Controlling Moogerfoogers with CV only

[EricK]

Like any Analog Oscillator, it is always vibrating. The Freqbox's Osc Out would be the output you are looking for.



Make sure the CV of the Roland is compatible. Plug it's CV out into the Freq in of the 107. Depending on the Voltage levels of the Roland, you might have to attenuate those CVs to get it to track properly (should be a good 6 octaves). Get a small patch cable and plug the Osc Out into the Audio input of the 107 (When you do this, the Frequency knob will act like a coarse control, and the envelope knob will act like a fine tuning knob. Its a good idea to start somewhere around 12:00 on the Freq knob and play a c major scale (2 octave) until it properly tracks.). Then connect the 107 audio out to 102 audio input. It may work without you using the little patch cable but that's how I do it when I get it to track my MicroMoog because it has a different voltage. Its not necessary when using the Voyager to "feedback" the freqbox in this manner just to get it to track.

Now, you know that the Ringmod can also be controlled in the same way but your waveshape is limited to a traingular shaped wave. In theory you should be able to get them both to track at intervals with a multiplied and properly attenuated cv.

Hope this helps.

Eric

[EMwhite]

Thanks Eric! I tried this but I get a constant tone from the osc out.

It does track when I play the roland, but the tone is always present even when I'm not playing the keyboard. Shouldn't it only sound when I'm pressing the keys?

I feel inept right now.

Afraid that you WILL need that Filter, or something like a synth.com VCA to attenuate (if you are after a hard cutoff).

Ideally, you want an envelope, which is triggered by your controlling device (either a foot switch, the KB-Gate out of a Moog or similar keyboard, a Synth.com instrument interface with the proper trigger tolerance set) to fire an ADSR envelope that a Filter can act upon.

In my setup, I've wired my LP's CV-out to the FreqBox FREQ input, then taken OSC out back into the LP's audio in. In practice, when I play a note on the LP, it changes the frequency on the FreqBox (and this obviously needs to be tuned per Eric's advise above). It's the ADSR volume and filter envelopes of the LP that act upon the Freq's output (in the same manner as the internal LP OSCs) that tames the beast.

Another implementation that I've done is to use a secondary envelope which is materially different from the LPs, in this case, my Voyager Old School. I do as above but instead send the LP's GATE out into the Voyager's gate in, I send the OSC OUT of the FreqBox into the Voyager sound input, and set a completely different envelope on the Voyager for a much different sound (ie. I can have a sharp attack on the FreqBox OSC and a swell on the LP's osc's) sort of like a trumpet.

I'm not familiar with the SH-101 but it certainly seems capable.

Hope this helps.

[EricK]

Okay,

Check out this link if you have a yahoo.com email account you can become a member of Knob Tweak. Its very similar to the dotcom users group.

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/KnobTweak/

There is an article there called Lord of the Ring Mod written by a member here who writes some of the Moog Manuals. That article shows you lots of NICE tricks that you can do with the Ringmod, like tracking as a second ocs (which is actually easier to set up than the freqbox) AND using the carrier osc as VCA.

You know your ringmod will produce wonderful tremelo at low frequencies. Well with a cv applied to the carrier in then you can do a good simulation of a VCA, but I think you need to have some sort of complex waveform or an envelope generator applied there. If you did want to go the dotcom route, instead of buying a VCA you could buy an env gen but if you don't want to go modular then Im going to go so far as to say that it MIGHT be a possibillity for you to use an expression pedal to the carrier input to open and close the "VCA". Now this is something that just occured to me, I am not sure if it would work. You might can try.


Check out that article, its a great piece of work and I wish that there were more articles like that for the Foogers to make a nice manual (hint hint though I know thats a lot of work).


Eric

[DontBelievetheHype]

Erik - Unfortunately a regular passive expression pedal does not work in the Ringmod's carrier in, whereas the MP201 in expression mode will. The MP's envelope generator and gate work very well though for the VCA, though you need to get the voltage down to about -2.5v for ideal operation (ie full attenuation when closed).

I haven't tried sending the Osc Out to its Audio In, as I usually leave my bass routed to the input, and leave the Osc Outs in my CP251's mixer, but I have experienced the same operation I believe, with the Freq knob acting as coarse tune, and the Envelope as the Fine tune. Im going to try this later, but I think the method you described would allow the Hard Sync to be used with no external audio-- don't know why I didn't think of this before! Thanks for posting that, patching the Osc Out to the Audio In seems like the ideal routing. (unless using another instrument to trigger of course..).*edit* actually, Im not sure the hard sync bit makes sense, anyway, I'll try it out later and see what happens.

[CTRLSHFT]

I still think the freqbox should respond differently. It tracks what I'm playing, but there is the very loud sound of the oscillator over the top. the osc out is always going even in bypass mode.

I know it's a oscillator and is always vibrating, but I've used other oscillators similar to this before and they could track the cv from my roland and didn't have a loud sound of the oscillator blaring over the top of the notes I played.

Is it possible I have a defective freqbox or is this the way all freqboxes act?

I was lead to believe (before I bought it), that it would do what I wanted (as in my original post).

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my post!

You need a VCA for an oscillator to be gated (silent) when nothing is playing. This is synthesis 101. The loud sound you hear is the fixed pitch set on the 107 when you don't have a key pressed. What other oscillator have you tried? I'm 100% sure you had a VCA involved.

[jeepo]

you could try plugging a gate cv into the audio input of the freqbox, just don't exceed 5V

[ColorForm2113]

Ok so your using the roland to control the freqbox as a stand alone vco. But the freq is making a constant tone using the osc out (as it should) but when you use the audio out the freqbox is gated by the internal vca. So what if you have the roland control the freq the same way you have been. But split the audio out of the roland, one side goes to amp or where ever you normally plug in and the other to the freqbox audio in. Turn the mix on the freq to 100% wet so you don't hear the roland, turn sync off (keeping in mind that the roland is sending control voltage to the freqs vco still) and have the audio out going to the ringmod then.

This should allow you to keep control of the freqbox as a stand alone vco, gate the vco signal with the incoming roland signal, and still have full function of the freqbox (envelope, fm, sync). You may have to use the cp251 to attenuate the control voltage coming from the roland to the freqbox though to get it to track properly

[ColorForm2113]

Hmm im kinda surprised that didn't work, but then again I don't have a freqbox, sh101, or cp251 so I was kinda mentally patching things up. I did something similar with my ringmod awhile back that worked out, other than the fact it didn't track do to lack of cp251

[soundxplorer]

Colorform, you explained it correctly. That should have worked.

The OSC OUT is a raw, constant signal. Just like any OSC module - you said you had experience with Doepfer stuff. Same thing would happend if you plugged the output of a Doepfer oscillator directly into your audio mixer.

But the Freq does have a built-in VCA, and an envelope follower circuit that is hard-wired into that VCA, so the signal sent to the AUDIO OUT will follow the amplitude of whatever you have plugged into the AUDIO IN.

I think this is what you are trying to do:

SH101 CV Pitch OUT ---> FREQ IN on the MF-107
SH101 Audio OUT ---> AUDIO IN on the MF-107

Then, on the MF-107:
Turn ENV AMOUNT knob to 0
Turn FM AMOUNT knob to 0
Turn MIX knob to 10
Turn SYNC OFF

Connect the AUDIO OUT from the MF-107 to your mixer, or whatever you are monitoring.

Now you should hear the MF-107's oscillator only when you play a note on the SH101. And the "amplitude envelope" shape will be determined by whatever type of sound the SH101 is playing. If it has a short attack and no release, the MF-107's oscillator should too. If you turn up the Release on the SH101's envelope, you should hear the MF-107 now has a slow release too.

A couple of things to note: the MF-107 won't track perfectly to Pitch CV over a wide range. Some people say only two or three octaves, others have said they got close to five octaves. There is a trim pot inside to calibrate this. Also, when you turn SYNC ON, it is hard-syncing to the signal at the AUDIO IN. This means the oscillator just re-starts its cycle every time that audio signal hits the zero-crossing point. It does NOT "track pitch" to an audio signal. This is the biggest misconception about the MF-107, and I'm sure salesmen everywhere will tell you that it is doing exactly that. It doesn't.