Getting more juice out of old gear: The Multimoog

The Moog Forum Moog Music General Topics Forum
1

I realize the some of the most popular posts on this forum are about new gear. I know, because I read them too. Despite that, I hope that no one minds that this post goes in the opposite direction. I love it when someone gives me a useful idea about how I can do something new with an old piece of equipment. The particular piece of equipment in question is 35 years old and somewhat rare. I’m pretty sure that there will be a few people on this forum who might appreciate my sharing an idea that can help to bring new life to an old, rare piece of gear – the Multimoog.


I bought my Multimoog brand new from Mother’s Music in 1978. (I bought a second one in 1988 for 1/10 the price.) Apparently, Moog manufactured only about 1000 Multimoogs. Therefore, I realize that this post has limited appeal, but I am hoping that I might reach at least some Multi owners here on this forum (as well as on one other forum). I want to share a discovery that I made long ago. My discovery might not be an entirely unknown technique, but I have searched the Internet and read the original Multimoog manual and I have not found this information described anywhere else. The trick that I discovered makes the Multimoog capable of producing sounds that, I believe, it wasn’t intended to produce. (Of course, someone might know otherwise.)


I am an infrequent contributor here, but I am a frequent reader of this forum and I have always appreciated people’s generosity in sharing encouragement, ideas and information on this forum. In that spirit, I have created and uploaded some videos to YouTube that I hope someone finds useful. I certainly do not want to be the only person who knows this (as far as I know) undocumented trick. Admittedly, my YouTube videos don’t have high production values, but, I think that they explain my trick well enough. Some of the videos are short (1 minute long) segments where I improvised something to demonstrate a particular application of a sound. My You Tube channel is “Piktor Music”, which can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEKrAqZh_BAEyZpmTltlGeA

To do this trick, you won’t need to modify your Multimoog itself in any way. The trick makes it possible for the instrument to have capabilities that you might take for granted in other synths, but were not obviously available on the Multi:

  • Have continuous LFO control of sync.

  • Use an envelope to control sync.

  • Sweep the synced oscillators with controllers other than keyboard pressure.

  • Set oscillators A and B an octave apart without relying on the sub-oscillator.

  • Have all this and more!

  • bonus: Check out the way my sample and hold has mutated into something cooler. See the world’s ugliest home-made voltage control pedal.


    Let me know if you find anything useful or if you have any questions.

2

Interesting. I hope using an output as an input doesn’t cause any problems. Presumably someone here can comment usefully on that.

Thanks for sharing all of this. It’s good to pass these things on to people. It can be surprising how little of what’s passed on to people gets taken up - for example I’ve had quite a bit of praise for pieces I’ve recorded using the DX7 in edit mode and adjusting it while playing, but no-one else seems to have taken that up and used it particularly - but you never know what might be useful to someone and can take things in a helpful direction.

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Hi Piktor,

Thanks very much for starting this interesting thread.

i thought there were originally around 3,000 x MultiMoogs made and around 1,000 left ?? But thats just a rumour i heard a couple of years back from a couple of synth technicians, so i could well be wrong here.

The MultiMoog in your video has a number ‘1’ sticker on it. Any significant reason why ??

And is that you second MultiMoog on the upper shelf behind it ??

Where did you get the VC Pedal from ??

Best,

Paul

4

Thanks for the questions Paul and thanks for the You Tube comments. I responded to your YT questions there. (Could not figure out how to edit my spelling and grammatical errors though.)

That is my other Multimoog in the videos. It functions, but needs a little attention right now. I interfaced the two Multi’s for the first time in a long while, but the S-trigger plugs seem to be oxidized (?), so I haven’t got a good connection at this point. I’ll try to fix that soon.

Regarding the number 1: Years ago, I bought a Roland MPU 101 so that I could control both synths with MIDI. However, the voltages that came out of the Roland were not scaled right for the Moogs. My tech friend built me a box that allowed us to trim the voltages. Through some clever design work, he even got the modulation routing to work through MIDI on both synths. He ended up sticking numbers on the two Moogs to help me ID them for set up. I probably preferred Multi 1 for the main meat of a patch. Funnily enough, because my friend had run out of number 2 stickers, my second Multi is numbered with a 3.

Regarding the VC pedal: I explain its origins in the Start Here video. It is a very basic volume pedal (with a potentiometer) that I bought for $40.00 in 1974. The February 1981 edition of Keyboard Magazine had an article that explained how to convert a volume pedal to a VC pedal. I did have to buy a couple of inexpensive parts to do the job. The voltage come from a nine volt battery in the pedal. Alternatively, I’m pretty sure that some of the Moogerfooger control pedals would do a spectacular job. I’m thinking about getting the one with a rocker pedal and extra LFOs, etc. Maybe someone on the forum could comment about that idea.

P

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Thanks Piktor,

i just noticed i had missed one of your videos (the 6 x mins one) so i will give that a watch.

i will also check your replies on You Tube.

i thought that the VC pedals added a lot of expression to your playing but they are not something which i would use myself.

Cheers,

Paul

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It’s expensive and discontinued, but if you really want to breathe more life into and elevate your multimoogs to another level, look into the MP-201. It has done wonders for my model D, even though the D has limited cv inputs. With the cp-251, I get up to 5 LFO’s, or up to 7 different modulation sources at a time, plus using the third VCO on the mini.

Honestly, I mostly use just the filter CV on the mini (as well as CV ins on MF’s), but still am able to get endless combinations of modulation, and never run out of things to do. Another cool thing is the MIDI to CV on the 201, which i use a small midi keyboard to play the filter or delay time in discrete steps, which is extremely cool. The multi has more CV options, so I am sure you could have a lot of fun with a CV/mod/mixer/pedal combination.

Also besides all of the modulation options, actually the best part of the MP-201 for me is the expression pedal. I have never played any pedal, whether wah or expression or whatever that is as precise, smooth, and expressive than the 201.

I like your videos because they point out something that is important to me in synthesis, that you don’t need a huge flexible setup, a small simple setup and an abundance of creative ideas can be far more effective.

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Fwiw, the Roland MPU-101 has trims inside that can be used for scaling.
No idea how much range they have, but they’re there.
Also, one can hold down a certain button while powering it up and have it produce S-trigs instead of gates. (inverted gates)
I don’t recall the button, but there aren’t many on the unit anyway.

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i thought no more then about 1000 were made all together
going to look into the video quickly, just discovered it, thanks !

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Thanks for the information unfiltered37. I thought that might be the case.

Thanks for the tip about the MPU 101 Kevin. I bought that unit so long ago, I can’t remember if I was aware of the trim pots at the time. I also wanted to thank you for hooking me up with your very last pitch ribbon and some of that tape for recovering the worn ribbon that I had. (That was about 3 or 4 years ago.) If you checked out any of my short videos, you can probably see why I wore through so much of that covering in the past 35 years.

P

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thanks for the video’s
my tip:
i always connect the ribbon output to the filter input.
thereby i get a more nice effect when ribboning, and also the level can be adjusted on the back, and i can use the ribbon for only the filter , or filter and one ( sync) or two osc . works very nice.
i always find the sound of the multimoog more closely to the voyager then the originalmodel-d , but having said that , i 'm aware i go offtopic.
great instrument the multi, use her also live, handy, good sounding, quick to tweak

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i find the MultiMoog great for BASS sounds but not so great for LEAD sounds. And i can’t get it to sound like a MiniMoog !! i paid 1,000 GBP for it 5 x years ago and in that time it has need one mini service (costing 100 GBP).

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it sounds different
it can scream too, especially thanks to the vco to vcf modulation

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hi there. just joined this moog music forum after hopping over from VSE
watched your Youtube video about the basic ‘hack’ youve done.
just my two cents…

could be that the KB Touch acts much like the (weird 3/16’') modulation jack on the back of the micromoog. being that it is a 3way/switching jack. it is wired something like this:

(disclaimer: these tip/ring values may be switched up)
Tip is the outgoing KB Touch Value
Ring is an Incoming signal to input to the KB Touch Destination/Mod Destination
Sleeve is a ground? (I think)

The service manual documents how to modify a TRS to TS by flipping the ring/sleeve to use the outgoing Touch/Mod signal, or another special cable to run an auxilliary mod CV into the mod jack. my dad, the user ‘Armillary’ made me a special cable to run my CP251 signals into the mod jack. you can find some info in the back of the manual, im looking at info on the force sensor routing thru Jack J15 the mod jack…

so maybe on the diagram of the back of your multimoog, the KB FORCE should also be under on/off outputs. There is also an extra ‘switch’ to the jack, where if nothing is plugged in, it continues the routing of the Touch Source/Dest.

It appears what you are doing, is simply plugging the pedal in on the ‘Ring’ connection of this 3 way jack, thereby sending the pedal’s CV value to the KB DEST routing, negating the internal KB force as a control (it shouldnt work when you have the pedal plugged in right?) seeing as how you have to select the destination to route the pedal.

not bashing you, but i have found in my experience it is better to leave the modulation section to the internal routings most of the time. as there are some interesting parameters you cant patch into (no waveshape CV input, it is harder to find a better S&H than the internal) but it is sometimes cool to route a lag processed signal in from the CP251. i might also leave the KB Force as an internal routing, because the touch control is one of the unique features of this awesome synth, and by bypassing with a less interesting method of control (the pedal) your missing out on a lot of expressive control!

if i know im gonna be modulating something normal, like the pitch or filter i will go in the jacks in teh back of my micro, leaving the mod bus as is. i suggest you experiment and do the same. your pedal trick should work on the Mod jack as well…

again these are my two cents mirrored off how i understand the open system modulation input to work. perhaps another more technical user or my father ‘armillary’ will butt in and defend/refute

14

Yes, it does.

At first i was a bit disappointed when i got it because it did not sound like a Mini. But then after spending time with it i began to appreciate it for the SOUND that it offers. The BASS sounds are not like a Mini but they are still very rich and beautiful in their own way.

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Hi c-level,

Thanks for trying to solve the mystery. If you watch the longest of my YT videos and have a good look at how crudely I built the voltage control pedal, you can see that I barely know which end of the soldering iron to hold. :slight_smile: I don’t really know how or why signals are flowing in or out of the Multimoog the way they are. However, I can address a couple of the points/suggestions that you made.

I agree with you that a synth player must try to be as expressive as the player of any other instrument should be. Musical sounds should be dynamic; there should be changes in tone, volume, register, articulation (attacks and releases), pitch (vibrato, bends, gliss…) etc. etc. In MY own way, I’m all about that and I had hoped that the examples that I presented would show examples of my version of dynamic expression for a Multimoog.

I also agree that the Multi’s keyboard pressure feature can be a useful means for adding expression and I do use it. It turns out that plugging the voltage control pedal into the keyboard force output/input (with an ordinary 1/4 inch guitar cable) does not defeat the keyboard force function. I can use both the pedal and keyboard pressure at the same time, though I cannot route them to different destinations. However, if I use the modulation wheel, I can do things like route the filter contour to osc. B waveforms and use the VC pedal to dynamically apply the filter contour to something else (e.g. filter or osc. A pitch).

You are right in suggesting that the VC pedal will work on the filter and VCO inputs. However, when I plug into the keyboard force output/input, I can access the filter and oscillators with key pressure AND the pedal. I ALSO get to do things that pressure cannot give me. With the pedal, I can do some of the same things that I can do with the mod wheel. However, because some modulation routings are only available through key pressure, I can add those expressions in a more flexible way with the pedal. For example, if I want to sweep the synced oscillator, or open the filter as I play an ascending melodic line, I can do that with the pedal WHILE I work the pitch ribbon and use the wheel. If I rely only on keyboard pressure, then I can only add the sync or filter sweep on a single note that I hold and press. Yes, you could use your left hand to tweak a knob as you play the melodic line, but then that hand would have to abandon the pitch ribbon and mod wheel. For me, the pedal is a very workable solution to not having a third hand. To some people, that might not seem necessary, but I read an interview with David Sancious once where he explained that the reason he sits down to play is so that he can have his left hand, his mouth and both feet available to work various expressive controllers. Again, it’s just the way that I try to express music. At the same time, I’ve heard some great playing from people who approach synths much differently than I do.

P

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Hi Piktor,

Yes, thats correct and on lots of the early synths (as you will obviously know) the player has to work HARDER in order to make the instrument ‘sing’. And from watching your videos it is clear that you adhere to this concept. Your You-Tube examples illustrate this point very well.

However, i personally do not go anywhere near to the extent that you do to try and achieve these ‘expressionistic’ qualities. i can happily live without the Aftertouch and Velocity parameters (and array of Foot Pedals) etc. i work hard to try and make my Bass Lines ‘sing’ (melodically) and i find that by adding a touch of Mod Wheel and Pitch Bend i can get results which i am satisfied with.

Just another of many approaches to synth playing !!

(Great thread btw :smiley: )

Ta,

Paul

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i often like it more when people actualy play with the sound instead of showing how good they can play the keys.
the multimoog therefor is one of my favorites as it’s developped more around the concept of constant and fast tweaking
it’s a great instrument and a true synthesizer for synthesizerplayers