Got my first Moog, the DFAM -- 2 newbie questions.
Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 12:05 am
I've mostly worked digital and am relatively new to analog/modular, and have never owned a Moog or any legit analog/modular synth before this one, so bear with if these are pretty noob-ish questions.
1) I notice that regardless of whether or not the "Noise/Ext Level" and "Noise/VCF Mod" knobs are set all the way down, there is always a certain amount of detectable noise -- white noise or ground noise or something like that -- to each of the steps. If the volume of whatever sound is being produced is loud enough, it's masked or not very noticeable, but it seems difficult-to-impossible to get an entirely "clean" waveform sound, particularly in the bassiest frequencies. I got the DFAM second hand, so I'm wondering if this is just the nature of the beast with an analog tool like this, or if I should be able to entirely eliminate the white noise with the Noise control knobs. It's subtle, but there is always at least a soft bit of white noise in the sounds. I don't even really mind it so much, if I wanted something super clean I'd stick with digital, but I want to determine if this is typical of the equipment or not, and if not, what might be causing it.
2) I'm just beginning to learn my way around the patchbay, but one thing I'm interested in doing is having an incoming signal trigger each new step in the DFAM sequence. So far I've mostly tried this by patching out from my Korg SQ-01 step sequencer and another custom made step sequencer. However, patching into "Trigger" doesn't seem to do anything, and I haven't been able to entirely make sense of "Run/Stop" either. Patching into "Adv Clock" from SQ-01's "Sync out" works, sort of, but I need to have the DFAM sequencer "running" continuously for anything to happen; and, while it seems to sync up with the incoming signal if I do run it, it seems to be playing like something like 1 step for every 4 or from the incoming sequencer. So any general tips on how to patch in such a way that each new step is triggered/advanced externally, vs. having the DFAM in a constant running loop?
I hope these questions make sense, thanks.
EE
1) I notice that regardless of whether or not the "Noise/Ext Level" and "Noise/VCF Mod" knobs are set all the way down, there is always a certain amount of detectable noise -- white noise or ground noise or something like that -- to each of the steps. If the volume of whatever sound is being produced is loud enough, it's masked or not very noticeable, but it seems difficult-to-impossible to get an entirely "clean" waveform sound, particularly in the bassiest frequencies. I got the DFAM second hand, so I'm wondering if this is just the nature of the beast with an analog tool like this, or if I should be able to entirely eliminate the white noise with the Noise control knobs. It's subtle, but there is always at least a soft bit of white noise in the sounds. I don't even really mind it so much, if I wanted something super clean I'd stick with digital, but I want to determine if this is typical of the equipment or not, and if not, what might be causing it.
2) I'm just beginning to learn my way around the patchbay, but one thing I'm interested in doing is having an incoming signal trigger each new step in the DFAM sequence. So far I've mostly tried this by patching out from my Korg SQ-01 step sequencer and another custom made step sequencer. However, patching into "Trigger" doesn't seem to do anything, and I haven't been able to entirely make sense of "Run/Stop" either. Patching into "Adv Clock" from SQ-01's "Sync out" works, sort of, but I need to have the DFAM sequencer "running" continuously for anything to happen; and, while it seems to sync up with the incoming signal if I do run it, it seems to be playing like something like 1 step for every 4 or from the incoming sequencer. So any general tips on how to patch in such a way that each new step is triggered/advanced externally, vs. having the DFAM in a constant running loop?
I hope these questions make sense, thanks.
EE