Moog Music Forum

Hello All,

I am a proud new owner of a Minimoog Model D. I heard from the "Moog" movie documentary that if you take the extra output back into the External In you get cool overdrive / feedback sound.

Here's my question:

Do I take the "Low" Ouput into the "External In?" Does the "High" & "Low" Ouputs on the Minimoog mean Low Levels or Low Impedance?

Also, has anyone ever come across any problems doing this trick? Could I damage the synth if I have the output too loud? Does anyone recommend controling the output level via a mixer first?

Thanks!

It shouldn't hurt anything.
I personally don't think it's such a great effect tho, but give it a try.
The thing is, you don't need the high out to drive it and you do usually need it to listen to the Moog.
The preamp will overdrive fine on the low output.
Resonance levels may change, so adjust accordingly.

I'm with Kevin. I don't see the benefit, really. The Minimoog is the fattest synth, which features the nicest saturated sound of any synth, ever... and if it's not enough for you (?), you can always modulate the filter with an oscillator. Beyond that, I can't see what anyone is lacking enough to think this "trick" is necessary.

Thanks for the response. I think the benefit of this is trick is because you get a distorted sound, just like going through a distortion pedal but better because the distortion occurs at the beginning of the synths signal chain so it goes through the filter. I heard that it can sound similar to the aggressive sounds of the Korg MS-20 or Garry Numan's early work..didn't he mostly use MiniMoogs & the MemoryMoog?

the low to ext in, high out to the amp.
that way the external in is better scaled over the ext in pot. otherwise unnice /too much overdrive sets in too fast.
i love the effect , so it should always be at hand . not neccesary afourse , the mini has so many flavours

Dial up a bass patch with VCA half sustain and fast decay
Connect low output to ext in
adjust EXT IN level so that overdrive light flickers on attack transients

This works well for getting punchy bass

The distortion provided by audio-range modulation of the filter isn't good enough for you?

museslave wrote:The distortion provided by audio-range modulation of the filter isn't good enough for you?

different soundeffect.
it is as if feedbackloop on the mini gives it a special brilliance/ kind of 3d effect/ straight in the face feeling.
i don't know any other synth having this in such a beautiful way as the mini. voyager, a6, sh5 all can be external in looped. but none touches even the dramatic effect it has when doing so on a minimoog

sunny pedaal wrote:

museslave wrote:The distortion provided by audio-range modulation of the filter isn't good enough for you?

different soundeffect.
it is as if feedbackloop on the mini gives it a special brilliance/ kind of 3d effect/ straight in the face feeling.
i don't know any other synth having this in such a beautiful way as the mini. voyager, a6, sh5 all can be external in looped. but none touches even the dramatic effect it has when doing so on a minimoog

Really. A 3d effect? Your Minimoog has a 3d effect when you patch the output into the input? Weird. My Minimoog only sounds vaguely overdriven in a relatively uninteresting way. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, and the extensive and interesting timbres one can create with creative application of filter modulation are all in my head.

probably , you're welcome to coffee and extensive moogjamsession

sunny pedaal wrote:probably , you're welcome to coffee and extensive moogjamsession

YOU'RE ON. It's sad we're a bit far apart, distance-wise. : )

museslave wrote:The distortion provided by audio-range modulation of the filter isn't good enough for you?

maybe the guy just wants to explore all of his options...to each his own...especially with synthesizers

I don't find the effect to be the kind of distortion one would expect to achieve with an overdrive pedal or a high pre-gain on an amplifier input. I first heard about it many years ago and of course decided to give it a try. From what I remember, what happened with my Model D on a certain setting was more of a reinforcing of the fundamental which shifted downward in octaves as I increased the External Audio Input. To better explain, as I increased the Input Gain on the Mixer, the sound seemed to fracture into Sub-Harmonics. Different Filter and Emphasis settings would deliver these groaning and moaning sounds.

Although I found these textures to be quite complex and interesting, I never had the instance to use these sounds in performance or in the recording studio.

I understand that the newly reissued version of the Model D has this effect hard-wired to the External Input (until you actually patch in some other source) so I guess the legend prevails to the point where this is considered a signature feature of the instrument.

museslave wrote:The distortion provided by audio-range modulation of the filter isn't good enough for you?

How is this done? Are you just talking about weeping the filter manually or something else?

Think he means modulating the filter by osc 3 ?
Nice effect too
Control it by the modwheel and add a bit of white/rednoise as mod source too
Combine it with the ext loop trick and rock