Moog Music Forum

Hello everyone,

I’m interested in trying to attain / create some sort of polyphonic synthesizer by combining my Moog synths.
I have the following Moogs : Voyager performer w/ VX351, Sub37 tribute, Minitaur, Little Phatty stage 2 w/ CV outs and a Subsequent 37 CV.

Is it possible to link these together in some way to produce some sort of combined polyphonic synth ?

If it is possible, what could I expect to achieve and what would the limitations of doing so.
I’m guessing that I’ll need a mixer too, luckily I have a Soundcraft MTK 22 at hand.
Also to the mix I can add my Moogerfoogers (all) and the CP251.

I’m disabled after a tragic incident in my life, producing music is now one of my few remaining pleasures.

Any help and guidance in their configuration and setup would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hey there.
Sad to read about your condition. Let's try to figure out how to do that.

As far as I know, the LP and Minitaur support polychaining, meaning until 16 units can be chained to achieve polyphony. Not sure about the Voyager, even less about more recent models. But a quick look at the manuals or even the forum here will tell you.

You basicaly have to set up each unit as the n-th voice, and the rest is done by the OS. This is theory Sometimes the voices disappear (I'm talking about LP and Slim Phatty here). But all in all, it's worth a try. You'll need a mixer, indeed.

What you'll end up with is some synth with possibly different sounds per voice, which is not achievable with the next door poly synth. Not conventional

Hope this helps!

Thank you for your input.
I’ll certainly go through the manuals and forum to see what I can find.

The main concern is the inclusion of the Minitaur and its limited note range ability.

Many thanks

First, I am sorry to learn of your accident. However, I can offer my personal solution for polyphony w/mono synths. I use a digital Roland D-50 with an Encore Expressionist, which can control any mono synth with a CV in and trigger input. I lack a Multi Moog, but use my MICROMoog, Arp Axxe, Roland SH09 and '79 MiniMoog with the magnificent ENCORE EXPRESSIONIST which is capable of controlling up to eight different mono synths from one MIDI keyboard. The device is amazing and even includes a super slow portamento. Be prepared for having cables laying everywhere, but its way fun to drive them all from one keyboard.
Personally, I think of your Minitaur issue as being minimal, because with the Encore Expressionist you would simply assign it to a low range on your MIDI keyboard of choice.
I think of this device as being somewhat superior to a poly synth as you could assign each voice to a different amplifier. Having quadraphonic sound, and potentially more, only adds to the fun factor.
On You Tube, a video exists with a guy driving four Behringer Model D's s from the Expressionist. Your personal synth array would even sound better.
Best of luck!

Many thanks for your informative response !

I’ve never heard of the Encore Expresionist, I’ll certainly be looking into obtaining one of those.
I had thought I was limited to just using the Moogs for polychaining into a polyphonic synthesizer, but the Encore Expressionist sounds like I can use my other synths from various manufacturers.

This is a great forum and I’m proud to be a member, friendly informative advise from lovely people .

Thank you for all the great advice!

Hey Captainflint,

Sorry to hear about the challenges, but happy to hear that you are channeling energy into music making. When I put a hold on gigging due to tendonitus issues for a couple of years, I put more effort into composing. Anyway, I'm not sure if it fits the bill, or if control voltage standards have changed over the years, but you might investigate the old Roland MPU 101. It can output four sets of gates and control voltages, etc. I used one to play two actual Multimoogs (1979? synths) through midi. I could play them as a big mono synth, play them polyphonically, or assign them to separate midi channels. I see them going for about $400 on EBay.

Hi
Thanks for the information regarding polyphonic polychain. Great idea
I’ll keep a look out on eBay for the Roland.
Many thanks!
Cheers
Captainflint

Captainflint wrote:Hi
Thanks for the information regarding polyphonic polychain. Great idea
I’ll keep a look out on eBay for the Roland.
Many thanks!
Cheers
Captainflint

also Volta and Silent way are 2 CV programs for computer. I believe you have to have a MOTU interface for Volta (not sure about silent way), but the control possibilities are endless. I know Volta has polyphony, silent way probably does as well. Might be the cheapest solution that you know works with so many synths, as long as you don't mind using a computer.