FS: The Wobble Pack - Moog MP-201, Custom RF Photron, RF VCA, and Splitter Box

[Proton Lenny]

Alright, never thought I'd be selling this section of my board, but times are a changin'. I'm going to give an in depth description below. Bear with me through this explanation, it is a little long: but I want to make sure people understand how versatile this gear is.

OK, first off, what I'm selling is a Moog MP-201 controller, a custom Robot Factory Photron LPF, a custom Robot Factory Voltage Controlled Amplifier, and custom Robot Factory Spitter Box. I'll give brief explanation of what they do, and then I'll discuss how I use them in tandem to get a whole variety of sounds.

Start with the Splitter (Atom Splitter): It is the simplest. It just splits my chain at the very beginning. One in, two out. It is also a great buffer.

The VCA is, well, a VCA. It works in conjunction with the Moog's CV out to create volume pedal effects and tremolo's.

The Moog is solely a controller. It is an amazing piece of gear. You can control up to four devices via cv and more with the midi outs. It can be beat sync'd to a midi clock. It can send expression, LFO, envelopes, S&H, and more. You can set each channel to do a specific task. So expression for the filter, LFO for the VCA, etc. I used it to control my filter, VCA, and Pitch Factor via midi. It also has presets. So one bank could be your expression bank, one your LFO's, or one sine wave LFO's vs Sqaure waves.

And finally the filter. This little guy is a beast! It is a LPF based off a Korg MS-20. Think more synth than funky Bootsy style filtering. Though it can holds its own on the funk front as well. The filter can be controlled with either CV or Expression. Although I think it works a little better with CV. It has an envelope side with attack and release knobs, envelope direction and more. It has a dry input trigger on it for the envelope. I send one output from the splitter to the front of my chain like normal, the second output from the splitter to the dry input. This is so no matter how much dynamic destroying dirt I have on before my filter, the envelope section still responds as if it was just dry bass going into it. The three stomp switches are for Bypass, envelope direction, and envelope on or off.

OK, so now the fun stuff. How they work together. Obviously the Splitter doesn't do anything besides give the filter a dry trigger. The Moog and the Filter together are amazing. Because the Moog can send LFO's and expression you have a ton of filtering options without ever leaning over to change a setting. You can have it be a foot controlled filter, controlling the frequency with the gas pedal of the Moog. You can send free-running, midi clocked, or tap-tempo'd LFO's and get some sweet dub-step style wobbles and oscillations. Also these LFO's change depending on where the gas pedal is. So you can have 1/2 notes when heel down, 16th notes when toe down, and all other subdivisions in between.

If you have the moog in expression mode and the filter's envelope on, you can have synth envelopes in either direction depending on where you have the gas pedal and if the middle switch on the filter is on or off. You can even use the LFO's wobbles and envelope on the filter in tandem, so your wobbles will rise up in frequency through the filter and the LFO's commence.

You can also use the VCA for volume swells and tremolos. The LFO's being sent to the filter and VCA are locked together. So you can run the filter and trems together and get a really unique volume/filter wobble.

Anyway, I think that is enough chatter. Ask me if you have any more questions. It sounds really complicated. It isn't, not once you get your feet in there and see how it functions. I have people ask me after every show how I get the magical sounds I do live, it mostly is from this gear. I'm changing my setup to go down a slightly different path though, so alas I must sell these beauties to fund some new gear. I paid $450 for the Moog, $500 for the filter and splitter box, and $150 for the VCA. I'll sell the whole package for $725. Split up I'd do $350 for the Moog, $375 for the Filter and Splitter, and $75 for the VCA. All these prices include shipping in the Conus. All the pedals are in good condition, but you can see there is a little paint chipping on the custom boxes.

Here are some brief audio examples:

Starting at 7:40 you can hear the midi sync'd Moog sending squarewave LFO's to the VCA for a dubby chopped tremolo pattern:

Mouth - Theme From The End Of The World (Live at The Jazzhaus on 12/29/11) - YouTube!

At 1:40 here you can hear the up envelope of the filter for a funky synth line.

Mouth - Riot Room Video Recap (12/28/11) - YouTube!

Same Video, skip ahead to 22:00 min in and you can hear the filter in down envelope with LFO's. Awesome dub-step wobbles. Changing subdivisions with my foot.

Mouth - Riot Room Video Recap (12/28/11) - YouTube!

If anybody wants more examples I can throw them your way.

[amos]

Dude. wow. WOW. dude.

[amos]

Can you list what each knob on the custom VCA box is, and also what your signal route was i.e. mp-201 --> filter, etc. thanks.

[Proton Lenny]

The knobs on the VCA are CV depth (which I had turned up all the way because you can control that internally on the Moog), depth (like a normal depth knob on a tremolo) and output.

In terms of signal chain, it was long if you're talking about my whole board. I have a lot of stuff. But in regards to these boxes it went like this:

Splitter Output A > Front of my effects chain > Proton Pack (filter) > VCA

Splitter Output B > Dry input of envelope trigger on Proton Pack

Moog's controlling chain:

• Channel one > Filter's Cutoff Frequency
• Channel Two > VCA
• Midi out > Pitchfactor expression control

And then within the Moog's presets I can change from expression, to LFO, to a mix of the two.

[amos]

That's really cool I hadn't thought of using a CV controllable VCA in a setup like this (I've been workshopping a design for these types of sounds for a while). I see why you used the splitter now.

So the dry input of envelope trigger on the proton pack, was that all custom? I've never seen anything like that before, was that so you could use the envelope follower separate from the low pass filter? what exactly does that do?

Edit: if you have any sound clips of the envelope trigger, that would be tight. If you can't tell already, I've very interested.
Edit: not a big deal if you don't. Also in your post it says "Voltage Controlled Oscillator instead of Voltage Controlled Amplifier".

[Jared Lash]

Originally Posted by amos

So the dry input of envelope trigger on the proton pack, was that all custom? I've never seen anything like that before, was that so you could use the envelope follower separate from the low pass filter? what exactly does that do?

The envelope trigger just makes sure that the Proton Pack always triggers the same way, from his unaffected bass tone depending on playing dynamics and not affected by any other pedals in his chain.

For instance, with a normal filter, having a fuzz before it helps make cool synthy sounds. But the gain level of the fuzz and the compression it imparts would change the way the filter triggered compared to when the fuzz wasn't on.

So the Atom Splitter splits his signal. One path goes through the rest of his chain of effects and into the input of the Proton Pack and the other goes straight to the envelope trigger. A really ingenious setup for synthy sounds really.

[amos]

Originally Posted by Jared Lash

The envelope trigger just makes sure that the Proton Pack always triggers the same way, from his unaffected bass tone depending on playing dynamics and not affected by any other pedals in his chain.

For instance, with a normal filter, having a fuzz before it helps make cool synthy sounds. But the gain level of the fuzz and the compression it imparts would change the way the filter triggered compared to when the fuzz wasn't on.

By splitting his signal this way, he can layer effects before the Proton Pack all he wants and the filter will still trigger the same way.

Thank you. RAD. . . rad.

[Proton Lenny]

Damnit Jared! I think you beat me to my own questions 9 times out of 10! And as usual you say exactly what I'd say. That is the only feature of my new setup that I won't have, and I'll really miss it. There is something really satisfying about being able to have tons of dirt, compression, octavers, etc... and still have the envelope fall like it would normally.

And thanks Amos for the typo, should be fixed. Was a long post, surprised there aren't a ton more.

[Jeff Moote]

Damn this is one hot setup. I considered the MP-201 when I was getting started with my current setup and decided to go another route due to lack of CV on some of the things I wanted to control. In retrospect I probably could have dealt with that and gained access to all the powerful things it can do.

Someone should scoop all of this up! Add an octaver and some fuzz and there's most of the synthy goodness you could ever want.

[amos]

[quote=Jeff Moote;12132153]Damn this is one hot setup. I considered the MP-201 when I was getting started with my current setup and decided to go another route due to lack of CV on some of the things I wanted to control. In retrospect I probably could have dealt with that and gained access to all the powerful things it can do.

Yep.. if my tax return was here today, I would buy it today. We talked about this subject indefinitely, since then my plans have changed a bit and MIDI clock sync has become very desirable, so I'm going an mp-201 setup.

[Proton Lenny]

On hold pending final payment...