Hi, I’m new here. I own the Analog Delay and Ring Modulator, and I just picked up a CP251 and Low Pass Filter this week, purchased new. I gotta say, this Low Pass Filter sounds incredible but I can’t believe how much hiss there is. Normally it wouldn’t be a big problem, but it’s noisy in bypass mode too! Is mine a bad apple or something? As soon as I connected my instrument cables and turned the volume up (bedroom volume when I tried it the first time) it sounded like a high gain distortion pedal, you know… the soft white noise you hear when you’re not playing anything.
Not sure if I can get past this noise issue. I’m using the 'foogers with guitar and it’s all going into a Fractal Audio Axe Fx.
Hi welcome! i own a 101, 102, 105B and cp-251 and never had experience what you describe, maybe it’s power related. What do you use to power your foogers? i’ve found that this pedals are really sensitive to the differents power supplies you use… but, like i told you before i’ve never get this kind of noise out of the 101 or other of my foogers
Yeah, check your power supplies. Also, did you try to turning down your drive settings on the 102 and 101? Bypass mode does not bypass the drive circuit. How much is your Fractal Audio Axe Fx potentially contributing?
I got my MF-101 a couple of days ago, and wanted to daisy-chain the power with my other effects, which produced a wicked tone at approximately 8 kHz.
My other FXs also need 9V but with a different polarity! I simply switched the wires and got 9V with the correct polarity at all my FXs from one PSU. I’m not into electronics so far, but I think that this kind of daisy-chaining caused potential differences between the ground of the mf-101 and my other FXs, and that this potential difference (=voltage!) led to noise.
If not already done, you could try using the included power supply unit with the MF-101.
Thanks for the replies so far. I’m using the power supply that shipped with it from the factory. I’m using a power strip and neither of the other Moogerfoogers are getting any noise from that, but this one has obvious noise.
do you have any cv connections on it? i not really sure of how that can affect tho the really weird thing is that you get the noise in bypass mode… mmmm maybe it’s time to contact moog or your retailer
Is the noise a problem when you are using it alone? My friend had a similar problem with his Line6 Tremolo pedal, it sounded fine by itself but as soon as he connected it through a few things it was really noisy. It was a Marshall Jackhammer, if I remember correctly, that was amplifying the noise.
I’d like to preface this by saying that I love Moogerfoogers (especially the 101), and it could be that something is wronger than usual in your case. However, I found that in my guitar rig the 101 did have a higher noise floor than I would like (especially since I prefer to run filters before distortion). And also, the buffer interfered too much with my ability to feel the amp responsiveness. So although I wouldn’t want to live without it, I decided that the 101 needs to live in a true bypass loop, at least when it’s part of the guitar rig. YMMV, but it’s one option to consider.
I love 'foogers, but all mine stay out of my chain when not in use, via bypass strips. My 101 and 105b were the worst offenders..
..though the replacement MP201 I received recently makes anything plugged into it loud… I can hear a high pitched whine being amplified by my filters, it makes it so I can hear the LFO in my ringmod cycling even when bypassed, etc… The high pitched noise Ive also heard from the Bass Murf at times even when nothing else is plugged in and the filters (mf101 and ms20 clone) amplify it when the cutoff is under 100hz… I don’t have the best power in my house so Im sure all these noises are somewhat related, but my 'foogers are the only culprits. The MP201 related noise very well could have been there before and I hadn’t noticed it before because I usually have a few things on at once and go right to jamming.
These issues don’t affect everyone though. The 'foogers just seem to be sensitive to power related noise issues, as well as rf interference apparently though I’ve never experienced it, and some people have had luck with shielding their pedals.
These are all pains in the asses, but sonically/versatility wise, there are no better options,(at least in pedal/hardware format, for my application; some may argue otherwise) so I keep them out of my signal chain when not in use and deal with it!:shock:
Thanks for the info. Since I posted this I got rid of most of my moogerfoogers to fund some other needed gear at the time. But now I’m planning on getting a Little Phatty and I do more guitar looping, so it’s “welcome back” time for a couple things, LPF being one of them.
If I remember correctly, I don’t think I ever tried to power it off of my Furman conditioner in my rack. Duh…
At any length, I hope it will be better this time around.
Just got mine today. At first it was a “big letdown.” The obnoxious hissing will occur if you plug a guitar directly into the audio in, which was my first instinct.
Seems this is a line level instrument. For guitar, if you plug it into the effects loop of your amplifier (I am using a Marshall JCM900 1x12 combo), it’s much quieter. I would also mention that in contrast to forementioned hissing, certain settings on the MF-101 will elimintate noise from single coil pickups.
All this “it’s your power source” talk… I’m 99% sure it’s not your power source. However I think it is sound advice to use a power conditioner/surge protector.
A guitar signal thru this unit has great potential for that Frank Zappa EF sound.
After reading further into the manual it states that you can plug any signal into it. So my vendor sent me a new one. It did the same thing, even in bypass mode it makes a loud hissing noise.
As I stated before it’s still present and not as bad when used in an effects loop. This would be because an effects loop doesn’t amplify the signal.
I wanted to know how could this could happen that I have 2 brand new MF-101s and they both make this awful hissing sound so I called Moog. Powered off my furman pedal board, they heard the hissing over the phone, had me change a few things, power source, cable, etc. It continued to do it, and Moog says absolutely not should the pedal make that noise, especially when bypassed. They also were puzzled how a defect that obvious could have gotten by their QC tester. So they asked me to send the two back, and have my vendor send a 3rd one, and stated they are eager to personally take a look at these 2 defective pedals.
I had asked other MF-101 owners if they have the hissing issue with theirs, the answer is always no, including the cool chick that did a great demo for the MF-101 Low Pass on youtube.
Hi there, I am also new to this forum.
I found this post because I have exactly the same problem with my MF-101 (early model).
The hissing noise makes recording through this unit impossible. I tried everything possible without success so far
(PSU´s, cables, power conditioner, different audio sources, different audio destinations) By the way: I don´t think that any audio source matches the input impedance of the MF-101.
I really think it is a shielding issue (at least with my particular unit). Even when in bypass mode, the hiss gets louder when I
touch the unit or a cv cable is connected to another moogerfooger. The 101 is the only unit I have with this behaviour at this point.
I will try to cover the inside of the wooden side panels with shielding foil and let you know if this makes a difference.
My grandest success with eliminating noise from the 101 was to eliminate the source, not to band aid the unit - tho that did help a bit.
Look for things like fluorescent lighting, other noisy power supplies, poor grounding in the building wiring, radio signals, above ground wiring, cell towers. When most of these were eliminated the unit was completely recordable. Due to the nature of the pedal, its really good at exploiting noise that is already present, rather than creating it, unless its broken.
Any permanent fixes for use one the road? Is shielding the entire unit the only thing that helps? This appears to be a problem specifically with the Moogerfooger low pass and not all of Moog’s low pass filters used in the rest of their products. It would be great to hear from Moog on this, because my low pass is also very noisy.
Btw, like mentioned above, at line level it’s not nearly as noisy. I can use it post in the studio no problem. It’s when it’s in the signal chain for a guitar. The is also my only Fooger that needs the drive almost all the way down for guitar.
@Alien8: Of course eliminating such things is the key to a clean recording in any studio environment.
But if you have one noisy unit in an environment of many that work fine (especially from the same series), it is most likely that you have to take a closer look at the unit instead of your studio environment.
Proper shielding has nothing to do with band aid. Most effect pedals come in closed metal enclosures - for good reasons. The Moogerfoogers have (great looking) wooden side panels, so maybe the problem will be solved in a few minutes with two pieces of copper tape.
I´ll have to wait for the tape delivery and post the results for my unit here.
@derdon: I was just providing input to your comments, based on personal experience. Be open to it or try to be right; that choice is yours. You probably already know this too: if you touch a pedal and the noise gets worse, you have a grounding issue in your entire system, just like when you take the plug out of your guitar and touch the tip, and you get a loud buzz. Are you sure you don’t have a phase issue between pedals in your chain? Best of luck eliminating the noise!
I would be interested in Moog input as well. There a lots of users that avoid the lpf due to comments like these. It’s worth the headache for me, its such an awesome tool.
Dont mix up audio signal and enclosure shielding here. If you touch the tip of your guitar cable, you short circuit. Of course you will hear a humming.
If you touch the sleeve, you shouldn´t hear anything because you are connecting the ground of the unit with yourself (grounded with the floor).
That´s what I am doing when I touch the MF-101.
Read my post again and try to understand what I am saying. The unit behaves like this even standalone behind a power conditioner in a totally seperated 230V recording environment according to german DIN standards - ONE ground level. EVERY other unit I have works fine even with the cheapest PSU, other moogerfoogers as well. NO issues here. So NO there is NO grounding issue to my entire system.
The two biggest offenders in my studio for noise are the monitor for the security cameras and any smartphone turned on. Anyone lays their phone on an amp and all hell breaks loose. No phones and no tvs allowed when recording. And my 101 is my noisiest Fooger, but not my noisiest stomp box by any stretch. Way to resurrect an ancient thread!
the really weird thing is that you get the noise in bypass mode… mmmm maybe it’s time to contact moog or your retailer
