Micromoog and FreqBox

solarpanelasses · Post by **solarpanelasses** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 8:39 pm

Ok so Ive been trying to patch my Micromoog and Freqbox together to essentially make my micro a 2 osc synth. I own a Multimoog too and CV the Micro and Multi together, now only if I can get this FreqBox thing going so I can have 2 2 osc synths patched together.

I have the KBD-OUT of the Micro going into the Freq-IN on the FreqBox, and the OSC-OUT of the FreqBox going into the AUDIO-IN on the Micro.

Now when I do this I can only get the FreqBox to scale for a couple keys and then the osc's drift apart. Also it seems that I cant control the frequency of my micro at all when I do this. And the weird thing is that even though I can hear the drift of 2 oscillators, it still sounds like a 1 oscillator synth even when theyre synced.

What do I have to do to get this to work so I have a 2 osc synth?

sir_dss · Post by **sir_dss** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 8:59 pm

I know with the Voyager when the released the CV wasn't exactly at 1vt/oct It was something like .092/oct...or something like that. So they had to include a daughter-board to standardize the scale to 1vt/oct with the Voyager/CX351.

Did/does Moog have their own scale?

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:27 am

Do you have the model of MicroMoog with an attenuation pot directly above the KBD output?

What needs to be done is the Keyboard signal needs to be attenuated and it needs a cp-251 or some other attenuator to do so even if you have that pot.

I actually found it quite difficult to do, and I think that the FreqBox needs approx 15-20 minutes to heat up as well because its not temperature compensated.

You can't control the Freq of the Micro Oscillator at all?

Lucky you to have a MultiMoog and a Micro....

theres a thread on this already...lemme find it...

EricK

solarpanelasses · Post by **solarpanelasses** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:59 am

I do have the micro with the KBD attenuator, i have attenuated it with that but it still drifts after a few keys, will i need to get the cp-251 to successfully do this then?

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:39 am

There are other companies that make attenuators, but I don't know about them off hand.

watch this guys videos and at some point he explains the attenuation, but it seems a bit more complicated requiring a tiny screwdriver, but I think its a cheap attenuation unit possibly from radio shack or something.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dXCnTliH1l8&feature=related

THe cp-251 will solve that problem and create more (like realizing that you need more and more MoogerFoogers! hehe).

My attenuation knob on the Micro is set somewhere in the 7-9 o'clock range and i haven't touched it since I was running the 102 and the 107 together.

I think what you have to do is (and someone will likely jump on here like GregAE and tell you the exact procedure) to run the kbd output attenuated to the freq in. Then Freq out on the 107 to the audio in on the 107, and the audio out back to the audio in on the MicroMoog.

What I did was I had an organ behind me and I started on Middle C to make sure the Micro was good and tuned, then on the Micro I jumped octaves (on the keyboard) and tweaked the atten on the back of the micro and on the cp251 and the 107 Freq until it tracked the octave. SOmetimes I turned the Osc switch off totally to isolate the freqbox. It took a long time. WHen i powered down and came back to it later it was all off, so I think that was due to the Freq Box temperature instabillity.

Maybe if you can't control the frequency of the MicroMoog at all then you need to turn your bypass switch to OFF. I think in the MicroMoog Manual it states that anytime you want to use the AUDIO IN then you turn the bypass switch to on....not in this case, the oscillator will drone if im not mistaken.

With the cp251 I multiplied the keyboard signal, sent one to 1 attenuator, one keyboard signal to the other. THe first attenuated signal I sent to the Ring Mod, the second to the Freq box. Then I made an Osc out to audio in on both pedals, routed them both back to the mixer on the cp-251 and then to the audio in on the Micro and I got the three Osc synth that way.

Does this help?

In the meantime Im sure that you could still do some cool stuff with the 107 and the Micro by switching the Micro's Octave to Wide and adjusting the Freq there for a crazy interval from the Freq Box, or turn the Freq Box Frequency up so high that it just creates wierd pitches along with what you are doing. Double your Micromoog's Oscillator and maybe you can get something musical out of it until you find an attenuator.

THe Cp251 will really really rock once you start patching endlessly in the night....

Respectfully,
EricK

ColorForm2113 · Post by **ColorForm2113** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:19 am

something that i stumbled across when trying to use my ring mod as an extra OSC. try running one of the Audio outputs into the freqbox input, sync it, then run the audio output of the freqbox to the audio input of the micro. first i would try usinf the LO out of the micro to the freq to reduce the chance of creating a feedback loop (which actually sound pretty wild, its something i like to do alot with my micro) then slowly increase the volume of both til they are at a even level. it will probably track better this way. if your not getting enough volume from the freq plug it into the HI audio out. then use the LO out to your mixer/amp. keep the micros volume down and turn up your mixer/amp instead, or get a boost pedal.

hopefully that makes sense, and hopefully it works because thats how i intended hooking it up when i get mine

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:44 am

THat brings up something else....THe drive control on the 107 is very important to the type of sound that you get. WHen I hooked them all up together for 3 Oscs I noticed that the Freq Box dominated everything else on the mixer of the cp-251. It was really hard to get an even balance. I think the master output on the Mixer was very low. Turning it up to about 12 seemed to make the MicroMoog and the Ring Mod dissappear in the mix. There are 2 controls for signal strength and the one that the Freq was plugged into didn't seem to have much of an effect, whereas the Ring Mod's mixer input strength pot worked as I suspected it should.

Maybe that has something do to with the drive knob.

I still haven't made that feedback loop hehe. Man I think theres probably hundreds of ways you can hook up just a few of these pedals together!

EricK