So I was at guitar center today and I decided to play around on a Little Phatty they had there. See, before today I had this misconception that a moog was just a squelchy bass thing and I didn't really see why it was so great. Well, after like an hour of knob twiddling I realized how wrong I was. So, I'm certainly not in the position to go out and buy a moog right now but I did have one question. What's the difference between the little phatty and the voyager? As far as I can see the voyager has a third oscillator and all the controls have their own knobs. That is the one thing I didn't like about the phatty, the fact that you had to click a button to knobs function was off-putting. I'd rather just have a knob for each function. So besides more knobs, 3 oscs and $1000, is there a difference?

Plenty of modulation options, and noise oscilliator amongst other things.

The Phatty has arpeggiator and overload filter overload which the Voyager doesnt have, i also believe they sound different from each other, which is why many people have both.

The cool thing about the knobs is that you can see the knob position on every patch.

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Voyager has dual filters, has a noise generator, and lacks the filter distortion feature that the Phatty has. People who own Voyagers can tell you more. I own a Phatty and love it.

http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/littl...SC2freqLead.mp3
http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/littl...classic-res.mp3
http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/littl...ance-sounds.mp3
http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/littl...oscillation.mp3
http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/distortedres.mp3

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles I own a Phatty and love it.

Same here. Best hardware synth I have ever owned. You'll immediately understand why people love analog synths so much once you start using this little beast.

quote:

Originally posted by floyd741 As far as I can see the voyager has a third oscillator and all the controls have their own knobs. That is the one thing I didn't like about the phatty, the fact that you had to click a button to knobs function was off-putting. I'd rather just have a knob for each function. So besides more knobs, 3 oscs and $1000, is there a difference?

This ends up being less of a problem than one might perceive once you use it for a few hours. I had the same reservations at first, but I quickly got used to it. In addition, the interface has a very NL3 type interface, so when switching presets, you can see the position of each knob. Its actually quite easy.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Voyager has dual filters, has a noise generator, and lacks the filter distortion feature that the Phatty has. People who own Voyagers can tell you more. I own a Phatty and love it. http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/littl...SC2freqLead.mp3 http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/littl...classic-res.mp3 http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/littl...ance-sounds.mp3 http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/littl...oscillation.mp3 http://jbj.raceriv.com/sounds/distortedres.mp3

cool sounds JBJ, how much post-processing did you do besides reverb delay etc?
also could you give a very quick description of how u did those sounds, like say square wave osc into filter etc.. wanna see if i can emulate them
Thanks

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quote:

Originally posted by evo8 cool sounds JBJ, how much post-processing did you do besides reverb delay etc?

None. Only effects used are delay and reverb, and no effects at all on the final acidy one (besides the internal filter overdrive).

quote:

also could you give a very quick description of how u did those sounds, like say square wave osc into filter etc.. wanna see if i can emulate them Thanks

First is two oscillators tuned a fourth apart, I believe, and pretty sure both oscillators are squarish waves. No resonance, just filter opening up. Filter envelope has short attack and long decay.

Second is a single oscillator, again a square wave, with resonance at about the halfway point. I gradually opened up the filter and increased the decay on the filter envelope, which starts out quite short. I think I increase the release on the amp envelope as well over time.

Third sound, the deep thing is just a single note and single saw oscillator played very low, with the filter cutoff low and no resonance, plenty of reverb and delay. The trancey sound is an arp and I had both oscillators set to somewhere between triangle and saw wave, probably a bit closer to triangle. They are tuned a fourth apart. I have portamento turned on, with the glide time set to a little less than half of the max I think. Filter has a little resonance, turned up maybe a little less than a quarter of the way. The brightening of the sound is just done through raising the filter cutoff.

Fourth sound, you will be hard pressed to get a decent version of that out of a non-analog synth, because it is made by the filter self-oscillating. Most of the transformations in the sound are done by increasing or decreasing the rate of the LFO, which controls the filter cutoff. LFO is set to triangle. Heaps of delay (Ableton filter delay) and reverb.

Fifth sound is a basic acidish thing with the filter overdrive turned up high. One oscillator used. It starts out as a saw wave. I raise the filter cutoff, put it back down, then turn up the LFO which is controlling the filter and makes it sound a bit different on the second pass. Then I change the oscillator over to square and do another filter sweep.

Wow, thanks for the replies. I think I would definitely have to go for the phatty after reading this. I'm sure I could get used to the way it's controlled. Also, the overload filter was one of the things I really liked about it. That and saving $1000 makes the phatty the better option, imo. Thanks for the replies, very much appreciated.

now I just need to get a job so I can actually buy it.

Last edited by floyd741 on Aug-31-2009 at 00:28

if you have the money get the voyager it has many more features.

extra osc
noise generator
external input
two filters
much more modulation options
much beter build quality
better resale value
one knob per function
more presets and saving space
huge expansion capabilities

ultimately, they also actually sound different as well. I have compared them side by side. If you have the money get the voyager, it blows the phatty away!

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles None. Only effects used are delay and reverb, and no effects at all on the final acidy one (besides the internal filter overdrive). First is two oscillators tuned a fourth apart, I believe, and pretty sure both oscillators are squarish waves. No resonance, just filter opening up. Filter envelope has short attack and long decay. Second is a single oscillator, again a square wave, with resonance at about the halfway point. I gradually opened up the filter and increased the decay on the filter envelope, which starts out quite short. I think I increase the release on the amp envelope as well over time. Third sound, the deep thing is just a single note and single saw oscillator played very low, with the filter cutoff low and no resonance, plenty of reverb and delay. The trancey sound is an arp and I had both oscillators set to somewhere between triangle and saw wave, probably a bit closer to triangle. They are tuned a fourth apart. I have portamento turned on, with the glide time set to a little less than half of the max I think. Filter has a little resonance, turned up maybe a little less than a quarter of the way. The brightening of the sound is just done through raising the filter cutoff. Fourth sound, you will be hard pressed to get a decent version of that out of a non-analog synth, because it is made by the filter self-oscillating. Most of the transformations in the sound are done by increasing or decreasing the rate of the LFO, which controls the filter cutoff. LFO is set to triangle. Heaps of delay (Ableton filter delay) and reverb. Fifth sound is a basic acidish thing with the filter overdrive turned up high. One oscillator used. It starts out as a saw wave. I raise the filter cutoff, put it back down, then turn up the LFO which is controlling the filter and makes it sound a bit different on the second pass. Then I change the oscillator over to square and do another filter sweep.

excellent! thanks very much

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