Bring back the Moog Modular

[EricK]

If you look at the foogers, the white boxes that house the pots and markings will easily fit on a double width panel. The jacks can simply go on the bottom half. I figure that if you just reorient the pcb, then everything is gravy after that.

I contacted a guy in St louis about making this modification for me but I don't want to send my Foogers to him. I wish that I could just send them in to Moog.

Amos seemed to indicate that he thinks it would be possible to change the bypass switch into something that is gate triggerable.



I really wish Moog would consider this as a factory modification if they have no interest in getting into the modue business.


Eric

[Voltor07]

Amos seemed to indicate that he thinks it would be possible to change the bypass switch into something that is gate triggerable.



I really wish Moog would consider this as a factory modification if they have no interest in getting into the modue business.


Eric

I like this idea! However, would Moog stock their own panels? If so, would they use silkscreening like on early LP's, have a sticker overlay like on the new LP's, or would they use a toxic etching process like in the old days? They could use MOTM or Synthesizers.com blanks to cut down overhead, but even then they would need their vendors to either make sticker overlays or do silkscreening. I won't even mention the costs of etching in house. That could be prohibitively expensive, unless they have a laser or something. Or they could order panels as modules are requested, and they'd have the customer pay a percentage of the purchase upfront. Still, there's overhead even if vinyl overlays are considered. This is too complicated for my brain to work on right now.

[EMwhite]

If you look at the foogers, the white boxes that house the pots and markings will easily fit on a double width panel. The jacks can simply go on the bottom half. I figure that if you just reorient the pcb, then everything is gravy after that.

I contacted a guy in St louis about making this modification for me but I don't want to send my Foogers to him. I wish that I could just send them in to Moog.

Amos seemed to indicate that he thinks it would be possible to change the bypass switch into something that is gate triggerable.



I really wish Moog would consider this as a factory modification if they have no interest in getting into the modue business.


Eric

Actually, I DON'T think it will fit but it will be close. My rough measure shows that it's a matter of a 1/16th of an inch or so; which is why I also picked up the 4-space panel.

Some of the Foogers have a row of jacks which are attached to the main board via cable/connector; that's an easy one. The 2nd row will need to be desoldered or you'll need to wire up some 1/4" jacks to plug extensions and fix the 'normalling' issue that many of the patch panel guys deal with.

I could see the hesitation on Moog's part and I think it has more to do with the distraction of another set of build processes, assembly, dealing with all of the compatibility issues and the tech support that will follow for minimal return. They push so many panels out, I'm sure they have rock bottom silk screening and prep contracts and what minimal circuitry they might require to step the voltage down from +15 or +9 is lay-up.

WE don't know what they have in the product development pipeline and the reason that they are successful is that they have been able to manage costs, manage success, and manage growth.

I'll post pictures of my attempts to panel these things up so that others may follow or save the time of not bothering. The good news is that I do have a heavy duty drill press, a table saw with metal cutting blades and enough know-how and experience to be dangerous.

Anybody who is old enough to know what MOTD is on an Ultrix (DEC Unix) system is, might remember one that said "Beware of Programmers with Screw-drivers". That's me.

[EricK]

Absolutely no vinyl overlays on a module.

Why are there no three space panels???


The only fooger I haven't considered messing with is the delay. I have been considering selling the freqbox though.

I don't know when my next purchase will be, but mootbooxle's demo of the 108 with the rhodes was great. As much as I want to delve into some dotcom modules, I can't stop thinking about the flux.

Theres a 44 space cabinet in my future though.....

[Voltor07]

Absolutely no vinyl overlays on a module.

Why are there no three space panels???

There were on the original Moog modular. Don't recall which modules were three spaces wide, but I know there were a couple. Modern companies seem to have neglected the three space panel, though I'm sure Roger would make a custom width three space if you asked him. I agree that vinyl overlays don't belong on a module.

[nicholas d. kent]

I've always speculated that the reluctance to do a modular is the dealership network Moog Music has built up since Big Briar.

There are only a handful of brick and mortar shops in the world that sell modulars and maybe twice that many online shops with some modules but by and large there are far more tiny companies selling modules than there are places to sell them.

Now this might be a chicken and the egg sort of thing, but then again in the pre-digital era I don't think full blown modulars were ever at retailers, I guess the Roland System 100M came closest but they famously had to blow them out at less than cost as the years past. Other than that you had some patchable non-modulars that did seem to sell well notably the 2600 and MS-10/20.

Still I both marvel at Bob Moog's ingenuity to create something so close to a modular module yet sell it as a guitar pedal but then get frustrated by their coming so teasingly close but then not going all the way... like that lunchbox filter.

As someone who has over 200 modules (Q: Who buys modular synth modules these days?) but bought 1 Moogerfooger new and 3 used, I wish there was some middle ground. Like Moog would sell the built PCBs then someone else could turn them into a popular modular format and give it a power regulator board (provided the PCB isn't too big). It's not like one can't do that now themselves but buying Moogerfooger hardware one is going to remove and the costs of a quality one off front panel, etc. make it kind of much in terms of time and money.

[MC]

There were some 3U modules

961 Sequencer Interface

901 VCO

901C Output stage

901D variable waveform output stage

1630 Bode Frequency Shifter

907A fixed filter bank (for the System 15)

[Voltor07]

Interesting, MC. Thanks!

[EricK]

Thanks, MC.

Nick,
You might have a point. But I really wonder how many people were begging for a 500 series filter. If they went the preorder route, they could do anything they wanted (so long as it wasn't a filter lol).

[Kevin Lightner]

The Moog 701 and 702 drum synth modules might have been 3U also.
I don't recall. Do you know, MC?

[MC]

*peeks at shamelessly stolen pics*

Yup, they're 3U

[EricK]

Heres some more shamelessly stolen pics.





Praise be unto those who hath performed these workeths.

I like the double width modules, except I would want to keep the markings original, including the logos.

I think that it was reported that the PCB's were just slightly too wide, and would require removing a module to place in a system. But this is what Im talking about no doubt.