Moog | evolutionarytheory

Hi there!

After quite some waiting ( around 3 months ), I finally took delivery of a limited edition Novamusik special Moogerfooger MF-101 24dB Low Pass Filter. The “special” part, is that it’s in the black and white scheme of the rest of the studio ( the finish is called “Whitewash” – unlike the standard black and wood finish ) and also that it’s got a good portion of the original circuitry of the older Moog filters.

My reason for getting this Moog filter is to accompany the SEM Pro filter. The harsher/harder/brighter 12dB Multi-Mode Filter of the SEM truly sounds amazing ( as you can hear in some of my earlier posts ), but the main issue with it is that it’s so full-on some times, that you just can’t get the right sound ( i.e. something a little bit rounder and warmer ). That’s where the MF-101 fits in rather well. I’ve already found it sounds excellent placed after the output of the SEM, with the SEM filter cutoff at its highest frequency. From here, I’m able to apply a Moog warm 24dB tone to the gorgeous SEM oscillators. The result has given me the best of both worlds, since the mix control on the MF-101 allows me to dial in either all SEM or all MF-101 filter sounds. I’ve found some excellent middle ground setting the mix to 50%, which allows me to accentuate the bass region of a sound ( with a very low cutoff on the MF-101 ), whilst allowing that bright brassy top/middle end to come through from the SEM.

My next project will be to interface the SEM control voltages to the MF-101 and vice versa, since the SEM outputs are what I believe to be 18V control signals, whereas the MF-101 only accepts 5V control signals. I’m going to investigate some voltage divider solutions just using resistors, as I believe I should be able to just build this directly into some adapter cables. This should allow me to build 3.5mm SEM 18V to 6.5mm MF-101 5V cables that handle the voltage conversions internally ( by soldering resistors into the connector housings ). I’ve started some dialogue with Tom Oberheim about this as he’s pretty good at getting back quickly to questions via e-mail.

I’ll post some sounds soon….

Here’s a few images of the little fella taken with a Canon 7D through a Canon 50mm 1.8 Lens: