The moog freqbox, a versatile fx pedal unit that can be used as an oscillator in a modular synth setup. When I first plugged them in, I noticed how huge they sounded. How alive. They reminded me of the older moog stuff, like tarus pedals and model d minimoog. With two, the oscillators would beat and sound pretty vintage. These things are FAT. The biggest. The sync sounds were so mean and huge, it would make my whole house shake. I ran these into my doepfer custom eurorack filled with rare boutique modules. I loves how the moog oscillators sounded through the polivoks filter the most. I prefered these oscillators for BASS duties. There is this warm beef that you get in the 60 to 200hz range on the low end of the frequency spectrum. No other synths and oscillators can pump this style of sound out. These pedals really did sound more vintage to me than the little phatty and the new minimoog voyagers. They had plenty of high end frequencies which I think are lacking a tad on the newer moog synths.

As far as the tracking goes? Well I ran into a little trouble. But once they warmed up I could get about 3 octaves of stable tracking no problem. Amos Gaynes, one of the techs who works at moog saw my initial comments on the tracking that I posted a while back, and offered to modify them so they would track better. After the mod, they did better. This is how great the customer support is over at moog music. A couple of things that I think would make these better would be a fine tuning knob for the osc, and if they could be put into doepfer format and make them track a tiny bit better they would put the competition in the modular synth world out of business when it comes to fat big bass oscillators. That would be so awesome. I kind of did not like having two wall warts. I also was not fond of having them on the floor with long cables to my modular, but that is something I could of fixed If i bought a rack mount for the pedals. For synth oscillators, these are the best for modular bass lines. Better than any other modular doepfer eurorack oscillator that I have used in the bass dept. for sure. I still like other things for leads more though.

We did run our guitar through this pedal, and we could get some really strange sounds with it. Something new and different for sure. The sound quality of this pedal is top notch and will enhance any guitar or modular synth rig with ease. You really cannot go wrong here. I give this a 4 out of 5.

This is a link to a video I did that shows off the moog in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_wAH_Z6R3Q …

I love this modular I have built. This demo shows me what I love about both filters, the bubbly resonance of the harvestman polivoks, into the aggressive cutting sound of the livewire frequensteiner. I recorded this into my mackie onyx, out into the rme fireface 800 into logic, I used a limiter on it, 6db only. The mfb osc is a pwm sound. I could never make this sound on a Future Retro XS. The more I mess with this thing, the more I realize how great the doepfer rack is, how many great custom boutique third party modules are available for this format. Thanks to Analog Haven and the advice of Shawn I have been able to slowly build up a system that really fits my needs and gives me a solid mono synth that is capable of making alien soundscapes and rhythms. No digital synth gave me the bite and juicy resonance on filters like these have. It almost sounds like real water bubbling. Turn this up loud!

Velvet Acid Christ: MFB osc, into Frequensteiner filter, modular demo. , right click to download. I love my modular, it’s so cutting. I love how these dco osc buzz and cut. The sound is so animated to boot, it growls. This is becoming my favorite synth now.

Also, I have done a new interview. Click Here to Read. It was with a new radio show and blog called Unfit For Radio. Go there to listen to the show!. This info sheds some light on my opinions on production, the current SG vs Lithium Picnic stuff and the death of toxic coma.

I have talked about this filter before in the older reviews I did of this modular. But I found something else that I really like about the SSM a-105 filter. It self resonates very well, and can do a great kick drum that sounds different than a lot of the run of the mill kicks I hear out there.. Not only can this filter give me that glassy 80s poly synth kind of sound ala monopoly and polysix. It can also give me a wicked kick drum. I used a moog freq box saw as the audio source. Lfo on square triggering the gate in on the a-140 doepfer envelope. A-140 env into the SSM a-105 filter cv. If you have a sub woofer, all the better, this thing spits out a ton of bass when the filter self resonates and you close it down. Click Here to Listen to the Kick Drum from the SSM a-105.

Now, an updated review of the Livewire Frequensteiner. This thing kicks major booty! I mean, it can rip, and sound really mean. The best multimode filter in the eurorack format easily. I figured i would show it off a little more. It gets so crunchy and alive and mean. Rips some skin off.. Like a rusty razor. The doepfer A-140 envs are so tight and snappy, i love them in H or M mode to make this acid stuff. The future retro is an awesome CV and Gate Sequencer. I like it for that more than anything else. I pissed off my lizzard with the camera, he wasn’t happy, but it made great video. LOL… any how enjoy this clip! LONG LIVE ANALOG! LONG LIVE LSD(ACID).

Click Here for the hi-fi divx version of video. Has much better audio quality! You will need to install the divx plugin to view it.

Moog Freqbox: Okay, let me start first with the moog. When I first got it, it didn’t scale worth a damn, I had to open it up and calibrate it, even then i only could get about 2 and a half octaves of stable tuning. The plan b was better, but would lose its calibration all together after a few hours. Not the case here, the moog holds it’s calibration. 2 and half octaves is awful. But what makes me forgive it? This thing is huge, big bass, big sound. even if it gets sour, I still love it, its so fat. The plan b and mfb only wish it could sound as fat as this oscillator does. This is not stable enough or musical enough to really hold the fort. To me this is the perfect add on to something more stable to fatten up bass lines and kicks. I have not used it as an FX processor, but man this thing can crazy modulate other stuff great, and a nice big frequency knob to boot, something most of these modular modules do not have.. I like the moog a lot, but i sure wish it tracked a little better. A great addition to a stable modular system.  

Okay now onto the Harvestman Polivoks filter. Wow. The resonance on this thing is great, it can rip your face off. I love it for aggressive acid sounds, a new flavor. Its not moog, its not roland, and its not korg. It’s something new, even though it’s old. I’ve never even heard a filter that sounds like this before. The sound still stays big, even with a lot of resonance. This is what the original minimoog did well too, but its smooth, this is mean, and rough, and aggressive, much different. The bandpass is ok, but i prefer the bandpass in the livewire frequenseiner. This is the perfect addition to my ssm and livewire filters. I highly recomend this!  

I am set on filters. This gives me evil acid. SSM gives me the girthy glass 80s chip sound. And the frequensteiner gives me a great band and high pass, bland if you don’t saturate the inputs, but if you push the filter with a big sound and drive it hard, nothing beats that high pass. On the oscilator front, if and when the livewire AFG comes out, i will probably pick one of those up and an analog systems r95. This will get me by for now. Its big, and the demo I made shows that off.. Hope you enjoyed this video and review. Peace out.. A fellow gear whore.. hexfix93  

Here is the high quality divx version of the video on stage6. Click here for the Divx version of the video, needs divx plugin

Divx plug in makes my browser act weird, so i put a link to it and the youtube one back as the default.

Ok, i made a video of the sh-2 using the riffs from futile to show off the sh2., i love this synth! I don’t need a moog, when you have a sh-2, you will never need one. Rolands are the heart and soul of VAC. I HEART ROLAND! well, old roland..

Here is the high quality divx version of the video on stage6. Click here for the Divx version of the video, needs divx plugin

Divx plug in makes my browser act weird, so i put a link to it and the youtube one back as the default.

The good: Click Here to listen to the mfb osc-01 in action, first sound is osc sync bass through the ssm filter, 2nd sound is pwm sync detuned lead through the frequensteiner high pass. This thing sounds great for a dco, I can get good bass and pwm and sync sounds out of it really easy. It’s pretty stable, I had to calibrate the tracking for intonation. Once I did, I was able to get 4 good octaves out of it, and it was stable. Better than any osc in this doepfer rack stuff I have tried so far (only plan b). It’s a great deal, 3 oscillators for about 220 US dollars. I got it used for 170. I would compare this to an alpha juno oscillator on steroids. Since the junos don’t do sync sounds it gets hard to compare there. The saw is ok, but it’s the pwm that really shines on this. When using all 3 oscillators, it always sounds like a polysynth in unison. This oscillator shines when played down low or in the mids.

The bad: The output volume is bad on the combined output, and a little bit better on the individual outs, but this thing is not nearly as loud as my plan b oscillators. But they get the job done. It is not quite as fat as the plan b, especially the SAWS. The saw is strange on it. If i have set on 16, osc 1 and 2 the signal gets really weak on the c0 octave when controlling it from my kenton pro solo via midi, but only in saw mode. Osc 3 does not have that problem at all. It sounds strange up high, and I think I can hear some aliasing, not sure, but something strange when I play way up on the keyboard. So I think this osc is sub par on high leads.

Final Word: If you want to add some alpha juno oscillators into your modular rack, this is the ticket. It doesnt do as many wave forms as the alpha juno, but the sound is similar. This does OSC SYNC, and its great. It does all those buzzy techno sounds similar to the alpha juno. It sounds very 80s roland, dco that is. And I am a huge fan of the junos. This is a great buy for me.

What am I replacing the model 15s with? MFB OSC-01 triple DCO oscillators that sound more like a juno 106 and sh-101 but super stable and scale almost perfectly. DCOs are great, but do lack a little warmth and lower frequencies. Not to worry, I will add a Moog Freq Box that will work just like any oscilator in my rig, controlled with cv. This is an oscillator from the minimoog voyager. This will fatten up my dcos nicely.. The voyager oscillators track great so i should have no problem. THIS DEMO of the Harvestman Polivoks Filter is mindblowing. I love my bitcrusher from Harvestman. In fact that is what kept me from selling off the modular. That polivoks sounds simply amazing. WOW. A while back I used to layer my juno 106 and micromoog together and would get huge sounds. Now I will have that with better filters. I cannot wait to get all this.. I will post reviews of it once I have it for a week.
 

Go ahead and guess which is which… on each sound.
 

http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/8080vssh2.mp3
This time its the Jp8080 VS The SH2. Two tests, The first is played up high with the filter open in lowpass mode, simple saw. First Synth A will play then pause then Synth B will play. Second test is a bass octave saw with the filter open. First Synth A will play then pause then Synth B Will Play.
Guess which one is which.
 

Results: On Modular VS Jp8080 multimode filter, Synth A on every instance was the Plan B with Frequenstiener. Synth B was the Jp8080.
 

On SH2 VS Jp8080 lp clip, Synth A was the SH2, and Synth B was the 8080 on each instance.

What should of given it away, the clicky envs on the 8080 mimic the jupiter 6. Not to mention that the plan b and sh2 glow, they have this high frequency sound that sounds 3D and pops out, A better presence. As to where the digital sounded more dull and sunk back. It subtle, but this is a big deal in musical terms. On the sh2 8080 lead comparison, if you listen with head phones, if you focuse in on the background, you can hear the synth b aliasing, like broken machine with odd harmonics, you can really hear it with head phones.. This causes ear fatigue. And one of the biggest reasons I hate digital oscillators.. Only two people got it all right, Elegia here, and javier from matrixsynth got it right. I made the test very simple, just to show you the differences on a basic level, it gets even worse for digital the more complex the sounds get. The lead i made super annoying, just a raw high pitched saw with the filter open. This shows how bad digital aliases, and how the analog does not.