The most sought after pedals now as plugins!

Back in 1998, Moog started releasing the Moogerfooger pedals which are still some of the most iconic analog pedals. There are 7 models which are analog and come in huge metal enclosures with wooden panels. In 2018, the whole line was discontinued making them extremely hard to find and the used-market prices went to unprecedented highs. Just to get an idea, an original Moog pedal nowadays is somewhere around 1.000-1.500€ in good condition. Which is absurd.

So, a few months ago, Moog decided to re-release all of its pedals but in a plugin format. That means you can now get all those pedals but at a fraction of the price! All plugins have been carefully calibrated to get as close as possible to the original pedals and have a very innovative feature where you can modulate any pedal with a modulation source from another one in the same project. They all communicate with each other so you can create some very interesting modulations by virtually patching one to the other.

Let’s go through and check out each one of them to understand what they do!

MF-101S Lowpass Filter

One of the most famous Moogerfoogers is the Lowpass Filter. As expected it has the legendary Moog filter that can be a 2-pole or a 4-pole with the classic Moog sound. It has an envelope to modulate the Filter Cutoff and a Drive that will boost the sound to overdrive territories. A very warm-sounding filter that can shine once you start modulating it to create movement. And if you also crank up the resonance it sings!

MF-102S Ring Modulator

A Ring Modulator as a concept, is to modulate the incoming signal based on a carrier signal’s frequency. It’s a very interesting effect that can easily go to the extreme so use it with caution. The Moogerfooger has two waveforms, a square wave & a sine wave, and can result in a lot of harmonic effects that make a plain sound a bit more interesting and wild.

MF-103S 12-Stage Phaser

This a 6-stage or a 12-stage phaser with also an LFO to modulate the Sweep control of the phaser. As a standard phaser effect, this one sounds great. You can go as intense as you want with it and still have a very musical result. If you’re into phasers, this is a very straightforward one but with great sound and controls so you won’t be disappointed.

MF-104S Analog Delay

The most famous (and the most expensive to get) Moogerfooger pedal is the analog delay. A classic analog delay that has the analog tone you’d expect from a great analog delay. The plugin version does an amazing job of re-creating that sound and of course, has the LFO where you can modulate the Time knob creating some pitch-shifting delay lines. Simple and effective.

MF-105S MuRF

The MuRF is another iconic Moogerfooger. MuRF stands for Multiple Resonance Filter. It has 8 band-pass filters which can be controlled by the 8 slider resembling a graphic equalizer. On the plugin version, you have a switch where you can change between bass & mid frequencies to treat different instruments whereas in real life there was the MuRF and the Bass MuRF. The fun part is the patterns that will sequence those filters resulting in a rhythmic sequence of different frequencies. This is a great way to rhythmically modulate a signal giving it movement and character. Probably the most creative of the series, the MuRF is a great and unique plugin.

MF-107S FreqBox

Another unique pedal/ plugin is the FreqBox. It is a VCO that is triggered and modified by the input signal with a variable waveform (triangle, saw, square, pulse) that has a frequency control and can be hard-synced to the input’s frequency. It also has a FM knob and its amplitude is controlled by the incoming signal. Think of it as an extra oscillator that plays along with your instrument to add harmony. It can also be useful to use on drum parts and have an oscillator line that’s playing along a drum pattern.

MF-108S Cluster Flux

ClusterFlux is a multi-effect based on a delay that will create time-based effects like a Flanger, Chorus. or Vibrato. Similar to most of the other pedals, it also has an LFO to modulate the Time resulting in some very organic and alive effects.

MF-109S Saturator

The Saturator plugin is a plugin that’s not based on an actual Moogefooger pedal. It adds saturation & distortion and it models the noise generator circuit of the Minimoog Model D. It can go from mild saturation to distorted overdrive to your taste and it’s a very useful plugin to add some extra grit to your sounds!

All those effects were designed by a company that made synthesizers and the idea of modulation and connectivity was something most pedal manufacturers haven’t explored since then. Having an LFO on a pedal is a powerful tool that will free you from twisting knobs manually and can create many different evolving sounds. That’s why those pedals were so successful when they were released and are still relevant to this day in physical or digital form.

Conclusion

The Moogerfooger plugins are a powerful collection of effects that stay true to the original pedals and can get your creativity flowing. And they’re not your average collection of effects since they have some very unique pedals and all of them use modulation as an integral part of their sound. Since it’s almost impossible to get all of them in a physical format, this is the best and most affordable way to get them and also have the convenience that a plugin offers. And also save a ton of space since the original pedals are massive. It’s an expensive plugin collection for sure, so you should definitely make sure that you actually need the extra features those plugins can offer and their distinctive set of features. But if you do, you won’t be disappointed to have them in your kit.