Moogerfooger MF-108M Cluster Flux (Demo)

New for 2011, the MF-108M Cluster Flux is a flanger / chorus / vibrato unit using Bucket Brigade Delay lines and an upgraded LFO.
There's so much power packed into this pedal that I decided I'll be making a second video to cover what this doesn't, including more demonstrations of the Random/Stepped feature, the LFO Rate knob's extreme settings, as well as the rear panel Feedback Insert and CV control (EP-2, LFO Out from MF-102).
I currently do not own any MIDI gear and unfortunately will not be able to demonstrate how to reach the C.Flux's hidden parameters.
Constructive criticism is welcomed. Enjoy!
--Nick

[@levillageglobal]

I own one and I'm loving it very versatile and liquid sounding. Those 6 LFO wave forms gives you control of the shape of the sound so well, and with an expression pedal it's even better.

[@NicholasGreenwood]

ABSOLUTELY. I've bought, traded, and sold so many flangers and chorus pedals over the years and I can say with confidence that this is the LAST one I'll ever buy. It sounds amazing, it's flexible, and it's got quite a few quirks and surprises tucked away in it. In fact, this might just be my favorite pedal of all time.................

[@uhgvitybvouv]

this is handsdown the best cluster flux review in youtube, very thorough. thank you for spending your time doing it!

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Thank you. Hey! In the interest of being thorough, I'm working on new demo videos for the whole Minifooger series. I just uploaded the first out of six videos. Check back to my channel to scope them all out!

[@Dieselandgunpowder]

This is a really great demo. It shows that you actually understand the piece of gear, unlike most of the reviews you see on youtube.

[@Thoracius]

... except for when he adds more delay time when showing us the 100% wet vibrato, as if that does anything to the sound other than add latency.

[@mr_guy661]

I like how you get a huge range of variables with this pedal, which also helps me understand the initial effects as well as creating some really weird sounds. Might get one in the future. Great video!

[@Slekkevet]

Time for the second part of your demo, dude. Props for this one, now we need MOAR!

[@MrDaigoRiki]

Thank you for doing this, I was so curious of this pedal, which costs 1500$ in Japan, Moog is great.

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Yeah, these are discontinued now and running up high in used prices.

[@Fluidstructure]

Best demo vid so far I've seen. Great job, thx

[@weakbrainthrombosis]

IMO the most underrated aspect of the moog pedals is their owners manuals. They give you the musical theory behind the effect, as well as the technical specs and signal flow of the circuit. I have the murf and a few of the minifoogers, I wish I could’ve got this, and the phaser before the speculation buying dickweeds priced them through the ceiling. Btw the chase bliss audio pedals are great alternatives, I would have both if I could.

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Agreed. The owners manuals strike the right balance of technical and engaging.

[@Thoracius]

OMG, just saw that these cost more than a grand used. Mindblowing, considering there's no shortage of sophisticated BBD modulation pedals on the market.

[@gandalph915]

Great demo and this pedal is actually amazing.

[@Gratefulcassady]

Damn wish I got before they got so expensive, insane sounds

[@MauryFF]

9:56 Failure!!! Nice review man!!

[@NicholasGreenwood]

One of my all-time favorite bands.

[@blacktrendpen]

i have been and will be watching this basically everyday until i can afford it

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Absolutely. Strum your Jazzmaster through this to your heart's content.

[@bluesrhythmandroll]

nice review Sheldon

[@IdentifiantDeCatacombe]

very nice, I'm sold for this one! Mkay!

[@NicholasGreenwood]

@SignalChain I love that people are able to recognize the riffs in my videos... Care to call this one out?

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Thanks. May the Force be with you.

[@billc2850]

I agree that like "The Rainbow Machine" and any other pedals that oscillate and morph wave forms are just useful for making noise and are basically "toys" .However: they are so fun to use and indeed can be used in a musical setting sparingly but seriously this thing is awesome!

[@gwugluud]

I didn't even want this until I saw this demo! This would HAVE to be the best flanger/chorus out there. I didn't notice anything about the voice of whoever the guy doing the demo is...Maybe z3v forgot his medication today? xD

[@javiceres]

It’d be great if you demoed some sounds with fx in the feedback loop of the Cluster Flux

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Sure, that would have been cool. But it requires a weird TRS-to-2x-split-mono cable to operate and I think that I didn't have one at the time of filming.

[@javiceres]

Nicholas Greenwood (IIRC it’s a pretty common cable though)

[@EmptySituation]

Okay, thanks man! Really helped me out, thinking of looking into it further :)

[@NicholasGreenwood]

@kimkjederseg Aaaaaack you got me on this one! I read it in the manual after filming and figured it I'd leave that little quip in there since I have no MIDI gear.

[@silverstone3228]

you explained everything very well and the review is one of the best but you concentrated only on explanation i wanted to hear more magical chorus and flanger sound not only tweaking oscillation sounds i hope you do another review without talking one more question...u said buy it now cuz its limited....does this mean those pedals will increase in value?

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Thank you for the compliment; I'm on a long hiatus from making new videos these days as I'm getting through school. I assume that these pedals will increase in value when they're eventually discontinued, yes.

[@mudshovel508]

@penguinrock No i figured thats what the manual says, but normally in a studio setting, thats what the measurements are.

[@jfusion10]

hell yes! Nice demo!

[@NicholasGreenwood]

@mudshovel508 The delay time presented in the video is pulled directly from the manual. As stated, the Moog extends beyond the range of other units of the same type.

[@jaikwillis]

nice job on this demo

[@lloydpopp13]

Hey cool vid, i really like the vibrato fx on this pedal, but can i turn off the chorus / flange fx? So i can get clean signal with vibrato fx. Thanks in advance

[@NicholasGreenwood]

+LLOYD POPP The main thing to do is turn the Mix knob all the way up and set the LFO section to a sine wave for a clean vibrato. Experiment with the Time, Feedback, and LFO Amount knobs to suit your taste.

[@lloydpopp13]

thanks a lot for the reply / info!

[@lloydpopp13]

+Nicholas Greenwood Hey Nich, i saw you perform the things u said at: 6:23 on this video, which gives the vibrato that im lookin for, but the chorus fx is still there, even stronger. is there a way to remove the chorus / flange while still achieve the vibrato sound?

[@ketongu]

+LLOYD POPP I'm not sure you will be able to completely eliminate the chorus from the effect, if you want a completely clean vibrato effect try Moog's ring modulator.

[@ketongu]

+LLOYD POPP Many apologies! The Ring Mod does tremolo effects! I always get the two confused.

[@MrJCMG]

Oh the possibilities. If only I wasn't a skint student I'd buy every Moog pedal out there. Haha. Maybe once I have a job and have paid off all the debt I'll be able to think about getting one.

[@victormlyon]

I don't hear zero crossover. What do you have to spend to get a double-delay-line machine that does it right? I was sure the Moog would implement this. So far I've only heard it through the Strymon box or hand-braking the reels...

[@louderthangod]

Victor Lyon Foxrox TZF

[@spacemanvector32]

Well no mixed company around at least, but I can see responding to questions from my bandmates after a beer. Yeah it's called the cluster fu...um flux. Part of the fun as must have been intended. Heck the product line is called moogerfooger after all.

[@Zemael]

Moogerfooger addiction.

[@NicholasGreenwood]

For real. I have four now (FreqBox, Ring Mod, Cluster Flux, Analog Delay) and I'm about to purchase the 12-Stage Phaser this summer.

[@Zemael]

+Nicholas Greenwood Haha, I knew it. Sometimes I found pedals that sound better and are simpler... but... dude, it's awesome to find new sounds with the cv ins and outs. All mine were used bargains, but sadly I think I'll never found bargains on the delay and the cluster flux.

[@robertsyrett1992]

I've messed around with the 12-stage phaser and it is very similar to this unit, but a lot more subtle. Great channel you have here BTW. I would love to see you make a modular style mayhem patch out of all your moog pedals.

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Thanks man. I put making videos on a major hold since I went back to school--I'm studying electrical engineering at the University of Washington. Zero time for editing these days, but maybe I'll pick it up again in the future. I have a Mother-32 synth now, BTW. I've been able to patch the FreqBox into it and it sounds great!

[@robertsyrett1992]

Nicholas Greenwood Wow! Can you use the Freq Box like an extra oscillator with the semi-modular system of the Mother-32?

[@javiceres]

@penguinrock Kinda like a Comb Filter, isnt it?

[@NicholasGreenwood]

The unit goes for about $600, so if you can find it for a couple hundred bucks less, then it's worth looking into. I won't tell what I paid for mine, but let's just say that the company were very gracious to me after making a run of [successful?] videos. It works very well with other pedals and distortions/overdrives; don't forget that the Drive and Output Level knobs work in very-important-but-not-so-obvious ways as far as that goes.

[@NicholasGreenwood]

@ukeleleboy97 Yes. Simply turn the LFO Amount down to zero (which turns off the LFO's sweep altogether), and mess around with the Time and Feedback controls. I've owned two of the older, larger Electric Mistress pedals in the past and I can say that the Cluster Flux has a wider range of that metallic "filter matrix" sound.

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Been a while since I watched this. Sounds like the guitar is tuned to Drop C# (drop D with all of the strings a half step down), strumming an open C# ("D") chord with a seventh.

[@thpriest15]

Did I hear a bit of Undone by Failure? :P

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Yep! I'm a huge fan of Failure as well as Ken's/Greg's other projects. So glad I got to see them on the Tree of Stars tour this year.

[@thpriest15]

I hope they come down to Australia :S

[@spacemanvector32]

I said the name out loud right after he said you have to be careful how you say it...and was not careful enough...lol.

[@EmptySituation]

Are you happy with this pedal? It looks really nice but do you believe it was worth the money?

[@JacubanGecko]

>was gonna buy it >google it >£489 >fucks sake >buy shitty behringer instead

[@mudshovel508]

Flangers usually 1ms - 4ms Chorus is usually 4/5ms - 40ms everything after that is an echo

[@christopherpederson1021]

Must buy before discontinued

[@brianrodman1033]

Christopher Pederson are they going to discontinue this model? That would be a bummer. The MuRF and MIDI MuRF are getting tougher to find and more expensive.

[@perorez]

Hurry up!

[@universalmanchild]

Can you get any leslie type sounds out of it?

[@fruzeti]

Mkay

[@universalmanchild]

Can you get a rotary speaker effect?

[@guitarpedaldemos9121]

fred flinstone yeah, you can get a great rotary effect from the Cluster Flux. You can get pretty much any typical chorus/flange/vibrato effect and alot more.

[@staplek]

is the pedal noisy? ive read comments that it can be

[@EmptySituation]

How much did you pay for it? I have found one for about £300, which is probably about $375 dollars, is this a good price for it? Also does it work well in a chain with other modulations or in seaquence with overdrives, fuzzes and other such effects?

[@megajames3000]

I love this thing

[@KenBory]

I have no idea what to do with this pedal.

[@KenBory]

Death Metal & More! Maybe.

[@NicholasGreenwood]

***** KenBory . I love using flanger sounds for solos and really thick chorus and vibrato sounds for everything else. Lately I've been plugging an expression pedal (Moog EP-2) into the LFO Rate input so I can change the speed of the sweep on the fly... Very pronounced and quite unusual for soloing.

[@javiceres]

KenBory Limited imagination for a musician...

[@megajames3000]

at 9:00 are you playing or is it the pedal? because that was creppy beeping

[@westgoten]

I cant play for shit, but i want one just for the Very creative name. :D

[@tsak99]

Is it good for teh shoegaze?

[@javiceres]

Suena maravilloso.

[@Slekkevet]

You promised MOAR TOANZ, but you lied. For shame!

[@SignalChain]

9:59 - YES !!

[@NicholasGreenwood]

The pedal is tripping out on that setting. Feedback all the way up, with the waveform set to "random".

[@v4nt4]

thaks mr mc ok

[@MausLab]

Ok!

[@SignalChain]

@penguinrock Hah! Those who know... KNOW.... But also, the last chord there swirls in a way that is uncannily similar to the end of that song... Which is wack, considering that this pedal clearly did not exist at that time. And now, I'm going to, ahem.. kill some time tonight.. with my 108M that showed up this afternoon...

[@bluesfuse]

temple of the dog??

[@lespaulguy32]

This pedal kinda creeps me out for some reason... :P

[@sevinsound]

You did everything but demo a flange or chorus sound...

[@NicholasGreenwood]

Tsk tsk, bro.

[@universalmanchild]

i know, seriously...

[@TheZatrahc]

You don't experiment very much, do you?

[@z3v]

this guy's whiney goldstine voice is killing me

[@Dialoquese]

Any pedal has a reasonable range of usability (otherwise no sales) ... Saturday morning cartoon sounds are useless to the average musician who simply wants a broader take on mainstream musicality. Thanx just the same.

[@louderthangod]

Dialoquese This is the most depressing post I've read in a long time.

[@ellem52]

Based on this review I can't imagine ever wasting space in my pedal board with this pedal. If I was given this pedal I would throw it out. I'm not blaming the reviewer, I just think this is a terrible pedal.

[@therealsweep1]

That's the worst chorus I've ever heard. It makes everything sound out of tune - detuned in a bad way. I've just winced my way through a different demo and tried this one to see if it sounds any better. It doesn't. I wondered about buying one of these, but no way.

[@justintonation29]

Dude that is what a chorus effect does. It creates a copy of your sound and detunes it slightly so that it sounds thicker. Do you also go on distortion pedal demos and complain that they sound noisy ?

[@jordanschulz8493]

Exactly. And a lot of the demo had the wet signal louder than the dry. But whatever OP. You can continue to use your conventional chorus box with one waveform, rate and depth controls that go about a 10th of the way that the a Moog lets you, and revel in how "musical" you are.

[@universalmanchild]

Jordan Schulz I used to own the 12 stage phase shifter Moogerfooger. The possibilities were endless as far as your sonic palette goes. You could even get ring modulator effects with it on the right setting and that was solely with the pedal alone.

[@KittenFlower66]

therealsweep1 LOL

[@universalmanchild]

Less talking, more playing.