Moog Music Forum

Which value corresponds to a clean saw wave on the Voyager?

Because of the analogue circuits it might not be the same value on all Voyagers out in the fields. So you should trust your ear.
I don't care if its the best saw possible I get as long as the sound I made is right to me. And there is not perfect saw tooth shaped wave on a analogue synth. Which is not a minus, but part of the different overall sound of a single real analogue oscillator compared to a single digital DSP one (which are more close to a perfect saw tooth shape).
And clean means without character on synths. And I bought the Voyager for its user interface and its imperfect sound that made a Minimoog differ from other monophonic synths. A clean oscillator and a clean filter are just boring dead to me. And some VSTi and some digital DSP synths sound just as dead.

If you dial up VCO3 as a real slow LFO modulating the pitch, you can tweak the waveshape until you hear a clean ramp.

MC.

That strange. As a LFO, VCO 3 doesn't make a smooth ramp at all when using the triangle wave. It does a hiccup near the top of the wave on the way down. I contacted moog about this and they said that was normal.

If by 'clean saw' you mean the proper shape of the sawtooth wave, you'll probably find it around the value 88-90 on the Wave knob. Due to the analog nature of the circuitry, the exact value will vary from Voyager to Voyager, and probably also vary between the oscillators in your own machine.

Using an oscilloscope program on your computer (or a real oscilloscope!) to view the wave may be the best way to satisfy your curiousity.

Yes that is normal. The Voyager triangle includes a "notch" in the top peak of the waveform - the old 901 VCO module had this. In the audio domain that "notch" adds some "squeal" to the sound - I heard a 901 in person and they are one fat sounding VCO. The 901s were revered for their sonority, so the Voyager VCO was modeled after them.

That's cool. I'm glad that you told me this.

Link to the 901 VCO:

http://modularmoog2.monsite.wanadoo.fr/page5.html