odyssey vs. voyager

[panamabirthcanal]

No I'm not talking about buying a minivan. I have a voyager, and someone wants to trade for a whiteface odyssey and something else to cover the difference. Money aside, which should i get? I have a model D also. I am a minimalist and only want one Moog, but each time I play the D or the V, I can't decide which to keep. I want to go all vintage, since I play clav,wurly,and ARP strings, but at the same I want something with midi control since I want to keep up with the computers that are invariably our future, but the Voyager is too complicated, I am a musician, not a sound designer. I'm thinking of getting a Phatty along with the odyssey and keeping the D, any thoughts? Am I an idiot for considering trading away the voyager?

[Just Me]

Me, I'd get rid of the D and get the Ody. Then, you have the D pretty well done in the Voyager and with all the other cool bells and whistles you will eventually find you can not do without. You will also get the ARP sound in one of the better formats they came out with. (The Ody and the 2600 were my favorites.)
As far as the Voyager being too hard or complicated. Just put it in real panel mode and use the knobs on the front exactly like you would on the D. (And still have MIDI and the Touch Screen)
I started playing these things in the 70's and love where the technology has gone today. I get all the beautiful analog sound with all the ease of a modern synth! Beats the hell out of the days of using a few 'signature' sounds during a night because patching/tuning was a pain in the butt to do. Now I can press a button and a new patch is there. (Or place them in set/song order and use a foot pedal to switch through them on the fly while playing!!!)
The D is a neat instrument, but the Voyager is a great evolution of that instrument and much more performance friendly. (And I think the ARPs with the sliders are easier to parch change live.)

[The Analog Organist]

Many years ago, I had each of the three Arp Odyssey models. I thought it was a fine synthesizer for precision and exactness in programming all sorts of sounds. It also had a nice musical tone, if a little bit on the thin side. I also had a Model D, which, by comparison, was a big clumsy monster (though a fabulous musical instrument). A Voyager, however, is a different instrument altogether from both the Odyssey and the Model D.

If I were you, I'd forget the Odyssey and go with either the Voyager or the Little Phatty. You'll spare yourself inevitable repair complications, and find that a large part of using a vintage instrument is finding equally vintage repairmen. Not to mention drifting oscillators, bleeding, unwanted noise, perhaps missing knobs, and so on. Whereas, a nice new Moog synthesizer will give you maximum sound quality, programmability, reliablity, and minimum problems in general. And if the instrument seems complicated, then just use its basic parameters, as if it were a Voyager Old School. (Maybe that's what you really want - the Voyager Old School.)

There's just no comparing a brand new Voyager with an old Arp Odyssey; and the whiteface model happens to be the oldest model of all.

[panamabirthcanal]

thanks for the advice, but I can't get rid of the D. It's to me a real instrument. Something that goes out of tune, needs coaxing to get a good sound, and something that you feel closer to the music with. this may change, but right now my voyager is just like a novelty, like a classical piano player or guitar player using a synth. While I have got good crazy and cool sounds out of the voyager, I have never got a patch that sounded like a real instrument going through effects like the D (not like a trumpet or a guitar, but like a crazy new instrument that's not electronic, like an electromechanical keyboard) . When trying to get the same patch out of the voyager, it has the same characteristics, but not the real warmth and sweetness of the D. Though that does change somewhat when running it though tape delay, its the source that really matters. like 2 guitars sound the same when run through effects, does that mean you might as well get a cheap guitar? The D in my opinion is like playing a '67 Hofner Beatle Bass as opposed to a reissue. And different patches don't really matter to me, if I can get one good sound, I'm happy, since I play other keys as well. But one thing that has kept the voyager in my studio is running the clavinet into the dual filter, and modulating them with S&H or an expression pedal, nothing like it.

[Christopher Winkels]

I have both an Whiteface Oddy and a VOS. There isn't a lot of overlap there; they really do have their own characters, quirks (and, frankly, headaches). I love the nasal, squawky sound typified by the Odyssey, and if you get a good CMS-modified one like I have it's almost a baby-2600 in terms of patchability. Of course, you have to put up with the two dozen sliders that attrack hair, dust and gunk faster than 80-year old billionaires pick up trophy wives. And the lack of a proper mod wheel, and only one ADSR. But they really sound marvellous. This is not to take anything away from the Voyager, of course. My Old School is majestic in its own right.

My take? You can always buy another Voyager. They're still making them, but Odysseys (especially early ones) have been out of production for three decades and every year there are a few less.

[joebuck]

I have had all of the Odysseys and have had a 2600 (all of them serviced/modded by CMS) but I have to say that I like the white faced ones the least. I'm not wild about that 12db filter. The last white faced one I had I traded it for an SH-5 (another 12db filter but has a great stand alone bandpass as well). I like the orange and black ones the best once you open up the filter (easy mod). No Arps aren't fat by any means, but I love those nasaly sci-fi oscillators.

[EricK]

I would keep the Voyager and the D and thats the bottom line. Why would you sell the Voyager and get a Phatty if you only want 1 Moog?
I think that you need to spend a little more time with the Voyager. If you get the Vx351, you should be able to control your Mini with the Voyager.

That link that I sent you on the other thread with Nick Montoya and the Mp201.....look what he does with Both. Gig with the Voyager and baby the D.


If you have a Mini D and an Oddy, how can you say that you aren't a sound designer? You don't have to be an expert synthesist to get good sounds.

Go into the menu and change the filter poles of the voyager and tell me that doesn't sound fantastic!

Proceed with caution, friend. I think a lot of folks would argue against going totally vintage due to maintenance issues. Not too many folks have both Mini's either. Don't be hasty with your decision.




Eric

[peterkadar]

I did a recording a year and a half ago with my ARP Pro-Soloist. It sounded great, and gave me exactly the funky Billy Preston-y kind of sound I wanted. But the whole thing was a few cents flat.

I thought I was screwed, but then I fired up my Little Phatty Tribute, and put it into 2-pole mode. It got really close to that sound, and in some ways, was better. I bet if you did the same thing on the Voyager, you'd be a happy player indeed!

[rodion]

my 5c opinion:
do the trade and get an odissey close to your model D,
provided that you live close to a trusted technician,
because both old grandpas would probably be in need of periodic fixing and repairing to give you all that they can.
if you feel uncomfortable with the voyager, good chances are that you'll probably find uncomfortable with the phatty as well.

[redeyeflight]

Let's put it this way: the voyager is a new instrument, it's reliable and if anything ever happens to it, it's easily serviced. The odyessy...old, unreliable, hard to get serviced. Having said all that, the original ARP company is long out of business so they aren't making any more odysseys whereas the moog company is very much in business and is making voyagers well into the foreseeable future. So the odyssey will always have the value of a vintage instrument that no regular old schmoe can ust go down to guitar center and buy. Having owned a blackface odyssey some years ago I deeply regret selling it. It's a piece of history and it's irreplaceable. It also sounded fantastic and had a hell of a time staying in tune...aka impossible to use in a live situation. My advice, if you can get an odyssey these days for under a grand and it works...do not hesitate to grab it up. Anything more than that and that ody better be in the best shape of its life cause those synths were not made nearly as well as anything moog made! Just my two cents...

[Analog!]

In the case that you would like to stay vintage, obviously keep the D. The Voyager of course is amazing, but if you really are not utilizing the modern features then you are left with deciding on keeping it for it's sound alone. I can definitely see the advantages to owning the D and the Voyager.

If your main goal is to remain minimalist and remain vintage, part with the Voyager and play the hell out of the D.