Mooger Fooger Delay

[Girl Toes]

anyhoo, I tried it out yesterday. The delay is noisy!!! With the repeat signal comes noise. No way, jose. I mean, I expected something better for $700.

[apropos of nothing]

Hmmm.

I would not describe this as typical with Moog gear, although variance from unit to unit happens.

One unusual feature of the MF-104 is that it has an effect-loop for the wet signal so that you can further process it. The effect loop has its own gain knob.

Not discounting your experience, but its possible that if the delay was hooked up to further (possibly hissy) units for on the loop and/or if the loop gain was set inappropriately this could induce hiss.

I haven't played with the 104, but I know that the gain on both my LPF and ringmod are pretty good-and-clean.

FWIW

[The Real MC]

I got the 104 delay and I don't hear the noise you are describing.

[I'm Painting Again]

Lance return it for another unit and see if another is better..

[PeterAuslan]

I just got mine and I don't have any noise issues. I think this is a really versatile pedal and its perfect for dub/reggae effects. My only complaint is that I cannot get it to self-oscillate like the old Ibanez AD-9.

[Girl Toes]

Lance return it for another unit and see if another is better..

Didn't buy it, just played with it at the store. I'll try it again though, didn't have a loop set up.

I agree, its not typical for moog.

[musikman316]

Also tried one at a local store with no noise? Possible bad unit that you tried?

Josh

[Girl Toes]

Also tried one at a local store with no noise? Possible bad unit that you tried?

Josh

That's what I'm thinking. I'll try it again tomorrow.

[hammertime]

I just flipped through a Guitar Player magazine at Borders, and in a delay pedal shootout they said the moogerfooger was super quiet (but super expensive). They gave a "key buy" to the line six pedal, and the rocktron (which they called a bit "noisy" at certain settings).

[Girl Toes]

Ok... I went BACK to the store and and tried two different MF-104'z. The first sounded fuckin' great, until I plugged the expression pedal into the Delay Time. Then: The delay signal became slightly distorted, noisy, and lost the top end. Switched over the other pedal and got the same result. Played with the gain, the loop gain, in/ex loop, played with everything. Switched amps, power cords, and from bass to guitar. Same result! All this while sitting withe the store's guitar tech, who does great work, btw. The original signal was fne, but the delay signal sucked ass on both units.

The tech said he's going to call moog tomorrow, but for now, I remain quite disappointed. My other MF's sound great, everyone says the 104s sound incredible. But.......

[BrianK]

Maybe you aren't looking for what it does specifically well. The delay sound IS dirty and somewhat lo-fi, on purpose, but it is not noisy/hissy. This is an analog delay, what many people go for when they want a dark, lo-fi effect - rather than the clean digital stuff. People say that digital lacks character - this analog delay has character.

As important, the MoogerFooger delay has a very long delay time for an analog delay. This longest setting degrades the quality of echo even further. If you want a longer, cleaner eco, you might try an echoplex or digital delay. I, personally, don't need a second of delay - usually about 1/3 is fine, so I use it in the shorter length position.

The REAL reason the pedal exists is to give you a flexible, controllable analog delay. With CV control (Ibanez, BOSS etc do not give this) you can pedal control the delay time, or sweep it with and LFO or random voltage. You could have your playing volume control delay time, or a sequencer. Many, many options. CV stuff is amazing fun and very few people use it. It's SO easy too...

Another thing the Moogerfooger gives is the effect loop WITHIN the delay feedback. This lets you process the sound each time it repeats (nothing else does this without a mixer). You can filter out with an EQ, you can pitch transpose (each delay repeat changes the note), you can fuzz (each note gets dirtier), etc etc etc.

"For $700" this pedal does a lot of things - things you may not want if you just want a slap echo. It does incredible mutating things, and allows fantastic delay effects not available with other units. It is NOT about sound quality, unless the sound you want is lo-fi and wild. It can do the feedback into infinity effect described before, but I use a gain boost in the effect loop to make this heavier and controllable.

The Moogerfooger also handles +4 levels from a console or -40 levels from a guitar. Stompbox pedals do not do this. It is also designed so you CAN intentionally overload the input and make it fuzz out without hurting the unit.

[Girl Toes]

Thanks for telling what the MF does. I can tell you, there IS noise, and there IS no top end. The Arion analog delay that I paid less than 50 bucks for sounded far superior. What I heard on the MF was unacceptable, especially for $700.

[Coco]

Our guitar player is picking one of these up today. I will report back as well later in the week after I hear it.

[Girl Toes]

Any updates from anyone??

[inverseroom]

For half the price you could get a Space Echo in great condition...and that's one of the best analog delays ever!

Not to knock Moog, but I agree that for $700 you have got to be absolutely satistfied with the sound.