don’t forget bassists! 
I think that you have to remember that the market share for guitars(and guitar related products) is far larger than any other instrument market. This is undoubtably why the MFs are designed like guitar pedals… the market for analog synths–let alone modular synths, on the other hand, is tiny by comparison.
This is also why you have a chain of music stores called “Guitar Center.” They sell everything, but their main buisness, by a wide margin, is in guitar sales.
So, in order for the MFs to appeal to the broadest possible instrument buying market (and so they can continue to sell and stay profitable) they are designed in a way that won’t intimidate the average consumer (in other words, guitar players). So, even though they’re obviously analog synth modules, they’ve been dropped into a format that is already familiar, and non-threatening, to a wide consumer base.
Now that I think about it, this may also be the reason why the jacks are all placed on the back of the MF–where they are obviously least accessable. Probably, it was intended to hide them. I think most people who are unfamiliar with using CVs and making modular patches would probably be initially confounded by this large amount of jacks.
It seems like it would obviously make more sense if the jacks were right in front where the stomp switch is… but probably this was thought to make them look too complicated…
For instance, I’ve been playing analog synths for more than 15 years (bought a MicroMoog for $50 in the early 90s at a pawn shop)… but it wasn’t until I started using MFs in the early 2000s that I started to get interested in modular synthesis and using CVs instead of MIDI.
I was aware that my Micro had a bunch of jacks in the back that were intended for some kind of control functions… but I had no idea how it worked and was actually scared that if I plugged in the wrong jack it might “break” the synth. As foolish as this seems to me now, I seriously remember thinking this… But there weren’t the same kind of internet resources back then, and it was impossible (as far as I knew) to find a manual for this “ancient” Moog synth…
In any event, if I put myself back in that mind-set, I can sort of understand how a dozen jacks placed directly on the front of a Moog “pedal” might seem daunting (to say the least).
I think it’s because Guitarists like it on top. If you’ve got a pedal board it’s easier to fit them on top of the pedal and it will avoid you kicking them as you put the stomp box on. It’s just much easier to organise that way, and it’s a fairly standard convention that if the jacks are not at the side they’re on top.
Apart from that I totally agree with your post - better to get 1% of the huge guitar market than 50% of the smaller synth market. Making them look like a normal pedal makes guitarists much more likely to buy as we’re such luddites!
Yeah, you’re right, that’s true too. Maybe that’s the reason… but it sure would be more convenient for me if they were in front. I also play guitar too… but I never use more than 2–or maybe at the most 3-- pedals at once when I play guitar. So, it would be alot more convenient for me if I could get right at the CV jacks… even if they don’t line right up with my volume or wah jacks…
I know you’re just kidding–but just in case-- I didn’t mean to suggest that guitar players are somehow less technologically inclined than synth players. Which is why I added that bit about myself-- how I also didn’t understand CV at first.
It’s a little bit esoteric.. and people in general are taught from an early age to be very careful around any kind of voltage. So I think it’s a very natural response to be kind of initially hesitant to this weird world of CV technology.
To guitar players, most of the CV inputs mean only one thing. PEDAL INPUTS!
The CP-251 is what really pushes people who love 'foggers to experiment.
I remember getting my MacBeth Moroco, and beginning to mess around with my Sherman FB2. That put the taste of CV in my mouth. It was like a shark tasting blood. 
I was kidding, but thanks for the politeness! I think guitarists in general ARE less technologically inclined but that’s why I like the Moogerfoogers so much, it’s like a gentle step into the world of synths. Mind you, this stuff is bloody addictive, I’m now after a Freqbox and I’m hankering after a Little Phatty now as well.
Yeah, tell me about it… It’s just been maybe a year and a half or two years sinse I bought my first MF (knowing very little about CV)… I then started modding all of my synths for better CV control… and then I decided to just start building a modular (thought it would be cheaper than buying one)… I’m getting there…
4osc voyager
I would like to know if the freqbox osc goes into the sub-audio range, meaning it can act as a multi-waveformed (continuously so!) LFO.
I’d have to disagree that guitarists are less inclined to know about electronics than other musicians. The only place that would be true is keyboardists. But just think: the electric guitar is electric so guitar players usually have some idea about how to work effects and whatnot. Agreed, most guitarists don’t know about CV but I think that’s also true of keyboard players. People who are into analog synthesizers…and there are quite a few of us out there, know about CV and analog vs. digital, but to the rest of the music world, they couldn’t care less. BTW, ever tired to talk to a horn player or a drummer about effects? It seems the majority of effects pedal users are quitarists so it makes perfect sense that the moogerfoogers are marketed as such. For you synthesists out there, there’s plenty of stuff made for you. And for keyboard players (different than synthesists) there’s plenty of stuff made for you as well. You can knock moogerfooger enclosures all you want but at the end of the day they are guitar pedals meant to be used on the floor…although they are awesome studio effects as well.
What products would you suggest that “keyboard players” use?
well, I play keys and guitar and I actually like the moogerfoogers for both: I find usually keyboard players like to have their effects on top of their keyboard so they can change settings with their hands and whatnot. I know this is true for me, especially when I’m playing a mono synth like the voyager, which deon’t require more than one playing hand usually. Guitarists like to have their effects on the ground where they can keep thier hands free and use thier feet to engage their effects. The moogerfoogers work well for both and they’re great studio effects as well…wow, this is beginning to sound like an ad for moog isn’t it?
::fingers crossed on that one::
Interesting thread especially about “up top” or “on the floor”. As a guitarist that is what I love about these moogerfoogers: all the “guzintas” for pedals and CV controlling so you can tweak with your feet. Probably not as accurate as with the hands but it makes for a range of sounds you’ll never get with traditional stomp boxes.
As for the Freq Box, I voted “wait to try one/reviews” but really I’d have to hear something very different than the samples/demo video I saw. When I saw that a new moogerfooger pedal was coming out I was pretty interested. The murf samples blew me away and I just got one (finally!!!), so I had high hopes for the freqbox not even knowing what it might actually be. To me it just seems to make or add noise, not very musical noise at that either. If the demo video is a good representation of it’s range of sounds, then I dont’ see it being very useful to me. The Ring Mod seems to have covered the same sonic ground the freqbox is going for, but in a better and more musical way.
I’m also pretty sure I’m wrong and really just waiting for someone to show a more useful range of sound from it.
i think the video demo could have been better. i wasn’t impressed so much with the sounds the actually made in the demo, but it did give me a pretty good idea of what would be possible. having an analog oscillator that you can hard-sync will produce completely different sounds from a ring modulator and will provide a very useful signal, full of upper harmonics. with the ring modulator, you don’t really end up with more harmonics than you put into it. so while these modules may sound kind of similar alone, i think you’ll notice how different they are once you start sending the output through a low-pass filter like the mf101. i will probably put the mf107 before the mf101 most of the time in the filter chain, but i tend to put the mf102 after it (and then the mf103 phaser after that).
I totally agree. I was even pretty impressed with what I heard on the video. while I realize that FM is not super different than Ring Mod, and isn’t even all that unusual of a sound (in as far as most people who already have a synth can already get these tones). I felt like the hard-sync thing is fairly revolutionairy… at least I’ve never seen or heard a VCO that hard syncs to normal audio signals… but the whole thing in total-- with FM, sync, and an envelope follower for both the pitch and dynamics of the VCO— that seems like a pretty big package of effects to me.
I also don’t see how any effect could be less “musical” than Ring Mod. To me, RM is about the least musical effect you could possibly use. I’m guessing this Freq Box will have much more musical application… It seems like it will have a similar application as an Octave pedal (although, apparently very different…). Octave pedals are used all over rock music recordings, etc… I’m thinking the 107 will cover similar ground (as well as doing RM type stuff, and distortion, and weird synth stuff). And it sounds kind of original too…
I can’t wait to try it. I think it’s gonna be the best Mooger yet (maybe even by a wide margin). Coupled with a 101 or 102, etc… I’ll be surprised if it isn’t completely amazing…
Already ordered 
Already ordered. I have been waiting for a stand alone Moog VCO for awhile. Every comment card “A VCO!” If I didn’t buy it now, I’d invalidate all future product suggestions. I can’t wait, looks very versatile.
I agree with a lot of that. IT seems to me that the Octave up pedals a la Hendrix are like ring mod but maybe they’re more related to this freq box-- I dont’ really know.
I can see, as pointed out by Chris above, the usefulness of the lowpass after either the ringmod or the freqbox. I tend to switch up my effects often and try not to run so many at one time, but I need to get my ring mod, low pass, murf and cp 251 together for a “play-date” (which I’m afraid is probably a reference only those with kids will get).
Octavers are square wave generators that output a frequency at various mathmatical divisions of the input frequency (typically up or down an octave or two). These two signals are mixed at the output.
Ring Mod is sort of the opposite-- instead of dividing a frequency, RMs multiply two frequencies together and output the result.
This new 107, is simply a VCO mixed with the input signal. But the VCO will also be “controlled” in various ways by the input. Different than an Octave pedal-- but probably can sound similar (or maybe can sound even exactly the same-- but not limited just to this). It will also be able to do alot of RM type sounds because frequency modulation of a VCO sounds very similar to RM. It also does a bunch of other things-- which is why I think it’s going to be a very useful MF-- maybe the best yet.
Yeah, I’m the same way… I rarely use more than 1 or 2 effects at any one time… seems like whatever signal you’re processing tends to get obscured too much past 2 or 3 effects… but then that may be one’s application…
Still, at this point, with a VCO now, it may not even be about processing external sounds anymore… but rather just about “playing” the Moogers themselves as one would any other synth…