Expanding the Mother 32 - Part 4 - Adding a 2nd VCF

The filter in the Mother 32 is a sweet sounding VCF that does that wonderful Moog'y low pass thing so well. The transistor ladder VCF has a sophisticated richness and syrup like sound that you just don't get with any other design. But when you roll up the resonance the bass from the VCO just drops away. Also, there is no useful high pass to speak of. I'm not saying the Mother 32's VCF is useless, it's just not as flexible as I would like. I stumbled upon a great deal on an Intellijel µVCF as I was searching for the right filter to pair with the Mother 32. The little 6hp Intellijel filter doesn't have the most character of any VCF I've heard, in fact it's sort of a chameleon, but it's extremely flexible and has many uses.

Here are 8 reasons why you should consider the µVCF for your Mother 32 rig

1. µVCF can pull off some nice format sounds.



2.  The µVCF can self oscillate and produces a clean sine wave that tracks well. Sine waves are incredibly useful for FM synthesis. Just let the  µVCF's LPF output find it's way to the Linear FM input on the Mother 32 and have at it. To ensure accurate tracking, you'll need to buffer the KB output on the Mother 32 before patching it to the  µVCF, as you would most VCOs.

3. The µVCF doesn't loose bass output when you crank the resonance and sweep the cutoff down. This is helpful for patching big bass sounds and thunderous drones.

4. The µVCF has excellent BPF and HPF outputs that work correctly, unlike the Mother 32's HPF.

5. The  µVCF  is small at 6hp and laid out for easy use with the FREQ knob at the top and patch points at the bottom.

6. The µVCF is an amazing value both used and new.

7. The µVCF blends in, this filter is short on character but doesn't draw attention to itself. This can be good if you don't want your entire track to sound like patches from the same synth.

8. I'm a fan of filters that include commonly used utility functions such as dual inputs with a mixer. While the Intellijel μVCF doesn't have dual inputs, it does include attenuverters on the FM inputs which conserve attenuverters for other duties.

What Does The µVCF Sound Like?

I haven't seen any videos specific to the Mother 32 and the µVCF, minus one that has some West Coast style robot chatter, but here are a few nice videos that demonstrate the µVCF's utility.

What are your thoughts on the Intellijel VCF? What VCF did you add to your Mum?