Need Opinion: Which fooger to get next?

[EMwhite]

I have an Old School and a Little Phatty and am a Bass player. Bought the Midi Murf first and just now have enough cash for a 2nd pedal.

Which is more [generally] useful, Ring Mod or Envelope Fooger? I know it very much depends on what you are after... I just have a home setup, play in the evenings and am taking some classes at Berklee/still learning, this is not for a road setup and I don't gig at the moment, if that helps.

Thank you

[CTRLSHFT]

I have an Old School and a Little Phatty and am a Bass player. Bought the Midi Murf first and just now have enough cash for a 2nd pedal.

Which is more [generally] useful, Ring Mod or Envelope Fooger? I know it very much depends on what you are after... I just have a home setup, play in the evenings and am taking some classes at Berklee/still learning, this is not for a road setup and I don't gig at the moment, if that helps.

Thank you,

-Mike W. from NJ

Ring Mod 100%, it will take you all over the place.

[EricK]

COnsider the Freqbox, and Ill give you a few reasons.

First I started my musical journey as a bass player, and the Freqbox with a Bass guitar sounds really nice as a sort of distortion. I don't really use my ringmod with the Bass very much.

Freqbox Bassballs hybrid Synth
http://www.youtube.com/user/Rhythmicons ... Rw9eKgDawU

Freqbox with Rhodes and Bass guitar
http://www.youtube.com/user/Rhythmicons ... EqQOLsX_H0

Second, a Freqbox with the OS or the Phatty will be useful as a second Oscillator (if you have the Vx351 or the Phatty mod). I think that OS already has pitch outputs?

If you do go with the Freq, then get an EP-2 to go with it, and consider Novamusik as your purchase source because they will give you a GREAT deal on anything you buy from them, especially Moog products and I can speak from experience (they sold my Voyager select/vx351 for 2999)

You might also want to consider a Phaser pedal because it will benefit anything you put through it and it will sound nice with the bass.


My deal when thinking about what I need to get is how much usefulness will I get out of a single piece. In this instance I think the Freqbox is your best bet.


Eric

[Bryan T]

If it were me, I'd go with the ring mod. I'd recommend that you try one first, as some people plug into a ring mod and have absolutely no use for it. For bass, I use mine for fuzz sounds (carrier frequency set very high), tuned ring mod (tuned to the key I'm playing in makes some notes sound richer and some notes clangier), and for tremolo effects. Obviously, it can do the same sort of sounds on your synths, but also adds the option of a tracking ring mod and more.

I like the low pass filter a lot, too. If you use fuzz/overdrive with your bass, then it can be quite useful for taming high end. The envelope follower adds some unique CV control for other gear down the road.

Bryan

[Bryan T]

COnsider the Freqbox, and Ill give you a few reasons.

First I started my musical journey as a bass player, and the Freqbox with a Bass guitar sounds really nice as a sort of distortion.

I'm of the opinion that the FreqBox needs a filter after it. On your Little Phatty or Old School imagine always running the filter wide open. That's how a lot of people use the FreqBox, which is why (again, in my opinion) I've yet to hear a musical use of the FreqBox. Just my 2 cents . . .

[Just Me]

I have a ring mod and NEVER use it with my bass. (Rarely use it with my Voyager, it only gets used with my modular.)
I use my MF104 nearly all the time and would love to have a Phaser. I, as a part time bass player would look at the phaser first, then the delay. (So much more money for the delay!)

[EricK]

Bryan,
I haven't forgotten how much you love the Freq from the last time we had this conversaton lol. I remembered that as son as I saw you chime in on this thread.

I use it on the bass with just a HINT, as demonstrated in my videos at some point. If you let the Bass sound dominate the Mix, it makes for a nice distortion, thats about it. If he wanted to do it that bad he could use his Voyager or Phatty to filter it out.

I use the Freqbox with the CP 351 to add an extra voice (LFO or S&H for the background. Like I may run the voyager to the freq in the audio chain, to the ringmod to the delay. When I want to add some S&H to the voice, the freq is like having a miniature synthesizer voice handy, and for Sample and hold in this respect it does a wonderful job. You can do that with the bass. Put a sample and hold on the Freq in, and use a pedal to adjust the mix amount. I do this with the Bass or the theremin. I rarely use the freq as an extra Osc.


I never use my ringmod for Bass, not because it doesn't work, I just don't use a lot of effects on my bass.

[Lux_Seeker]

I sent my Freqbox's carrier into my Voyagers pitch mixed with other CVs. That was interesting. FMish. Tied it with the Mod Wheel and got some wild modulations. Then again, I am not using tthe audio out.

OK, here is my two cents.

The delay is great mostly because its really flexible in terms of the feeback loop but there are lots of ways of using it in musical ways but its expensive.

I have to agree that the Freqbox is difficult to use musically. I have it and as I said, I have used it but its a bit of a beast. It is mostly nice in a mix but would not be my first choice.

I have used the Ring Modulator with my Voyager but is only works because I tune it with the Voyager expansion frequency CV. Otherwise, its hard to use because its not tuned.

Low Pass - Musical. You can do a lot with this from suble to more extreme.

Phaser - Also nice if you want a phasing effect and flexible as well expecially if you talk CV. I have controlled the frequency with th XY pad on my Voyager as well as the resonance which makes for a nice controller for an alternative modulation source.

I don't have MURFs.

My recomendation would be a phaser or low pass. The delay is great but expensive and both of these have very musical applications. You will not find any difficulty finding a use for them.

[DontBelievetheHype]

COnsider the Freqbox, and Ill give you a few reasons.

First I started my musical journey as a bass player, and the Freqbox with a Bass guitar sounds really nice as a sort of distortion.

I'm of the opinion that the FreqBox needs a filter after it. On your Little Phatty or Old School imagine always running the filter wide open. That's how a lot of people use the FreqBox, which is why (again, in my opinion) I've yet to hear a musical use of the FreqBox. Just my 2 cents . . .

I agree. I use the freqbox 100% wet with my bass for clean waveforms, and any hard sync distortion on attack is covered completely by whichever filter Im using at the time. It took me a while to dial it in and have it tracking well, but it's become a mainstay in my rig, and I have freqbox #2 waiting at the post office for me to pick up tomorrow, for a true dual-oscillator setup (vs a Freqbox in parallel with a square octaver which Ive been using up to now).

If I were in the OP's shoes, I'd probably wait on the Lowpass and go for the ringmod or maybe freqbox. PWM sounds great on the square and pulse waves, very flange-y, and modulating the Freq input can do a nice vibrato as well.

[jeepo]

I have both the ringmod, and the freqbox, i never used the ringmod with bass, until i got the freqbox, with it's envelope follower, together they are a great bass team, my bass rig is bass to freqbox, to ringmod, to the filter of my phatty, i send the envelope to freq and rate of ringmod, as well as the filter cutoff. i use the freqbox quite often for the envelope alone

[EMwhite]

Wow. Looks like I'll need 2 or three of these (or may be all 9?)... in time.

Either Analog Delay or CP-251 is on my list Christmas and yeah, the delay is a fortune. I could easily buy a Lexicon but I'm not sure I want to get into those types of effects (digital).

Seems like Ring mod might be good for my organ if played off-leslie. I have a Hammond M3 that I'll shortly be pulling into my home studio. had plans to start screwing around with mic'ing the leslie but if a combination Ring Mod and delay would like do wonders for that sound.

Despite Eric's work, I'm still afraid of the FreqBox. Seems like a pitbull that needs to be trained but also seems very versatile for other purposes than distortion on slightly slightly wet funk for bass.

Could somebody explain to me whether the follower in the Freq box as carried out (1/4 envelope) is useful in controlling one of the Filters in either my Phatty or Old School? I'm relatively new at this but I recall when I first got my Phatty in February, I tried plugging my bass in and banging on it, to find out that I needed the gate open with OSC's quiet and still couldn't get anything useful.

Portamental put together what looks like a good summary on playing instruments through synth filters but I haven't gotten to it yet.

An answer on my question above would be great and as alway, I appreciate the replies and assistance.

[EricK]

Now this adds a little more info to the mix. Usually when someone says that they have anough for a fooger or two, a delay isn't an option lolol.

Funk Bass eh?

Organs....
(processing, processing)

If you play funk bass, youd probably want to have a LPF. Its not quite a wah but does good. The envelope outs on both the 101 and 107 can definately be sent to any CV destination and are 1/4th outputs. So yeah, pitch filter what have you.

I love the Ringmod on the Voyager for those outerspace sounds, for the Rhodes for tremelo (my preamp needs an overhaul) and also on the rhodes for those slow bending notes.

The delay will work fabulous on any instrument, hands down. THe murf in the effects loop in the delay woudl be sweet.

Basically man, I think you have all the info here that you need, you just need to make a decision. Please call or write CHUCK at NOVAMUSIK.COM before you assess how far your money will go.

Eric

[mgrfgrmadness]

if i were you i'd go with a filter for the envelope bass filter sounds

[EMwhite]

Ok, here we go again...

I have 5 kids ranging from 9 months old to 16 years, two wives, and a dog that hates me (only the dog and the ex-wife hate me).

So... money is tight and I don't want to buy a bunch of knobs just to have more knobs : )

I've been screwing around with my bass filtered through my Old School following Portamental's directions and am absolutely blown away by how many variations of pitch, and [using expression pedal] timbre can be produced.

What I really need is a 'follower' and have a feeling that either the Freq or Filter Fooger's follower will do a good job at controlling the filter on the OS based on how hard I play.

But I need you guys to tell me if I'm thinking about this the right way since I'm relatively new at this still. Are there any other of the Foogers that offer a similar function and let me do different things also (ie. would be more versatile than just buying the Low pass 101.)

Thanks again.

[Just Me]

A totally different approach could be a Synthesizers.com Q118 instrument interface
http://www.synthesizers.com/q118.html
Build your own housing. (Make it big enough for a couple of modules!)
And use the small QPS-2 power supply.
http://www.synthesizers.com/q101.html

Now you would have a neat little way of powering and using those things that arent available through a Fooger. (Reverb comes to mind)

Build your cabinet to hold a few Dot Com modules AND fit a CP-251 in it and youo have a hugely flexable CV interface.