Moog Music Forum

I was wondering how stable the Voyager is tuning wise? Does it go out of tune easy? I noticed that you have to manually tune it...which is no big deal. However, once it warms up and you tune it once...does it stay in tune or do you have to keep tuning it?

After a minute or so of warming up, it should be as solid as a rock. Tune it after it has warmed up if it needs it, it may be off by a few semitones. Such is the nature of analog.

OysterRock wrote:... off by a few semitones ...

I think it is off by a few cents. Not by semitones !

The Voyager warms up faster then my Minimoog with the so called new oscillator board.
And the Voyager is not that much pitch drifting on temperature changes as the Alesis Andromeda with switched of automatic temperture adjustment.

till wrote: I think it is off by a few cents. Not by semitones !

Oops! Yes, that's what I meant. Thanks.
You'd be in trouble if it was off by a few semitones.

All analog synths need a warm up period before the components on the oscillator board stabilize. Not only does the Voyager warm up the quickest of any of my analogs, it is really stable. It's been gigged in clubs with no problems, I never touch the tuning throughout the gig.

Which leads me to another question:
Since the Voyager doesn't have an onboard 440Hz tuning tone, how do you guys tune your unit? By ear against a digital synth or do you use some kind of tuning device like the nifty Korg tuners?

Onboard 440hz tuning tones are so 1960s.

Back then musicians didn't have digital synths to tune by ear or compact tuners. Back then VCO design had yet to advance to today's temperature compensated designs and thus they drifted very frequently, hence the necessity of the onboard 440hz tone.

I seldom had to touch up the tuning when carting the Voyager between gigs.

I use a digital synth to tune mine. I'll select an Init with a single osc. and tune to that. Rarely does my Voyager need tuning. It seems to hold pretty steady day in and day out. But once in awhile it will be off ever so slightly.

I tune mine to my out of tune Rhodes. Works like a charm!
It all relative, right?

It all relative, right?

Once it warmed up a few minutes, the pitch is just were it was when it was shut-off. So no need to retune here at home at all. But if you are at a freiends place or on a gig, you might need to tune it to the other instruments anyway. So not a big deal at all. And way better then all my other analogue synths here.

I think the Voyager is to stable. I think that’s why my Model D with two VCO's beats the Voyager using 3 VCO. I guess vintage analogue sizers are like fine vine... they need to mature.

Regards
Demokid

Demokid wrote:I think the Voyager is to stable. I think that’s why my Model D with two VCO's beats the Voyager using 3 VCO. I guess vintage analogue sizers are like fine vine... they need to mature.

Route smoothed S&H modulation to one of the VCOs and presto! Vintage drift and instant fine wine

MC wrote:

Demokid wrote:I think the Voyager is to stable. I think that’s why my Model D with two VCO's beats the Voyager using 3 VCO. I guess vintage analogue sizers are like fine vine... they need to mature.

Route smoothed S&H modulation to one of the VCOs and presto! Vintage drift and instant fine wine

I usually do that with my Andromeda who also is a bit to stable even with Temp/Back ground tune off. The A6 has 3 LFO's and 1 S&H so I route one of the LFO’s with a slow sine to one of the VCO’s. I also route keyboard track (only 0.02) to a VCO so it change pitch slightly higher up on the keyboard.
The problem is that the Voyager only has one LFO… I usually want to use the LFO/S&H to something else.

Regards
Demokid

I suppose it would be excessive to get a CP-251 just so you could use its smooth S&H and noise (blended to subtle perfection in the CV mixer) to add vintage tuning grit to your Voyager via the CV inputs...

but then again once you had a CP-251 I'm sure you could find additional uses for it!