Guitar Distortion with Voyager

[Joog]

Hi. I'm a keyboard player who also tends to solo a lot in my group and as its been stated previously, the Voyager isn't as harsh sounding as its older, less common, less reliable sibling. For some this is a plus, and I have very little presence during my solos. I managed to solve this buy buying an MXR Micro Amp and it does the volume boost thing beautifully, but I also bought an EH Big Muff Pi NYC USA Reissue just to fuzz the tone and I was surprised, as someone who sees what they do to guitars, to see that it can't get that loud with the Voyager! I'm going to be returning it for in store credit, but I still want a distortion and have heard good things about the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde. Can anybody tell me if the J&H doesn't lose gain with the Voyager like a Big Muff, and if it does, could they reccommend me an alternate pedal that also grants positive gain?

[Qwave]

Klaus Schulze played most Minimoog solos with a TC fuzz box connected to his Minimoog. He started doing so on the rare and discontinoued "Aphrica" LP (and CD bootleg) in the mid 80ies.

[goldphinga]

somethings not right there. the voyager cuts thru great for me. its either the amp or p.a. or engineer thats letting u down not the voyager.

[GregAE]

Sounds like a job for an effects processor that emulates a guitar/amp combination. There are a number of these available, and the ones I've used include the Line 6 POD and Korg AX10G, but my favorite is the Boss VF1.

I'd suggest taking your Vger to your local music store and auditioning all the effects devices you can. Any respectable store should allow you to do this, as you are a potential purchaser. Go on a weekday if you can, to avoid the noise and crowds of the weekend.

My two cents.

G

[Joog]

Well, I play through a friends v-amp, and while it sounds good, it just sounds like a processed guitar. Is the TC fuzz box still in production? Is it analog? and if not, is there anything replicating it on the market today?

[hieronymous]

Hi. I'm a keyboard player who also tends to solo a lot in my group and as its been stated previously, the Voyager isn't as harsh sounding as its older, less common, less reliable sibling. For some this is a plus, and I have very little presence during my solos. I managed to solve this buy buying an MXR Micro Amp and it does the volume boost thing beautifully, but I also bought an EH Big Muff Pi NYC USA Reissue just to fuzz the tone and I was surprised, as someone who sees what they do to guitars, to see that it can't get that loud with the Voyager! I'm going to be returning it for in store credit, but I still want a distortion and have heard good things about the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde. Can anybody tell me if the J&H doesn't lose gain with the Voyager like a Big Muff, and if it does, could they reccommend me an alternate pedal that also grants positive gain?

I've got a couple of questions for you: What do you mean when you say the Big Muff Pi "can't get that loud with the Voyager"? Do you mean that the output volume is low or no louder than the regular signal, or do you mean that it doesn't distort the signal very much? I guess it's all one question really - do mean gain at the input stage (resulting in more distortion), or gain at the output stage (meaning louder overall volume)?

I have a Rogue and a Micromoog, and have run them through various distortion pedals, including the Buddha Phat Bass, Prunes & Custard, and Fulltone Bass Drive. The only one I noticed input gain issues with was the Prunes & Custartd - neither cranking the gain on the pedal or the output of the Rogue brought about the modulation effects that occur with a bass (I guess I should point out I'm a bassist, but I use a lot of distortion ). Actually, in general I find that distortion doesn't produce as pronounced an effect as with a guitar or bass - I can definitely get sizzle, but I can get a similar effect by using the square wave setting on the Rogue...

Slightly off topic, but it should also be pointed out that regular guitar distortion pedals will often cut out the bass frequencies - not such a problem with guitar, but definitely a problem with bass, which is why recently a lot of distortions specifically for bass have come out- besides the Phat Bass and the Bass Drive I mentioned above, there's also the ZVex Woolly Mammoth, which is a full-on fuzz pedal, and pedals that either allow you to blend the clean signal with the distorted signal (like the Black Cat Bass Octave Fuzz, which I'm not sure I would recommend for a Moog), or the Hao Rust Ride, which gives separate outputs - direct and effected. This might be something to take into account when using it with a Moog, though for leads it may not be such an important issue.

Hope this helps!

[LWG]

Actually, in general I find that distortion doesn't produce as pronounced an effect as with a guitar or bass - I can definitely get sizzle, but I can get a similar effect by using the square wave setting on the Rogue...

Hello,

I agree with the above in that if you wish to introduce more harshness into
your sound, the synths internal resources can be quite effective.
Adding inharmonic elements to your tone can be accomplished with ring mod, filter mod, fm, am, using noise as a mod source and other techniques.
I tend to be minimalist in this regard, adding externals only if necessary.
Where do you position the devices you describe in your post? After the main out? Pre filter?


Regards,


LWG

[tunedLow]

You might checkout the Sherman filterbank. Cool device, but pricey - less than the voyager, though