Moog Music Forum

http://www.synthfool.com/sequeira.html

i own a bunch of moogs (modelD, prodigy, rogue, opus 3), but i don't own any MF's and know nothing about voltages, and LFO's, etc etc
i realize this is a rather broad question, but what kind of sounds do you get when you plug all these together?

do you run this through a midi keyboard?

thanks!

what kind of sounds do you get when you plug all these together?

space crickets

since no one else really took up your question i'll give it a try (although haven't used all the mf's or have much knowledge about synthesis since i'm coming from a guitar background).

conceivably, you could control the setup through a midi keyboard if you have some sort of midi-to-cv converter (and i'm sure some people do this), but it's definitely not essential to do so (or arguably was it intended to be controlled by a keyboard). i like that the setup starts to get away from being tied to a keyboard.

all of the cv's/control voltages (lfo's, s&h's, etc) modify the system internally without needing anything such as a midi keyboard to trigger things. a cv modifies/controls whatever setting it's patched into (for example, cutoff frequency for the lpf).

it's not really a 'true' modular though since it doesn't produce sound, but only modifies it (although the ring mod and lpf and maybe even the delay could be used to produce sounds on their own w/o feedback loops). so some outside oscillator or instrument needs to be used as a sound source.

hopefully that helps some. seems like some of this might've been covered in your other thread though.

okay,
but if you don't run it through some kind of keyboard can you still play melodies with it? or does it just make ambient spaceship sounds?
cause it looks cool, but i'm having a hard time understanding how one would use it.

you can definitely do more than ambient type of spaceship sounds. think of the moogerfooger's as something to process sound from another instrument rather than as a traditional instrument on their own. you could use them much like you would other fx pedals from manufacturers like boss (although the mf's have a lot more potential and versatility). i probably didn't make that clear in my other post.

you could play melodies on a guitar, rhodes, one of your moog synths or whatever else you use as a sound source and then send that signal through the mf's. so the sound you get out depends a lot on what you put in (and how you use each pedal).

for example, you could play a guitar and get a slow tremolo sound (with the 102), subtle phasing (103) and a short reverb-esque delay (104). the sound would definitely be identifiable as a guitar with melody (if you play that way), but with additional processing. you could also get really 'out' sounds too.

You can also play melodies (or make sci-fi sounds) directly from the moogerfoogers. As the guy above said, the 101 LPF and 102 Ring Mod both have audio oscillators that can be controlled from a keyboard. Both 101 and 102 output Sine waves which could be at some point re-introduced into the audio path of the pictured Moogerfooger set-up and played on it's own as a 2 oscillator monosynth. For the most part.
The oscillator's output will be a continuous un-gated tone (you can change the pitch, but you can't turn it off ). You will still need a way to gate the sound to the control of your keyboard. But if you have almost any Moog Synth, you could route the Mooger oscillators into the audio input of your synth and you will then have note on/off. When you play a key, it lets the sound through. When you release the key, the sound is gated. It's the same as the oscillators in your synth, so esentially, you'll be adding 2 additional oscillators (at least) to whatever synth you're playing.
Of course, with all those MoogerFoogers, you'd be getting alot more than just oscillators. You'd get a bunch of LFOs and modulation possibilities to compliment what's already on your synth.
The Moogers are just like various combinations of the various parts (VCO, VCF, LFO, etc.) of whatever synths you already have, plus other things that you may not have on your synth (different filters, LFO waveforms, modulators, etc.). The Moogers are more flexable because they're not prewired together in one particular path, so you can use them to interact with your synth in ways you may not have known were possible.
I don't think anyone sells this complete configuration of Moogers (as in the picture), so you might as well just try one at a time and see what you think. I would suggest trying the 102 Ring Modulator and trying it out with your MiniMoog or Rogue. They compliment one another in alot of very cool ways.

yes, i get it now.
sorry for such a novice question, but for some reason i was under the impression that the set up in the picture was an instrument in itself and could be played as such.

thanks.