Humbly seeking advice/opinion.

The Moog Forum Moogerfooger Forum
1

Hi all. Here’s the scoop. I had been saving up for a little phatty, planning to replace my ailing prodigy. I’m a poor grad student though, so I’m really waiting for the cheaper model. In the meantime, I bought a mf-102, since I had wanted one for quite some time, and it makes my Juno 60 sound cooler, since I can route the 102’s lfo out into the VCF in on the Juno and finally get a square wave shape on the darned LFO.

The 102 is fantastic. It’s one of the neatest pieces of gear I’ve ever bought, I think. I play guitar and gameboy as well, and I like being able to run so many things through it. It makes my gameboy sound fantastic. This may seem weird, given that the nature of ring mods for creating gong and bell-like timbres, but ring mod on a glockenspiel is really neat.

So now I’m thinking about getting more foogers. and an expression pedal. I’m interested in the 101 and the 103, but the sound clips on the site for the 101 are a bit underwhelming, and samples I’ve heard on other sites (as well as reviews) seem very funk-centric. I don’t really play funk. So I was wondering what other people might use their 101s for. Anybody have any 101 experiences they would like to share? Or sound clips that are more varied?

Anybody have any sage advice or sound opinions?

2

I found the 101 by itself pretty boring. i actually thought mine was busted when i first got it. all of the other foogers have a pretty big variety everytime you turn a knob. this one only does a couple of sounds on it’s own. but when combined with the 102 and or the cp251 it’s pretty amazing. use the env out on the 101 to control the frequency on the ring mod is a very fun trick.

3

Hi Robo -

Not a comment on the MF-101, but a suggestion that you check out the article on the MF-102 on the SquareWave Voyager site (http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Squarewave/)

The article is called “Lord of the Ring Mod”, and it’s an in-depth look at the MoogerFooger Ring Modulator and the various ways to use it.

Running a game-boy through a Ring Mod is a cool idea - I’ll bet you get some pretty interesting sounds! :slight_smile:

  • Greg
4

Thanks greg! Though I do not have a Voyager, that was still an interesting article, and it gave me a couple of fun experiments to try!

I’m still trying to figure out whether to pick up a mf-101 though. Does anyone else have any thoughts? Duke Foog said he was unimpressed at first, and only got much out of it in conjunction with other units. Does anyone else find this to be the case? Do you crazy kids that have a 101 find yourself using it often or not as much?

5

I don’t want to sound overly negative, but I have to say that I have sometimes been under impressed with the 101. Maybe it’s just because the 102 is so useful and interesting, and the 101 pales a little beside it.

The envelope follower itself is a great effect to have around and if you don’t have a modular synth or some other synth (Korg MS, Roland SH come to mind) with this circuit, I would definitely say the 101 could be very useful.

You can take the voltage produced by the envelope follower (ENV Out) and use it to control any CV input you might have. The LFO rate or the frequency input on the 102 are good examples where this Envelope CV can used to great interest.

My issue with the 101 is that it takes quite a bit of volume/gain to trigger the envelope follower, especially from bass guitar. In my experience, this makes it a little difficult to get a whole lot of responce out of the 101’s filter.

Also, the filter itself (now I’m ducking, as they say in these forums) is not as colorful as I would like. It’s OK, it’s good, but, to me, it doesn’t sound like a Mini filter, or any vintage Moog filter for that matter. It does what it’s suppossed to do (it filters out low frequencies depending on the setting), but it’s a little bland compared to some other LPFs.

The self-oscillation comes in real strong at around 3/4s up, but it doesn’t really color the sound of the filter much below that setting. So it’s either off, or completely on— for the most part. This makes it useful as a tone source, but doesn’t really work well to give the filter much “grit” at lower settings. To be fair, this self-oscillation aspect is similar to some other Moog filters I’ve played.

All in all, it’s a very high quality instrument, like all the newer Moog stuff, so if you can get a used one for under $200-- it’s a good deal. You’ll definitely find use for it.

But if you’re paying close to $300 for a new one, I think you might be better off with a used Sherman Filterbank, a MicroMoog, a Rogue or something like this, for a little more money. Something with a little more color and tonality.

6

i love it to death. i use it on everything from synths to drum loops to vox to ITSELF (self-osc). i think it’s an awesome filter for everyday use (and it does get that much), and a great compliment to any setup, modular or otherwise. the env filter works awesome for me btw, i was a little suprised at the comments on here.

my only wish is that moog releases a multi-mode filter soon. i’m batshit crazy for a good ms-20 sounding bandpass sweep on bass.

7

I’d like to know what the core of MF-101 is based on.

I’m afraid no more nowadays-synth will react as a vintage moog did

Still available today, here is the most moog-sounding VCF i’ve ever heard.
http://www.oakleysound.com/super.htm


It’s has an enormous PCB, expensive IC
Far away for a pedal FX…

8

Sending soft synths through the 101 and back in for resampling is a very good use.

Also, I like to use the 101 on my bass for making those deep sub-bass lines. Roll the env. amount and cutoff back, and drive at whatever level it takes for just a little bit of grit.

9

I use mine all the time; I got it in a large part because of the Envelope Out but I’ve ended up using my pedal to control cutoff and play it quite often with my left foot. I usually run into the 101 then 104z with 105 processing the loops. I’d like to get a 102 and 103, though. :wink:

10

reading my above responce again, I think that I was a little too hard on the MF101. It’s a good filter, and now that I actually own a MiniMoog, I can say that the MF101 is similar sounding (but still, not the same).

But I think for use as a stand-alone filter, a Variable-State filter is alot more useful than a Low Pass. I use Band Pass filtering for processing audio the most, and prefer it to a Low Pass for use on bass and most everything else.

Something like an MS-20 clone would probably be better for someone wanting a dramatic filter effect for their guitar or keyboard. But it wouldn’t look as cool as the MF101, and it won’t be a Moog (until Moog decides to make a Variable-State).

11

Have you heard of a Frostwave resonator?

http://frostwave.com/theresonator/index.html

12

I have both the Frostwave and MF-101. I usually go for the MF-101 - not sure why, I just prefer the sound. Never had any trouble triggering the envelope on the MF-101, but I usually don’t use it - I prefer to control it with an expression pedal or with the smoothed-out sample and hold from the CP-251, or even with the LFO from the MF-103.

A couple of samples:

taurus VI - Fender Jaguar Bottom Master → MF-101 using both envelope and expression pedal - built-in fuzz enters around 3/4 of the way through

little taurus - Gibson Melody Maker bass → distortion (can’t remember which one!) → MF-101 controlled by CP-251 S&H

minus prolegomenon - the drone on this one is a Rogue going through the MF-101 in one channel and the Frostwave Resonator in the other, with both filters being controlled by the LFO from the MF-103. You can listen to one channel or the other to hear them by themselves, though I couldn’t tell you which is which! (The bass is through a Prunes & Custard.)

Hope this helps!

13

“minus prolegomenon” is an amazing sound - that’s what I want! Might be time to start buying some MF’s for my Voyager Performer.

Hmmm…I never really gave them a second look but maybe it’s time to…

14

Thanks! Just realize though that only the drone is Moogerfooger derived. The lead sound is an old Gibson bass through the Crowther Audio Prunes & Custard. I find that the old Gibson humbucker drives distortion effects differently, due to the massive output and bottom end (though that’s just an assumption). I’ve never achieved it with that pedal and a different instrument, though I haven’t tried too hard either…