VOYETRA FROM MARS

One of The Best Sounding Analog Polysynths of All Time

The Voyetra Eight is a rare, polyphonic 8 voice analog rack synth developed in New York in the early 80s that many people regard as one of the best sounding analog synthesizers ever built. Not even the Jupiters can compete with this thing in terms of sound. The patches are huge - wide open, and lush, with thick bass, juicy resonance, unique DC source modulation (which makes it sound like the circuits are dying in the most beautiful fashion), linear FM and classic sync.

It's been used by people like New Order, the Eurythmics, Neon Indian and Dennis Ferrer (Our unit toured with Edgar Winter). 

Our Process

We began by having our Voyetra completely tuned and calibrated to perfection by one of the original engineers who helped design the synth - it wasn't cheap but the unit came back sounding unbelievably good, so it was well worth it. 

Programming was overwhelming at first but proved deeply rewarding. You can layer two completely independent 4 voice patches with separate filters, envelopes, modulations and waveforms, and the results are unreal. Another cool trick for bass is to make one very resonant, funky enveloped sound, and layer this with a completely unresonant, simple and fat waveform. 

We really took our time when creating hardware patches. Every day we thought we were done, this thing just had more stuff we had to capture. We learned every aspect of the synth, hooking up our midi to XLR cables (?), programming via the intensely complex front panel editing system, and also on the computer with Midi Quest. We layered patches and used complex modulations, but also captured many single oscillator basic waveshapes. Then, we multi-sampled it, often recording entire patches to tape, shaping others with tube saturation, API preamp, and Moog filter, but making sure to track many patches with no processing whatsoever. 

The results - Gigantic polysynths, modulating leads, distorted organs, synth pop bass, complex modulations, punchy pads and absolutely insane FX. Enjoy the sounds of this rare beauty!