Getting more juice out of old gear: The Multimoog

[Piktor]

I realize the some of the most popular posts on this forum are about new gear. I know, because I read them too. Despite that, I hope that no one minds that this post goes in the opposite direction. I love it when someone gives me a useful idea about how I can do something new with an old piece of equipment. The particular piece of equipment in question is 35 years old and somewhat rare.

 

I bought my Multimoog brand new from Mothers Music in 1978. (I bought a second one in 1988 for 1/10 the price.) Apparently, Moog manufactured only about 1000 Multimoogs. Therefore, I realize that this post has limited appeal, but I am hoping that I might reach at least some Multi owners here on this forum (as well as on one other forum). I can see that McGoo on this forum still has one. I want to share a discovery that I made long ago. My discovery might not be an entirely unknown technique, but I have searched the Internet and read the original Multimoog manual and I have not found this information described anywhere else. The trick that I discovered makes the Multimoog capable of producing sounds that, I believe, it wasnt intended to produce. (Of course, someone might know otherwise.)

 

 

I am an infrequent contributor here, but I am a frequent reader of this forum and I have always appreciated peoples generosity in sharing encouragement, ideas and information on this forum. In that spirit, I have created and uploaded some videos to YouTube that I hope someone finds useful. I certainly do not want to be the only person who knows this (as far as I know) undocumented trick. Admittedly, my YouTube videos dont have high production values, but, I think that they explain my trick well enough. Some of the videos are short (1 minute long) segments where I improvised something to demonstrate a particular application of a sound. Warning: If one is not a Multimoog owner or a synth fan, I suppose the videos could seem pretty nerdy. My You Tube channel is Piktor Music, which can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEKrAqZh_BAEyZpmTltlGeA

 

To do this trick, you wont need to modify your Multimoog itself in any way. The trick makes it possible for the instrument to have capabilities that you might take for granted in other synths, but were not obviously available on the Multi:

 

- Have continuous LFO control of sync.

 

- Use an envelope to control sync (like that Prophet 5 sound).

 

- Sweep the synced oscillators with controllers other than keyboard pressure (e.g. like Jan Hammer did with a pedal).

 

- Set oscillators A and B an octave apart without relying on the sub-oscillator.

 

- Have all this and more!

 

- bonus: Check out the way my sample and hold has mutated into something cooler. See the worlds ugliest home-made voltage control pedal.

 

 

I would be interest to know if anyone finds this useful or if you have any questions.

 

P

[mcgoo]

I think I've just met my new best friend!!!

 

I just saw this thread while taking a 2 minute sanity break at work. Scanned about 30 seconds of one of your YouTube videos (combining Sync & PWM) & can't wait to return for a deeper look.

 

Nice to finally meet (even if virtually) 1 person on this planet (besides yers trooly) who actually owns & still uses one of these beauties!

[TommyS]

Sure wish I never sold mine. Yeesh.

[Piktor]

It's the man himself! I was hoping that you would see the thread before it sank into obscurity. I agree that the Multimoog has been an under appreciated instrument.

 

Here's an extra tip for you. If you don't have a voltage control pedal handy, a guick way to try "the trick" is to take the keyboard voltage out (at the back of the Multi - I can't remember if you click the knob or not) and run it into the Keyboard force out/in. You won't hear the effect in the lower range of the keyboard, but as you play higher and the keyboard voltage increases, you will hear the effect more and more. e.g. LFO sweeping synced oscillators

 

P

[mcgoo]

Great stuff Piktor! Now Im feeling this uncontrollable urge to beg / borrow / steal / build a VC pedal!

 

Youre really getting some great sounds out of your Multi. I used to have two of them like you do, but sold one of them back in the 80s. Then I had a Micro for a while, but it too is gone. When I had 2 Multis, Id occasionally hook them together to trigger both from one. Later I bought a Kenton (pro 2?) MIDI to CV converter, which allowed me to use it in sequences. I got a lot of mileage out of that for a few years, but with the advent of the Arturia softsynths, I found I wasnt using the Multi in a MIDI setting much, so I sold the Kenton to get other toys.

 

About the only non standard things Ive done with the Multi is run other things thru the filter -a Rhodes to get that John Paul Jones No Quarter sound (using the LFO), or an organ to get the Wont Get Fooled Again sound (using the Sample & Hold). BTW- loved your broken S&H switch!

 

The only live use my Multi gets these days is with a Pink Floyd tribute band I play in. I use a Laptop for a lot of my sounds with Brainspawn Forte as a host. I run the Multi thru the Laptops I/O & store setups for fx on the Multi (reverbs, delays, chorusing, limiting, etc.).

 

First order of business for me is to run the Hi output thru the filter input. Why the heck I never thought of that, Ive no idea. I know its an old trick on the Mini, so Im feeling a little dense for not thinking of trying it on the Multi.

 

Nice playing, great ideas, & nice use of overdrive. Very inspiring. Ive got some homework to do!

 

[Tusker]

Nice playing, great ideas, & nice use of overdrive.

 

+1

 

Piktor, your grind bass tone is seriously demented.

 

Thanks for spreading the love.

 

A couple of ideas for the conversation ...

 

1) The audio outputs of any (including digital) sound source turn into beautiful sidebands when sent into pitch CV of your Moog.

 

Volume of the sound source = modulation depth

Pitch of sound source (use simple waves) = oscillator rate (keyboard tracking optional)

 

2)A smidgeon of white noise into pitch CV will cause your multi-moogs well-behaved oscillators to sound even bigger if you can imagine that. Like early Moog oscillators.

[Keybass]

What an awesome sounding instrument!

[HammondDave]

Excellent work...! Moog should hire you for discovering their secret.

[Piktor]

Excellent work...! Moog should hire you for discovering their secret.

 

 

Thanks Hammonddave! I do feel a bit like I found Moog's Easter egg.

[Piktor]

Great stuff Piktor! Now Im feeling this uncontrollable urge to beg / borrow / steal / build a VC pedal!

 

Youre really getting some great sounds out of your Multi. I used to have two of them like you do, but sold one of them back in the 80s. Then I had a Micro for a while, but it too is gone. When I had 2 Multis, Id occasionally hook them together to trigger both from one. Later I bought a Kenton (pro 2?) MIDI to CV converter, which allowed me to use it in sequences. I got a lot of mileage out of that for a few years, but with the advent of the Arturia softsynths, I found I wasnt using the Multi in a MIDI setting much, so I sold the Kenton to get other toys.

 

 

Thanks Mcgoo. We have taken similar paths Midi/Moog-wise. I'm glad to hear that you got jazzed about trying some of the ideas with your Multimoog. Like you, I have also experimented with running a Rhodes through the Multi's audio input. Back in the days before I could afford my first polyphonic synth, I messed with running a Philips Philicorda organ through the Moog filters too (I was using the VC pedal by that point). Because that organ was bright and devoid of an interesting personality of its own, that Moog filtering made it kind of cool.

 

I like your idea about building effects presets for processing the Multi with the laptop. The instrument seems to play nicely with various effects.

 

If you cannot find a VC pedal to your liking, you might want to check out this information. I haven't personally tried it, but it might bear fruit: http://ericsgearpage.blogspot.ca/2011/06/how-to-make-cv-sourecontroller.html

 

Additionally, just in case it's useful, I'm sending you a PM with the information that I did use.

[Piktor]

[quote=Tusker

Piktor, your grind bass tone is seriously demented. :

 

Thanks. I like that description.

 

Thank you for contributing some other new ideas that I had not thought of. I experimented with feeding signals into the oscillator inputs. Some pretty interesting things happen. I think that further investigation is warranted.

 

P

[Odyssian]

Loved your Multimoog youtube demos.

 

Is the Multimoog one of the synths that had 1.2V/OCT? I seem to remember some synths had that. Not sure if it will work with all MIDI to CV convertors.

 

Something to research about...