I kinda forgot about this thread until i stumbled upon it again a few days ago. I can’t speak for absolute sonic clarity, but I can say I have been really rocking out to my m32 hooked to my akai headrush e2 running on tape echo mode utilizing the outputs for heads 1 and 4, with head 1 running straight into my hall of fame (set to church) and head 4 running thru my recently acquired cheapo behringer vd400 vintage delay before going into the hall of fame then out to a stereo mix (actually 2 guitar practice amps because i was lazy and wanted immediate results). I’ve been planning on hooking all 4 heads up separately with a different delay for each head output before going into mixer. It’s trippy as hell with just the 2 channels!! Maybe in a week or so after work dies down I’ll record an example and toss it up on my soundcloud.
The Akai Headrush is a very cool and unique delay! I’ve often wondered about taking all 4 tape head outputs, putting each through other effects, and then into four amps placed around the room. I would expect it to be a very trippy surround-sound experience!
I get great results with the Belle Epoch on a send. It’s supposed to lose some bass because that’s what the Echoplex EP3 does. From the manual:
The Echoplex was not necessarily “hi- fi”. As the echoes repeated, the signal got progressively degraded, losing low end and gaining a shiny, percussive top end with a bit of grit. The first repeat is strong and then it gets more and more diffused as it repeats.
I had an Re 20 for a while but the longer I had it the less I liked it. I didn’t think it suited the Voyager that well. It definitely sounds better on some things than others and I didn!t like it when pushed into overdrive. The patterns it does are good though.
If pedals you want to use can’t handle line level it’s worth investing in a reamping box and DI/preamp to match levels.
This isn’t exactly a pedal, as there is no “bypass” switch. It has a power button on the back. Anyway, the Vermona Retroverb Lancet is the most interesting effect box I’ve ever used, and it sounds fabulous on anything you run through it. Analog multimode filter and a real spring reverb which can be set pre or post filter. Also has an LFO that can modulate the filter freq or amplitude, and an envelope generator that can be triggered by external audio input or control voltages. I’m working on writing a full, multi-page review on the thing, but for now just take my word for it! I use it for all sorts of things: guitar, vocals, synthesizers, drum machines, cassette recordings… Oh, I forgot to mention that the internal amp can be driven to distortion just by turning the gain knob up past 50%. Really nice, crunchy overdrive sound. Going back to the reverb: spring reverb has become my favorite type of reverb after getting tired of the Eventide “shimmer” style that seems so popular these days, yet sounds exactly the same no matter what you run through it. I found that I’m not really into “clean” sounding instruments or devices, which is why I’ve sold off most of my professional gear and perform / record mostly with toys now (aside from the few choice pieces, of course). Sorry for the tangents. The Retroverb Lancet costs quite a lot, I think $600 new, but I think it’s absolutely worth the price tag. I was fortunate enough to find one locally on Craigslist for $475 so I jumped on it.
I’ve been in the same boat for some years now, good to hear someone sharing the taste of dirt
On a side note, since I’ve also been interested in plate reverbs, I wonder in what extent I like the idea of using old, limited devices, but that’s another topic.
Kenneth (and all), in my quest for a nice spring reverb, I remember having read about the Retroverb Lancet. Maybe I was more into vintage stuff at that time, or maybe I wanted something simpler. I got a Carl Martin Headroom which is not adapted to synth input levels, and I realized I missed a lot the possibility of having 100% wet sound. I remember finding out the Demeter RV1 that has this possibility, and finding out it was too rare on the used market to be expected.
A few months ago, I took the opportunity of getting a Boss RX-100 (same as Roland RV-100): not a proper pedal neither, but GREAT spring reverb. I think the engineers used some pre-spring filtering trick because it has a very balanced tone, not twangy at all. Plus I discovered that no mod was necessary for having 100% wet sound For Eur 150-200, I highly recommend this one.
More recently, I also took the plunge for a brand I’d been wondering about for years: Van Amps. I got a Sole Mate with the “Wet & Mixed Ouptut” modification: sounds great too, far dirtier than the Boss, other character.
I may look to the ads for the Retroverb Lancet in the forthcoming days… ahlala…
This appears as a great, great unit (so you do own something that makes me jealous ). Almost a Moogerfooger-style unit (times 4-5). Would this successfully become a small analog synthesizer with the oscillator of the Freqbox (controlled by a cv keyboard)?
Thanks for mentioning it (I have looked at the close competitor, The Ekdahl Moisturizer, but it is rarely available in my parts of the world - the Vermona is)!
I notice Proco Rat on the good list on page one. I thought it sounded pretty bad without a reamping box in front of it. Not only does feeding the Rat the correct impedance get you a better sound, it gets you a wider range of usable tones.
Only downside to the Rat is that it has quite a high noisefloor compared to other pedals( well compared to anything, lol ) I’ve tried. I have to use a noise gate with it.
@DemonDan and Gregae - thanks for the videos. Most helpful.
Does anyone know if Moog are going to make more MF104’s ?
I tried to buy one last year but was about a week too late to catch the last of the UK stock. They also disappeared from most dealers outside UK around the same time and the few that were left on Ebay doubled their price.
The Moog website says “find a dealer” and nothing about them being discontinued, even though none of the dealers have had them for ages.
I must have been the author of that
I actually use the RAT with a very low drive setting, just enough to get some mid frequencies and very, very little saturation. Using a reamp box shall certainly work better, but I must say I’m happy like this and tend to keep things light.
I may try this some day though…
call me a stupid s#$%, ok so my background is guitar and guitar pedals, so i’m dumb when it comes to all this electronic mumbojumbo sometimes…what is the difference between this https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ZBox and something like this https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DualRDB. seriously this is where i get electronically dumb!? demondan seriously your videos make me spend money ask phil schwan. anywho, this seriously is my most favorite topic on this forum. recently picked up behringer vintage tube monster and vintage phaser … which a few days ago i was very happy with but i’ll give them a better go thru via some moog synths
Regarding FreqBox and Vermona Retroverb Lancet: I have exactly this combination, works excellently. It’s one of two parallel processing chains hanging off my Etherwave Pro (the other one is MF102/101/103). The FreqBox vco cv is driven by the EPro pitch cv out, tracks ok. EPro audio goes to 107 audio in, with care you can do very nice, theremin-controlled 2-operator FM things (and the 107 is definitely not a piece of junk, for my purposes).
I have a footswitch set up to trigger the Lancet envelope, but there’s no reason why a normal gate signal shouldn’t work. The sound and feel of the filter in the Lancet is very good, different to MF101, but highly musical and useful, with lots of range for subtle nuances. Definitely recommended, even if it doesn’t carry the logo of inverted semiquaver tails in a circle on it (or Big Briar with Bob Moog’s signature, like on my vintage MFs 101/102/103).
I actually had a prerelease/prototype version of the Retroverb Lancet to play with before I bought the final thing, I gave Vermona a bit of feedback on it which went into the final unit. (I live in Germany.)
It looks like the Z Box is to change guitar level to line level. It’s a D.I. box in a slightly different package.
The RDB changes line level to guitar level. It’s a reamping box. You would place it after your synth( or sound card output or drummachine , or whatever) but before the first pedal in your signal chain. Then you’d have a DI or preamp( some soundcards have a Hi z input you can use ) between the last pedal and your mixer or DAW input to get back to line level.
ah!! so if i’m understanding correctly i kinda need both? for example my little phatty into the"rdb" then to pedals then the “zbox” out of the last pedal into mixer/daw etc.. or something similar. starting to make more sense. thanks
Correctamundo.
That Art RDB you linked has 2 channels so you can use it for stereo or two independent mono channels. Not sure how it sounds though.
I use Palmer Decappo that are quite cheap and compete soundwise with some of the radial reamping boxes.
I had a homemade one before (not made by me) but it sort of took some of the colour out my signals. The Decappo is far more transparent.
I found that going directly into the Rat that it’s either too much or not enough and the distortion and volume knobs have a tiny usable range. With the reamping box there’s a wider range of usable tones from subtle to not so subtle and the whole range of the knobs becomes usable.
Got it!
It does a lot of different things, and it sounds really, really good.
BTW, as I’ve spoiled myself lately by completing my MoogerFooger set up, I’ve connected the MF-107 oscillator out to the Retroverb Lancet and my LP’s envelope CV out to the CV input of the Retroverb. I was truly surprised to hear how close the Vermona filter is to the Moog one soundwise.
Thanks Kenneth
On a side note, I’ve been considering selling some stuff for getting one of the 222 Vermona '14 lately but gave up the idea… This has me thinking again… Rha. Here is a demo.
