Moog MF-102 Ring Modulator question / concern

As I’ve just recently upgraded from a 15W Valvetronix to a Hot Rod Deluxe, I’m just noticing this problem now. When using my Ring Modulator, there seems to be strange feedback during the end of its delay. It’s difficult to fully explain the noise it is creating, although it would be best described as a “crunching” sound.

I’m assuming I didn’t notice this before due to the lower volumes of my practice amp, but after doing a quick test, the feedback persists when using my Vox. All of my other pedals seem to be working just fine, so I have potentially eliminated my patch cords as the problem.

Any help help or advice or would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Can you be more specific? Post any sound files? Explain the settings on your ringmod?

Eric

I’m confused as the ring mod does not have a delay. Are you running some other effect before or after the ring mod?

Thank you both for your replies. Unfortunately, I am unable to record / post sound files and I am quite awful at explaining the situation.

Presently, I use the pedal mainly for its tremolo. The LFO portion is off, the mix is at 7, the frequency is at the 2.5 and the drive is generally off or set very low. The pedal is usually placed after my Line 6 DL4; however, the noise persists even when it is the only pedal in the chain. I have tried using my effects loop and the same noise was created.

The sound is quite difficult to explain without hearing it and “delay” may have been the wrong word; perhaps “decay” makes a tad more sense. For instance, with the above settings, if I were to play a chord and mute it, I would not hear the noise. However, when I let the chord ring, a “crunchy” or “fuzzy” sound occurs. When I increase the mix and frequency, it seems to be unnoticed.

Again, I apologize for being awful at explaining what I am hearing, but I do greatly appreciate any tips / advice.

Thanks again guys!

I also forgot to add that the “crunchy” / “fuzzy” sound I described tends to follow the tremolo pattern. Also, the modulator portion of the pedal is set to low.

Try increasing the drive until it starts to flash yellow. Sounds like you are trying to run below the noise floor of the input signal.

Seeing you didn’t have any trouble before, it might be a problem with your new amp. Perhaps an impedance mismatch loading the output of the 102? Is it possible to run in an effects loop?

I don’t use my ring mod much. (I never fell in love with it like most have.) But got to fooling around with it again tonight. I think I know what you mean now by delay. There is a noise artifact that decays after the input level drops to zero that lasts about 200ms or more. It almost sounds to me like the ring mod has an opamp or something in the output that is holding high after a signal. Kind of like long release on an Envelope Generator. My scope picked it up as a superimposed traingle waveform. But I can’t get a capture of it as it is changing pitch and amplitude continuosly. If that is what you are hearing, I’ll assume it is the nature of the internals. I can gate it out on percussive sounds and it hides in the background on any medium to long release sounds. You might call Moog to see if what yours is doing is normal.

That sounds right. The 102 has a built-in “squelch” at low levels to minimise the carrier bleed through.

sometimes when I am using cv from my freqbox to the ringmod, (osc to carrier in, I believe), I experience a rather long decay, not of anything crunchy, but more like space noise. I think i have only had this happen while playing bass, but that may be due to not using that patch for other instruments