Thanks I’ll investigate over the weekend.

As a matter of interest, the ‘distortion’ that I thought I was hearing via the headphones wasn’t. It was a crackling sound and only present in some voices such as the harsher organ sounds when pressing a few keys at the same time at full volume.

The other day I was listening to some examples of sound packs that you can buy (on my PC so totally separate from the keyboard and amp) for the MOXF and noticed a few of those organ voices having the same crackling.

I’m now certain the distortion problem only happens via the amp and is probably down to the cable connection. I haven’t had the change to mess around with this yet.

At the risk of being “Captain Obvious”, you are aware that many organ VOICES are purposely distorted, correct?

cmayhle - 03 March 2017 05:06 AM

At the risk of being “Captain Obvious”, you are aware that many organ VOICES are purposely distorted, correct?

Indeed yes I’m aware of that :-)

This is more of a crackling noise rather than the ‘rock style’ distortions. Maybe that’s deliberate too and I’ve just never noticed that before!

jg666 - 03 March 2017 10:15 AM

[...] This is more of a crackling noise rather than the ‘rock style’ distortions. Maybe that’s deliberate too and I’ve just never noticed that before!

Does the noise vary with the MOXF Master Volume slider position?

It might just be that you need to run your amp louder than you would normally expect to, and set your MOXF slider quieter than you would normally set it. 

It’s very easy to distort the output of a MOXF with the Master Volume slider at full or close to it.

jg666 I’d suggest your problems likely begin with certain voices that have a particularly loud individual output, or layers of voices in a performance which have a particularly loud cumulative output or might contain a lot of low frequencies whilst using the master volume slider either at full up or close to full up.

I take time to carefully edit the output volumes of voices that stick out as being loud (and quiet), just to even them out. That includes copying any problematic presets to user banks and editing them there, as well as dealing with my own creations.

I set my slider to begin with at no more than around 70 percent up, and then use the input gains on my small mixer to do the rest.

Once I have a good level going in, I can then use the mixer’s monitor level to get a good listening level out.

Obviously, you can never keep the same slider position for everything, but the key is in leaving yourself some output to burn if you need it ...output which won’t crisp up your sound.

Thanks everyone. I’m struggling to find the voice where the ‘crackling’ noise is happening now! I suspect as people have said, it’s certain voices which are louder and perhaps harsher sounding that cause this. I can’t even find the video online where I heard the same thing on an organ voice.

I’m going to set the slider lower from now and see how that goes. I did get a slight crackle yesterday when I touched the slider to move it all the way up but then it didn’t happen again!

I’m definitely leaning towards getting myself a mixer and powered speakers now.

I’ve noticed that people tend to treat a slider main volume very differently to how they would treat a main volume knob on other gear, despite them both doing the same thing,

They’re often quite happy to max the slider for some reason, but never the knob!

We are peculiar creatures.

Maybe imagine you’ve got a knob?  :-)

The reason I’ve got my slider so high is because of mostly using headphones and a lot of the voices need the high volume.

What I can do instead though is to plug the headphones into the amp rather than the MOXF. I can switch the speaker output off on the amp so that sound only comes through the headphones :-)

That should make all the difference in the world if you combine it with backing the slider off and letting your amp do the work.

I hope it does, anyway.

Regarding the crackling I’ve heard via headphones as well as speakers, I think this is one example of it - although it’s not the one I heard the other day…

Scroll to about 3:18 (Organ Percussion)

When he holds the notes down I can hear a slight ‘crackling’ sound. It sounds worse when up at the top end of the keyboard to me.

I hear the crackle you mean, the one with the exact same regularity, just after a short pause, each time he holds a few notes down together.

I’m hoping the regularity is a big clue and that he’s distorted something else in his video making set up. Obviously the potency of the Voice has caused it, but I don’t believe it’s the source of it at all.

You’d expect an amp distortion simulation to be fairly random and sound good.  If we are talking about the same thing, that sound is neither.

There could be several stages during and after recording the video, when he could have accidentally distorted it.

He may even have done some mastering and accidentally crisped it up then.

Sorry to resurrect this one again! I haven’t heard any distortion for some time now so I’m thinking everything has settled down.

Hopefully this isn’t a dumb question!!.......

If I bought a mixer, could I send the output of the mixer to my current stereo amp? I do have to consider getting a mixer and proper monitors but need to do it in stages if possible due to cutting down spending.

I thought that if I got a mixer and fed the output of that into the stereo amp, that could be a halfway step to getting the proper system?

Edit - the reason I’m asking this is that I’ve gone and bought another synth so now I have 3. (MOXF6, Minilogue and the new Moog Sub 37). Yes I’m a fool, I watch youtube reviews and can’t resist buying them and have now left myself a little short of money!

It’s not a dumb question.

Yes, you can send the output of the mixer to your current stereo amp.

Mixers have a pair of left and right outputs called Monitor Outputs, the terminology varies between manufacturers, but it’s the same thing.  They’re designed to go direct to amplification or powered monitors. “Control Room output” is a term often used for the same thing, too.

In your case, you’ll need two RCA phonos at the amp end of the cable(s) to fit your amp, and most likely 6.35mm (1/4 Inch) Mono Jacks at the mixer end. That depends on which mixer you buy though.

Excellent mate, thanks very much for the prompt reply :-)