Understanding and using your moogerfooger® MF-103 Twelve Stage Phaser MOOG MUSIC, Inc.
Welcome to the world of moogerfooger® Analog Effects Modules! Your Model MF-103 Twelve-Stage Phaser is a rugged, professional-quality instrument, designed to be equally at home on stage or in the studio. Its great sound and classic effects come from the state-of-the-art all-analog circuitry, designed and built under Bob Moog's personal direction. Your MF-103 is a direct descendent of the original Moog™ modular synthesizers and professional rack effects.
GETTING STARTED Here are some simple instructions on how you can quickly plug in and try out your MF-103. 1. Unpack your MF-103. You can place it on a table or on the floor. We suggest that you place it on a table while you become familiar with its features. 2. Check that the power adaptor 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. for Japan; and 220 volts A.C. for most other countries).
6. Now set the MF-103 panel controls as follows (See Figure 2): RATE 32 AMOUNT 2 SWEEP 5 RESONANCE 0 Left Switch LO Right Switch 6-STAGE Figure 2 - Basic settings for becoming familiar with your MF-103. Press the stomp switch. The BYPASS light will now turn green. Playing your instrument, set the DRIVE control so that the LEVEL indicator lights up yellow most of the time. You will now hear the phaser signal.
Figure 3 - Typical spectrum of a musical sound. A filter, or equalizer, is a signal-modifying device that colors a sound by emphasizing some parts of the audio spectrum and attenuating (cutting down) other parts. In general, a filter or equalizer has a ‘quality’ of its own which is superimposed on the tone color of the original sound. Some types of filters (like the bass and treble controls on your sound system) have subtle, gentle effects on a sound’s timbre.
(notches), the middle one of which is at the so-called ‘mid-shift’ frequency. All three of these filter types are widely used in contemporary music performance. Each of them has its own distinct sound, a large part of which is directly related to the shape of its frequency response graph. The first two types are embodied in the moogerfooger MF-101 Lowpass Filter, while the six-stage phaser happens to be one of the modes of your MF-103.
Figure 5 – Frequency Response of a ‘basic’ 6-stage phaser. Figure 6 – Frequency Response of the AUX output. AUX OUTPUT: Figure 6 shows the frequency response that you get when you start with the basic setup, and then listen to the AUX Output rather than the Main AUDIO Output. Note that the frequency response is the opposite of Figure 5. That is, the peaks of Figure 6 are at the same frequencies as the dips of Figure 5, and vice versa.
instrument signal are alternately emphasized and then attenuated. Figure 9 – How the phaser frequency response changes as the SWEEP is varied. The phaser parameters are independent of one another. This means that you can set them in any combination that you wish. There is no such thing as a “wrong” combination of settings of the MF-103, so you can experiment all you like to find new, exciting effects for your music. THE LFO (LOW FREQUENCY OSCILLATOR) LFO stands for Low Frequency Oscillator.
yellow, and finally to red. Very weak signals do not light up this light at all. When the light is green, the signal is below the level that results in audible distortion. When the light is yellow, some low order distortion may be audible, giving the sound a subtle warm analog quality. When the signal is strong enough to drive the light into the red, the distortion at the output becomes stronger and more distinctly audible. Watch this light when you set the DRIVE control for the desired effect.
purpose. Or you can use expression pedals with equivalent specifications. See the Technical Information section on Page 14 for more information on pedal specifications. When you plug an expression pedal into one of the pedal inputs on your MF103, the pedal adds to the effect of the corresponding control. For example, let’s say that you plug an expression pedal into your MF-103’s AMOUNT input. With the pedal all the way back, the amount of LFO signal that modulates the sweep is set by the AMOUNT knob.
Rotating Speaker: Feed the AUDIO output to one speaker and the AUX output to another speaker for this rotating speaker simulation. Plug your expression pedal into the RATE control input to use your foot to simulate slowing down and speeding up the rotation. Press the pedal about one third down to simulate fast Leslie®.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION NOTE: The following information is intended for use by people who understand analog electronic circuitry and have enough practical experience to interconnect sophisticated electronic equipment correctly. POWER: The MF-103 works satisfactorily on +10 to +15 volts DC and uses about 100 milliamperes of current.
5 volts at the tip terminal is equivalent to turning the corresponding knob through its entire range. You can 'program' your MF-103 performance parameters entirely from external control voltages, by turning all four control knobs (but not the DRIVE or OUTPUT LEVEL knobs) counterclockwise, and feeding 0 to +5Volt programming voltages to the tips of the four pedal control input jacks. Figure 12 – Correct wiring for an expression pedal Figure 13 – Correct wiring for a TRS CV patch cable.
LIMITED WARRANTY Moog Music warrants that its products will be free from defects in materials or workmanship, and shall conform to specifications current at the time of shipment, for a period of one year from date of purchase. During the one-year period, any defective products will be repaired or replaced, at Moog Music's option, on a return-to-factory basis. This Warranty covers defects that Moog Music determines are no fault of the user.
BYPASS, a two-color indicator LED that tells whether the phaser is active or bypassed. ON/BYPASS, a rugged, smooth-acting ‘stomp switch’. JACK PANEL FEATURES: AUDIO IN ¼” phone jack – accepts any instrument-level or line-level signal from –16 dBm to +4 dBm. Input impedance is one megohm. AUDIO OUT ¼” phone jack - -4 dBm nominal maximum output level; +8dBm absolute maximum output level. Output impedance is 5,000 ohms.
