Alright, so I have some grad money coming in. I’ve been thinking about some gear purchases, and I need another Moog at least. I’m having a tough time deciding whether the low pass filter or 12 stage phaser would be right for me. I have the ring mod, cp-251 and ep-2 pedal.
These would mostly be for use with guitar, but also on their own with the
ring mod’s oscillator for madness.
I think having the filter would be good to get synthesizey leads. I’m not a big fan of the classic auto-wah type sound though. I also really like the S&H filter sound like on Zappa’s Ship Ahoy or the Who’s Relayer. There are also several non-guitar applications that I could do using the filter’s features.
I never really use phasers much, but I really like the sound of them for certain lead sounds. They’re all over the 1973 Mahavishnu Orchestra album the Lost Trident Sessions for violin and guitar leads. I would guess being 1973 that its a Mu-Tron Phasor I. Lush rhythm work could also be had. There are not as many applications for non-guitar stuff using the phaser’s features. (In my head at least with my gear)
Basically I think the phaser would be more versatile for guitar work rather than making bizzare sounds, and vice versa for the filter. I’m leaning towards the filter however. I don’t really have a way to test either pedal out, none of the stores near me have them in stock. Whatta ya think?
I have never used the MF-101, but I can testify that the phaser is very bad ass and capable of some pretty wacky sounds, other than just typical phaserish stuff. Capable of some nice shimmering almost metallic sounds. Neat!
That being said, I have only used Foogers with synths. Guitar could be an entirely different animal.
The filter gives you an envelope follower. That’s a very useful control voltage to have. Trigger new sample and hold values, make your ring mod follow your picking dynamics, have tremolo sounds speed up or slow down as the volume decays, etc.
The filter sounds great, too. I use it a lot after a fuzz pedal to tame the high end. Controlling it with a CV from the CP-251 will give you a lot of dynamic filter sounds, too.
101 all the way, it’s the most useful fooger in my opinion, (although 102 is right up there too since it has so many cv ins and outs) and it’s got a valuable mod source as an env follower. 101+102 means you have ALOT of timbres at your disposal.
Don’t have a 101…yet. Eventually I’ll get one. For now, the 102, 103, and CP-251 do a great job of adding harmonics to my synth. Never tried it with a guitar, but my thinking is if you run carrier out to audio in of the phaser, guitar to audio in of the ring mod, and throw some S&H in there somewhere, you’ll get some mad effects.
Definately the filter. Other than just an auto-wah sound it makes a great tone control, put the bbe sonic maximizer to shame I think, I know its not exactly the same thing going on but as far as adding some nice low end it beats it. And if put before the ring mod you can get some amazing talking sounds. And not to mention the fun space gun sounds you can do.
There is really no one answer to this question. It really depends on you musical style. However, with foogers, especially if you have more than one, we are not only talking about the sound any particular fooger makes but how well it can be integrated.
Many have commented here on the envelop follower of the 101 which is no small benefit expecially in combo with the CP-251, your current 102 and whatever foogers you may get in the future.
I have all fooger but the Murfs and the phaser. I guess the reason is that I have a Boss rotary speaker emulator which I prefer musically to simple phasing and it does allow for an exression pedal.
I guess the benefit I see to foogers over standard pedals like Boss pedals is that they have CVs and that is no small benefit. It makes them really flexible. I guess I just don’t see as much benefit of having CV ins and outs on the 103 but again, its a matter of choice and realize that there are many cheaper options out there for phasing or even simple tremolo and some have been classics like the univibe.
thanks guys. I was definitely thinking that the envelope follower would be a very useful CV to have. Colorform: I’d be interesting in learning more about those “talking” sounds when used before a ring mod. i’ve used an mf-101 twice and once I did get those laser gun effects, very cool indeed. I’m getting more convinced that the filter is the right thing for me.
About the phaser’s cv’s lux, I think it would be useful because using other LFOs you can get really sweet phasing patterns, especially with sample and hold, and staircase s&h where a triangle or sine lfo is sampled rather than noise.
Probably gonna go with the filter, but anyone is still welcome to put their input in.
Well for the talking sound, I don’t have them in front of me but from what I remember. 101 set amount to full, cutoff to about 10 or 11 o’clock, speed at however you like, 4 pole, mix full, and res just before it starts to self oscillate.
102 set mix to about 4, and freq hi set about 4 or 5 oclock. You can use the lfo for subtle “wowowow” effect.
This setup works best on the lower 3 strings with the neck pickup on, and sounds really good on a bass guitar
The 101 is going to open up some dynamic effects for you, which is where the fun really is for guitar and the 101 IMO. You can make a guitar quite percussive with it.
The phaser was my third fooger, and I love it… but it is still only a one trick pony compared with the other foogers. It is probably the most versatile and useful one trick pony in the world of one trick ponies. Yeah I said it .
Comparing the two, both are filters… one self oscillates, one oscillates in stereo. One is LFO based but not dynamically influenced (except for drive), one can sound LFO based via picking.
I think having the filter would be good to get synthesizey leads. I’m not a big fan of the classic auto-wah type sound though.
I never really use phasers much, but I really like the sound of them for certain lead sounds. There are not as many applications for non-guitar stuff using the phaser’s features. (In my head at least with my gear)
Doesn’t sound like either will do it for you. The filter isn’t going to give you “synthesizey” leads. Perhaps you need to invest towards a Roland synth guitar setup. I know. . . this sounds blasphemous coming from me.
No, no, no. Don’t say it! Actually, the non MIDI based part of the Roland synth looks ok to me. I hate pitch to MIDI and hate is a weak word there. I got a Roland guitar synth a while back (not the latest one). Its now burried in a closet never to see the light of day and it really belongs in the trash. But don’t say you heard that from me.
This is not really a guitar and its not pitch to MIDI:
I know this is not a Moog product but I think this is the idea. I am sure all this is doing is running the signal through some type of distortion, perhaps a high pass fitler and an auto wah with different fitler settings.
I have always been a fan of ways of getting a guitar to sound like a synth through effects and that way, maintain the natural timbre and dymanics albiet processed. As you can see from the link above, with enough processing guitars can sound like synths and of course, from the Moog side there is the Moog guitar.
There is no question in my mind regarding the awesome sonic qualities of the Moogerfoogers, but I have never really heard a synth-like sound come from the MF 101 or 103.
That Digitech does a nice job. If anybody on this board has come up with some synth-like sounds similar to the Digitech from their Moogers and guitar, would they post a video or audio sample? I would love to hear it.
Or as an analog alternative to the digitech synthwah there is the electro harmonix microsynth. The digitech pedal gets boring after awhile I had it for probably 3 months before I sold it to put money towards a fooger. if you get the 101 and some sort of fuzz and octave (sub and octave up) you will get the nice synthy leads your looking for I think.
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It does one thing in a thousand different ways. 