If you keep all of these to 50% or less you should have no trouble whatever. As you bring them up you may find that the output of one overloads the input of another resulting in distortion that can be difficult to track down. If that happenes, just work your way backwords bringing down volume/amplitude controls until the distortion ends.

If you want a distorted tone, in all honesty I would suggest inserting an amp modeler effect box. I really like the new Linn box which includes a random filter setting for an effect similar to the beginning of Welcome Back My Friends part II.

However, you certainly can run the Moog through the Marshall. However, to just come through the out of the amp may not give you the effect you desire. What you would have to do is put a microphone on the speaker of the Marshall and run that through the mixer to the P.A.

No problem with the Moog into an "acoustic guitar amp" as long as you watch your levels. However, such an amp is not designed to reproduce the highs and lows of a synth. If you're looking for a small amp, get a keyboard amp.

As long as you watch your levels, going Moog>mixer>amp>stereo speakers will be safe for a time. The wide range of the Moog may eventually lower the quality of the sound reproduction.

Unless the mixer has an amp built in, you probably won't be able to drive the speakers directly from it.

Good luck!

[tunedLow]

Thanks Demokid, Qwave, Don.

I've been goolging the issue of running synths through speakers, and it looks like the botom line is, it can happen, but it depends on many factors (eg, how they are amped, what kind of peaks your synth is putting out, levels, etc).

Apparently lots of folks do, and a few get burned, but certainly not all. I have a pair of $300 infinitys, and while they're far from high end, I simply can't afford to lose them now.

So from your posts and my own research, I think I'll leave the speakers for monitoring my recorded stuff, and rely on headphones or the amp for monitoring live stuff.

Which brings me to 2 questions apropos to this thread:

1) What's the difference between speakers and monitors as far as playing a synth through - aren't they both just speakers - is it that the monitor is built for a wider ranges?

2) What's the difference in live synth sounds vs. recorded synth sounds. Is it that the recorded sounds are at max 24 bits, and while 2^24 is a big number, it's simply not the whole spectrum?


And yes, I'm going to experiment, not only with different moog setups, but also with running differnt sounds through the moog as well, see my post on running guitars, violins, mandolins, etc through it.

Thanks, great forum here.