Is it just me, or is my MF-104m behaving like a LPFilter??

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Headphones
Posts: 77
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:38 pm

Is it just me, or is my MF-104m behaving like a LPFilter??

Post by Headphones » Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:08 pm

Hi fellow Moog fans,


Ever had to pawn something that took you ages to get back? Ever find your memory of getting it back completely different as you remember once using it? Won't bore you too much on why I had to pawn it, but I have had it in "Pawn storage" since March of 2014. So I kind of forgot some of my previous memories of using this thing. I do recall using it connected to my SP505 sampler, and sometimes the LFO of the s & h would snap like a rubber band, and then the LFO wave sample would restart again. While digging through my cables I managed to find my stereo to mono plug(using it as the input) connected to the Korg ER-1mk2, through the MF104m, and output with some y cables to my TV set. (1/4" to RCA cable).

I'm finding the bucket brigade delay giving a grit to the signal of the electribe. Almost giving it a low pass filter color to the drum sequences. At the moment, I've got it self oscillating in a endless loop wth the delay set to about 2.8, length set to short, feedback to 10(Hell yeah! :twisted: ), drive/output/Mix to 10, LFO to sample/hold, rate about 2.5, and amount set to 10 as well.

What strikes me as odd, is pretty much whatever signal I feed it is giving it this low pass filtered sound. Like this is what a bbd chip delay does to the sound it delays anyway. Or am I just really clueless on using this effectively? Would I be better off with the mini fooger delay pedal where a LFO isn't really there to worry about, and I can just repeat synths/drum sounds into infinity in a way the MF104m can't since it has the LFO shaping the waveform? Hope this post made sense. I'd love to YouTube you what I mean here to show you the way this unit is self oscillating this really trippy muddy oscilated signal in a really even stranger tone, but I'm without a video camera.

I'm getting a Roland SH-01 Gaia synth shortly, and it will be fun to use it with the MF104m. That's all for now.

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facon
Posts: 194
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:06 pm

Re: Is it just me, or is my MF-104m behaving like a LPFilter

Post by facon » Sat Dec 12, 2015 2:45 am

I'm not really sure what the problem you're having with the LFO is. Just turn the Amount to zero and it has no affect on the delay.

As far as the lpf you're hearing. Is it only on the repeats or does it happen on everything? When the delay time switch is set to long, it does put a lpf on the repeats. Setting it to short means brighter repeats.

If it's happening even with your original signal, I'd look at your cables first. Is plugging it into your TV really your only option? What kind of stereo to mono cable are you using and why? If it's a stereo TRS to mono TS, you're simply dumping whatever is on the ring to ground through the sleeve. Your synth might not like this.

Is your gain staging correct? Make sure you set the drive and output up correctly. If you're oscillating, you might be distorting the crap out of the cheap preamp in your TV. Make sure the output on the delay is low enough not to get extra distortion. A lot of consumer electronics will have built in limiting that smashes a loud signal in order to protect the speakers. You'd be much better of sending a mono signal into the mono delay and connecting it to something like a little solid state amp.

Headphones
Posts: 77
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:38 pm

Re: Is it just me, or is my MF-104m behaving like a LPFilter

Post by Headphones » Sat Dec 12, 2015 12:17 pm

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I don't have my Mackie mixer as of yet (another pawn ticket to pay off later), so I was using my TV set as a amp more or less. I'm actually in the process of getting rid of it, possibly this afternoon even. (It's a old school Sony 27", big and bulky. Nuff said!)

From now on, any MF104m noodling will just have to get sent to either my SP505 or Zoom ST224 samplers, and listened to on headphones. I found a splitter cable after I did my original post, and sort of got to process audio of my iPad through the MF104m, and sent to the SP505 to audition. Those results were interesting, but I forgot what I had the settings at when I did that. I somehow think that the audio I feed the 104 might not be hot enough, hence, why I've had to crank the drive so high. Time to get either a compressor or a MIniFooger Drive I wonder?

I wish I had the money to buy a MF104z and compare how they differently they delay what is fed through them, but since I'm trying to do Christmas for family AND pay off bills, I think it would be a pipe dream to locate a 104z anyways, much less afford one!

As far as the method of yesterday's madness goes, I used a RadioShack stereo 1/4" to mono plug, inserting the audio of the electribe into the 104. I then had a set of stereo 1/4" to RCA plug from the Mix Out & Delay Out of the 104 to the tv. I actually plan to pick up another 1/4"-mono plug today, and more than likely set that into just the mix out into either sampler. I always thought you had to use the LFO to hear the results of the delay waveforms, but I guess if I have the amount to zero, I actually don't have to at all. I'll see what that does, and figure out if I still hear a LPFiltered murgling sound, or a nice clean delayed drum patterns. I almost forgot to mention I had a microphone to 1/4" plugged into the 104, but my vocals were very faint. I think only the mic pre of my Mackie mixer will be able to boost vocals for the signal to get processed correctly.

I'll post my findings later. But for now I plan to tidy my room a bit. Bye bye TV set. My roomie was getting a headache from the results of the self oscilated bucket brigade waves. I should have sampled that too! Doh!

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