Audio Damage 914 Fixed Filter Bank Upgrade From 907a - Manual (Page 5)

Introduction
Thank you for purchasing the 914 Fixed Filter Bank (hereafter referred to simply as “914”), Audio Damage’s
plug-in emulation of the Moog 914 Fixed Filter Bank module. This plug-in creates a variety of tonal effects by
passing its input signal through twelve band-pass filters, one low-pass filter and one high-pass filter. The
relative output levels of these filters can be adjusted independently, creating peaks and dips in the frequency
spectrum of the signal. Quoting from the owner’s manual for the Moog Modular:
“The Fixed Filter Bank is often referred to as a formant filter because it can be set to
emphasize or attenuate midrange frequencies which fall within a particular band, no matter
how the frequencies of the signal are moved. Like many acoustic instruments, a characteristic
set of formants are always a part of the resultant output (given a particular complex
waveform).”
Moog Modular Owner’s Manual, by Dan Wyman. Moog Music, Inc. 1981
Our 914 plug-in is a faithful recreation of the Moog hardware filter bank, accurately reproducing both the
frequency responses and phase-shift characteristics of its filters. Of course, it also provides all of the modern
conveniences of a software plug-in, such as a true stereo signal path, zero background noise, preset storage
and recall, parameter automation, remote MIDI control, and as many instances as your CPU can handle.
Because of the tolerance ranges of the components used to manufacture the original Moog synthesizers, there
is quite a bit of tonal variation between modules of the same type such as the 914. The degradation of some
components (capacitors in particular) over time also contributes to changes in performance. Our software
recreation represents an idealized instance of the original hardware in its factory-new condition.
To avoid possible confusion, a couple of things are worth mentioning explicitly. First, despite the presence of a
bunch of knobs marked with frequencies, the 914 is not an equalizer. If the term equalizer was coined to
describe devices which amplify or attenuate ranges of frequencies to even out (that is, equalize) the overall
frequency content of a signal, the 914 might accurately be described as an unequalizer. Second, the 914 had
a completely different filter architecture and implementation than the filter found in the Minimoog, and hence
does not posses “that Moog filter sound”.