Moog Music Forum

I am an owner of both a Prodigy & a Voyager OS and the Prodigy can get grittier than the Voyager. I have A/B'd the hell out of the two and I gotta say, when it comes to that raw buzzy saw sound, I'm going to reach for the Prodigy first. The Voyager is great for lush, full pads & searing leads, as well as complex modulations, but lacks in grit and balls (don't flame war this, it's merely in comparison). I have not played a Sub Phatty yet, but I'd suggest that or the Little/Slim Phatty first. I sold my LP to fund the voyager and I'm planning on buying a Slim just so I can get that dirty sound again!

Maybe the feedback loop trick can be useful then. I've never tried it but if I remember correct, a grittier sound can be achieved.

Strange nobody has suggested the Minibrute !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh7bGiC8ogs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X614aeTzq7k

fyvewytches wrote:Strange nobody has suggested the Minibrute !

Maybe because we're on the Moog forum ?

Nah, just kidding.

I had thought of suggesting it, but since the OP wanted an alternative to a Prodigy, which has two oscillators, I thought the Sub Phatty might be more closely related. Although the MiniBrute is certainly a serious contender for gritty, buzzy and bold sounds.

Get a Prodigy in decent shape. Or get a good deal on one and have a good tech fix it up for you. In x number of years you can get what you paid for it and then some. No nonsense, just basic Moog. I'm sure you've seen the retrosynth video (it's on the page of vintagesynthexplorer; am sure you've been there).

You can get a Phatty or something else more modern but they are a dime a thousand, you can always buy one later when they come up used at a good price. If you own a Prodigy, play it for a while, then goto a Guitar Center and try out a *Phatty, you can find out if you really are missing anything or if it's really the sound that you want.

Don't be afraid of NOT having Midi. You can do so much just with the hands on controls and a Midi->CV converter is cheap (Mutable Instruments is about to release one for about 40 Euro and it will work with iPad!).

Pay market price for a Prodigy and find that you really did want all of the new fancy features, you can always sell it, and quickly. They don't stay around very long. Just one opinion...

https://soundcloud.com/vacancy-of-disco ... voyager-sc
here you go. i started just by going through the raw wave shapes of the first VCO and then played around with FM from VCO 3 to the filter and waveshape and added in VCO 2
the breack in the middle was me unplugging the right audio out and routing it into the external in for a feedback loop. no fancy playing just sort of turning knobs and showing how crazy it can get.

If you want a vintage Moog sound, get a vintage Moog. I don't think the Prodigy is worth the 800-1000 range people ask for though.

Good advice from EMwhite.

It's hard to depict the sound of a synth with a single word. I like the word vintage as it is so inclusive yet appropriate, but to be more specific, I would say :

the Voyager is juicy, the Prodigy is organic, the model D is gritty.

The Prodigy is one of my favorites because of its organicity, but it is not the best appointed synth and lack a few important things (like noise and a LED for LFO). One Moog that has not been talked about so far is the MG-1, a terrific little machine, heavy on sound. Sound totally fat, very good filter, paraphonic, noise, ringmod-like Bell tone, auto-droning, S&H, sound input, pitch and gate CV's. What more can you wish for? Most of them have had the foam removed by now and RCA's replaced with standard jacks. Easy to mod, this MG-1 has half a dozen mod, from most wanted to outright crazy.



But again, a vintage moog is a waste of time and money if you can't maintain it (or have a good tech nearby). Other than that, MG-1 is the best Moog bang for the buck.

I agree with Portamental. Actually my very first analog synth was a Moog MG-1 (okay okay, a Realistic MG-1 ). I had paid a very low price second hand, but never regretted it ! I'm surprised I didn't think of suggesting it before. It's a great Moog for not a lot of money even today !

Mind you: in France, they stalk sellers and propose to buy them for up to 1000 euros...

Portamental, if I recall correctly, you have one or more Micromoogs.

Why would you not suggest a Micromoog?

Thanks for all the info everyone. I;m excited to listen to those voyager demos when I get back!

armillary wrote:Portamental, if I recall correctly, you have one or more Micromoogs.

Why would you not suggest a Micromoog?

Yes I do have a micro. I overlooked the Micro a while back, when I was shopping synths by specifications instead of by ears. Finally, I went for one and I am glad I did. Very capable machine for a one osc synth but also very odd in many ways. It's morphable waveforms are the most peculiar of any Moog synth. Plug yours on an oscillator and try to make a reasonnable square wave... but remember... life is short. I does sound good and square though. Very good for brass sounds.

Hard to find, hard to keep in shape are the main points against it. Pitch ribbon can act jittery, keyboard is prone to develop double triggering as it gets older or simply dirty. At one osc, you can't make your typical Osc + one fifth sound...etc.

On the plus side, the accessory will provide a full 15 volts to the 1130 drum controller (model D will provide only 10) for more range. Good interfacing capabilities, open system as the micro manual calls it.

Anyway, in a nutshell : micro is nice but not mainstream enough.

hm, for some reason the sound cloud sample isn't playing any sound. I'll have to try again later

ColorForm2113 wrote:https://soundcloud.com/vacancy-of-disco ... voyager-sc
here you go. i started just by going through the raw wave shapes of the first VCO and then played around with FM from VCO 3 to the filter and waveshape and added in VCO 2
the breack in the middle was me unplugging the right audio out and routing it into the external in for a feedback loop. no fancy playing just sort of turning knobs and showing how crazy it can get.

dtirer wrote:hm, for some reason the sound cloud sample isn't playing any sound. I'll have to try again later

ColorForm2113 wrote:https://soundcloud.com/vacancy-of-disco ... voyager-sc
here you go. i started just by going through the raw wave shapes of the first VCO and then played around with FM from VCO 3 to the filter and waveshape and added in VCO 2
the breack in the middle was me unplugging the right audio out and routing it into the external in for a feedback loop. no fancy playing just sort of turning knobs and showing how crazy it can get.

oh! so it isnt...that was my first time uploading straight from ableton so i probably did something wrong. ill try again soon.