The Last Frontier - MuRF

Lux_Seeker · Post by **Lux_Seeker** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:50 pm

Sadly (or not

) Moog has made foogers so good that I have gotten all of them now except for foogers. Moog once again made life difficult when they made the MIDI Murf and combined bass and orginal versions along with MIDI and an editor, ok, that got me interested.

However, when I listen to MuRF inspired and processed music, I hear dance music. My music is more ambient and experimental. OK, many here have told me that a MuRF can do that but is there one video or even audio sample that can show that?

I must admit I have been temped but I need to find ways to use a MIDI MuRF. I must admit, its nice from a technological viewpoint but it has to fit into my music.

Any videos anyone wants to post would be most appreicated and perhaps I will found out my fooger collection until of course Moog does it to me again. Stop the madness Moog, stop it now!

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 1:05 am

So you have all the foogers or you don't?

You should buy the Sonic Infinity DVD, or see if someone will copy the free one that they sent out. This details what the MURF does almost better than any youtube demos out there.

I want one so I can simulate Moog percussion to complete the lacking elements from my all moog album.

Eric

Lux_Seeker · Post by **Lux_Seeker** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:15 am

Thanks a lot for the reference. I ordered the DVD from Moog. I did not know this was out there and since I have all the foogers its a great DVD to have.

As for having all he foogers, yes, I do along with a CP 251, Voyager + Expansion. I started out being reluctant to buy a fooger. I was not sure if they were worth the extra cost but I soon fell in love with them and the Voyager the next progression.

I spent years with soft synths and don't get me wrong, they can do some incredible things but as an experimental composer, I like the element of mystery. Soft synths are not always predictable but analogue gear, expecially Moog gear has a way of doing things that I never would expect. It brings me back to the early days of electronic music when that designation really meant something.

It's funny how most people see a Voyager and see it as being limited or foogers and high priced stomp boxes with wood. The truth is its easy to miss the CV ins and out and that is the most powerful aspect. As I got more foogers, I found that the flexiblity grew almost exponentially. Sure, a modular would do this as well but then you are into power supplies and cabinets and things get so technically complicated that one loses sight on the music which is what its all about. I have come to admire Bob Moog a great deal because after listening to interviews with him, I got it. I understood what he was all about and that is the music. Bob made synthesizers for musicans. So often, companies try to fit musicans into their technological universe and something gets lost in the process.

Moog products maintain a nice balance and I also like wood, but that is just icing on the cake.

MarkM · Post by **MarkM** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:38 am

I must admit, at first I wasn't sure what I could do with a MuRF, and I never really considered purchasing one. However, I now have changed my mind. As an ambient musician I can say that the MuRF is a great addition to my sonic palette. I love to use it with a long envelope and have a mono signal in come out in two channels.. It also makes a useful fixed filter array when not animating. Animated, it can create some very nice textures to use in the background.

Lux_Seeker · Post by **Lux_Seeker** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:05 pm

Mark:

Yes, I can see that a MuRF might be effective for textures. I listened to some of your music again as I have done before. First of all, nice work. I to love textures. I think of my works as putting someone in a certain sonic space. I am a pretty big fan of Tangerine Dream and Klause Shultz whose music is all about putting the listener in a certain environment.

As I have learned, often the effective way to do this is to create motion. I do believe the MuRF can do this but before I buy any musical product I do two things. First, I find out what it does and often read a large part of the manual. I know most people don't do this even when they have the product but I am more like a mechanic who wants to open the hood and see the engine. Moog makes some great engines.

The other thing I do is also a forgotten art, I listen. My ears are ultimately the judge because I know what I want sonically and what I don't want. I don't want dance music and when I listen to MuRF videos that is often what I hear. Fortuntely, as I can hear from the works on your web site and I can believe is possible by tweaking the MuRF inito some unexplored terribory, I can see that is possible.

There is also no doubt value in having a fixed EQ as you have stated.

Thanks for the input. I will probably buy one but I always have to convince myself first. Keep up the great work with your music. I know what its like to write ambient. Many don't get it, they want to hear a thump thump thump beat but to me, ambient/experimetnal music is in many ways the real classical music of our time.

Bryan T · Post by **Bryan T** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:36 pm

I've never owned the MuRF, but I think it could be wonderful for non-dance music. For ambient music, I think it would work wonderfully for pad-like sounds. You could have things evolve very slowly.

With the introduction of MIDI, I think you should be able to use the MuRF for quite jarring effects between different filter sounds, all synced to a crazy MIDI sequence. Being able to turn the individual filters on/off with MIDI notes opens up lots of possibilities - polymetricly turn the filters on/off, for example.

Put your imagination cap on and I think you can come up with some really cool ideas.

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:37 pm

Lux,
I have never been a brandophile in any way shape or form. But I often try to reflect what really brings me back to Moog. Once you take all of the romantisism out of it, what really brings me to this company is because their products seem to grow. Anything thing that is alive (like some art forms, alive in that sence) truly grows and changes.

I first saw the foogers and as they are marketed to guitarists I saw them as that and I rejected them. I realized the limitations of the Micro and I wanted to upgrade. Then they came out with the sonic infinity DVD (the free one we signed up for). I saw that the circuits in one affect the circuits in another and a filter is not just a filter, a phaser not just a phaser like you find with other stompboxes. Synth modules in sheeps clothing.

I watched this video and immediately purchased the Ringmod for the rhodes, and I longed for the delay. I also got the idea of what the CP 251 did, as I rejected the need for such a thing. I never thought I was going to get into the need for voltages.

I have all three of them (including the Voyager, you might want to check that out too if theres anything about the voyager you were unsure about.)and I reference them constantly.

I wish that you could link together murfs like you can link together the VOS sequencers to make longer patterns.

Eric

MarkM · Post by **MarkM** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:48 pm

Thanks for the compliments, Lux.

I found a small sample of me using the MuRF in a live set from "The Gallery of Subtle Smiles" CD released by me and my collaborator, M. Peck. You can hear my Voyager going through it at 1:06 and especially at 1:40.

http://users.chartertn.net/getpix/Fligh ... xcerpt.mp3

Bryan B · Post by **Bryan B** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 3:11 pm

MarkM wrote:Thanks for the compliments, Lux.

I found a small sample of me using the MuRF in a live set from "The Gallery of Subtle Smiles" CD released by me and my collaborator, M. Peck. You can hear my Voyager going through it at 1:06 and especially at 1:40.

http://users.chartertn.net/getpix/Fligh ... xcerpt.mp3

That is really awesome. Thanks for posting the link!

Lux_Seeker · Post by **Lux_Seeker** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 5:22 pm

MarkM wrote:Thanks for the compliments, Lux.

I found a small sample of me using the MuRF in a live set from "The Gallery of Subtle Smiles" CD released by me and my collaborator, M. Peck. You can hear my Voyager going through it at 1:06 and especially at 1:40.

http://users.chartertn.net/getpix/Fligh ... xcerpt.mp3

Nice sample and that is the type of effect I want to get, much more suble and beautiful than the stand dance music applications that I tend to see for the MuRF.

Lux_Seeker · Post by **Lux_Seeker** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 5:29 pm

Eriic, I totally agree that foogers form a modular in sheeps clothing. For me, combining the Voyager, expander and CP-251 and the foogers makes for a true modular synthesizer. Granted, its not what you would get from Doepfer or on of the other modular synth makes but then again, you can pop those modules out and use them on their own.

Foogers also combine some things like envelope followers and LFOs so many foogers, while expensive, are really functioning as more than one module.

The use of the MP 201, expeically now with the gate functions greatly expanded, turns a system into a real powerhouse. MIDI (with the MuRF and the MP 201) also opens up a world that I have only seen in any significant way on a Buchla. You can get MIDI to CV and CV to MIDI but not the flexiblity that the foogers and CP 251 provide.

Lux_Seeker · Post by **Lux_Seeker** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 5:34 pm

I read the MuRF manual and while impressed, I am also confused by a few things. I presume that without animation, the MuRF functions much like an equalizer. The LFO appears to shift the frequencies which makes sense. But its the animation that confuses me a bit. The animation appears to be a series of 8 channels of gates each with the same envelope. Channels can have different lengths which is great because you can create polyrhthms this way. What I am not clear on is what the envelope is bieing applied to. Does the envelope attenuate the filter signal? If not, what is it being applied to?

The instructions don't have any block schematics which would have been nice but just curious how this works.

moremagic · Post by **moremagic** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:27 pm

They have demos on the site you should check out. It's only like an equalizer in that it has non-VC filters set to certain bands; they are much higher resonance band-pass filters than in any EQ. The envelope is basically like that of a VCA as the animation pattern runs through the different filters; there isn't going to be much sound bleeding out from beyond any of the filters frequencies.

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 7:09 pm

The envelope I guess sweeps to the cutoff frequency. Fast envelopes = those choppy demos that you hear, while turning the envelope towards the 12:00 position sweep them slower. Past the 12:00 position and they reverse themselves, sounding like its played backwards. At least thats the impression that I get.

A lot of stuff will be clear once you watch the videos.

Eric

moremagic · Post by **moremagic** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:18 am

EricK wrote:The envelope I guess sweeps to the cutoff frequency.

Not exactly -- The MurF is a filter bank, not a single adjustable filter. The envelopes are really the volume rate at which the different filters become audible