http://earsmack.com/stuff/freqbox/
With GregAE’s permission I’ve made available 5 FreqBox samples that he had previously uploaded to MOOG Space.
Thanks very much to Greg, Brian Glock and Linda Lafferty for putting these samples together and for giving me permission to post them for others to hear. They pretty much sold me on a FreqBox!
Enjoy!
Added a link to a video to the page at http://earsmack.com/stuff/freqbox/
So far all impressions of this device suggest it’s the most awful sounding thing I’ve ever heard. I thought it was just the original soundclip that was bad, but every example posted so far sounds dreadful.
Is it possible to get a pure, rich, musical tone with one of these things, or does it always sound like an angry bee in a toaster?
i’m guessing you’re not a fan of the metasonix modules either.
it’s definitely possible to get a pure tone out of it. just plug the oscillator output into your amp, and turn the oscillator waveform all the way to triangle.
but seriously, this module may not be for you. i like it because it’s prepatched in an interesting way, it lets you break in and change things at most of the useful places, and it is a very useful addition to my modular system. the patch i posted didn’t sound “angry” to me, but my tastes have been changing a lot recently.
i’ve recently realized that for a long time i was filtering out most of what’s interesting in my efforts to create something musical. in the patch i posted, i tried to get as much variety of sound as possible under voltage control, and set the timing up so i could really listen to everything.
the freqbox is more challenging than the other moogerfoogers. i certainly don’t have any buyer’s remorse. but i think it will take most of us time and patience to get the freqbox to fully reveal itself.
Yes, I’m beginning to think I’m unlikely to buy one of these.
It isn’t always easy to tell at first - I’ve heard the Voyager sounding awful, but I ordered one without even trying it first because I knew what it could sound like.
In the case of the Freqbox, I’ve now heard four or five different people with it, and it sounds pretty much the same and just as bad every time.
I do like the challenge to make music with something new and different. It’s unlikely I’ll meet anyone with one of these, but if I do I’ll try it, but I certainly don’t intend to go out of my way for one.
Incidentally I phrased myself badly when I referred to a `pure’ sound. What I meant was a musically satisfying sound, rather than a sound with few harmonics. Bee in a toaster was one description of what I’ve heard so far. Like a gnat straining on the toilet would be another.
Sorry, Moog - I still love the Voyager, and I’ll probably buy a phaser from you and maybe a Murf, but things aren’t looking too hopeful for this one.
Yeah, I just checked out some more on guitar here, and I hate to say it, but it may be too extreme for me! While the abilty to use it as an extra, multi-wave’d (audio sync’d!) VCO/LFO and another envelope follower is nice, the VCO use is a little out of the question as there is no temperature compensation, fine tuning, coarse tuning (pipe length) or large linear tracking abilty, and I’ve already got a couple of EFs (Shermans, MF-101).
So far all I’ve really heard is distorted mayhem. Is it possible for people to lean off the FM dial?
It sounds like you might always need to carry your EP-1/2 around to tune the thing while you play…
Often it sounds like the 107 is “filtering” the input with the EF (?).
I really want to like this, so can somebody, Moog or otherwise, post a few more subtle examples.
Best,
Andy
I would agree that the guitar demos you mention are pretty insane - they scared me too 
However, I’m betting that the FreqBox can be tamed and can be used to add slight harmonic color to a sound as opposed to extreme noise. It would be nice to hear some folks being subtle with it…
Reminds me of the RingMod…you can make it sound more annoying than anything (anything except maybe a FreqBox 
but if you dial it back it can add just a perfect amount of color and/or motion to an otherwise dull sound.
As an aside: so where can you buy one of these things now anyway? Everyone is “expecting them soon” even the companies that seem to have already sent some pre-orders out.
EDIT: In listening back to the samples I posted originally from Greg/Brian/Linda I think the two “Voyager Riffin” samples are a great example of the sound I would look for from the FreqBox. It adds a nice grit to the sound of the Voyager without getting too out there.
Agreed. There is hope yet!
you can control hard syncing.
it is a challange, and as has been said before, is best with a clean signal.
My best luck has been my electric guitar.. splitting the signal before the harmonic adding effects… sending one to the hard sync, and the other to the preamp/ distortion, etc. adding small subtile tones is worthwhile [similiar to the ring mod] or carefully carefully carefully lining them up to track. on my synth i like the sine or triangle waves synced the best…
I got some really interesting sounds with the freqbox effecting my prophet 600. Again, it was fairly extreme in certian instances but I’ve found over the last week or so of playing with it, that the freqbox can really sound quite understated…it’s great on guitar to add some percussiveness and if you turn the mix down and don’t use any frequency modulation the pedal can actually sound really beautiful. I think we all know how many different sounds are available with the moogerfoogers. Most effect pedals don’t have the control that the moog ones do. Yes, the freqbox is more of a mad fuzzbox than anything else but with some experimentation I’ve gotten some pretty great, some may even say beautiful sounds out of it…before anyone writes it off you should test one out for yourself and then comment on the usrfullness of the effect.
It usually takes them at least 6 months to get anything new over here, and when it arrives it’s double the price. I think I’ll take my chances and order from Nova.
Any change of mind, Sweep?
I’ll have a change of mind when someone posts some of these beautiful sounds, or even some actually musical ones.
I’m not inclined to write off anything I haven’t tried for myself, which is why I’ve continued to download samples of this box being used. I’d still try one, given a chance, but I wouldn’t travel half way across the country to try one, which is what I’d have to do as there’s only one Moog distributor in Britain.
As things stand, though, I’d regard trying a Freqbox as a challenge to get something musical out of it. I would like to hear something worthwhile, now that people are reporting that they’ve managed to do something more musical.
wellwell.. come on
one persons “musical” is not the otherones “musical”
i hate musicals anyway. dont you?
Well up to a point, but there are sounds that are pleasing to the ear and sounds that make you wince, and while there isn’t complete agreement on that there’s still a pretty general agreement.
Disagreements tend to be about styles of music more than tones, I think? Most people agree about the difference between a cheap student violin and a really good concert instrument. Or, for that matter, about the rich fullness of tone of a quality Moog instrument, regardless of what might be played on it.
yes, but i love the nasty possibilities of the FB.
i allso think a totally overdrriven ringmod sounds very nice.
its just taste. there’s no agreement.
the comparison with cheap or quality is not a good one, cause i think for instance a cheap toy-drummachine can sound awesome.
I played with one in the store for an hour or two…cool guy, small shop, his suggestion was to run a drum machine through it…that is definitely a killer app…makes the crappiest drum machines [some cheapo thing they had in the store] sound fresh, wet and rad…
Then I struggled for half an hour to get something from the guitar out of it…and I like ring mods, and this was just not fun…I just don’t see it for this application…
BUT I think it really shines on mono synths…using it judiciously with the LP you can dial in to something wild and raw / unstable, that I associate with the Mini D more than say the voyager or the LP…
I think if anyone had either current moog synth and felt they were too clean and stable, this box is the thing that turns a nice healthy well adjusted modern synth into a hedonistic fire breathing monster…just my .02
I uploaded a few more samples…oh, did I mention I got my FreqBox today?
http://earsmack.com/stuff/freqbox/
The new samples include the Voyager, a Nord Electro 2 Rhodes and a Yamaha RX11 drum machine. Hope this helps give a good idea of what this thing can do. I tried to make some more musically useful sounds and also show the range of some knob turning so you can get an idea of where it can go.
Enjoy…and let me know if there are any specific sounds you might like to hear and I’ll see what I can do…
Nice samples, ZBQ.
Wow, much appreciated, zbq.
I think this shows you can get some good stuff out of it; you may just need to keep it on a short leash.
Number 3 reminds me of CtrlShft’s Filter Abuses
I’m glad the exchange rate is good at the moment! Just give me another week or two.
Glad you guys like the samples. I should get to play some more soon and have a few more up there. I want to run a few more things through it and see what I can come up with. Overall I’m very impressed with the FB.
In fact, late last night I put a little CV on the FREQ and got a great swooshing sound…very “filter-sounding” - I’ll try to whip something like that out for you to hear.