Moog Music Forum

So yeah.. couldn't find comparisons online anywhere. I mean there are dozens of discussions on LP vs Voyager, and that's great.. but say you have both filters open and same ENV settings, raw SAWs and so on.. are there differences in sound?
I owned 2 Voyagers, never had an LP to compare them to though.
I'm sure there are some cats in here who own both, I'd very much appreciate your 2cents.

regards

I have owned both. I would say that the LP has sound that is more rough, or more aggressive than the Voyager. Perhaps less refined.

The discussion is in full effect here:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electron ... w-osc.html

Wow, our forum got one reply. Feeling a little ashamed of our forum right now... If I had both a voyager and LP I'd be able to contribute but sadly I only have a Voyager.

LivePsy wrote:Wow, our forum got one reply. Feeling a little ashamed of our forum right now... If I had both a voyager and LP I'd be able to contribute but sadly I only have a Voyager.

Don't the original Tribute, Stages, and Slim's all have slightly different sounds? Not sure if I've read that the filter was slightly different or something else. Anyway, I have an Old School and a Tribute if that's worth anything. Maybe this coming weekend, I'll put together an A/B and post it. It's father's day weekend so I can simply say that "All I want for Father's day is to bang on my drum all day... I mean Moog synths..."

EMwhite wrote: Don't the original Tribute, Stages, and Slim's all have slightly different sounds? Not sure if I've read that the filter was slightly different or something else. Anyway, I have an Old School and a Tribute if that's worth anything.

Different sounds as in different patches, I'm sure.. The Voyager has a dual filter that is a fact. The LP and SP a single filter with overdrive (I also suspect it's a slightly different architecture altogether). However my conclusion regarding the raw oscillators was this:

"In conclusion, my personal "research" into the subject and A/B'ing the LP to the Voyager showed the oscillators to be nearly identical, nearly since I did not have an oscilloscope for precise measurement and the simple fact that no 2 stand-alone oscillators sound the same being always on and in different phases to each other (don't remember the term).
The LP (or SP in my case) turned out to be a keeper..."

I really like the SP as a bass synth, the Voyager is infinitely more capable as a sound synthesis mothership and a performance instrument, but all I needed were 2 Moog oscillators in a nice package for the studio.. and the SP delivers.

I agree, the sound of a fixed osc tone can all be shown in an oscilloscope. A saw wave with slow reset or a bump in the ramp slope affects the sound. In which case the Voyager saw fails miserably - slow reset and not a straight line. The square also has slow edges which indicates that something is doing a low pass filter on the osc waves. Perhaps the digital noise from other parts needed to be eliminated or perhaps the continuous wave control affects it. I am surprised that an engineer like Bob didn't obsess over ensuring the waveform shapes were perfect. So its useful to know the waveforms are nearly identical on Voyager and Phatty.

However, your next question is... Voyager filter vs LP Filter I'm confused because all the phatty's proudly boast overdrive in the filter, but Voyager User Manual states on page 18

When the levels of the oscillators are set high, the output from the Mixer gently overdrives the Filter section. This was one of the important features in the original minimoog that gave it its characteristic “fat” sound.

I have never seen anything in the waveforms showing that the filter overdrives with high settings in the mixer. Does anyone get overdrive in the filter this way?

LivePsy wrote:I agree, the sound of a fixed osc tone can all be shown in an oscilloscope. A saw wave with slow reset or a bump in the ramp slope affects the sound. In which case the Voyager saw fails miserably - slow reset and not a straight line. The square also has slow edges which indicates that something is doing a low pass filter on the osc waves. Perhaps the digital noise from other parts needed to be eliminated or perhaps the continuous wave control affects it. I am surprised that an engineer like Bob didn't obsess over ensuring the waveform shapes were perfect. So its useful to know the waveforms are nearly identical on Voyager and Phatty.

However, your next question is... Voyager filter vs LP Filter I'm confused because all the phatty's proudly boast overdrive in the filter, but Voyager User Manual states on page 18

When the levels of the oscillators are set high, the output from the Mixer gently overdrives the Filter section. This was one of the important features in the original minimoog that gave it its characteristic “fat” sound.

I have never seen anything in the waveforms showing that the filter overdrives with high settings in the mixer. Does anyone get overdrive in the filter this way?

I'm not really impressed with the feedback/overdrive function on the LP, sounds too clipped too fast and nasal (but not nasal in a Model D way) to me, in fact if I wanted overdrive with the LP I would probably slap the MF101 on the output, but I'm not a huge fan of OD on Bass (which is what I'm using the SP for).
On the Voyager my guess would be they've meant a lack of limiting when 2 or more oscillators are summed at their max levels. perhaps even natural peaks when waves align.

With all 3 oscs on saw and maximum level at the mixer, filters wide open, vcas full on: It looks exactly like 3 saws going in and out of phase with even the highest peaks. The Voyager is supposed to be designed for overdrive *in* the filter although it carefully states "the filter section" so it might just clip before the transistor ladder. I could do that with a distortion box inserted.

I suspect the overdrive with the phattys is a bit of marketing so people don't see the phatty as half a voyager The claims in the Voyager manual aren't entirely truthful either.