Adding an Oscillator

[anoteoftruth]

VX351.

The VX352 provides the CV inputs that all other voyagers have built-in.

Now I know why my RME was incredibly cheaper.

So I would need both then to have the full CV capabilities of the Voyager? At least I could use these with the LP too?

[anoteoftruth]

My local store will make a deal on the 351 and 352. They are blowing out the Moog stuff right now. They have 2 of each left, I think.

Where's your local store?

[BTByrd]

Another point of view:
I'm not sure what you'd really gain from adding another analog oscillator. If you had independent outpus and CV inputs for each of the oscs on the Voyager, I could see how another analog oscillator might be useful (you could sync osc 1&2 and 3&4 together, for example). But you can't do that sort of thing... you can only mix in the 4th osc. Also, 3 Moog oscs fill up sonic space pretty well... I don't know that another one would add much to the thickness of the voyager.
That said, I've recently purchased a few oscillators to compliment my Voyager (and my FutureRetro XS). They're (gasp!) digital! There are some wild digital oscillators on the market out there, and they are really capable of some special results that you just can't get from a Voyager alone.
So far I have a Modcan 58B VCDO ( http://modcan.com/bseries/VCDO.html ), a Synthtech Morphing Terrarium ( http://www.synthtech.com/demo/e350/ ) and a Harvestman Piston Honda ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYJyXXs9_dA ). I'm planning on adding a Modcan B Miniwave as well.
Any one of these would open way more gateways from a sound-design standpoint than adding another analog oscillator.

I also see a modular in your future!

[EricK]

Theres no such thing as too many oscs and filters!

[The Analog Organist]

The more oscillators, the better. First, adding more than three oscillators to a single note can greatly increase its depth and richness. (What sounds fuller - three violins, or twenty?) Second, having multiple oscillators allows you to build up tone qualities that normally are the domain of digital additive synthesis. If you want to imitate an oboe on a Voyager, the normal approach is to use a narrow pulse wave. But this doesn't quite do the job. Since an oboe is the result of a whole series of pitches (harmonics) that are softer than the fundamental pitch, the proper way to imitate it is by adding those softer pitches using multiple oscillators.

I'm not that interested in imitating instruments, but only in borrowing their qualities. I like to create waveforms and timbres by adding upper harmonics to a fundamental pitch.

Adding an upper fifth is one of the distinctive Moog sounds. But if you take a triangle waveform, and then add softer triangles at different higher pitches - an octave, a fifth, a fourth, a third - then you create your own waveforms and timbres. This takes a great deal of experimentation, but in the end you have tones that sound very natural and acoustic, like woodwinds and reeds in an orchestra or on a pipe organ.

With only two or three oscillators, it's nearly impossible to do this - to design your own sounds - except those that are typically synthesizer-ish. The truth is, I could put ten oscillators to good use, but I'd be happy with only five or six.