Voyager By Bob Moog

In this article:
Finishing The Voyager
Voyager By Bob Moog
The Anniversary Edition Version 2 OS Updates • Anniversary Edition • VX351 • CP251
The VX351 CV Expander Published in SOS November 2004
Putting Everything Together Print article : Close window
The CP251 Control
Reviews : Keyboard
Processor
Conclusions

Voyager OS Updates
pros Since the release of the Voyager analogue monosynth
These updates (from v1.5 to last year, Bob Moog's company have been busy
v2.3) make the Voyager the
instrument that was promised producing OS updates, special-edition versions, and
back in 2002. accessories. We bring you up to date with a look at
Flexible new 6, 12 and 18dB- the lot.
per-octave filter options from
the OS v1.5 revision.
The v2 OS adds four more
Gordon Reid
modulation busses that
address many of my biggest
complaints in the earlier It has been nearly two years since Bob Moog's Voyager first hit these shores,
revisions.
and it has been developing ever since. The operating system has now reached
Version 2 also adds
version 2.3, with the last four updates addressing almost all of the points that I
envelope triggering from
numerous sources... raised when I originally reviewed the instrument in SOS June 2003 (see www.
...and completes the MIDI soundonsound.com/sos/jun03/articles/moogvoyager.asp). There have also been
specification. two hardware additions to the family. The VX351 CV Expander is specifically a
cons Voyager expander, while the other, the Moogerfooger CP251 Control Processor,
Even OS v2.3 does not has wider application, but is nonetheless happy to act as a member of the clan.
address the pitch-bend
problems inherent in earlier
Voyagers.
In addition to all of these, there's also a
new version of the Voyager — the
The touch-screen still
exhibits errors. Anniversary Edition (pictured
throughout this review), which is a
Glide still does not affect the
filter cutoff frequency. limited edition that celebrates Bob
summary Moog's 50 years in the music business.
In fact, although it's cosmetically
For a while, it looked as if the
Voyager was at risk of different, the Anniversary's internals
becoming one of those are no different from the latest
permanently unfinished standard Voyagers being produced, so Photos: Mark Ewing
synthesizers. But with the we can treat it like the latest version of
latest revisions of the v2 OS,
the instrument. Given that the original review is now hopelessly out of date, I
everything is in place, and the
instrument takes on a new reckon that it's high time that we returned to the Voyager to see what the latest
lease of life. If you have a hardware, the changes in the operating system, and the add-on boxes mean for
Voyager, you must upgrade it. both new and existing users.
Voyager Anniversary

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Voyager By Bob Moog

Edition £1999
pros
Finishing The Voyager
A couple of significant
hardware faults in previous
models have been cured. You may recognise the table on the right — it's the list of future updates that
Like all Voyagers, it sounds were promised for the Voyager at the time of my original review. Happily, these
excellent. have now all been carried out, although some of them didn't happen until the
cons version 2 OS arrived, as you can see.
It still suffers from poor
aftertouch response.
Over the course of the past year, I've acquired my own Signature Edition, so I've
A couple of significant followed the Voyager through its various upgrades, even before the Anniversary
hardware faults in previous
models have not been cured. Edition arrived for review at SOS. So let's see what's changed...
The backlight whines.
summary One of the most annoying things about the original Voyager operating system
Despite a couple of
was the way the cursor buttons worked. When you pressed Up, the selection
unresolved niggles, the moved Down, and vice versa. I was delighted when this was corrected in OS
Voyager is an excellent- v1.5. What's more, OS v1.5 introduced numbering of each mode's menu items,
sounding synthesizer. And if which helped users to navigate the system. More significantly, it introduced
you are in the market for an scrolling of the '+' and '-' buttons, with acceleration if you held either button for a
analogue monosynth that will
turn heads, the Anniversary
few seconds. Other small but welcome improvements included the Voyager
Edition is probably the one for powering up in Panel Mode, and it remembering and returning to the sound you
you. were using before you switched off.
VX351 CV Expander
£150
pros VOYAGER UPDATE SCHEDULE STATUS IN VERSION 2 OS
(SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2004)
Adds useful functionality to
the Voyager. Hold -1/+1 buttons to scroll through values Done (OS v1.5)
Quarter-inch sockets. I like
quarter-inch sockets. Upgrade touch surface destinations Done (OS v1.5)

cons Add filter pole selection (12dB-per-octave) Done (OS v1.5)

The build quality of the Local control On/Off Done (OS v1.5)
sockets and knobs is a bit
suspect. MIDI In On/Off & MIDI Out On/Off Done (OS v2)
You must install a piggy- Receive MIDI CCs, Note On, velocity and aftertouch Done (OS v1.5)
back board.
Transmit MIDI CCs, aftertouch and pitch-bend Done (OS v2)
summary
I'm not keen on having to buy Receive MIDI Clock for LFO sync Done (OS v1.5)
what is simply a muscular
breakout box, but if you're
Send and receive single memory via SysEx Done (OS v1.5)
interested in using the Transpose MIDI output Done (OS v2)
synthesis potential of the
Voyager to the full, the Add filter envelope gate sources Done (OS v2)
manufacturers have seen to it
that there is no alternative. On Add amplitude envelope gate sources Done (OS v2)
the bright side, if you can Updates to modulation buss PGM shaping Done (OS v2)
forget the money issue, you
will be glad that you bought System Reset Done (OS v2)
one.
CP251 Control
Processor £190
OS version 1.5 also saw the arrival of MIDI Sync for the Voyager's internal LFO.
pros

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Voyager By Bob Moog
A cost-effective way to
obtain seven useful
synthesizer functions.
It complements the Voyager
well.
More quarter-inch sockets. I
like more quarter-inch sockets.
cons
The build quality is more
suspect than that of the
CP251; the review unit had
two dodgy jacks.
A VCA is not included.
It uses ±3V and ±5V inputs
and outputs, which can make
it tricky to connect it to other
manufacturers' equipment.
summary
The CP251 comprises a
reasonably priced selection of
modules and adds a useful
range of facilities to any
modular synth. Beware,
however, that it does not
handle the ±10V signals
generated by many modular
synthesizers.
information
Voyager Anniversary
Edition, £1999; Voyager
Performer Edition, £1799;
VX351, £149.99; CP251,
£189.99; CP/VX Expander
kit, £49.99. All prices
include VAT.
Turnkey +44 (0)20 7419
9999.
+44 (0)20 7379 0093.
Click here to email
www.turnkey.co.uk
www.moogmusic.com
Test Spec
Voyager OS versions
reviewed: v1.5, v2.0, v2.1,
v2.3 (version 2.4 — a minor
update — was posted on the
manufacturer's web site at the
very end of the review period,
but not in time to be
considered for this article).
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Of course, this is not MIDI Clock control of the LFO rate, which would be tricky to
implement using an analogue oscillator. Instead, it is 'hard sync' of the start point
of the LFO cycle, with seven options ranging from one 'sync' every two MIDI
Clock beats to one sync every quarter of a MIDI Clock beat.
Other upgrades in OS v1.5 included Local On/Off, Program Change On/Off, and
Merge, which merges incoming MIDI messages with those generated within the
synth, and then transmits the resulting stream from the MIDI Out. This revision
also received velocity and aftertouch over MIDI. But just as important as this was
the ability to Dump and Load single patches via SysEx. This made it possible for
the first time to save and restore individual sounds, and to build banks from
disparate combinations of existing sounds.
One of the biggest problems with the original Voyager was the hard-wiring of the
touch-screen to the filters' cutoff frequencies, spacing and resonance, and the
fact that the position memory applied only to the values sent to the modulation
busses, not to the filter destinations. Things improved in OS v1.5; the fixed
destinations were disconnected, and three of the touch-screen's degrees of
freedom (X-axis, Y-axis and Area) appeared to offer four independently
assignable parameters: Destination, MIDI CC transmitted, Direction (the 'polarity'
of the parameter) and Amount (the MIDI CC transmission didn't work under OS
v1.5, but this has now been attended to — more on this in a moment).
No fewer than 32 touch-screen destinations were added (see the table above),
but the Amount parameter was less flexible than you might think. This offered
just three options — 0 percent, 50 percent, and 100 percent — meaning that the
maximum amount of control exerted by X, Y or A was zero, half of the
destination's total variability, or 100 percent of the destination's total variability.
This improvement introduced a problem of its own, although it only affected
owners who used patches created on earlier OS revisions. When loaded into an
upgraded Voyager, pre-OS v1.5 patches lost their fixed touch-screen
destinations and ended up with random settings. These patches sounded correct
until you touched the screen, at which point strange things could happen. Not a
fundamental flaw, this nonetheless required a frustrating hour or two spent
reassigning the touch-screen parameters to get back to where you started.
Another problem concerned the new global touch-screen memory and
modulation buss touch-screen memory functions. These were supposed to
remember where your finger was the last time you touched the screen, and to
continue to apply the appropriate 'X' and 'Y' CVs to their destinations after you
removed it. I found it extremely difficult to remove my finger without shifting the
position of final contact slightly, so that the magnitude of the remembered CV
was always slightly more or less than I wanted it to be. But after a while, I began
to think that the fault was not mine alone, and a couple of tests showed that the
screen does not hold extreme values correctly; it substitutes values that are
closer to the 'centre' of the screen. This means that, in almost all cases, sounds
glitch slightly when you remove your finger from the screen, and glitch again
when you next touch it. If anything is going to be done about this, it still hadn't
Voyager By Bob Moog

happened following the OS v2.3 upgrade.

TOUCH-SCREEN AMPLIFIER MODULATION &

DESTINATIONS CONTROL
VCA attack.
SOURCES Glide rate.
VCA decay.
Oscillator 1 level. Keyboard pitch CV.
VCA release.
Oscillator 1 octave. LFO rate.
VCA sustain.
Oscillator 1 waveform. Mod wheel modulation
Volume.
buss amount.
Oscillator 2 frequency.
FILTERS Pedal/On modulation
Oscillator 2 level. buss amount.
Filter cutoff.
Oscillator 2 octave.
Filter keyboard
Oscillator 2 waveform. amount.

Oscillator 3 frequency. Filter resonance.

Oscillator 3 level. Filter spacing.

Oscillator 3 octave. Filter envelope

amount.
Oscillator 3 waveform.
Filter attack.
Noise level.
Filter decay.
External audio input
level. Filter sustain.
Filter release.

One OS v1.5 upgrade significantly expanded the sonic character of the

instrument. This was the long-awaited inclusion of 12dB-per-octave filters.
Indeed, the Voyager's manufacturers went two steps beyond their original
promise; the Voyager now offers 6, 12, 18 and 24dB-per-octave slopes
independently for both the high-pass and low-pass filters. This is no trivial
upgrade, and it allows you to sculpt sounds with characters reminiscent of many
other synthesizer manufacturers. I noted in last June's review how the Voyager's
high-pass/low-pass option lent itself to the creation of Korg-y and ARP-ish
timbres, but the new slopes take things further, making the Voyager a true sonic
chameleon.

Regrettably, the filters still lacked some features in OS v1.5, and these have not
yet been added in the current revision. Firstly, despite many users' requests, it
remains impossible to control and modulate the filters independently; you can't
sweep one and leave the other unaffected, or have one on the edge of self-
oscillation while the other exhibits zero resonance. Secondly, there's still no
option to place the filters in series in dual low-pass mode. And thirdly, there is still
the on-going problem, mentioned in my previous review, that Glide cannot be
made to affect the filter cutoff frequency.

One of the most interesting facilities promised by the Voyager's original sales
blurb was MIDI control over all the Voyager's programming parameters. This

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appeared in OS v1.5, with the synth responding to no fewer than 53 messages

that control almost all aspects of its sound. Transmission of continuous controller
information did not become possible until the version 2 OS arrived, but now that it
has, the Voyager has become a feast of MIDIness. You can transmit CCs from
the left-hand controller panel (pitch-bend and modulation), you can transmit
aftertouch, and you can send a CC from every front-panel control with the
exception of the fine-tune and headphone volume knobs. Even more excitingly,
you can now program the touch-screen to transmit the CCs of your choice on all
four degrees of freedom (X-position, Y-position, Area and Gate). This is no small
benefit, and opens up all manner of possibilities for innovative control of
instruments such as digital workstations that suffer from more limited control
capabilities.

Although more subtle, other MIDI updates in OS2.x are just as useful. These
include MIDI In On/Off, MIDI Out On/Off, programmable SysEx ID (which allows
you to control more than one Voyager over MIDI simultaneously), the ability to
dump any patch via SysEx, and three velocity curves for the output MIDI velocity.
Another improvement that I've been requesting since the Voyager appeared
involves MIDI Key Transpose. To their credit, the Voyager's programmers have
surpassed themselves here, implementing not one, but two Transpose functions:
keyboard transpose (which affects the note emitted by the Voyager itself when
you play it from its own keyboard) and MIDI Key Transpose (which affects the
MIDI Note Numbers transmitted when you play the Voyager keyboard). Among
other things, this means that you can now use the Voyager to program or play
rhythm parts on standard MIDI note numbers.

The most recent upgrades also include

many tweaks to the menus in Edit
Mode and, for me, this is where the
most significant improvements reside.
Let's start with a couple of minor ones.
'Compare to Preset' allows you to
decide whether to overwrite the sound
being edited, or find a sound that you The touch-screen in the centre of the
don't mind losing. There's also the Voyager was previously hard-wired to fixed
addition of a factory setup (reset) parameters, but is now freely assignable,
menu, which allows you to reload the and transmits MIDI continuous controllers.
factory patches and reset various
performance parameters to their default values.

Next, we come to a new method of naming patches, in which you can use the
keyboard as an alphanumeric keypad. More significant is the 'User Definable
Pitch-bend Amount', which allows you to define the amount of pitch-bend, rather
than being limited to a handful of well-tempered options. As we shall see later,
this helps (in part) to sidestep an extremely annoying fault in the hardware of
early Voyagers.

Another important addition is the introduction of alternative Gate sources for the
filter and amplifier envelopes. In addition to the standard sources, these now

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include the Gate signal from the touch-screen, the LFO square wave, and MIDI
Clock. Provided that you remember to switch the Env Gate switch to On/External,
these sources should be enough for all but the most arcane requirements. The
touch-screen Gate signal now has many other uses, too. You can use it to switch
the Glide and Release switches on and off, as well as every switch on the front
panel. I'm not immediately sure how I might use this, but I can think of numerous
ways in which it could be useful.

Moving relentlessly up the scale of significance, we now come to the addition of

two more 'Shaper' sources, one for each of the modulators. There's a huge list of
sources for these (43 in all) that includes many of the front-panel controls as well
as conventional sources such as velocity and aftertouch. Having four Shaper
sources makes possible a huge number of complex modulation options that, in
many ways, echo those of a modular synthesizer. However, these still don't allow
you to use the Shapers to introduce modulation where none existed before...
they only allow you to modulate the amount of an existing modulation, as
explained in my original Voyager review.

Last on my list, but most significant among the upgrades for me, are the oddly
named 'Pot Mapping Source/Destination' parameters. These provide four new
modulation paths that are completely independent of the modulation busses. This
is quite something... it allows you to send (for example) aftertouch directly to mod-
wheel amount, keyboard CV directly to LFO rate, velocity directly to filter cutoff
frequency, or choose from hundreds of other Source/Destination combinations,
without being subject to the complexities and limitations of the mod wheel and
Pedal/On busses.

There are 40 sources and 40 destinations in the Pot Mapping system, and four
modulation maps available at any given time, which means that there are, umm...
1600 to the fourth power combinations, which is... over six and a half trillion
source/destination combinations. I'm suitably impressed, especially since each of
the four modulation paths can have positive or negative polarity and an 'amount'
of 0, 25, 50 or 100 percent. Silly numbers aside, the great thing about these
paths is that they're simple to understand and use. What's more, by allowing you
to direct a single modulation controller (aftertouch, say) to four destinations
simultaneously (for example filter cutoff, amplifier gain, LFO depth and LFO rate),
pot mapping makes the Voyager extremely responsive and musical.

The Anniversary Edition

Following in the footsteps of the Signature Edition, the Anniversary Edition is

another limited-edition Voyager. It comes in a stunning black finish, but the most
noticeable thing about it is the illuminated front panel on which all the controls'
annotations glow at you in an almost actinic blue. The intensity of illumination is
controlled by a small knob set into the small wooden strip immediately to the right
of the keyboard. Turning this knob anticlockwise to its minimum switches off the
backlight, and turning it progressively clockwise increases the intensity until the

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illumination of the panel legends becomes visible even in daylight, which equates
to being dazzling in a darkened studio. Unfortunately, at anything higher than
minimal intensity, the system emits an annoying whine. This is not going to be of
concern at a gig, but in my studio it renders the backlight almost unusable. I also
wish that the designers had sited the intensity knob more sensibly — I kept
catching it with my fingers when playing at the top end of the keyboard.

Moving back to musical matters, the Anniversary Voyagers — and, I assume,

others of this vintage — have been cured of two of the hardware faults exhibited
by earlier versions. The most obvious of these concerns the quiet but annoying
noise emitted by some Performers and Signatures when you turn the Master
Volume knob past '5' in either direction. This has been eliminated.

A more significant fault on early models concerned pitch-bend. No matter how

you programmed the values in the menus, the pitch-bend interval was far from
what was promised. What's more, the whole instrument went flat when you
increased the pitch-bend range.

Happily, the upward bend on the Anniversary is exactly what the menu promises,
even over large bends of two octaves or more. The downward bend is not quite
right — a two-octave bend is sharp by a few cents — but the error isn't
noticeable when using musical intervals of a handful of semitones. Furthermore, I
found that when programming the pitch-bend using the new Pitch-bend Amount
parameter, the upward and downward intervals were identical.

But there's bad news for owners of

older Voyagers. The errors in the pitch-
bend intervals in early models were not
a function of dodgy software; they were
the result of a hardware fault. This
means that, even if you upgrade the
OS of a Signature (as I have done) or
one of the earlier Performers, you still
cannot obtain the correct pitch-bend
intervals without returning your pride
and joy to a workshop for a hardware The previous hardware fault with the
modification. How is that a very Voyager's pitch-bend wheel has been
expensive synth can suffer from a attended to on the Anniversary Edition. The
attractive blue backlighting of the
hardware fault as easily spotted as Anniversary is also visible emanating from
this? under the wheels in this shot.

This is where the 'User Definable Pitch-bend Amount' parameter can help. Take,
for example, the '1 Octave' pitch-bend setting on my Signature. Pushing the
wheel fully away from me sharpens the pitch by 13 semitones, but pulling it fully
toward me flattens it by just 11 semitones. A user-defined pitch-bend value of
104 sharpens the pitch by exactly an octave (12 semitones). Having said that,
the same value flattens the pitch by ten-and-a-bit semitones, which is useless.
So you can now make your older Voyager more useable than before, but it's still
a sorry state of affairs.

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Fortunately, it is now possible to correct all Voyagers of their tendency to go flat

when you increase the pitch-bend range. You need to remove the controller
panel to the immediate left of the keyboard (it's not as hard as it sounds) and
adjust a trim pot while watching a parameter value on screen. I set up my
Signature according to the method described in the documentation, and it was
cured of this problem.

Another fault with all Voyagers concerns the Envelope Gate switch. When set to
On/External, this should hold the VCA permanently 'open' at the Volume
Envelope Sustain Level, but it doesn't. What actually happens is that the Level
starts at the correct point, but immediately enters a very slow decay.

Next, I would like to point out another slight deficiency that has become apparent
on all Voyagers. The synth's manufacturers claim that the 12-bit A-D converters
used to translate the positions of the front-panel knobs into digital values, the
interpolation of those values when the CVs are generated, and the scanning
speed of the front panel are all sufficient to ensure that the Voyager is
indistinguishable from a pure analogue synthesizer. However, this is not the
case. To discover this for yourself, just sweep two knobs simultaneously while
listening to a patch. If one of the parameters you're adjusting makes obvious
changes to the sound — say, the filter cutoff frequency — you will hear audible
stepping. To be fair, the amount of 'zippering' is very small, and will bother almost
no-one, but it's there nonetheless.

A final fault that is cured neither in the Anniversary Edition nor by upgrading my
Signature Edition concerns the nature of the aftertouch response. This was
always like on on/off switch, and so it remains, making it extremely hard to
introduce modulation progressively without using a VX351 and a CP251 to
smooth and attenuate the response. This is very unmusical behaviour for an
instrument of this value. However, it provides the perfect excuse to move on to
discuss... the aforementioned VX351 and the CP251. For the background and
basic functionality of these two add-ons, see the boxes below and over the page
respectively. For more on using them with the Voyager, read on.

The VX351 CV Expander

As I stated last June, the Voyager's numerous control inputs are not
complemented by equivalent outputs so, while you can control an unadorned
Voyager from external sources, you cannot use it to control other non-MIDI synths
and modules. Nor can you patch CV routings that are not provided by the internal
busses (although this is now far less of an issue thanks to the pot-mapping
facilities added in the version 2 OS). Both of these functions can be added using
the VX351 CV Expander.
Now, you might think that the 25-way 'D' connector marked 'Accessory Port' on
the back of the synth would tap the Voyager's control voltages, and in this you
would be partly right. Unfortunately, it seems that matters are not straightforward,
because the VX351 comes with a small piggy-back board that you must insert

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inside the Voyager before the port

will work as specified. I'm not sure
why this is necessary, because I
tested some of the CVs without it
and they seemed to be correct.
Nonetheless, I had no wish to risk
faulty operation (I seem to
remember that one user reported
that the LFO failed without the
board) so I installed it before
proceeding further. At this point you The VX351 control-voltage breakout box.
might ask, "If it is necessary to have
a piggy-back board to use the
expansion port, why does this come only with the VX351?" Since the piggy-back
comprises just four resistor networks, it should have been simple to build its
functionality onto the Voyager's main board, or at least to ship it with the piggy-
back board already installed. The unattractive thought has occurred to me that the
board might be a way to compel you to buy the VX351 rather than build your own
CV breakout box, but this is just speculation on my part, and — I hope — untrue.
With the piggy-back board installed, the VX351 provides outputs for 18 CV
sources, two Gates, and the noise generator, and adds two attenuators and two
four-way multis to the Voyager. Together, these transform the instrument from a
powerful integrated monosynth into a powerful semi-modular monosynth.
Strangely, all of the VX351's facilities appear to be passive. This is a non-trivial
point... even the sockets in the multiples are soldered together without buffering,
which means that when you use the multiple as a signal splitter, you may
experience voltage 'droop'. More seriously, if you try to use either of the multiples
as a cheapo mixer (as many people do) you may — at best — obtain unexpected
results. At worst, you will sum voltages in excess of the Voyager's ability to handle
them. Beware!
Hang on a moment, let's step back half a paragraph... semi-modular? I'm afraid
so. Neither the synth nor the CV Expander offer individual patch points for the
audio generated by the oscillators, so the combination of the Voyager and the
VX351 is architecturally closer to a Korg MS20 than an ARP 2600.
Some users have complained that the VX351's 21 CV and Gate sockets do not
drive other synths correctly, so I measured voltages for those outputs that I could
determine using a digital multimeter. After two to three hours 'on' at room
temperature, most voltages fell a fraction short of specification, although a number
were well over five percent off (by the way, I think that the quoted 'A' range for the
touch-screen should be 0V to +5V, not ±5V as specified in the VX351's literature).
Nevertheless, the measurements do not fall too far outside the expected ranges...
this is an analogue synth, after all!
The measurements I took allayed one significant fear I had: that the VX351 would
be incapable of driving my 1V-per-octave modular synths correctly. This is
because the voltage-to-pitch scaling within the Voyager itself is 0.935V-per-
octave, which is not just non-standard — it's unique to the Voyager. Apparently,
the earliest VX351s did indeed output this strange scale, but it seems that this has
now been fixed; the review unit produces almost precisely 1V-per-octave, and a
trimmer allows you to calibrate the pitch CV if it becomes necessary to do so.

Putting Everything Together

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I received the VX351 and CP251 some months before OS v2 existed, so my first
experiences of them were with my Signature Edition Voyager running OS v1.5. I
installed the required piggy-back board (see box below), connected the VX351
and CP251, and was ready to start experimenting. This was when I noticed how
useful the optional £50 CP/VX rackmount kit would be. The kit converts the two
boxes into a shallow, 3U rackmount assembly, and allows the Voyager to power
the CP251 through the VX351.

My first use for the VX351 was to route control voltages back into the Voyager in
otherwise unavailable ways, and this allowed me to overcome a number of
limitations in the synth itself. For example, it was obvious how to patch the VX so
that the Voyager could trigger its envelopes using its own LFO. This is now no
longer necessary thanks to the new facilities in the version 2 OS, but the principle
remains valid. Likewise, I eventually worked out how to use the VX and CP to
overcome the Voyager's maddening Modulation Buss problems...

To recap this problem briefly, which is described in more detail in my original

review; the Shaping options in the modulation busses do not allow you to
introduce an effect from zero, which is a remarkable limitation in so expensive an
instrument. But if you add the VX and CP to the equation, it becomes relatively
simple. Let's hypothesise that you want to use aftertouch to introduce and control
vibrato. The solution works like this... You patch the Pressure output on the VX
through the CP251's slew generator to slow the almost instantaneous 10V sweep
from -5V to +5V that occurs whenever you lean on a key, and then route the
modified aftertouch CV back to the Voyager's Mod1 buss input, whereupon it
acts as a multiplying factor for the Amount control in the Pedal/On buss.

Having patched the devices, you must now set the Voyager's Pedal/On source
as the LFO triangle wave (which generates the vibrato) and set the destination to
Pitch. The position of the Shaping control is irrelevant (although I suspect that it's
best set to 'On'), but the Amount must have a non-zero value, or no modulation is
produced by the buss. You can now set the mod wheel to zero (ie. fully towards
you) and use aftertouch alone to introduce pitch modulation into an otherwise
unmodulated signal. This certainly works, but why does it need to be so
convoluted?

Now, you might say that the pot-mapping facilities introduced by the Voyager's
version 2 OS render all of this unnecessary, and for the most part you would be
right. However, leaning even gently on the Voyager's keys causes the aftertouch
value to jump from zero to 'lots', so that the pot-mapping destination jumps
almost instantaneously from one state to another. Patching pressure sensitivity
through the VX and CP produces a more pleasing effect, because of the slew
you can introduce into what is otherwise an almost on/off response.

Once I'd got used to the low-budget feel of the VX and CP's connectors and
sockets, and had used both units to overcome two of my biggest complaints
regarding the Voyager, I started to feel rather more enthusiastic about them, and
used them to cure the Voyager's inability to apply portamento to the filter cutoff

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frequency (which still exists, even in OS v2.3). I did this by directing the VX351's
keyboard CV output to the CP251's slew generator and returning the resulting
signal to the synth's filter CV input (remember to set keyboard tracking in the
Voyager to zero, or you'll get 200-percent tracking when you try this). It wasn't
possible to match the filter portamento precisely to the keyboard Glide, but I
found that all manner of interesting sounds were now available, primarily by
forcing the self-oscillating filter to track the VCOs, with different amounts of glide
on each. I also created some interesting effects by setting the amount of slew
differently for playing up the keyboard than for playing down. Unfortunately, you
can't apply this trick to the oscillators themselves, because you can't disconnect
the internal keyboard CV, so the patch always generates 200-percent tracking,
which is — for melodic work — useless. Even setting Oscillator 3's tracking to
'Off' does not work, because this also disconnects it from the CV input.

I found that, with the 'aftertouch patch' permanently in place, it was no mean trick
to keep track of the 'virtual' patching within the busses themselves, as well as the
physical patching between the three boxes. But once I had got the hang of
things, creating traditional modular synth effects became straightforward. For
example, I used the CP251's LFO and sample-and-hold facilities to trigger the
Voyager's envelopes and modulate its filters, while at the same time producing
slow pitch sweeps and pulse-width modulation effects using the Voyager's
internal LFO. This took me deep into sound effects territory, but the combination
of the three units was equally at home creating musically interesting patches that
are often the preserve of modular synths and their software equivalents.

While experimenting, I found that the Inverter in the CP251's Mixer proved to be
an unexpected bonus, and I ended up wishing that there were more of these. It's
useful to be able to modulate one parameter upwards while another is sweeping
downward 180 degrees out of phase. Likewise, I became accustomed to having
the CP's and VX's attenuators at my disposal, finding that these tamed the
Voyager's performance CVs, thus making it possible to create patches that were
more subtle than those available on the synth alone.

Once I had upgraded to OS v2.3, it was immediately obvious that I needed the
VX and CP far less frequently to overcome restrictions in the Voyager itself. This
then released them for more esoteric duties. I placed the Voyager, CP251 and
VX351 alongside my Analogue Systems Integrator RS8000 modular, and started
cross-patching between the two systems. Suddenly, the Voyager leapt into life as
the (almost) modular system it had always promised to be. Using the VX351 to
direct pitch CVs and Gates to the Integrator, I found that the RS oscillators
tracked perfectly, and that its envelopes and VCAs responded exactly as one
would wish. Remembering to use the VX's and CP's attenuators to protect the
Voyager from the Integrator's meaty ±10V signals, cross-patching was a doddle,
and I finally realised why I — and all other Voyager owners — will eventually
have to cough up for the VX. Why? Because it makes experimental synthesis
with the Voyager fun. Imagine playing both synths simultaneously, directing the
Integrator's output to the Voyager's external signal input so that you can filter and
re-filter it using the Moog's filters as well as its own comb filters, EMS Synthi
filters and on. The resulting sounds are big. Really big.

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The CP251 Control Processor

Although part of the Moogerfooger range, the CP251 can also be used as part of
a Voyager system, although it requires a separate power supply when used as a
stand-alone unit. The module offers seven distinct sections: a four-channel CV
mixer, a slew or lag generator, a dual-waveform LFO, dual attenuators, a four-way
multiple, a noise source, and a sample-and-hold section. Five of these offer TRS
sockets that allow you to use expression pedals if desired. These sockets are
denoted by the red, rather than black, retaining nuts. You can also use
conventional tip/sleeve jack plugs in these, but they will short the power supply to
ground, resulting in a tiny current flowing within the plug itself. There's no risk
associated with this, nor will there be any adverse effects on the operation of the
unit, but shorting any one socket in this way disables the ability of any other
sockets to work with pedals.
The Mixer is in many ways the most interesting part of the CP251. It combines
two inputs with attenuators (inputs 1 & 2), two direct inputs (3 & 4), an Offset
control that provides a DC offset, and a Master knob that controls the amplitude of
the mixed signal, up to a maximum of unity gain, subject to an absolute maximum
of +5V. Oh yes, and there are positive and negative outputs available
simultaneously. The Mixer has a bandwidth in excess of the upper limit of human
hearing, so it's also capable of audio mixing, but there's no way to use it as a
VCA, which is a shame.
Alongside the Mixer, the Slew Generator (or 'Lag Processor') has a novel twist:
independent controls for slewing the rise time and fall time of a waveform. This
means that if, for example, you direct the square wave output from the LFO to the
Slew In, you can shape it into a trapezoid, a sawtooth, a ramp wave, or a triangle,
with many subtle variations in between. I like this. The fastest and slowest slew
rates are quoted as 1ms and 1s respectively and, although the slowest is still
rather rapid to be considered all-encompassing, it will be adequate for many
synthesis tasks.
This brings us to the LFO itself
which, as on the Voyager, offers just
two cyclic waveforms; triangle and
square, with a nominal frequency
range of 0.2Hz to 50Hz. However,
you can apply control voltages to
the Pedal In socket to extend this
down to 0.03Hz at the low end
(which can produce the languorous
sweeps I like) and up to 100Hz or
more at the top end, which suggests The CP251 control-voltage processor.
a number of FM possibilities.
The dual attenuators do their job well, with a measured output of 0 percent at the
minimum setting, and very nearly 100 percent at the maximum. Likewise, the four-
way Multiple does what it says on the tin, although — as on the VX351 — its
sockets are merely soldered together without buffering.
The CP251's noise generator is different from the noise source provided on the
Voyager, being altogether smoother and 'bluer'. If you heard either in isolation you
would think it typical, but an A/B comparison demonstrates how different they are
from one another. Bear in mind, however, that the output is low. At well under 1V,

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Voyager By Bob Moog

this restricts the CP251's use as a noise modulation source.

Finally, as with the Mixer and Slew Generator, the S&H section offers somewhat
more than is immediately apparent, with the stepped signal presented at Output 1,
and a smoothed (low-pass filtered) version presented at Output 2. The low-pass
filter frequency is determined by the LFO Rate knob, which is a bit strange, but
this ensures that a consistent response is obtained if the LFO is used as the S&H
Trigger. Regrettably, the maximum sample voltage is of the order ±3V, which
means that you must take care when you use the CP251 with other modular
synths. What's more, the sample is triggered by a falling transient, not a rising
one, so you will obtain unexpected results unless you take this into account.
The seven sections on offer seem to be reasonable choices, although the CP251
is let down by the lack of a VCA. Notwithstanding this, if you tried to purchase all
of these modules in modular synth form, they would almost certainly cost more, so
I'll sum up by saying that the CP251 is good value for money, if you want the
exact combination of facilities it offers.
A word of warning, however... When I first used the CP251, inputs 1 and 2 on the
Mixer were unusable, refusing to allow a quarter-inch jack plug all the way in, so
no connection was made. Having first satisfied myself that there was no internal
obstruction, I managed to get a jack into each with a bit of 'encouragement'. After
this, the plugs worked as normal, but it didn't leave me with a good feeling about
the CP251's build quality.

Conclusions

We've covered a vast amount of ground in this review, with two major revisions
of the Voyager's operating system, a new hardware model, and two add-on
boxes that you can use in all manner of ways to enhance your synthesis.

Starting with the operating system upgrades, there's only one conclusion to be
drawn: you would be certifiably insane if you did not upgrade to the current OS. It
doesn't cure all the bugs in the Voyager, and even ignoring the hardware faults,
there should be at least one further software revision to iron out the remaining
problems with the touch-screen. However, minor faults aside, the version 2 OS
has fulfilled the promises made nearly two years ago. The Voyager is now a
much better instrument. In fact, it's excellent.

Moving on to the Voyager hardware, you may think that I've been rather
uncompromising, poring over all manner of minor defects and quibbles. This may
be true, but, at this price, you have the right to expect something that is finished
and works correctly. Thankfully, we are now much closer to that ideal than ever
before, with the Voyager performing as specified, and with fewer faults than
previously.

As for the Anniversary Edition, it's very nice, and seems slightly better built than
the Signature model that I own. The switches are a tad more positive, the LEDs
are brighter, and there's that all-important fix to the pitch-bend wheel. However,
you'll have to decide whether you can live with the whine that the backlight emits.
If you can, this is the Voyager for you. If you can't, you can always leave the

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backlight permanently off.

Next... I was initially a little disappointed with the VX351. It promised much, but
seemed a bit clumsy, and didn't add quite as much as I had hoped. It wasn't until
I stopped using it to overcome limitations within the Voyager itself and placed it
next to another patchable synth that the VX proved its worth... which then proved
to be considerable. I still have reservations about paying extra for outputs that
should — in my opinion — be built into the synth itself, but if you are truly serious
about synthesis and own a Voyager, the VX is almost a necessity.

I'm less convinced by the CP251, but that's because — in keeping with most
players interested in modular synthesis — I already have access to its functions
elsewhere. But here's the acid test... If I were today offered my walnut Signature
for its original price of approximately £3000, or an Anniversary for under £2000,
there is no contest which I would choose... the Anniversary Edition. It looks great,
works better and, with the money I had saved, I could buy the VX351 and
CP251, and still have enough cash left over for a cheap holiday in the sun.

Published in SOS November 2004

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 Zero-X Beat Quantizer
In this article:
Thinly Sliced
Further Features
Groovy Baby!
Summing Up
Zero-X Beat Quantizer
$250
pros
Excellent way to tidy up
timing or add groove to a
multitrack performance.
Very easy to use.
cons
Stand-alone operation may
put some users off.
User-interface could be a
little slicker in some respects.
summary
Beat Quantizer is a well-
featured beat-slicing tool, with
the added bonus of very
effective and creative groove
quantise functions.
information
$250.
www.beatcreator.com
Test Spec
Beat Quantizer v1.02.
PC with 2.4GHz Pentium 4
and 1GB RAM running
Windows XP Pro, with Echo
Mia 24, Egosys Wami Rack 24
and Yamaha SW1000XG
soundcards.
Tested with Sony Acid Pro 4,
Steinberg Cubase SX 2.2,
Propellerhead Recycle 2.1.
file:///H|/SOS%2004-11/Zero-X%20Beat%20Quantizer.htm (1 of 4)9/26/2005 8:18:12 AM
Zero-X Beat Quantizer
Multitrack Beat Slicer & Quantizer (PC)
Published in SOS November 2004
Print article : Close window
Reviews : Software
If you are an avid slicer of beats, then Zero-X's latest
offering might just appeal. With its support for
multitrack slicing and quantising, is Beat Quantizer
the best thing since sliced bread?
John Walden
Only those who have been locked away in a very dark corner for the last few
years can have failed to notice the rise and rise of software tools designed for
slicing and dicing audio beats. As demonstrated by Simon Price's recent beat-
slicing masterclass (SOS June 2004, available on-line at www.soundonsound.
com/sos/jun04/articles/beatslicing.htm), these tools are now available whatever
platform or sequencer application cranks your particular handle.
Swedish-based Zero-X have a
pedigree in this field with Beat Slicer
and Beat Creator. While the former is a
slicing tool, Beat Creator also offers
quantising options, but both are
restricted to use with a single mono or
stereo track. Beat Quantizer adds
multitrack support to the mix, allowing
several loops to be manipulated
together and quantised to the same
groove. An obvious application is for
tightening up a multitrack drum part —
with snare, kick, hi-hat, and so on all
recorded on separate tracks — but it is The Master Track (at the top of the
also possible to apply a groove to screenshot) is key to Beat Quantizer's
guitar, keyboard or bass parts. multitrack 'slice and quantise' capabilities.