This thread is called "C'mon Flux" so I'm going to give it some prodding.
After MUCH haggling with UPS I retrieved my foogin' Cluster Flux late last night. So far its lived up to its name!
Someone said that Nova Musik is a great company, either here or in the other Flux thread. I will say that they are friendly and have great prices, but their shipping department is the absolute pits. I had to make an address change when they didn't fulfill my initial request to have it shipped to my current digs and they blew that one. The other problem with shipping is that they use UPS, which is probably the most inept shipping company on earth. They couldn't even be bother to try deliver it to the original address which was listed (my parent's house) and yet they claim that they did, so I had to drive out to their local headquarters for pickup. In the past UPS has destroyed valuable artwork, etc.
This thing is an amazing piece of musical equipment. I will say that initially. It has some awesome features, and the capabilities seem endless.
Why the external feedback loop, guys? The only useful thing I can see out of this is maybe a murf or something equivalent. There are really enough feedback capabilities already. An LFO out would have been endlessly useful . . . but I suppose that's what "Copilot EFX" etc, are for.
My primary interest is the Random or Sample & Hold, but I have found it to be lacking subtlety in its transitions between the waveforms especially at slow speed. Its almost more "wacky" than useful, and clearly the "Smooth Random" feature is key, but the true analog musicians among us have thusly been screwed. The only MIDI which I was considering adding to my chain is the MP-201, and now they have discontinued this. Great!
Does anyone else suspect that Moog Music has become the Pied Piper leading us Analog Angels to the Digital Devil?
Another issue, is that when using the CF is in chorus (or flange) has the TIME setting maxed and with more than the first notch on the feedback either way, it begins to emit some serious nasty high frequencies. Even with no feedback a high resonating pitch is slightly noticeable in the mix, and I realize that this is may not be an issue for everyone, primarily I am using an RMC Polydrive II with Fishman Loudboxamps which are so clear sounding, and excessively treble-y. The 104s have the same issue. Once you starting adding feedback and have the LFO Amount between 0-4, it starts making all kinds of nasty high pitched squealy sounds (at least mine does) intermingled with the effect.
mico wrote:
It is also important that I note that I did not do any trials with my MF-104z because it had started acting most curiously when I was using it to record a track for my full-length. The Feedback section seems to have lost it's cycling ability over the '8' mark. I need to look further into that, but I'm sure Moog would able to troubleshoot for me when I send it in for the long-overdue Spillover Mod.
Mico, you should read my 104 thread from the last weeks/months. The problem is likely the demultiplexing IC which can be fried or at least overriden by power/voltage issues. Have you checked your outlets for Grounding/Proper Wiring? The answer I have found (besides getting a repair mod soon) is a little inconvenient but effective: Unplug your 104 power supply before you power up your rig, then put the power supply in once the juice is flowing. This seems to make the necessary "jump," in my case. It would suck for gigs and stuff, I suppose, but my 104s no longer act so unpredictably, which was way suckier.
) the ins of stompboxes should be in stereo, too. In general, it makes sence to connect MF with 99% other keyboard and DJ stuff, but in stereo. If you have the whole KB and DJ Market on watchlist, there can be only one answer. 