Moog MF-104 MoogerFooger Analog Delay

This pedal is a breeze to use. if you've never dealt with a Moogerfooger it might take you a few minutes - but thats fun in and of itself. The manual gives you some good ideas for sound manipulation.

I have a bunch of Moogerfoogers and I love them all but and I gotta say this thing is overpriced. I believe this must be a "large profit margin" item for Moog. The reason I say that is for the insane amount of money they are asking for this pedal it should sound better. I mean, it sounds good for analog delay but c'mon! Almost $700? the short setting is good but it only goes up to 500ms. Yes, with the long setting you get one second of delay but it is nothing but mud. Also - I can't get really good runaway oscillation. When I turn the feedback up to max it will continually repeat but it doesn't build up a wall of din. And then when I speed it up the delay disappears altogether at the highest setting. Maybe something is wrong with my particular unit?

I am keeping this only because I have all the foogers except for the Murph. Sometimes a company gets away with a less-than-stellar product solely on their name alone. This is such a case. You are paying for the Moog name and it looks cool. I also have several midi-to-cv converters which allow me to do some unique things with the back panel control inputs.

built like a tank - but, like I said, my feedback does not get extreme like I think it should (and like I want)

I am waiting for a response - I will update with results.

This is really just a 500ms analog delay. The longer setting is just too muddy. Don't give me that "its the old analog vibe." If you like that sort of thing just eq all the treble out of your delay channel and put a blanket over your speakers. No midi sync or tap tempo. No stereo. You get one kind of delay: dull. Fine. I paid $500 on Ebay. If I would have paid $689 from a music store I would have gotten my money back. I love Moog and will continue to support them - but I paid good money for this - and I have the right to share my opinion. With the economy the way it is we must demand the most for our dollar.

dead easy very nice design laid out well. manual is good. nice.

so there is a little noise but i think its kinda supposed to be there on a delay like this. i mean no one complains a space echo has noise. or the way a tube amp distorts. ok so i totaly say this delay has its own colour its own sound and is a unique and cool effect. nothing sounds like it and that is why i give it a ten.
i use it with a boss spring reverb in front of the chain. i am using it to do dub and experimental music. the delay on long mode is nice dark. it completely sounds like its own thing. not exactly like tape but also a different sound from a ehdmm alltogether its a great deal of fun. plugging in a lfo in to one of the control parameters can also do some wonderfuly good things as well. its awesome.

have only had it a week or two so dont know yet seems solid tho

i imagine them to be good but its only my imagination

its a very unique effect and its inspiring to use it. sounds like its own thing and has a great degree of flexibility for routing signals.
i love it

I love the sound. It's easy to use and very functional for what I'm doing.

I use this through a fender dual showman with a 66 fender mustang.
I love it, though i've not cared to buy the crappy expansion pedal.
I do it all real time, just bend down and mix it right there.
It IS noisy, but i like noise. Not too big in lots of distortion, just love the natural crunchup this pedal brings.
I paid alot for it, but it was worth it considering all it has brought to my writing.
Now i need the 105

I've had some trouble.
I have encountered some for of short i assume. I turn it on and there's no change, a light comes on, but nothing from the pedal. I have to unplug it and start over then it will work. It really puts me in a tight sopt live. I'd have it fixed, but I feel i've already paid enough on this one. I want Bob to come to my house and FIX IT PERSONALLY!

Haven't gotten that far yet

For the stuff I write, it's perfect. Very organic, yet wierds out enough to relate to whatever I'm doing.
I love the sound of it and the asthetic it brings. I hate the fact that it doesn't respone once in a while, and that it was so damn expensive.

email me if you want a cd.

lyramusic@hotmail.com

If you can work the other foogers you'll have no problem with this. It's the easiest.

For what these go for you'd think it would be holey grail status but it is just good.

Very noisey for a moog product. Even with guitar it has very little headroom. You have to turn the input level way down then jack up the output hence boosting the noise floor.

The echo itself is very dark. The runaway can go really far before it feeds back. I think this is do the the lack of high frequencies in the feedback loop.

Before you part with a ton of cash for one of these check out the ibanez ad-230, the t-rex replica or a good tape unit. I prefer all three to this.

Honestly It sounds like an arion SAD with more delay time. I prefer the SAD because it doesn't clip, does a better runaway and only costs like $20 compared to $600.

I have 7 mooger fooger pedals. One started to acts kind of wierd and sent random voltages for a while. I ended up just working the amount pot for a long time and that fixed it.

This pedal is kind of a poor value. I think they could have kept making them but just realized it was expensive to build and not a very strong design. I hope moog will release a better sounding delay with the same features.

If you allready have every other cool delay worth having and are just a delay freak then this is worth getting just for the novelty i guess. It can do things no other delay pedal can, but If you can only afford a few nice pedals I'd say you could get at least three better delay units for the cost of one of these. Yamaha e1005, ibanez ad-230, roland space echo, echoplex, korg stage echo. Get a couple of these and spend the rest on a good overdrive.

This is not as cool as the three other mooger fooger pedals and is much more expensive.

It's not totally intuitive but there is a lot more going on with this pedal than any other dalay I've ever owned. the whole internal/external loop puts this in a different class of pedal and you have to mess with it longer to discover all of it's potential. Not a bad thing really. The loop gain stuff is a little unwieldy but you get the hang of it. Just takes a while to do it all and can require juggling. The manual is decent.

All depends on what you're looking for. This is the mother of all analog delays and is pretty far on the other side of the spectrum from clean, clear, accurate digital delay. I like both for different applications. This pedal is very warm, pretty dark over all and colors your signal significantly. The feedback is dark and slightly degraded. I happen to like this. It adds to my very retro tone. Great for space rock, moody indi-rock stuff, sad songs and such. I can cover the Radiohead, Doves, Pink Floyd territory very well. I use this with the expression pedal (at least one is ESSENTIAL to get the full potential of this pedal) and with it it's the cats meow. Without the exp pedal, its a great delay, with it -it's an instrument. I use it on the feedback knob and with little gentle rocking I can make some insane noise/space squalls and pads. Very useful and cool with a volume pedal as well.
There is one feature that is important to mention - the external loop. I find its best with a ring mod or phase effect. The primary signal is largely uneffected but the feedback signal picks up the effect and if you use the exp pedal with the feeback knob, it gets very colorful. It sounds simple enough but I find I'm often suprised with the results. The sum of the whole is greater than the parts. The sounds that result are unpredictable and vary greatly according to small variables when you have all these elements happening at once. I can make my guitar sound like a pulsing, slowly phasing, techno-style synth with the ring mod or lilting, squeezed, high pitched bird echo's with the phase. Very different than a ringmod or phase just going into a delay. I tried to build a unit like this a few years ago with an old DOD 680 and couple of organ pedals but this far excedes my skills and my expectations.
One thing it doesn't do well is fast accurate slap back. If your doing fast picking/strumming and need the dalay to stay right with you, giving you back exactly what you give it and leaving the negative space dry - use a digital unit. I tried it with this in the studio and this is just not the unit for the job. Too much color in between and the delays are just too rounded and dark. Conversely, western style slap back that is less staight-up rythmically demanding sounds nice.
Also, I don't really like the drive knob. I leave it pretty far down and turn the output up. This pedal doesn't need more dirt and darkness in my opinion but it's there if you want it. I haven't found much use for it. I don't like the fact that I have to compinsate with the output knob and that this creates more noise. This pedal is not noiseless and not true-bypass. True-bypass is generally overrated and mis-understood anyway but this will colour your signal on or off. It's classic style analog.
The basic delay sound of this unit sometimes sounds like my 80's Ibanez Analog Delay going through my old fender reverb tank. I think that pretty well hits the tone on the head. I think you'll find you'll still want a traditional delay to cover basic stuff if delay is as much a factor of your music as it is in mine. I have 3 in my rig including this. You'll use this for adventure and insanity with expression pedals and effects in the external loop, an independant instrument in its own right - it's real strength.

The pedal itself seems well built but the expression pedal is CRAP! I've fixed it a half a dozen times. The gear-to-pedal stick comes out and I have to take it apart and tighten stuff. A real drag for the price. I would ditch it and build my own but the resitance or capacitance, or what ever, is very unique, or so I'm told, an its hard to find pots that match the unit. I may put it in another case but I shouldn't have to! The guy at the store told me they've been having a lot of problems with them.
But...as this is a review for the delay and not the Expression pedal I'm only taking off 1 for it. I'm going to smoke it in it's own review though, the folks at Big Briar have got to do something about this.

I've heard good, I've heard not so good. I have no personal experience. They may here from me soon regarding that for-s#*t expression pedal.

I know lots of folks are put off by the price and I think its a valid complaint. That there are only 1000 ever made drives the price up, certainly, but fact is no other delay pedal does all of what this one does. The Line 6 with the exp pedal is ok on some settings but not really comparable. Tape delay's and the old Roland Space Echo's are the real rivals to this unit and they are less expressionable - if that's a word. I know price knocks a digit or two off everyone's reviews and it does mine as well.
Fact is, I love this unit but the price made me cry fat wet tears... as I fished the card out of my wallet. I'm a delay lunatic and I had to have it.
It is very musical and very emotional, if you catch my drift, and I'm glad I suffered thru the buyers remorse because It's rewarded me by helping me write and produce better/cooler sounding music. Oh, and I love it with my Moog Liberation Synth as well.

It's harder to use then your average analog delay because it has a lot of special features. You'll be so excited about the special features that you won't care.

This pedal sounds amazing. Very lush delays. The delays are noticably mellower or darker sounding then the original tone. This is what makes it sound so cool.
The pedal has an effects loop that allows you to send only the delays through the effect. This is super cool. It doesn't work with all effects but it works really nice with modulation effects. The one thing that is kinda wierd is the first delay after the original effect is not sent through the effects loop. So you play a note, you hear 1 delay uneffected and all the delays after that are effected.
This pedal is NOT true bypass. At first I thought my tone improved just by having the pedal in my chain. Maybe something to do with a buffer circuit, I'm not sure. But I've started to notice my wah sounds like crap when I have it before the MF-104, even if it's bypassed. I plan on building a true bypass box to solve this problem. One more negative that I've heard about a lot of analog delays is if you put the delay time past 12 o'clock(on the long setting) you'll hear a faint high pitched whine that lowers in pitch as you turn the knob clockwise. I'm not sure if this is the case with all MF-104s but it hasn't proven to be a big problem yet.
You may be wondering why I've given it a 10 when I've spent most of this section listing negatives. Well I figured it might be a waste of time just blabbering about how awesome it is and more construtive listing it's faults. I should mention this though, the way this pedal sounds and it's features(some not found on any other delay pedal)are absolutely unbelievably and far out weigh any negatives I've listed.

I don't forsee any problems in this department. The only thing is because this pedal is so beautifully constructed, I'm very concerned about marking it up. The inards look very reliable.

I've had no reason to call yet.

I'm a delay freak and this pedal will take care of me for the rest of my life. I seriously doubt I will ever play a better analog delay. In terms of sound quality and special features it is the best and well worth the money. And they only made 1000 so the resale value will always be high(not that I would ever sell it).

This isn't an analog dealy pedal so much as a delay module for a modular synth. Many more options that your average delay, and working them out is not a five minute process if such tools are unfamiliar to the user. Very good manual for setting things up.

The front panel has knobs for delay time, mix, regen, switches for double delay time with even less fidelity and f/x loop in or out, and a loop gain level. Also a trim knob for the input and an output level knob. Back panel has mix out (dry + delay) delay out (delay only) plus CV/expression pedal jacks for delay time, regen and mix. It can take a bit of time to match levels, but this also means that it will interface with more than just a guitar. It's great as a send effect with line level devices when properly configured.

As I said, excellent manual as well.

Oh my gawd. Yeah, six hundred bucks for a delay pedal is pretty extreme, but this is just one of those special pieces of gear. It sounds amazing as a guitar pedal. It can do country slapbacks perfectly. Set with an LFO on the delay time input and a 40ms delay, it can do some lucious doubing sounds. Longer delays are great for more dramatic guitar f/x.

It also absolutely thrills as a mix send effect. Anything from fattening up vocals to seriously tripped out dub effects. My main use for it is as a send effect while mixing, and it's just one of those pieces of gear that makes anything sent thtough it sound better. For guitar stuff, I set it at about 140ms and have an expression pedal for delay time and regneration. A volume swell on the guitar plus more feedback = thrilling whale sounds. Neil Young freakout sounds are also there with the feedback cranked up. It sounds so good that I leave it on almost all of the time with the 140 ms and a few repeats.

Just an amazing pedal for anyplace where a delay is needed.

Seems well built. Back comes off and all of the parts look high quality, though I'm no expert. I'd use it without backup 'cuase I ain't paying freaking $600 for a BACKUP delay. I like good sounds, but I'm a complete idiot. Switch feels a little sketchy.

no experience

It's expensive, and I really wondered about it when I bought it, but I used it with EVERYTHING now. It's in my live guitar rig, as a send effect in my studio when tracking, at mixdown on an f/x bus. There really isn't much like it out there. Tape delays have their own thing, and I'd still like to have one of them, but this sounds as good as any tape I've heard. A Memory Man is a cool pedal for sure, but doesn't have the same versatility for level matching or routing this pedal has. It's a lot of money, but it also became a crucial piece 'o kit for me as soon as I had it. A Line6 pedal could probably cop 80% of the vibe of this pedal, but I'm thinking of a delay modeler as a compliment not a replacement for this pedal. Looks extraordinarily cool on the floor when playing live. CV iputs open new vistas of sonic capability. A true achievement, can't say enough good about it.

Simple enough but read manual first!

I am using a Fender Strat>mf 104>mf 101>small stone phaser.Sounds of the delay are very good.Extremly warm tape sounding.Even when bypassed it makes my clean sound so warm coming frm my dual rectifier.If you want delays like the edge(u2)look no further.

I just got it a month ago but it looks real tough.

I play lots of pop rock and brit rock.I must say that it is perfect for me.Sometimes i even run it through my keyboard and i tell you it sounds awesome.This pedal changes my sound frm zero to hero.I had played with lots of digital delays(line 6,boss,digitech) i must say that the mf 104 kicks these other delay pedals in the face.

Real easy. You can use it on the floor or as a tabletop unit. The footswitch is sturdy enough to step on but you can press it with you finger too. It's a basic analog delay as far as controls go, but with added voltage control for delay, mix, and feedback. You can use a voltage pedal or a synthesizer LFO to continously change parameters, or you could go hog wild and build yourself a programmer that puts out programmed control voltages to build the world's first programmable analog delay. We're getting on a tangent here, but you can see the possibilities...

Anyway there are controls for delay time, mix, feedback, and loop gain. "Loop gain"? Yes, you can insert any external device into the feedback loop, a rare but useful feature. Try a highpass filter for authentic valley echoes. The manual suggests a setup with a Ring Modulator, I can't begin to imagine what that would sound like. "Loop Gain" controls the gain at the loop return jack for level matching.

Rounding out the front panel is a pair of nice big rocker switches, one toggles between short and long delay modes (400ms max and 800ms max respectively) and the other switch enables the external loop. Then there's an input gain and output level control along with a status and input level LED.

One of the handy things about the input level LED is that it is tri-color, it is very easy to see when you have nominal gain. The LED flickers when there is signal present; green means ideal gain, yellow means mild but pleasant overdrive, and red is clipping.

I used this unit with a Minimoog, a Polymoog, a Moog Liberation, and a bass guitar and they all sounded great. This analog delay has a very good tape quality echo to it, especially in long delay mode.

The long delay mode has less high frequency content then short delay mode. The MF-104 is a BBD delay device and this is typical of the longer delay times. But it is nice to have decent high end response out to 400ms, while at the same time decreased bandwidth in the long delay mode can actually be a desireable trait, IE if you're working with a 70ms delay with this unit you can switch between the two modes and use whatever suits your fancy. Sometimes a short delay with decreased bandwidth sounds good.

Some people will cry about the bandwidth issue - full 20-20Khz bandwidth is not always desirable. Yes there are digital units out there with full bandwidth for less money, but analog BBD devices have a unique sound that hasn't been duplicated in a digital delay and this unit sounds incredibly warm and clean. I like the sound a lot better than my Yamaha E1010.

Seems really solid. The chassis is thick enough to stand on.

Haven't had to call them yet.

BTW, there was a question about spare BBD chips - Big Briar *did* acquire more chips beyond what went into the 1000 units built, so they *do* have spares.

A lot of people will say that this is a lot of money for an analog delay. The reason I spent the extra money was for the voltage control. I did an experiment with a friend's modular synthesizer and patched his LFO output to the delay CV input of the MF-104. Instant chorus and flange, and it sounds *good*. But it doesn't end there.

I'm planning a modular synthesizer system and this unit will be part of that system. Yes, this is an expensive way to get analog delay effects but the flexibility of modularity is worth it. If you've ever had quality time with a modular synthesizer you'll appreciate this unit. In fact I'm planning on buying a 2nd MF-104, so I can make stereo quadrature chorus effects. There are so many possibilities with a modular system, and all of the Moogerfooger units were designed to be used in a modular synth. Just an example: I could route keyboard CV to mix so that I get more delay signal as I play higher up the keyboard, because in fact some natural environments react this way.

The MoogerFooger Analog Delay is the latest addition to Bob Moog's
celebrated effects units.As with the others,operation requires a little more tweaking than the average stomp box.Happily,there is a well written, and not overly technical manual accompanying the pedal.

I have tried several instruments through the unit,including a Tele Custom,an archtop fitted with Seth Lover pickups and various keyboards.In front of a VHT Pitbull,using the Tele,and dialing in a slapback echo, the sound of James Burton magically appeared from the speaker.I did find that using the long setting on the delay helped,as this attenuated the frequency response of the repeat.This is more in keeping with the "vintage" sound ,much sought after by guitarists.
On the short setting,the unit is still able to reach 400ms,quite long by analog standards,and the difference in clarity is commensurate with the doubled frequency response.I think this setting would be best sreved in an effect loop in amp, or on a boards send,as the effect of all those pristine delays piling up into the amp input is not pretty ,and precisely what guitarists are trying to avoid in buying an analog delay.You are grateful of the added resolution ,however ,once you put synths ,acoustic guitars and even vocals through the unit.The gain and output controls allow you to put practically anything through the unit without resorting to DI boxes or level conversion.At all settings the sound is exemplary and the noise floor, even at extreme settings is
negligible.This is not your mothers analog delay.
There is a external loop accessed by two 1/4 ins jacks on the rear of the unit.This allows you to process the delays with other effects,even ,as Mr Moog points out,other Moogerfoogers.In practice this was not as easy as it seems in the manual,largely due to difficulties matching the drives,gains and outputs on all the pedals.(Yes,I have all four.)
Inserting the ring modulator is fun, but soon descends into the realm of tiresome "special" FX.
The Big Briar filter yields really nice effects on long sweeping delays,the effect becoming brighter with each repeat ,as opposed to the other way round.
The Phaser is great for adding swirl(naturally),but also adds a psyco acoustic "panning" when used as described on Page 16 of the manual.It's an extraordinary effect in stereo and doesn't seem as automated as the digital variety.Add to this the fact that you can modulate parameters on the delay and the phaser by LFOs from the ring mod., and/or Control Processor,or by footpedal ,or by voltage control and you begin to see the possibilities on offer.Its alive!
Ok.Calm down.One of the best sounds I achieved was by using a Boss VB-1 in the effects loop.This gave me a modulated delay,a sound not unlike an old Copicat on its last legs.Beautiful delays ,fading into a shimmering ambience, without interfering with whatever was layered on top.Which begs the question,for $600 ,couldn't Big Briar have included
a modulation control?Sure,you can use the $300 Control processor to control the delay time,but not the LFOs on either the 101 Filter or 103 phaser,because there is no way to control the modulation amount,only the speed.
The other thing that is missing in a delay unit of this caliber is a
ducking device.Unless you've played through a pedal with this option you've no idea how incredibly expressive and useful this can be.These are not minor quibbles.Both of these can options are easily and inexpensively obtainable in the analog domain and should be considered a vital part of a professional delay unit.I'm giving it a nine for sound quality, only because I'm not thrilled with the way the drive control moves into distortion.

Too early to tell.These boxes are made well,but I wouldn't take mine on stage,not least because you'll look like a plank polishing the wooden sides with Pledge before a gig.More to the point is this;If Big
Briar obtained only enough of these now discontinued ICs to make a thousand pedals,what happens in the event of fried chips?(pun intended.)

I can't imagine a musical scenario where you wouldn't find a use for a good delay unit.This one has a great character and will sit in a track nicely while adding a warm halo to the original signal.The external control options will be invaluable to some,and largely ignored by others.For the latter,there are much cheaper options,and if you intend to stick it in front of a sizzling Marshall,perhaps the reissue Memory man would be a better bet;it also has nice modulation effects,but is a little noisy and probably tops out at around 300ms delay.Readers of these postings will be aware of other offerings from Maxon,Stamps(tube driven),H&K(tube driven and digitally modelled)and Tubeplex(tubes and tape).This is right up there with the best of them in terms of sound quality and unfortunately,expense.In fact I'd like to hear Bob Moog justify the high price tag of the MF-104,given that it uses the same casing as the much cheaper filter and ring mod units.
I laid down $600 last September to get one of these babies,and at various times was informed,it'll be special;hand signed by Bob himself,it'll have a nice presentation case etc,implying that it would be some kind of collectors piece.It arrived six months after schedule, in a brown cardboard box,and no signature ,so I can't help but be a little disappointed.The least Big briar could have done was to stick it in a Mooger carrier case for their sins.Gratis,of course.
All this aside,and with the exception of my previously noted gripes,this is great delay unit with extended delay times,low noise floor and sound that is organic, and has that indefinable quality that makes you want to play.Then again, $600 is a huge amount of wedge for a delay pedal,so now that thay are in select stores ,I suggest you try one out before parting with your drinking vouchers.