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Now, an updated review of the Livewire Frequensteiner. This thing kicks major booty! I mean, it can rip, and sound really mean. The best multimode filter in the eurorack format easily. I figured i would show it off a little more. It gets so crunchy and alive and mean. Rips some skin off.. Like a rusty razor. The doepfer A-140 envs are so tight and snappy, i love them in H or M mode to make this acid stuff. The future retro is an awesome CV and Gate Sequencer. I like it for that more than anything else. I pissed off my lizzard with the camera, he wasn’t happy, but it made great video. LOL… any how enjoy this clip! LONG LIVE ANALOG! LONG LIVE LSD(ACID).

Click Here for the hi-fi divx version of video. Has much better audio quality! You will need to install the divx plugin to view it.

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Here is the high quality divx version of the video on stage6. you might need to download divx and install it to see the embeded video, on the mac i sure had to.

Moog Freqbox: Okay, let me start first with the moog. When I first got it, it didn’t scale worth a damn, I had to open it up and calibrate it, even then i only could get about 2 and a half octaves of stable tuning. The plan b was better, but would lose its calibration all together after a few hours. Not the case here, the moog holds it’s calibration. 2 and half octaves is awful. But what makes me forgive it? This thing is huge, big bass, big sound. even if it gets sour, I still love it, its so fat. The plan b and mfb only wish it could sound as fat as this oscillator does. This is not stable enough or musical enough to really hold the fort. To me this is the perfect add on to something more stable to fatten up bass lines and kicks. I have not used it as an FX processor, but man this thing can crazy modulate other stuff great, and a nice big frequency knob to boot, something most of these modular modules do not have.. I like the moog a lot, but i sure wish it tracked a little better. A great addition to a stable modular system.  

Okay now onto the Harvestman Polivoks filter. Wow. The resonance on this thing is great, it can rip your face off. I love it for aggressive acid sounds, a new flavor. Its not moog, its not roland, and its not korg. It’s something new, even though it’s old. I’ve never even heard a filter that sounds like this before. The sound still stays big, even with a lot of resonance. This is what the original minimoog did well too, but its smooth, this is mean, and rough, and aggressive, much different. The bandpass is ok, but i prefer the bandpass in the livewire frequenseiner. This is the perfect addition to my ssm and livewire filters. I highly recomend this!  

I am set on filters. This gives me evil acid. SSM gives me the girthy glass 80s chip sound. And the frequensteiner gives me a great band and high pass, bland if you don’t saturate the inputs, but if you push the filter with a big sound and drive it hard, nothing beats that high pass. On the oscilator front, if and when the livewire AFG comes out, i will probably pick one of those up and an analog systems r95. This will get me by for now. Its big, and the demo I made shows that off.. Hope you enjoyed this video and review. Peace out.. A fellow gear whore.. hexfix93  

BTW: here is al ink to the crappy lofi low res youtube version of the video that ruins the sound quality and looks worse.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_wAH_Z6R3Q .

If you want to hear a better version of the audio click : http://www.velvetacidchrist.com/synth/polivoks.mp3

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Harvestman modules are why i kept my modular. Seriously. So cool. Check out this video of him at namm 08, you can buy this stuff at Analog Haven lots of cool stuff:

HOLY @#%@%@$ This is the livewire AFG oscillator. This thing is nuts. I want one so bad it’s not even funny.

Plan B makes great stuff, love the evil twin bandpass filter! Great guy! great products. Cant wait to get my hands on that and a model 09, and that wave splicers!

Some new Doepfer Modules!, Wave-multiplier looks great.

Interview with Dieter Doepfer

Analog Systems modular, mod wheel rs 600, very good.

Richard Devine, Acid Jam with tb303, tr606, and doepfer modular with livewire AFG Oscillator, and a future retro mobius sequencer. Took place at the Analog Haven booth at namm 08.

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The good: Click Here to listen to the mfb osc-01 in action, first sound is osc sync bass through the ssm filter, 2nd sound is pwm sync detuned lead through the frequensteiner high pass. This thing sounds great for a dco, I can get good bass and pwm and sync sounds out of it really easy. It’s pretty stable, I had to calibrate the tracking for intonation. Once I did, I was able to get 4 good octaves out of it, and it was stable. Better than any osc in this doepfer rack stuff I have tried so far (only plan b). It’s a great deal, 3 oscillators for about 220 US dollars. I got it used for 170. I would compare this to an alpha juno oscillator on steroids. Since the junos don’t do sync sounds it gets hard to compare there. The saw is ok, but it’s the pwm that really shines on this. When using all 3 oscillators, it always sounds like a polysynth in unison. This oscillator shines when played down low or in the mids.

The bad: The output volume is bad on the combined output, and a little bit better on the individual outs, but this thing is not nearly as loud as my plan b oscillators. But they get the job done. It is not quite as fat as the plan b, especially the SAWS. The saw is strange on it. If i have set on 16, osc 1 and 2 the signal gets really weak on the c0 octave when controlling it from my kenton pro solo via midi, but only in saw mode. Osc 3 does not have that problem at all. It sounds strange up high, and I think I can hear some aliasing, not sure, but something strange when I play way up on the keyboard. So I think this osc is sub par on high leads.

Final Word: If you want to add some alpha juno oscillators into your modular rack, this is the ticket. It doesnt do as many wave forms as the alpha juno, but the sound is similar. This does OSC SYNC, and its great. It does all those buzzy techno sounds similar to the alpha juno. It sounds very 80s roland, dco that is. And I am a huge fan of the junos. This is a great buy for me.

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