I think I’m probably just wanting for it to have an amplitude envelope, some filtering, and some ambiance. I guess that, ultimately, it isn’t really an effect. Most of the recordings that I’ve heard treat it as an effect.
I have found my FreqBox more useful with the sync turned OFF.
It likes being tied up to other foogers with a big mess of cables everywhere.
Sometimes it serves as a free-wheeling 3rd oscillator being fed into my LP. I don’t have a proper MIDI-CV converter to make it even attempt tracking pitch, so it can just drone out while I play another melody against it like a bagpipe. Or tweak the frequency to get really wide sweeps.
The FreqBox does have a voltage-controlled amplifier that is fed by the envelope follower. Signal level at the main output corresponds with signal level at the input - even if you have the mix knob turned all the way to 10 and you are only hearing the VCO, the amplitude will follow whatever you plug into the input.
With the MF-107 and the MF-101 together, you have a very rudimentary synth: VCO+VCA+VCF
I think a lot of people who are disappointed with the FreqBox expected it to “track” pitch, instead of “sync”. Honestly, I wish it would track pitch too. But there have been several other analog synths that have tried that and it never sounds as good as you would hope.
I think that sums it up for me. I didn’t really understand how ‘sync’ differed from ‘track’ until I got my Little Phatty last year. It has its own sound, which can be great, but isn’t what I’d want all the time.
I can definitely see using the FreqBox with my Little Phatty to add drones.
Bryan
The OSC OUT is essentially Osc out. It tracks well, sounds like a regular Oscillator, just over what, about 4.5 octaves?
THe AUDIO out will give you drones or Sync.
THe Timbre sounds slightly different but not lesser quality than the Voyager Oscs (its a descendant, not the same design according to the manual. Probably sounds different than the Phatty’s Oscs, but just as good.
The OSC OUT is essentially Osc out.
Hmmm 
In my experience with the FreqBox…subtle is key…no big movements otherwise you will scare the bear and it will bite you. I primarily use it to add subtle motion to whatever I’m doing.
Also, using it in conjunction with other stuff is really important. In and of itself the FreqBox has a very distinct sound - not overly usable before it’s easily recognized - but then so does a flanger - or a phaser - but when you combine elements (once again, in a subtle way) of multiple effects pedals (or whatever) you can get some amazing, living, organic (whatever you want to call it) sounds and you would never know a FreqBox was part of it.
I would point you to the RothHandle videos on YouTube. That guy knows how to combine stuff to get stuff you would not expect. It’s all about making choices to connect things you might not normally think should go together - that’s where the magic happens IMO.
I think the Freq is best when you use it like you would a distortion pedal. I use my Rhodes or Bass with a little Freqbox bleading through and you can make wild textures…especially with an expression pedal. This pedal is key rather than the envelope follower.
THe Freq also has a sizzle to it. On the rhodes, each note generates different harmonics that reset the Freq’s osc in different ways, so its really unpredictable how the Freq will sizzle.
I think that the Freq is best used to give a synth effect to a NON SYNTH instrument like an electric piano or a guitar. SOmething that will really activate the envelope well or something that can use some livening up.
I don’t think I can really say much more on this issue that hasn’t already been said.
here are the videos i was talking about before the first one is the freqbox and the pigtronix attack/sustain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG_HcX35_-M
this is the one from velvet acid christ. the first 40 seconds or so are the freqbox running into a harvestman polivoks filter then he mixes in the mfb triple dco
That sounds pretty good, but it definitely has a hard sync character to it. I think with a low pass filter after it, then it could sound better.
this is the one from velvet acid christ. the first 40 seconds or so are the freqbox running into a harvestman polivoks filter then he mixes in the mfb triple dco
It isn’t really clear what the FreqBox is doing (or even when it is on!). Cool sounds for sure.
Its being sequenced by his pc ithink. Midi>cv. then run into his modular system.
What’s weird is that it looks like it is bypassed when the camera pans to it. I guess he turns it on?
he’s probably using the osc out which if its like the ring mod carrier out is a constant signal that’s probably being turned on and off with a seperate vca and trigger
My best use of the freq is as a distortion pedal with alot of the original sound of my bass bleeding through, with the sync being modulated with a pedal.
Its not an effect that Id use every day.
I use the Freq more often with the Cp251 as a sample and hold destination that I can fade in and out when I want, trigger it when I want in various ways. I do this mainly when Im doing a large modular patch with all the synths going. I also currently use the envelope follower with my theremin because they aren’t offering the PLUS upgrade yet.
Has anyone mentioned that just having it in a rack looks awesome?
When I first got it, it was a secondary purchase because I was supposd to get my 921b, but another large bill came in so I got both the cp and the 107 at the same time. I regretted it until I figured out what that thing was all about. Now I use it quite often with my Bass and Rhodes.
I use my vx351 LEAST out of all my foogers, so the freq doesn’t get used as an osc very much.
I don’t think Id appreciate if it were lost or stolen and Id surely replace it.
Eric
I am new to this board. I don’t have a Freqbox but frankly, when this came out it sounded pretty exiting to me. Then I went to the Moog web site hoping to see an amazing demonstration and heard sounds that sounded more like circut bending than anything else to me. In fact, most of the Moogerfooger demos sound that way to me.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not the proud owner of a Moogerfooger Low Pass Filter. I ordered it and I should get it in a few days. It may sound like the simplest Moogerfooger but to me it the most useful. I have big plans for it.
Now back to the Freqbox. I guess I don’t get the whole concept and frankly, anything that tracks pitch from a guitar is going to sound terrible. Now mind you that is a subjective option but one I hold to. My two experiences with this are guitar synths (which I hate except for the early ones and micro synths like the EM POG and HOG (which are good pedals from what I can see). My other experience is with a similar effect of the POD XT which I like but I hate the effects that do something similar to the Freqbox. They sound very similar, they both sound like crap!
Why? Guitar does not track well with an oscillator because its a guitar! Sounds simple but the guitar has a complex harmonic dynamic over time and reducing it to a frequency is a, to put it subjectively, silly thing to do.
Now I will grant you that the Pigtronix video here sounded pretty good and I do think that with some real serious audio engineering the Freqbox can sound decent but this brings me to my final point.
If you want the sound of an oscillator and you are willing to pay the kind of money it costs to buy a Freqbox, then why not buy a Roland SH-201:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzYeSiSwGCs
It does not cost much more than a Freqbox, it has more than one oscillator to and some nice features incl. a full keyboard.
Again, I really like the Moogerfooger concept because of the CVs on each of them but I just dont’ think the concept of a Freqbox is a good one and why most of the demos sound like crap. I am happy I have a Moogerfooger but I just don’t get this one.
Is this subjective? Sure, all music is to some extent but some music does better than other music and some products do better than others and I just can’t see Moog selling many Freqboxes.
You ARE aware that with a lowpass filter and a CP-251, a freqbox would become a full-blown synth that tracks pitch from, say, a Little Phatty, right? That’s how I would use it. But your points are all good and valid. The freqbox by itself is not really all that useful…especially with a guitar, which was the primary use it was intended for.
Lux,
I can see where people would say that the Freq sucks. But, lets think about this…before the Freq, noone has ever had an audio modulated Oscillator before. Mad Props to Steve D for that!
Second, I can see where you woudl say that reducing the guitar to a single frequency woudl be pointless. Like Im going to buy a flute, just to process it down to a kazoo. I can see that indeed.
Moog makes things that are great…IF THATS THE SOUND YOU ARE AFTER. I don’t think I can put it any better than that.
OuterSpace is a nice place…if thats where you want to go.
Having said that, the Freq does an even better justice as an extra Oscillator to an analog synth. I think it could be improved upon if it tracked more octaves and had octave switching and could serve as a dedicated LFO. Then, it would be a straight up Oscillator…which wasn’t what it was designed for.
It was designed to process sounds…to give non synth players, a synth type sound. Some people dig it and some dont.
I don’t really think that anyone that doesn’t like the sound of the Freq Box can argue against its value as an additional Osc to a synth.
But the best I can offer is that its a different type of distortion for a non synth type instrument. And considering some of the types of crappy distortion pedals out there…Id say that the Freq isn’t as bad as some of those.
Im also in the process of uploading a 14 minute long video of complex waveforms to youtube featuring the Freqbox. Its already on Vimeo. You can check it out here:
In my experience with the FreqBox…subtle is key…no big movements otherwise you will scare the bear and it will bite you.
Love that quote from Earsmack!
The Freq Box is not unlike the Ring Modulator; you can’t play it all the way open on conventional music and expect everyone to love it. I think one has to push their own boundaries to find useful sounds from the Freq; that’s the beauty of the beast.
Personally, I think it would be great in creating rhythm tracks.
Incredible vid, EricK!
I would say that a Freqbox would work well with certain types of music but I don’t think it works with the music I like to compose and I don’t think it works well at all with a guitar which as the 2nd to last post said, is what it was made for.
to me, all the foogers are meant to be experimened with. I wanted the videos posted here but they are still bleep and bloops and just not to my taste. If others can use them and make good music with them, great!
That being said, I am really looking forward to getting my first one and I ssupect I will want more but not a Freqbox.
The freqbox is my newest fooger, and along with the ring mod was the least plug&play of the bunch-- I find it to be less of a standalone device and more a piece of the puzzle, and I think it was the last one to be developed and released by a significant margin, correct? While I don’t find it as universally sonically versatile as the 101 or 103 for instance, when grouped with the other moogerfoogers it makes a lot more sense to a layman’s ears than it does on it’s own.
At the moment, my favorite use of the Freqbox is as such: bass guitar into a suboctaver (oc2 is my favorite) with -1oct at 100% and just a touch of dry signal added, and played from the 12th fret up (so on the E string at the 12th fret= 30 or 40hz i forget). I add a little dry signal because the Freqbox tracks higher frequencies much better, so adding a little of the dry signal that is an octave higher results in a much smoother attack and sustain, while sounding very similar, especially after going through a filter..
Set the Freqbox to somewhere between triangle and saw and frequency around 3(you must adjust the frequency if you move up to the neck too far from that E). After the freqbox I use a lowpass filter with a Ramp or Sawtooth lfo and then maybe flange it, but the key is the lowpass with and the ramp/sawtooth with a relatively fast rate.
This combination produces the fattest punchy/stabbing/biting/chewy/other words that only make sense to me/ bass that I have not been able to recreate with Octave-dirtbox-lowpass/lfo. Squarish gated fuzz’s and distortions and all that just don’t come close to that added fatness from the moog oscillator, or at least I think it’s the oscillator that’s responsible.. im no expert, I just know what I hear!
I prefer using fuzz’s for slower filter sweeps, but for faster stabbing lfo’s, the freqbox kicks ass. Im still getting a grasp on it, but it’s a great pedal- it’s just not an instant gratification box (at least with a bass guitar it isn’t).