Has anyone tried pairing the mood MKII with a synth for harder non-ambient sounds? I have a Korg MS-20 and I’m thinking of ordering the new version, but I’m worried it won’t pair well.
I usually use Mood mkI with Syntrx I, which has a filter that sounds more similar to the MS-20 than most filters. However, with this set-up, I’m specifically aiming at drones and undulating, pulsing psychedelia. Mood works really well like that.
I have run an Analog Four through Mood. It was ok, but I felt the pedal would usually soften things, making the energy gentler, swishier. I went looking for crunchy, vibey, Chemical Brothers-like textures. and I found that was possible (short delays, Tape loops in reverse), but definitely needed hunting for the more energetic sweet spots. IMO, Mood can’t take the signal level from the A4 when the resonance is up quite high. CBA say it takes “line level” but they’re quite strict/conservative with what they call line level (I spoke to customer service about it), and an oscillating filter seems to be too much for it. You might like that, of course. It’s pretty gnarly.
My MS-20’s boxed up right now. I’ll pair them up later in the week and see what I can get out of them.
1 Like
Anything pairs if you know how to make it pair 
From I’ve read here so far, it does certainly not seem trivial to use it as a giant sweet spot for every type of music.
1 Like
That’s what I was thinking too. I’ve gotten some wild results from the Strymon Volante for what you’re describing! Chase Bliss stuff seems cool, but I’ve seen a lot of synth demos where the Mood MKII sounds like YouTube influencer ambient. Guitar, piano, and other instruments sound more unique and interesting on it imo. Might need to purchase and try it out on the ms-20 and a megafm which I’m excited about
3 Likes
What a deal! $250 new MKI worth it or save up for MKII? I’d use it for both guitar and DN in case that matters.
2 Likes
I regularly put an extremely overdriven Lyra-8 through the MKI, which resulted in some fairly gnarly stuff. But I think it depends what exactly you’re wanting/hoping to get out of it? I was doing stuff like simulating pentatonic guitar shredding with the clock + slip and generally making 'orrible noise, but that might not be exactly what you want here 
. At the end of the day it’s reverb, delay and a record buffer, which are fairly flexible effects for a wide range of use cases. I think the added capabilities to sync the loop side to the fx side (which can in turn be synced to MIDI clock) probably widens the possibilities with MKII.
1 Like
That’s a tough choice, right there. I have an MK1 that I love, but the MKII has some attractive sound shaping features that I would also love to have (the “old”/MKI algorithm can be VERY noisy, not always in a good way). I also like the idea of the MKII being capable of pitched playback via a controller, but the interface on these pedals is not great, to be quite honest, so who knows if I would even bother with that.
So, there you go. No help at all. 
4 Likes
MKII takes TS (mono/instrument) cables just as well as TRS stereo ones 
1 Like
Think I might be returning my Mood MKII, actually. Or sell it, if returns aren’t an option.
Now, don’t get me wrong - it is an amazing pedal, another hit from Chase Bliss.
But that which I liked with the Mood MKI, I don’t feel I need a hi-fi version of that, now that I’ve explored it some more since I got the MKII. It makes it sound closer to other pedals, less like its own thing. And yes, there’s the Classic mode. But it’s not exactly the same, is it?
I just really appreciate my Mood MKI stuff and the apricot version for what it is, and I don’t feel the MKII added anything that made me appreciate it more. Differently, yes, but the mood part of the Mood pedal, I just think Chase Bliss nailed it on the first go.
That’s more telling of the Mood’s unique character, tho, and less of the pedal itself, which remains a killer kit and certainly has a substantially cleaner and more pro-sounding signal, which I’m sure is what most people want.
Now, if Chase Bliss went ahead and gave the Blooper a similar treatment …
5 Likes
Interesting perspective.
I will keep mine for the foreseeable future and try to learn it. in hopes of gaining similar affection as you have with MK1
1 Like
Can someone help set my expectations?
When I engage the looper, i get a lot of crunchy, clicky pops. It’s as if pushing the footswitch breaks and remakes the signal path several times during the throw. It always lands “on”, and stops adding crackle once I let go, but the “broken” audio gets baked into the loops. Delay does it too, buy less often and to a lesser extent.
I mostly use MOOD with Syntrx, which can output very hot, but it happens even when signal is very quiet and sounds completely different from the overdriven distortion of a hot signal.
Sounds like this (after about 7s of playing with oscillator sync):
Anyone else get this?
I’ve opened a ticket with CBA and the shop I got it from already.
1 Like
Nope, this doesn’t sound like an experience I’m getting. If this is a loop just running, I have no idea what’s going on here.
I do think the Mood doesn’t take kindly to hot input in general, as is true for some other Chase Bliss gear as well. The Blooper seems the most capable at handling hot stuff.
And if you got a lot of feedback on the delay, it can certainly crack up the output depending on the source signal.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply @circuitghost.
Regarding hot signals, that’s also my experience with Mood. I’m beginning to think about getting a compressor pedal to go before it. My GenLoss mkII seems more tolerant.
Regarding the cracks and pops: it’s useful to know you don’t get that. The recording starts with just the synth, fairly low level. After about 5-7s I press the looper’s footswitch. You can hear the crackle immediately. It becomes part of the loop, so you hear it cycling round and becoming part of the processed sound. As a texture, it’s interesting, but I don’t want it all the time. It sounds to me like the signal disconnecting and reconnecting very quickly, a few times.
1 Like
So that does not happen to me. If I get cracks, I hear them already when I monitor the signal, and while they’re not pretty, they do sound like regular overload cracks.
I have noticed that sometimes, I lose one part of the stereo signal. First, I thought, my cables are bad. I’m not treating them well so that makes sense. But now I’ve heard one or two other users also getting the same thing, so I’m going to investigate if the jacks are the problem.
Which could explain your situation as well, if that’s perhaps a manufacturing fault with the MoodMKII, as in there’s a risk you got a copy where the jacks just don’t quite work as intended.
Not saying this is the case, but I’m saying I’ve read once or twice now about situations where bad inputs or outputs could be the cause. And yours is one of them.
But I really don’t want to start anything here, so let’s just take it for what it is, an observation.
2 Likes
Mine’s a mkI
I should have said before.
1 Like
I have personally never heard my MKI do what yours is doing. I’m not sure that yours is ok… :\
Thanks for confirming!
I would’ve ranted either way 
2 Likes
My Mood needs to go back to CBA for repair. I wont be able to make some MS-20 demos for a while. Sorry!
Nice setup! Please let us know how the Mood MKII stacks up against the Cosmos as they are not worlds apart in price and both seem to do some weird unpredictable looping delay type of trickery. Love to hear your take on it!
1 Like