Making sure I understand the freqbox correctly

[ttolleson]

Before I buy a feqbox, I want to make sure that I can accomplish what I'm after:

I want to sync the freqbox's internal oscillator with a drumtrack coming out of the mixing board, and apply that to the signal coming out of my guitar. Will I be able to take a 1/4" jack carrying the drum beat signal out of the mixer, insert it into one of the freqbox's inputs, sync the freqbox's internal oscillator to it and then apply effects to my guitar?

Thanks!

T

[cliffman]

Eh, i don't think so.

You can control the frequency of the osc with a DC voltage (CV)

You can run an audio signal into the audio in, and use osc sync to control
the osc's frequency.

There is really only one audio input, the other inputs are all for control voltage.
So, if your drum machine does something with CV, you could use it to mess with
the freqbox while the guitar ran thru the audio path.. but audio from the drum
machine won't do much for CV inputs.

Really depends on what you wish to do. Have you checked YouTube for various videos?

[ttolleson]

Thanks for the info! Yeah, I've checked You Tube and found a few bits of info, but I'm kind of new to control voltage. I've seen this video where a DJ got control voltage out of Ableton Live and it got my hopes up that I could send audio as control voltage to the freqbox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ4wyz7a27g

The other option I have is to send a midi signal out of Ableton or the drum machine to a midi to CV control. I found a couple of them (below). What is the plug interface for CV? Is it 1/4"? The jacks on the back of the freqbox look like 1/4" compared to the audio in.

Moog MP-201 CV
http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CCwQ8wIwAw#


Doepfer MCV4: Midi-to-CV/Gate Interface
http://www.juno.co.uk/products/doepfer- ... 2BShopping

[SteveD]

Hey -

The FreqBox has a VCO and a single audio input.

You can Hard Sync the VCO to incoming audio. (Hard Sync is when you reset the start of an oscillator's waveform based on the frequency of another oscillator or signal)
You can frequency modulate (FM) the VCO with incoming audio.
You can modulate the frequency of the VCO with the AMPLITUDE of incoming audio (w/ the envelope follower)

Or of course any combination of all three.

In addition the amplitude of the VCO is modulated by the amplitude of the input signal (also w/ the envelope follower).

The input signal you use greatly impacts the sounds you can get from the FBox. A simple waveform modifying the FBox VCO, such as a monophonic line from a guitar or single oscillator synth, means that the output can be more pitched and predictable (though with FM, things can get pretty wild when the VCO and input signal are not harmonically related). When you use sounds like drum machines, things can get really hairy because of all the harmonics in the input signal. Basic rule: The more complex the input, the crazier the output.

The tiny little bit of audio demo left on the FreqBox page was a track I did using ONLY a guitar and the FreqBox multitracked - no other effects or instruments were used. It's kind of a dumb track but shows how you can get hard distortion/fuzz sounds, or electro/percussive types of sounds as well using a guitar @ the input.

Hope that helps!
SD

[ttolleson]

Great info, Steve. That clears it up for me.

I'm thinking that the MIDI MURf is the better tool for what I'm trying to do. That is, to apply effects to a bass/guitar audio signal in sync with the drum track. All of my gear is midi, so sending out a beat through the midi line is easy, and I'll probably get results that are easier to control that way.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain that to me, and if there are any other pedals that might help me accomplish this better, or would be a fun addition, I'd love to hear about them!

Tom

[jeepo]

I think the midi murf is what you want for syncing, but if you want to add grit and punch to the guitar the freqbox is great before the murf. The FB can get rather crazy and takes time to learn how to tame it.