I’m in the progress of assembling a band to play instrumental sequencer based electronic music with. For this I play my Voyager and thought I’d keep my foogers play a bassline along with that, or play a bassline together with the foogers. (In a call-and-response kind of way. Good fun acually!) Until now I’ve run a sequence with my MonoMachine, a simple unfiltered oneoscillator wave, that the freqbox hard syncs to, then phaser and last lowpasfilter for a little envelope action.
It’s basic but it does a descent bass sound. Thing is, it’d be nice if it would be a little fatter. I’ve been thinking about buying a used Minitaur for this but I don’t have much money to spend. It would be nice if I could add another oscillator to the set up I already have. I also have a CP-251 and a Kenton Pro Solo (midi to cv). I’ve thought about .com-modules, but it would be nice to stay “unracked”. Or maybe that’s not so important. I don’t know. Started thinking about adding a ring mod-fooger that could serve as osc for this purpose and do its ring modulating at other times. Would be quite something. Can’t figure out though how I would connect it all if I’d add the ring mod.
Anyone care to make suggestions?
Or maybe I should settle with what I have and stop thinking gear and focus 100% on making music.
I do! I program the bas sequence with the MonoMachine which sends a square wave (audio, just as if it’d do the sound of its own) to the Freqbox. The freqbox is set on Hard Sync, so out of it comes only Moogerfooger audio, though controlled by the MonoMachine. It’s rich on high frequencies since it’s a synced oscillator, but it isn’t that fat. A second oscillator with a slightly detuned pitch might do wonders to that set up. But that’s just my gear junkie fantasy. Could it be a step towards a Moogertron or am I better of heading somewhere else?
BTW. I’ll definitely post some music here when we’ve recorded. I’m the only one with Moog gear so far, but there’s one guy interested who’s got a Model D.
I mean: why don’t you use the oscillator of the FreqBox after MIDI2CV conversion? The OSC OUT might help… you need an envelope, but I guess this is true with a RingMod as well, isn’t it?
Could you use the audio & midi from your MonoMachine at the same time? You could midi to cv like stiiiiiive (too many i’s) said to control the freq CV in on the FreqBox, the use osc out. You will need some kind of gating tho depending on your musical line. Then You could blend the freqbox osc with to the MonoMachine audio, giving you multiple oscs. You may be able to use another midi cv for a gate into the audio in of the freq box, just don’t sync it, and use audio out with 100% wet on the mix.
Edit: You should be able to use the audio from the MonoMachine to act as the gate signal at the freq box. You will need to split the audio from the MonoMachine into two (via a mixer - CP-251?) then mix them back together…
So in other words, keep your set up the way it is… Connect midi out of MM to midi / cv… Connect cv out to freq cv in… Turn off hard sync… Set FB mix to 10… Split MM audio into two, one into FB audio in, other to be mixed with FB audio out.
If that works, try adding FM on the freq box and see what happens…
I can blend in the MonoMachines audio with a simple turn of the mix knob on the freqbox. But at least some of the “fatness” of two oscillators comes from having them slightly out of tune compared to each other. This won’t work with the example above because it’s exactly the same frequency.
The audio out of the MnM shapes the envelope due to the freqbox’s envelope follower. So I have to control envelope from there. But that’s allright. I’m quite satisfied with that. It’s the SOUND that I wish to improve and/or expand.
MonoMachine audio out → FreqBox input: sync is engaged, you get what you’re getting right now.
MonoMachine MIDI out → (conversion) → FreqBox PITCH CV IN: the FreqBox oscillator can be controlled by the MonoMachine MIDI track anyway, for either pitch following or anything else provided you use a econd track of the Elektron lady.
Have you tried to send a slight LFO to the PITCH CV input of the FreqBox with your current set-up BTW?
Good suggestion, but the pitch if the note won’t change with hard sync on…
By not hard syncing the freqbox, you end up with a very fat osc. Many have stated on this forum that it’s better than any other Moog osc currently available for bass notes.
You could retune by using the offset of the CP applied to the midi converted CV. And / or use the mixer to add a slight LFO like stiiiiiive said. There may be another way via midi? I don’t have all of the exact answers, I’m trying to help YOU find them.
I will be trying some of the ideas myself, as I have been trying to do something similar - play synth notes with a guitar or bass rig, using a small midi controller to do it. When I get to it tho is the question… @Mblom, wasn’t trying to guilt you or show I thought you were ungrateful, rather trying to suggest being creative with these starting point suggestions. It sounds to me like you have all the gear you need to accomplish this… But adding a ring mod never hurts
You should at least consider a few dotcom modules, just for Envgen and VCA purposes. It sucks trying to use the foogers as a modular when you can’t silence the volume. Adding the Envgens and VCA opens up a tremendous amount of options. But then you have a small power supply and unused rack space and the bourgeoning desire to expand that. Ahhh welcome to modular.
I refuse to go modular. It’s a gear junkies black hole. I would much rather play music and use what I got…
That said… Lol… I am trying to recreate an envelope generator of sorts, for this purpose - ie using moogerfooger oscs as pitch… The VCA is going to be a boost minifooger, but the envelope is the ?. I only need a triggered Sweep generator - really just an attack, but realize an ASDR would be useful. Problem is, I need it on a pedal board to go with me.
Pretty sure I will be building my own creation.
Back to the OP, have you tried using the Voyager, and switching patches between your call & talk back voices?
Maybe buy a circuit board and build up an envelope generator wired inside of your own case that you can grab from GGG.
Hexinverter.net has something called “the postman” because it delivers envelopes, get it! It’s a quad A/R env gen, primarily used for drum type sounds. So with no attack and a reasonable release, you can get what you want I think?
Otherwise, if you are that adverse to the black hole, why not just make a block box and buy a cheap-2nd hand module and take it out of the panel.
We all agree that the missing bit to the MoogerFooger as stand alone synth is the envelope generator, or maybe a VCA also though as you said, a boost pedal can do this.
Alternatively, you can find schematics on places like YuSynth’s site, or you can buy a MISS10 envelope generator (which is HADSR, by the way) for cheap from Mike Schmidt here: http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=95828
If you can come up with $300, you should look into the Arturia Microbrute. It will require you to convert the 1/4 to 1/8th wires/connections, and as far as I know, the voltages should work together. That’s if the Minitaur is out of your price range…
