Moog Music Forum

First, the setup:

I have Voyager OS #479 as my primary instrument in my rig. I run my dual low pass filter Spacing at +1. This is not so much to generate a stereo effect (but it does mean that hand sweeping the filter significantly does have an associated panning effect) but to get what I perceive as a richness to the sound, and to spread the high resonance peaks. I currently cable stereo left and right outputs separately through my rig's mixer.

Then a fundamental (and possibly stupid) question:

I'm not imagining the high Q effect, right? Each of the two lowpass filters would be resonating at their own cutoff frequency?

Now on to the stereo issues:

What happens if I use just the left/mono output from the OS? Does that truly sum the left/right signals as if I'd taken a right and left output and summed them in a mixer, or does it make the Spacing irrelevant?

And finally, effects:

I'm considering adding effects, such as the MF108 and a ring modulator. It seems like there could be a significant difference between using the OS's effect insert loop (pre-filter) and applying effects to the post-filter output. Can anyone fill me in on what to expect from that point of view? (That's the motivation for the previous question, since I don't know of any boxes that apply effects to separate left/right inputs, so I'd have to sum the left/right signal either internally or between the OS and the effects boxes.)

The SPACING is not the panoramic spacing, but the spacing of the filter's cutoff frequencies.
So you may use the mono output. But you would loose the (panoramic) stereo impression you get from the slightly different filter cutoffs.
It does sound different in stereo, if each filter is panned hard left or right, then having both summed and mixed to the center.

So looking at the block diagram again, the big issue with using the effects insert is that it is not only pre-filter, but pre-envelopes and therefore affected by the keyboard gate and ADSR.

Is anyone using the effects insert, or are you all chaining the effects after the summed mono output?

Depends.
I use Chorus, Phaser, Delay, Reverb after the mono sum output (but i like the voyager most when it's 'clean').
Overdrive, EQ, Exciter etc can also be used in the insert loop.

Most effects don't make the sound of the voyager "better", instead many pedals are often sucking tone. But they can add an indiviudal charakter to your sound.

Iamthesky wrote:So looking at the block diagram again, the big issue with using the effects insert is that it is not only pre-filter, but pre-envelopes and therefore affected by the keyboard gate and ADSR.?

I dont see it as an issue. It's great for changing the sound of the oscillators with out affecting envelope shapes or ther sound of the filter.
Why would you need it to be post filter/envelopes ? Wouldn't that be just the same as connecting the Voyager output to your effects input or using a send on your mixer/DAW ?

Iamthesky wrote: Is anyone using the effects insert, or are you all chaining the effects after the summed mono output?

I do both depending on what I'm trying to achieve, but I rarely use the summed mono output. I usually either have a dummy jack in the right output so that it's not summed- just the left channel in mono or I'll use both outs for stereo.