Do u have a Moog Freqbox? This is probably a dumb ?

[pigmaker]

i just pickedup a freqbox second-hand, i want to make sure there is nothing wrong with it. so someone with a freqbox - could you please plug it in and confirm something for me?

now this is the second freqbox i have owned, and i cant remember my first one having this issue with the square wave and pulse wave on the Waveform knob...

(i am running my guitar into a compressor into the freqbox)

With the env. filter at 0, the fm amount at 0, the pulse wave is inaudible until the freq reaches 2.

at these settings the square wave is still inaudible, until the freq knob reaches 4.

the triangle and sawtooth waveforms both produce output with any of the above settings.
drive knob appears to have no affect.

is something wrong with my freqbox, or are these normal characteristics of the pulse and square waveforms?

thank u very much

[pigmaker]

cmon someone with a freqbox go plug in the damn thing ...please??

[kosta]

Yoooooooo. Just tested this with mine. That's about how it's working over here too, although the drive control seems to give an audible boost even when the oscillator isn't tracking / firing. I think what's happening is that the FreqBox can't reconcile / track the notes at the input with the low frequency being specified by the frequency control for the oscillator. With the oscillator frequency set really low (0-4) I could get it to start picking up as I played lower notes on the fretboard, but when I'd play higher notes it still wouldn't track even into higher frequency settings (2-4.) And this seemed to be more pronounced with the squarewave and PWM settings than the sine and sawtooth settings, as you said.

Hope that helps.

[pigmaker]

Yes it does - very much - thank you!

[kosta]

Cool. I bet those lower settings would track with bass or lower register synths, etc.

[skullservant]

:thumb: Cool. I bet those lower settings would track with bass or lower register synths, etc.

They do

[kosta]

Sounds monstrous I bet.

[skullservant]

Yeah it was awesome when I had the FreqBox. Wish I didn't trade that one
You can get a similar kind of sound with the Low Pass with the Frequency down low and the resonance up high!

[bigchiefbc]

Yes, that is exactly how it's supposed to work. There is actually a very simple explanation to this behavior.

When you have sync turned on, your guitar signal resets the oscillator each time it pulses. With a square/pulse wave, there's no slope; it's either on or off. So when you have the oscillator set to a lower frequency than the note you're playing on your guitar, it's resetting before it ever gets to the "on" portion of the wave, so the output is nothing. With triangle and saw waves, it gets partway up the slope before being reset, so you get some sound.

I think it even specifically warns about this behavior in the Freqbox's manual.

[pigmaker]

yeah, as a second hand item i was concerned because the first 2 waves on the knob were working fine, then the square wasnt, i thought *just a square wave component was busted,..but very happy it is not! and thanks for the help.

as far as guitar use goes, i think u really have to combine the freqbox with other pedals, but when u do...oh shit!

[kosta]

Yes, that is exactly how it's supposed to work. There is actually a very simple explanation to this behavior.

When you have sync turned on, your guitar signal resets the oscillator each time it pulses. With a square/pulse wave, there's no slope; it's either on or off. So when you have the oscillator set to a lower frequency than the note you're playing on your guitar, it's resetting before it ever gets to the "on" portion of the wave, so the output is nothing. With triangle and saw waves, it gets partway up the slope before being reset, so you get some sound.

I think it even specifically warns about this behavior in the Freqbox's manual.

Awesome info there. Thanks BC!

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

freqbox in a feedback loop, like an utter stutter...WILD

[kosta]

^^^ Oooooooh. I bet. That's a great idea. I love running my Boss Harmonist in the loop on my Chk Chk Boom. Sounds like weird skating rink organs in a haunted video game or something.

[pigmaker]

wow, ive never even considered adding a feedback looper to my board. can i get a cliffs on operation and practical functionality? thank u

[kosta]

With anything that does any kind of pitch tracking (Bit Commander, Organizer, Rainbow Machine, Boss Super Shifter, FreqBox, etc.), putting that pedal in a feedback loop will cause it to try to pitch track itself. This will make it keep pitching higher and higher and higher / lower and lower and lower (depending on settings.) This is basically what the "magic" switch does on the Rainbow Machine I suspect. Feeds back some of the pitch-shifted signal back into the input.