Connecting the Microfreak to a Moog Mother-32 via CV

Freak MicroFreak
#1

Hello,

Perhaps one of you can help me with this: I recently acquired a Moog Mother-32 and thought it would be cool to play it via CV thorugh my Microfreak.

However, the octaves in the two synths don’t always match (depending on the preset). OK, I could live with that, but worse, when I get lower on the Microfreak, there is a limit where the Mother doesn’t follow anymore and always stays on the same note. So the lowest octaves are not accessible on the Mother via the Microfreak.

When I look into the manuals, it says that the Microfreak goes from 0 to +10 V (1V/Oct), whereas the Mother expects -5V to +5V (1V/Oct). Is there a way to work around this? Has anyone managed to make this work?

Thank you all in advance!

#2

You would basically need a voltage converter to use the whole range, converting from 0V-10V to -5V-+5V.

https://www.reddit.com/r/moog/comments/ssm6ei/arturia_keystep_37_pitch_cv_raises_mother32/

#3

The Reddit thread has one possible s/w setting fix to try and I quote:

"There are two parameters you need to set in the Keystep:

MOD CV Max Voltage = Set this to 5 if it isn’t already.

0 Volt MIDI Note = Change this to CX, where X = 0 to 5 or so. This will change the CV sent by the Keystep to an appropriate octave for the Mother 32.

Keep in mind, that since the Keystep cannot send negative CV, you are limited to a 5 octave range. So if you want to lower the range, you will need to lower the pitch of the OSC on the Mother and adjust the “0 Volt MIDI Note” setting to get something playable.

The only way to get 10 octaves out of the Keystep for use with the Moog would be to add in a DC Offset device in between the Keystep and the Moog, to drop the CV by 5V, and then raise the Keystep to max 10V. This would translate the Keystep from a 0-10V range to the -5 to +5V range of the Moog."

I hope that works.

#4

Hi Talahamut and Funtmaster,

thank you for your helpful replies. I guess I will have to use MIDI then, if I want to use the full range of both instruments. A DC Offset device would be a little excessive. Maybe one day when I can afford a Eurorack system. :slight_smile:

1 Like