Moog Minimoog/MIDIMOOG not FM-ing??

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soundsubs
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Moog Minimoog/MIDIMOOG not FM-ing??

Post by soundsubs » Mon May 02, 2011 4:44 pm

hello group-
i have a really nice midimoog (one of the first 10 in fact with the break out box for MIDI) that ive owned for over and year and its always bothered me that the FM doesnt work properly.
for example, when flipping the MOD switch in the VCO section, this should route VCO 3 to FM input of VCO 1, which it actually DOES for VCO3 frequency set to Lo, 32, and 16, but not at all for octaves 8, 4, and 2.
when the octave switch is turned, the fm sounds exactly the same. on a friends minimoog, it gets clangourous and nasty.

for filter FM, it works as expected, all octaves on vco3 FM and it gets nice and nasty.

its important to note that everything else works perfectly fine.

any ideas?

soundsubs
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Re: Moog Minimoog/MIDIMOOG not FM-ing??

Post by soundsubs » Thu May 05, 2011 11:41 am

anyone got any ideas on this?

nicholas d. kent
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Re: Moog Minimoog/MIDIMOOG not FM-ing??

Post by nicholas d. kent » Thu May 05, 2011 8:31 pm

Might be a too obvious question. Have you asked studioelectronics.com ?

soundsubs
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Re: Moog Minimoog/MIDIMOOG not FM-ing??

Post by soundsubs » Mon May 16, 2011 12:00 pm

yup i emailed them and my contact there... no answer though.

strange that it works with filter but not with Oscillators.

soundsubs
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Re: Moog Minimoog/MIDIMOOG not FM-ing??

Post by soundsubs » Mon May 07, 2012 12:58 pm

...thought i might bump this to see if any experts have any ideas for me to try?

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thealien666
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Re: Moog Minimoog/MIDIMOOG not FM-ing??

Post by thealien666 » Mon May 07, 2012 3:02 pm

The proper way to check it is to set "OSC 3 cont." to "off", set "mod" to "on", raise the modulation wheel to maximum (on a MIDI controller), and then turn "on" OSC 1 in the mixer, and then play with OSC 3 fine adjust pitch and try different octaves.

The clangorous effect you hear on your friend's Mini, is most noticeable with high frequencies of both OSC 3 and OSC 1, while moving the fine pitch knob of OSC 3.

It should do the same for OSC 2.

If not, then there's something wrong inside this beast. But since I don't have access to any schematics, I can't be of any more help than this, sorry...
Moog Minimoog D (1975)
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soundsubs
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Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:17 pm

Re: Moog Minimoog/MIDIMOOG not FM-ing??

Post by soundsubs » Mon May 07, 2012 11:32 pm

thanks alien for the reply-- i did exactly as you described. what i hear is that it IS indeed modulating it, just not as much as it should.
i stumbled on an easier way to hear it audibly by turning all the vcos off and modulating the filter (resonance at max) because its really loud and changes can be more easily heard. as you described, moving the fine tune of OSC3 up and down changes it.

remember on the midimoog, they added a dedicated LFO. when i turn the MOD MIX knob counter clockwise, it modulates the heck out of everything i route it to. for the sake of this discussion, lets say that is at a 10 for amplitude of modulation. clockwise, however, and it BARELY modulates anything. almost as if the mod source has a VCA thats turned way down to a 2 amplitude. seems that the Mwheel is actually setting the level, but moreso on the dedicated LFO. again, i think its important that the octave levels 8, 4, and 2 are nearly identical in their modulation amount, whereas LO, 32, and 16 have tremendous effect.

i should make a video of this... a video is worth a billion poorly contructed fragmented sentences.

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