line-level/impedance matching

Greetings!

I use a MF-101 (among others) with my synthesizers.com modular synth. The raw audio output from the dotcom oscillators really overdrive the MF-101. In the past, I’ve used an attenuator to reduce the audio signal feeding the MF-101, but I’m not sure that’s the ideal solution.

One thing I considered is the possible difference in line level signals. I understand that line-level can be at either +4 dBu “pro”, or -10 dBV “consumer” levels. I was thinking that because the unattenuated oscillator output overdrives the filter that I’m dealing with this problem exactly. I was hoping to see what you guys thought though :smiley:

According to the synthesizers.com technical page, it says the following:
Signal Input Impedance: 100K
Signal Output Impedance: 1K

One way I’ve considered dealing with the problem is putting the filter after the volume amp module.
I’ve searched the forums, but most impedance posts seem related to other guitar effect pedal mismatches or building your own foot pedal. I’m open to any suggestions or whatever tips & tricks you might suggest :smiley:

Greetings,

After some additional playing around here’s what I discovered. The audio output from the synthesizers.com Q106 is HOT! I ran a sawtooth wave directly into my RME Multiface II which has a front switch that allows you to select from +4, -10, or “high gain”. Only when I moved the switch to the high gain position did the oscillator not overdrive my audio card. Sooooo that explains things nicely. The solution in my case is to continue attenuating the Q106, as there was no impedance problem. The synthesizers.com system simply uses hot internal audio signal levels to maintain a high signal to noise ratio I’d imagine. In any case, it’s time for me to grab some patch cords and plug in :wink:

I’d love to see a pic of your modular/Moogerfooger setup, and if you can post what you come up with, that’d be great as well!

Greetings,

I hadn’t checked back on the forums in a couple days and saw your post. I don’t actually have any of my synthesizer recordings or videos online YET, but I’m just recently getting into this “YouTube” thing everyone keeps talking about and I plan on uploading them really soon. :wink: You can also check out my website, where I’ve got some pics of my studio and some associated articles I’ve written. My voyager and dotcom handle most of the heavy lifting in my studio, with my desktop DSI Evolver providing additional awesomeness when required (I love that little synth…)

Here’s an article I wrote about using the Voyager as a dedicated controller for my modular:
http://notinachos.com/?p=27

Here’s my YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/notinachos