Moog Music Forum

Hey everyone, I'm sure you're sick, of us noob's with no fooger or synth experience, but hopefully someone can help answer my questions anyway.

So I'm a bassplayer, and I wanted to be able to use my bass to do synthy stuff (as usuall, and I know I won't get it exactly, but I'm not buying a real synth. I just like to play the bass.) Usually its suggested to run on octave/fuzz/filter to get the sounds I'm looking for, with a little room for tweaking here and there, but to put the octave/fuzz first, your envelope is getting more than a little degraded.

WHat I wanted to know was if I split my signal (A/B/Y box style) and ran one side through the effects, and the other into one of the spaces on the filter, if it will follow the unaffected envelope? None of the inputs sound like they'd do what I wanted it to do (maybe the amount on the follower side?), but the env out sounds like exactly the opposite of what I want. Is there a way to get an env in?

SOrry about the long post, and I know that its probly silly to do what I'm trying, but i like bass, I like effects, and i like the possibilities when I can afford multiple moogs, and such.

Thanks so much!

Hi J

Sadly, the MF-101 doesn't have a trigger input. That means you actually have to play sound into it to trigger the envelope. Adding distortion (because of gain/clipping etc.) will tend to reduce the dynamics of your sound, so it would appear that your signal does not trigger the envelope properly. It still works, though. If you split your signal through an ABY box, then the octave/fuzz sound would be seperate to the filter sound, and they wouldn't affect each other. You could then mix the signals, but it probably isn't what you're looking for. The jacks labeled CUTOFF, AMOUNT, FREQUENCY and MIX are CV (control voltage) inputs. They are used with, say, another Moogerfooger or analog synth or expression pedal etc. to control the parameters on the unit.

One cool thing about the MF series is the drive control. You can send in a hot signal, crank up the drive, and have a nice, smooth overdrive effect. This might be exactly what you want...

Thats pretty much what I thought I was going to hear. Thanks for confirming it for me.

I'm pretty sure you could do it if you had 2 MF-101's. Put one MF-101 first, getting the clean signal from your bass, then into your fuzz, then into the 2nd MF-101. Take the envelope out from the 1st MF-101 and use it to control the frequency of the 2nd. Oh, and the 1st MF-101 should be off - that way it doesn't affect the sound, but since the MoogerFoogers aren't true bypass, the preamp and envelope are always working.

I've done this with the MF-101 and the MF-103 (phaser), using the envelope to control the frequency of the phaser instead of sweeping it. I think someone has posted about that elsewhere on this board.

Expensive, unless you can borrow one from a friend!

The Lovetone Meatball has an loop in/out so that you can insert a pedal, such as a fuzz, between the envelope and the filter. If you have $900 lying around you could buy one of those.

Heh... Yeah, I'd love to try me a meatball, but the moogerfooger is around the upper end of highly limited student budget right now. I think the agent 00funk (chunk systems) has an envelope in, although I'm not 100%.

Anything else anyone's heard of that can potentially follow an envelope otherthan the input signals (I was hoping to throw my octave and fuzz that I already have in first)?

Its too bad though, i've been loving the samples from the lp-101.

You might check out modular synth modules ike the Synthesizers.com stuff for relatively inexpensive alternatives to the moogerfoogers or lovetone effects.

For instance, you could get an Envelope Follower module and Power Supply for around $200 total. This will give you the Envelope Following you're looking for, but without the actual filter. This might give you more flexibility as far as which effect goes where in your signal flow.

You can just construct a simple wooden enclosure for the module and it would be similar to a stand-alone guitar effect. Combined with the MF101 or a Dot.com filter, you might find you have a little more flexibility for the Envelope effects you're trying to create.

Also, for even less expensive synth modules/ effect boxes, check out Paia.

I think they still offer Envelope Follower and/or Filter effect kits that you can buy through the internet/mail and then assemble at home. The Envelope Follower kit costs maybe $30-$40 and comes with the PCB board, electronic components, battery power supply, etc. You just have to solder it together and make an enclosure for it.

I'm not sure if this will help, but it's another option...

Cool!

Thanks for all the tips, it looks like I have a bunch of reading to do now.