Velocity keyboard on Voyager?

jakins · Post by **jakins** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:17 pm

I'm confused. The MIDI implementation chart says that our Voyager sends and recieves velocity. I can get different velocity levels when I record MIDI, but the Voyager is not responding to different velocity levels. Can anyone explain this? No change.

Joseph

till · Post by **till** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:42 pm

Have you set up a patch that is actually doing something with the velocity ?
There is no preset velocity routing on all the factory patches.

jakins · Post by **jakins** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:11 pm

No I have not. How do you do that? Could you give me an example? Are you saying that you can have the keyboard respond to velocity if you set it up? To change loudness?

Joseph

till · Post by **till** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:03 pm

You might do so by setting up a pot map that sends the (Attack) Velocity (not the Release Velocity) to the Volume.
But you will notice that the volume of the note still audible in a longer release stage will be changing it volume to fast when a new note is triggered. So you might hear nasty pos due to fast switching to the new volume level.
There is no way to control the volume of all oscillators and the noise in one go from the modulation busses.
But controlling the filter will change the volume in most normal usages of the filter too. Or just control one oscillator or noise by velocity from the mod bus.
And if you use two mod busses controlling two different oscillators levels by velocity, you get nearly what you are looking for.

I rather use a pedal for volume then velocity. But maybe I am just not that trained to use velocity. And there are not that many other monosynths with keyboard able to react on velocity and aftertouch. And if you use the touch surface and two pedals, you have way more articulation possibilities then fingers and feet can controlled by an average keyboard player.

MC · Post by MC » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:44 pm

Map velocity to filter cutoff. It is much more useful and expressive than mapping to volume.

For wacky hard sync sounds, map velocity to VCO2 frequency.

jakins · Post by **jakins** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:11 pm

And if you use two mod busses controlling two different oscillators levels by velocity, you get nearly what you are looking for.

What would you set the source of the busses to? On/MOD 1-2 input?

Map velocity to filter cutoff. It is much more useful and expressive than mapping to volume.

Are you saying to do this with the Modulation Buss like Till? Could you please be more specific about how to do it?

Thanks!!! - Joseph

till · Post by **till** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:12 pm

What would you set the source of the busses to? On/MOD 1-2 input?

Yes !

From the manual:
"-ON/MOD2: with nothing plugged into the MOD2 jack, this is a steady +5 V signal.
The MOD2 input is for using external CVs as a Modulation source."
and
"MOD 1:
The MOD1 input accepts an expression pedal or control voltage from 0 to 5 Volts.
This is used as the performance control for the PEDAL/ON Mod Bus. With nothing
plugged into this jack, the voltage here is 5 Volts. When the voltage is at 0, no
modulation is sent to the PEDAL/ON Modulation Destination. When the Voltage at
the MOD1 is at 5 Volts, the Modulation is sent to the Destination at the level set by the PEDAL/ON Amount control.
MOD2:
The MOD2 input is for applying an external modulation source into the MOD busses. The input accepts an Expression Pedal or a control voltage of –5 to +5. With nothing plugged into this jack, the voltage here is 5 Volts. When the SOURCE switch selects ON/ MOD2, the Voltage that is at this jack becomes the Modulation source."

Are you saying to do this with the Modulation Buss like Till? Could you please be more specific about how to do it?

Yes. Except this one:

You might do so by setting up a pot map that sends the (Attack) Velocity (not the Release Velocity) to the Volume.

To use velocity on the filter do so:
MOD Bus 2:
Source: ON/MOD 2
Desination: FILTER
Shaper: VELOCITY
Amount: adjust to taste and playing style

That's all it takes !

If you would like to add some noise by velocity, you have to set the Destination to PGM. And then select NOISE LVL in the EDIT menu named "PGM Pedal Dest.".

These modulation destination are available there too:
LFO Rate, Filt. Res., Filt. Spacing, Pan, Osc 1 Lvl, Osc 2 Lvl, Osc 3 Lvl

So you have many possibilities. And by using both modulation busses, you get some real nice modulations and articulation possibilities.

That and the famous sound are the reasons to by a Moog Voyager.

jakins · Post by **jakins** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:33 pm

Awesome! Thanks. However, I'm trying to understand the On/MOD 1 and 2 as sources for the modulation busses. The manual is a little confusing for me.

I think I have it. Does this sound right?

1) if you plug an expression pedal into MOD 1 input, it acts as the modulation wheel for the Pedal/On bus. It will also act as the source for the MOD Wheel bus if the source knob is set to On/Mod 1. If you unplug the pedal, the Amount knob is like the modulation wheel for the Pedal/On bus and if the source for the Mod Wheel bus is set to On/Mod 1, you get a steady +5 voltage (I guess that is why they chose the word "on").

2) If you plug a pedal into Mod 2 input, it will act as the source for the Pedal/on bus if the Knob is set to On/Mod 2. If the pedal is unplugged and the knob is set to On/Mod 2, you get a steady +5 voltage. Do I have this right?

Also, do you know what is going on when you set "shaping" to "on"?

Thanks, Joseph

till · Post by **till** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:23 pm

jakins wrote:...
Also, do you know what is going on when you set "shaping" to "on"?

No shaping at all. So the modulation set from the source to the desiny is not altered by means of other sources (except the amount knob).
This is right settng for endless unaltered modultions.

1) not 100% (but I may be wrong on this without my Voyager next to me)

2) right !

Amos · Post by **Amos** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:52 pm

Regarding Mod 1 and Mod 2: This is exactly correct, EXCEPT:

there is a typo on the Voyager jack panel! The physical jack labeled "MOD1" is actually Mod 2 and behaves exactly as you described with the pedal bus; the jack which is labeled "MOD2" on the jack panel is actually MOD1 and behaves just as you described with the modwheel bus.

This typo was not noticed by anyone for almost a year; since then it has not been enough of an issue to pay the high tooling charges necessary to print a new panel. This is also why you may notice that the actual mod bus source switches both say "ON/Mod2" where the modwheel bus should say "ON/Mod1" instead. Functionally though, your description is exactly correct; you just have to know these quirks about the labeling.

-Amos

jakins · Post by **jakins** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:00 am

Wow! Thanks for the replies. I will have to check for the typos when I can get back to our Voyager (It is on the campus where I teach). However, I do believe the Mod Wheel bus on our Electric Blue has "On/Mod 1" as a selection for the source knob. I will reply after Christmas.

Happy Holidays! - Joseph