Filling in the Moogerhole

[benulous]

Hey Guys,

This is my first post from a long time lurker. I had been working on my band's 6th album for several years (concept double-album, 1.5+ hours long) and after we finally released it, I needed to purge (making the album was the hardest, most challenging thing I've ever done creatively and, once it was done, I needed to change some things and start fresh). So, I sold a lot of studio gear I'd been using for a long time and made the jump into CV/analog last year and started building up my home rig I use for writing our demos. While I've had analog synths in the past, I've never had one that I could really integrate into my writing process (Logic DAW, MIDI, etc). So, the first thing I got after I sold off some stuff was my XL...and it wasn't long after that I got flushed down the foogerhole...

It's NO JOKE how addictive these little sound tornados are!! I'm still getting to know my way around these guys and scratch the surface of endless sonic possibilities! I'm very thankful for this forum for sharing all the patching ideas that I've been trying out...I haven't had this much FUN making noise in years!

SO, to my point...I've got a hole in my rack that can only be filled by one white fooger. I think I've narrowed it down to either the 105m or 107. Every time I decide on one, I read something else on here that makes me go back to the other! I'm stuck. Currently, these are primarily played with my XL. What do you think? When I'm not writing songs using actual leads and basslines from the XL, I like to spend a few hours creating drones and experimenting with the patching to make weird aural soundscapes...

Thanks!

[Vsyevolod]

The 107 will give you (at the very least) another oscillator to fatten up your sound. When used delicately, it offers nice distortion and grit, subharmonic generation, plus a variety of wavefolding type applications. The mix knob is your friend.

The 105 seems like a one trick pony to many, though that's only when you use it without much imagination. Again, the trick is subtlety here. Use the mix knob to dial in the setting, then turn it way back. Try using a very slow rate on the LFO. Use it like a graphic EQ when set in 'no pattern' mode. Dial in some grit by overdriving the input.

It comes down to your workflow and what you want to accomplish. Me I don't think I'd want to have to choose... Don't you think you need another rack full?

Stephen




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[deadhedgehog]

I have both, but I think the 105M is a hugely versatile piece of kit. Can't understand how people manage without them. With new software it would be perfect.

[benulous]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm back to leaning towards 105M, again. It's just such a strange 'lil guy. I keep forgetting about the software editor on that one, too. So, it seems like it would integrate fairly easily in my established workflow. I was looking and I see that there is a VST for the program...but, no AU? Anybody else working with it in Logic?

[Alien8]

If you are in Yosemite, the stand along MuRF app doesn't work, and if you are hoping to SAVE custom patterns the app doesn't work right - no matter how many time sound tower says it does.

Aside from that it's an awesome toy. I vote MuRF for you since you already have a ring mod and ClusterFlux (2 extra voices) the freq box, while not redundant is not as great of a sonic leap in my opinion.

[benulous]

Thanks for all the advice, guys! I unpacked and racked up my new MF-105m last night! I'll be over here making blips and blops for a while!

[c7sus]

Do yourself a favor and pick up a male TRS > female TS adapter to use with the tap/step CV in. You can find them at Radio Shack.

I am preferring step over tap at the moment, and fixing to experiment with different length gates by CV sequencing of the gated step via a Frostwave Fat Controller and linked/unlinked steps.

And at least give the Soundtower app a try. I'm on XPPro and it works for me and saves patterns too.

[benulous]

Thanks for the advice! I'll head up to Radio Shack today. I've downloaded the app, but I haven't had the chance to fire it up and play, yet, but I will definitely get to it. AT the end of the day, I figured the worst case scenario is I'll run it from one of my older XP boxes to save patterns.

[Bryan B]

I love step in on the MuRF! Good advice above. Instead of a solid arpeggiation (the LFO provides) it is nice to program the steps and leave some negative space between hits or even only have a few randomized hits with longer envelopes.

The MuRF is great and it's power is found through lots of experimentation. I really like dialing a sound in before and after the effect and then playing with the mix knob by hand or CV. Sometimes it morphs into some amazing textures!

Don't forget you can set the MuRF to act like a filterbank/EQ. With MIDI many more things are possible!

[c7sus]

My attempt at sequencing the tap/step input yielded unpredictable results.

But sequencing the LFO/Sweep input resulted in some trippy reverb/echo-like effects, especially in the mid range bands.

Further exploration of these CV inputs is required...

[benulous]

Do yourself a favor and pick up a male TRS > female TS adapter to use with the tap/step CV in. You can find them at Radio Shack.

Thanks for the tip on this! I'd gotten the adapter and was getting varied results with just the XL. Tempest was a little clunky to get routed, cabled right to make it fun. So, I picked up a Microbrute at a good price (white, natch!) and I've been setting up some sequences and sending the gate cv out to the tap/step of the MF-105m. Hitting the MF102 first to give it a nice subtle bell-tone and a little overdrive grit and setting the murf LFO to sweep the bands before going out stereo and I'm in some percolating heaven.

[EricK]

I came late to this thread! Welcome to the forum.

I was going to suggest getting both the Murf and the Freqbox, and move the Koma to the stand.

THEN get a SEM to go with that beautiful white scheme you have going on.

And if you want to get ridiculous, see if you can get some Modcan in there.