Another Voyager question of a different sort.

[RABid]

I have been looking at modulars and giving it a thought but want to start cheap, or at least with an affordable packing that can be expanded. Something caused me to check the new MiniMoog Voyager. By the web site it seems to have a few controller outs and ins for cv connection but I am not sure how useful it would be as a base for a modular system. Any ideas or thoughts from those here that have seen it up close, or have studied the concept of a Voyager based modular system?

 

Robert

[coyote]

Have you checked out the Nord Modular? Granted it's VA, but you can get a fully modular system with patches you create on a computer instead of cables. And it's much less expensive than the Voyager - it sells for less than $1500 US. If money's a real issue you can get the Nord micro Modular for about $500. Seems like a good starting point - and you can always add a Voyager later on lol

 

Originally posted by Rabid:

I have been looking at modulars and giving it a thought but want to start cheap, or at least with an affordable packing that can be expanded.

Robert

[RABid]

Got it. Like it. But it just does not quite sound the same. There is something about analog oscillators playing off one another has not yet been duplicated in the digital world.

[joegerardi]

I'm not familiar enough with the Voyager to give an opinion on that, but if you're looking for an inexpensive modular analog...

 

http://www.paia.com/p9700s.htm

 

http://www.paia.com/p9700s01.jpg

 

$450.00, with a CV to MIDI interface built in.

 

..Joe

[Tusker]

Robert:

 

I've wondered the same thing. He's got a pretty comprehensive set of in's and outs as you said.

 

The control in's are:

 

LFO RATE

MODULATION SHAPING CONTROL

MODULATION SOURCE CONTROL

OSCILLATOR PITCH

OSCILLATOR WAVE

FILTER CUTOFF

FILTER SPACING

FILTER RESONANCE

ENVELOPES RATE

CONTROL OUTPUTS

 

The control outs are:

 

LFO TRIANGLE WAVE

LFO SQUARE WAVE

KEYBOARD PITCH

KEYBOARD VELOCITY

KEYBOARD PRESSURE

 

Additionally there are gates for LFO, Keyboard, and Envelopes, which implies you could fire the Voyager's LFOs and envelopes from external sources or use the keyboard gate to trigger other modules.

 

Some things are missing such as detailed access to the oscillator module (e.g. hard sync in, pulsewidth in, oscillator audio outs). Still you could buy fully featured oscillator modules and fire them from the Voyager I assume. So even with no further development from Big Briar there are things one could do with modules from other manufacturers. The moogerfoogers would work with Voyager very well from a CV standpoint, but it would be easier if there was a physical patch bay and common power supply.

 

There's a community called Analog Heaven. The question of expanding from Voyager to a Big Briar Modular has been raised there a couple of times. You could do a search at:

 

http://www.midiwall.com/archives/search.cgi

 

Mark Pulver is in that community, and appears to be knowledgeable about what Bob is thinking. Post Namm, all Mark would say to the "what's next" question is (I am quoting cause I don't seem to be able to link to it):

 

"There's a lot that Bob wants to do and the Voyager is actually the cornerstone of it. With the delays in the delivery schedule, I don't know if his thoughts along these lines have changed or not, so it's not really safe to comment on them at this point."

 

Hope this helps,

 

Jerry

 

[ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: Tusker ]

[RABid]

Thanks Jerry. This is the type of information I am looking for. It triggered when I saw the comment on the Big Briar site that Voyager could be interfaces with the Moogerfooger line for an expanded system. Without separate oscillator sound outputs it will be hard to utilize something like the ring modulator. But, just having control voltage out from the keyboard and LFO is a good start. Better if you can use it as a midi cv unit at the same time.

 

Robert