Ive always been using the freqbox with “MIX” at 100%.
Today I decided to rebuild my setup, and ended up using the freqbox a lot mode dynamically.
(I have a SP going directly into the freqbox..)
I suddenly discovered a lot of noise from time to time. Even with MIX at 0%, it ads noise to the signal..
The noise sounds like shuffling cards.., when you put your thumb on the top of the deck and drag it fast through all the cards. Its quite loud and comes and goes every 2-3-4-5 minutes.
Any change to any knobs doesnt help. It just starts and stops whenever it feels like it..
Is this normal?
(I recorded some audio, but I dont know where to upload it..)
Sonically, my freqbox doesnt always sound like i would expect, it always sounds a bit.. unstable, but im pretty sure what i get from it is normal… Does it happen with no input signal? or only when the gate is open?
Im afraid i dont have any insight for you… You might want to contact moog tech support…
I thought the same thing about the mix=0 and bypass off, but even then, the FB colors the sound, unlike the other MFs.
Un-related to your issue, but some thoughts:
Something you posted in your first post just caught my attention: “Ive always been using the freqbox with “MIX” at 100%.”
For me, learning to change the mix to something other than 100% on any of my MFs was the best thing i could learn. It opens the sonic capabilities so much more!
Also, with the mix at 100%, you are only ever going to hear the FB… So if you have the output of the SP going into the FB, and the audio of the FB going to your speakers, you really arent hearing the phatty, but just the VCO of the FB hardsynced (presumably) to the filtered oscillators of the SP. Granted, it sounds gnarly, but is fairly limiting in terms of the sonic pallet. I find, unless im puting OSC OUT directly into the audio input of the phatty/voyager, keeping the FB mix around 20-30% is like the butter zone..
I was on the fence about buying the FreqBox for a while until I stumbled upon a decent YouTube video after seeing multiple really really bad ones.
The dynamics of a guitar (bass in my case) results in a really raw/rough (call it what you like) sound. Not very desirable if unprocessed and at mix 100% (at least that’s the way I feel about it). I’ve had occasions where I’'ve setup a patch and filtered the resulting output through a MuRF or a LowPass and gotten really good results.
And it’s really strange that at certain low frequencies, it won’t track at triangle wave unless you boost up the Frequency or move towards a square wave/pulse. Even the demos done by Cyril (I think it was him) illustrate this.
But as an OSC, it’s very useful and the fact that it has an envelope follower circuit with CV output is also useful so I’ve hung onto mine (nice to have those two ‘components’ in your setup). As for the issue you are having, I can’t say mine does that so advice above to call Moog is good.
Agreed with the above answers, and want to add, be sure of where the input is coming from, ie: the SP’s output. Make sure there’s no trouble there too, otherwise, sounds like your FreqBox is freqin’ out, and needs help. Good luck with it.
Im routing the phatty’s signal to several locations, 107 being one of them. Ive used it as a 3rd voice on a separate signal path + colouring the SP’s ext.in.(osc direct-out) The frequency is controlled by midi-2-cv from the SP’s midi-output.
I noticed the noise a couple of days ago when I connected the SP’s output directly to the 107’s input for the first time and started using the mix-knob..
Ill have a word with my dealer..
Thanks for all the input guys.
edit: Could it have something to do with ground/earth?
The frequency is controlled by midi-2-cv from the SP’s midi-output.