Understanding and Using Your moogerfooger® MF-104Z ANALOG DELAY 1
Welcome to the world of moogerfooger® Analog Effects Modules. Your Model MF-104Z Analog Delay is a rugged, professional-quality instrument, designed to be equally at home on stage or in the studio. Its great sound and smooth player controls come from its state-of-theart analog circuitry, designed and built under Bob Moog's personal direction. Your MF-104ZAnalog Delay features an all-analog delay circuit with delay times from 50 milliseconds to 1000 milliseconds.
SPECIFICATIONS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 22 GETTING STARTED Here are simple instructions on how you can quickly plug in and try out your MF-104Z. 1. Unpack your MF-104Z. You can place it on a table or on a floor. We suggest that you place it on a table while you become familiar with its features. 2. Check that the power adapter has a nominal rating of +9 volts and is also rated at your country's standard power voltage (120 volts A.C. for the United States and Canada, 100 volts A.C.
Turn the volume control on your amp down but not off. 5. Connect an instrument cable from your signal source to the AUDIO IN jack. You can feed virtually any instrument-level or line-level signal through your MF-104Z. Examples are guitar, bass, keyboard, theremin, drum machine, or Effects Send output on your mixer. Refer to Figure 2 for step 6. 6. Set the MF-104Z panel controls as follows. MIX 0 DELAY TIME 0.
9. Switch the BYPASS light to green. Continuing to play your instrument, turn the MIX control clockwise. When the MIX control is at 0, you will hear just the direct (undelayed) signal. When the MIX control is at 5 (midposition), you will hear both the direct and delayed signal. When the MIX control is at 10, you will hear just the delayed signal. Note that the delayed signal has a softer, more muted quality than the direct signal, - just as natural echoes are softer and more muted than direct sounds. 10.
WHAT IS AN ANALOG DELAY? A delay circuit produces a replica of an audio signal a short time after the original signal is received. If you listen to the original (direct) signal and the delayed signal together, the delayed signal will sound like an echo of the direct. To make a whole series of echoes that die out gradually, you feed the delayed output signal back to the input.
PERFORMANCE PARAMETER CONTROLS Performance parameters are controls that are meant to be played during performance. Each of the MF-104Z's performance parameters is controlled both by a front panel knob and by a pedal/control jack on the rear panel. The parameters are MIX, DELAY TIME, and FEEDBACK.. MIX control: As you turn the MIX knob clockwise from 0 to 5, the delayed signal becomes louder while the direct signal remains at maximum volume.
most delay time settings. With the FEEDBACK knob turned clockwise past 8, the echoes will grow in amplitude until they reach the overload point of the delay circuitry. In addition, the background noise will also build up and compete with the delayed signal. When you switch your MF-104Z into BYPASS, the feedback loop will shut down and the echo stream will die out within less than a second. Then, when you switch your MF-104Z on again, a new echo stream will begin to build up.
THE AUDIO LEVEL CONTROLS The DRIVE control adjusts the signal level at the delay circuit input. With this control you can set the right input level for virtually any instrument or line-level signal source. Turn this control counterclockwise for strong signal inputs, and clockwise for weaker sound sources. The INPUT LEVEL light tells how strong the input signal is after being adjusted by the DRIVE control.
jack. You should adjust the OUTPUT LEVEL after you set the DRIVE control. Set the OUTPUT LEVEL control so that you get the desired balance between on-line and bypass signals when you toggle the stomp switch. The LOOP GAIN control adjusts the signal level which is applied to the LOOP IN jack. You use this control to set the right loop gain for the external sound processing device that you connect between the LOOP OUT jack and the LOOP IN jack.
An example of a setup using the MF-104Z's EXT.LOOP mode is "NEPTUNE'S CANYON", which is given on page 15. AUDIO OUTPUTS Your MF-104Z has two audio output jacks: DELAY OUT and MIX OUT. When the unit is on-line, the DELAY OUT jack delivers just the signal that actually goes through the delay circuit, and the MIX OUT jack delivers both direct and delayed signals in the proportion determined by the MIX control. When the unit is in bypass mode, both jacks deliver just the bypass signal.
any control signal source: modular analog synthesizers, MIDI-to-CV converters, etc. You will find examples of interfacing your MF-104Z with external control signals on Pages 19-20, and you will find technical information on Pages 17-18. TYPICAL SETUPS Here are a few interesting setups for your to experiment with. Try changing the knobs with your hands. Then plug in one or more expression pedals and try the same things with your feet.
RHYTHMIC ECHOES By setting the delay time to exactly one beat of your music, or to an exact whole number of beats or exact fraction of a beat, you can build up expressive rhythmic backgrounds that are made up of phrases that you've just played. Adjust the DELAY TIME control carefully to get the exact tempo at which you want to play. INITIAL SETTINGS: MIX 5 DELAY TIME between 0.4 and .8(Set for the desired tempo.) FEEDBACK 6 Left Switch LONG Right Switch INT.
Left SwitchSHORT Right Switch INT.LOOP CP-251 SETTINGS: RATE 9 o'clock position (Adjusts speed of chorus.) ATTENUATOR 9 o'clock position (Adjusts depth of chorus.) CONNECTIONS: • From SAMPLE-AND-HOLD OUT 2 to ATTENUATOR IN • From ATTENUATOR OUT to TIME jack on MF-104Z AIRSHOW (FIG. 6) The FEEDBACK control is turned all the way up, so the background noise builds up to a constant rumble. A slow square wave from an LFO provides audio clicks that compete with the rumble, giving it some rhythmic structure.
INITIAL SETTINGS: MIX 10 DELAY TIME 0.1 to 0.3 FEEDBACK 9 to10 Left Switch SHORT Right Switch INT.LOOP CP-251 LFO RATE 9 o'clock position (about 0.5 Hz) CONNECTIONS: • From CP-251 LFO square wave output jack, to MF-104Z AUDIO IN jack. • From MF-104Z MIX OUT jack, to your amplifier. NEPTUNE'S CANYON (RING MODULATOR IN EXTERNAL LOOP; FIGURE 7) This setup shows how the external loop is used.
LONG switch, the echo density is determined by the FEEDBACK control, and the tuning of the echoes is determined by the MF-102 FREQUENCY control and LO-HI switch. You'll also hear interesting changes when you vary the MF-102 MIX, AMOUNT, and RATE controls, and the waveform switch. MF-104Z SETTINGS: MIX 10 DELAY TIME 0.2 to 0.3 FEEDBACK 6 to 8 (Depends on exact setting of the LOOP GAIN control.) Left Switch SHORT Right Switch EXT.LOOP MF-102 RING MODULATOR SETTINGS: RATE 0.2 to 0.
This setup uses both AUDIO OUT and AUX. OUT of an MF-103 Phaser. When the phaser's RESONANCE control is turned up, the AUDIO OUT is highly colored but the AUX. OUT is not. The instrument signal goes first through the phaser. The AUX OUT goes directly to one input on your amplifier or mixer, while the main AUDIO OUT goes through the MF-104Z. Thus, the direct sound is not colored, but the echoes swirl because of the phaser modulation. MF-104Z SETTINGS: MIX 10 DELAY TIME 0.2 to 0.
CIRCUIT CONFIGURATION: Figure 9 is a simplified block diagram of the MF-104Z Analog Delay. Some unique features of the circuit are described in the following paragraphs. The input signal goes directly to a low -noise, high-input- Figure 9 - Simplified Block Diagram of the MF-104Z impedance buffer amplifier. The gain is set by the DRIVE control. This amplifier has two outputs: the bypass signal (which is an accurate replica of the input signal), and the signal that feeds the delay circuit.
delay chips, expander, and lowpass output filters. The output of this function appears directly at the LOOP OUT jack. Its nominal level at This must be +9V to +15V DC. this jack is 0 dBm (about 0.8 volts rms) when the INPUT LEVEL light is red-yellow. When the INPUT LEVEL light is yellow or red, several points in the circuit begin to saturate gradually, thereby limiting the maximum signal level and introducing some low -order distortion. This is a normal component of the sound of analog gear.
about 300 milliamperes of current. You can power your MF104Z from virtually any power adapter which has a nominal rating of between +9V and +12V at a rated current of at least 300 Figure 11 - Correct wiring of a tip-ring - milliamperes, and has the sleeve plug for connecting a pedal appropriate power connector. control input to a source of external control voltage. If you ever use a power source other than that supplied with your MF-104Z, be sure that the voltage never exceeds +15 volts.
no pedal will work in any of the pedal control jacks if a tip-sleeve plug is plugged into even one of the pedal jacks. Applying a varying voltage to the tip terminal of a pedal/control jack has the same effect as turning the corresponding knob. A voltage of +5 volts at the tip terminal is equivalent to turning the knob through its entire range.
MF-104Z SPECIFICATIONS DESCRIPTION: JACK PANEL FEATURES: Analog effects module incorporating bucket brigade • AUDIO IN 1/4” phone jack - accepts any analog delay circuit with voltage-controlled delay instrument- level or line-level signal from -16 time, feedback, and direct-delayed signal mix. dBm to +4 dBm. Input impedance is one megohm.
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MOOG MUSIC, Inc. 554C RIVERSIDE DRIVE ASHEVILLE, NC 28801 Phone (828) 251 0090 FAX (828) 254 6233 EMAIL: info@moogmusic.com or techsupport@moogmusic.com WEB SITE: http://www.moogmusic.com Entire contents © 2005 by Moog Music, Inc.