colleen

“Conditional” is a song on making your sense of happiness dependent on obtaining something or someone.

When Moog contacted me last September to betatest their Moogerfooger plugins, it was a resounding YES on my part, even though I was on a tight deadline to finish my forthcoming 8^th album: the Moogerfoogers were my introduction to the analog world in 2014, the MF-104M is still *the* effect I reach for the most, and back in 2017 I had the honor of recording a session at the Moog Sound Lab in Asheville to mark the end of their physical production (A Flame Variations EP), at the end of which they kindly gifted me not 1, not 2, but 3 Moogerfoogers!!!

I have a pretty intimate knowledge of the MF-104M Analog Delay, MF105 MIDIMuRF and MF-101 Lowpass Filter, so I was curious to hear the effects’ digital replica and try the other two I didn’t know, especially the MF-107S Freqbox, which I fell in love with madly (it is responsible for the song’s impossibly crunchy rhythm!)

I purposefully used a very minimal sound source – the Hammond of the Yamaha Reface-YC – as a blank canvas to showcase what makes the Moogerfoogers truly unique: their ability to radically transform sound and impart a sense of motion, making them closer to a synth module than an effect pedal. Having just finished a fully instrumental album, I actually really felt like singing the lyrics to a song which I had to discard, allowing me to also showcase the MF-104M as an awesome vocal processor.

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A post shared by colleen – Cécile Schott, musician (@colleenplays)

Headphones or amp connected to speakers recommended (lots of stereo love).  Will write a couple of posts on the nitty-gritty of how I produced the song (so many bussing options + CV automation) and my thoughts on the plugins vs physical units experience.

Sound sources: Yamaha Reface YC, vocals.

Processed with: MF-101S Lowpass Filter, MF-103S Phaser, MF-104S Analog Delay, MF105S MIDIMuRF, MF-107S Freqbox. No other processing apart from ReaEQ on vocals.

DAW: Reaper.

A truly massive thank you Moog Music for their trust and support, with special thanks to Jason Daniello, Claire Ginn and Geert Bevin.