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FAQ

GENERAL QUESTIONS

How can I buy your products?
While we do have direct online sales through our website (our ORDER page), you should check out and purchase our products at your local shop (see our RETAILERS page for both International and Domestic retailers).

How long does it take to get an order?
That depends on where in the world you live.
If you used Paypal or a credit card through Paypal to pay, your order will ship right away- usually the next day. We try to promptly send out products, but occasionally, depending on demand, our shipping can get backed up.
If you have paid with a check, your order will ship once the funds have cleared.
We use USPS PRIORITY MAIL for retail orders, which delivers domestically in two to three days, depending on weekends and holidays.
All products shipped as quickly as possible. Our stock varies, but we are acutely aware of your need to have your order immediately.

What is your Return Policy?
In the unlikely event that you, the buyer, purchasing directly from us, the manufacturer, would like to return any MALEKKO product within 7 (seven) days of purchase for full refund (minus shipping charges), there will be a 15% (fifteen percent) restocking fee. Product must be in excellent condition, showing no signs of abuse, and in original packaging.

What is your Warranty?
(Please see our Warranty page for full warranty statement)
We have a 1 Year Warranty on our products to be free of defects in materials and workmanship which does not cover:

  • Damage from physical abuse such as dropping the unit, impact from hard objects or damage to external components as a result of negligence.
  • Damage due to liquid contamination.
  • Damage resulting from any use other than that it was intended for.
  • Any unit that has been repaired or had an attempted repair made to it by unauthorized personnel.
  • Damage due to incorrect connection, connection to faulty equipment or connection to faulty or incorrect power supplies.
  • Damage in transit as a result of inadequate packaging or protection.

If, after reading this warranty, you feel your Malekko product still qualifies as a warranty repair, please visit our product support page.

  1. MALEKKO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO WITHHOLD SERVICE
  2. NON-WARRANTY SERVICE INCURS A $25 LABOR FEE FOR DOMESTIC REPAIRS. SLIGHTLY MORE FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING.

Contact MALEKKO at (503) 236-8155, 9AM to 5PM Monday through Friday (Pacific Time) USA

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS PEDALS

Can I use a battery with your pedals?
Some pedals are set up to accept a battery. Open your pedal and look for a battery snap. Our Omicron line of tiny pedals does not use batteries.

What power supply should I use with your pedals?
All of our pedals will accept industry standard 9VDC 2.1mm negative-tip “boss style” power supplies. Please use regulated power supplies for a cleaner, consistent sound. We sell our own branded Godlyke Power-All regulated switching adapter. They are small, clean, quiet and able to power many pedals in a chain.

Is a power supply included in the purchase of a pedal?
No. You are free to choose how to power your pedals, whether it be one on the floor, four on the floor, or many on a pedalboard.

How can I tell if my EKKO 616 is a MKII?
The original EKKO 616 has green boards inside, and the EKKO 616 MKII has blue boards inside.

Is the true bypass/buffered bypass circuit in my EKKO 616 MKII working correctly?
The bypass circuit is only active when the effect is off.
Choosing buffered will light the LED; true is LED off.
If you have the buffered bypass circuit on and the LED goes out when you engage the effect, the pedal is working correctly.

Which pedals accept expression pedals?
The SCRUTATOR, CHARLIE FOXTROT, DOWNER, THICKEN, GOATKEEPER and ASSMASTER SENSITIVITY MOD pedals all have Expression pedal capability.

Please tell me something about expression pedals.
We use both M-Audio EXP-1 and Boss EV-5 expression pedals in the shop. They work great with our products.
Both pedals use TRS 1/4” plugs.
Both pedals use a B10K pot for the expression.
Both pedals have a “depth” control which assigns the amount of change the pedal supplies from stop to stop (full throw).
The M-Audio pedal is a universal pedal design. That means it has a polarity switch which allows it to work with most products.

Sneak Attack suddenly has low volume, volume drop, no volume or “just stopped working”.
The output level setting is actually saved when you are in LFO or MANUAL TRIGGER modes (so if you had the pedal in MANUAL TRIGGER MODE and your LEVEL knob was turned down, then you switched to LFO mode, the level will still be low).
You can simply reset your levels by turning the AUTO THRESHOLD knob to MANUAL TRIGGER and readjusting the LEVEL knob. Sweep the LEVEL knob right, left, right. The pedal’s volume will now be set louder than the input, and you can adjust to taste.

What type of cable do I use with the Lil Buddy?
Lil Buddy requires a TRS (stereo) 1/4″ cable.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS MODULES

Can I use just one freestanding module?
No. You need to have a Eurorack format case with the proper power supply to house and power Malekko modules.

Do you offer different formats?
No. All MALEKKO modules are in Eurorack format only.

What power supply do I need for your modules?
Dual +/-12v power supply. The power supply must be able to supply the minimum current necessary to power all the modules in your case.

How do you align the power ribbon cable?
If your power ribbon cable is disconnected from the board on your module, you will need to re-connect it with the red stripe in the proper position on the connector. You’ll see that all the connectors on our modules are labeled with a small “1” and “10” in the corners of the pin header. It’s the “10” that you want to line up with the -12V on your power bus, and this is traditionally lined up with the red stripe on the ribbon cable. For modules that have the pin header oriented vertically, the bottom is the “10” pin, and should get the -12V connection. PLEASE NOTE: the Wiard Oscillator has a vertical power connector. That ribbon connects with the red stripe down!

Dual Borg switch positions:
Parallel mode is switch down. You need to have both inputs and outputs connected to separate the two filters.
VCA mode is switch down.

Varigate 4+ will not save:
(A few very early production run modules)
You only need to perform this once with your new module!
Select TRACK: change the TEMPO COARSE and TEMPO FINE sliders: exit TRACK.
Now save/recall at will.

Malekko MIDI/3.5mm cables type:
Our cables are TRS MIDI B type.
We use the Arturia/Novation MIDI pinout, not Korg/Akai.

What chromatic scale temperament do the Varigate 8+ and Varigate 4+ use?
12EDO, equal temperament based on A440Hz.

How many Voltage Blocks can slave to a Varigate 8+?
As many as you want. Since the Voltage Block saves its own presets, you can easily run multiple Voltage Blocks on the same bus and control them with a master Varigate module. This also applies to Quad Envelope, Quad LFO, Quad VCA, Varigate 8+, and Varigate 4+ modules.

What is CV Link in the Varigate 8+?
This is a way to advance the CV sequence only when a gate is played on a Gate channel.
The SEQ MODE slider allows you to select a track’s sequencer playback mode (FWD, REV, PEND, and RANDOM) as well as assign the CV Link channel. The final 8 LED steps assign a Gate track to a CV track. With gate probability set below 100%, you will get a shifting CV sequence.
There are two ways to assign CV Link: HOLD CV channel button then press the button of the Gate track you want to use to advance the CV sequence.
OR: select the CV channel, then TRACK, then move the SEQ MODE slider to the right until you reach the last eight LEDs. These remaining eight LEDs assign the Gate track, so LED 9 is Gate track 1, etc. to LED 16 is Gate track 8.
To remove the CV Link assignment:  select CV channel, TRACK, SEQ MODE, sweep slider to sequence mode selection.
These assignments can be saved/recalled.

Varigate 8+ preset behavior in SONG mode:

The gate or CV sequence channel (that is, track) set to the longest length will dictate the total length of the preset.

The length of a preset is the longest pattern played one time. This becomes quite clear in SONG mode! That is, if you have channels 1-9 programmed to play 8 steps but channel 10 to play 16 steps, in SONG mode channels 1-9 will play twice before changing to another preset. So if you are using different lengths and maybe dividing a channel down, the preset will play until the longest programmed channel plays one time. This can be confusing, especially if you are not using the channel which is programmed to play at a much slower division- you’ll wonder why a part is repeating too many times in SONG mode.

When using different time signatures within the same preset, the overall length of that preset is going to be a multiplication of the bars. When tracks with different time signatures line up on the 1, that is when the preset repeats or SONG advances.

Example: one channel is set to play for 5 steps, and all the others will play 8 steps. The preset will play 40 steps before it loops. This means the channel set to 5 steps will play 8 times before the preset loops (or SONG advances). If you watch the END LED, this is a reset on the 1. If you are using many different lengths, it might take many steps before the preset loops or the SONG advances.

After updating my Varigate 8+ to 2.0, Gate LED 1 continuously flashes.
On startup, Preset 1 is recalled as the default, so Gate channel 1’s LED will flash at clock rate when the sequencer is running. If you recall Preset 6, for instance, Gate channel 6’s LED will flash at clock rate when the VG8+ is running. The solid LED indicates which channel you are editing, and the flashing LED indicates within which Preset. The Preset indicator has precedence over the Gate channel, so if you are in Preset 6 and you are editing Gate channel 6, you will not see a solid LED. Holding down BANK will indicate which bank the preset you are currently editing is in.  These indicators will quickly become second nature with use.

What is Voltage Block CV mode?
The VB sequencer needs some kind of clock to make it run. You either supply a clock to advance the sequence in time/sync with something (CLK or SLAVE mode), or you use some voltage like an LFO sine (CV mode).
The RESET/HOLD jack changes function depending on mode: in CLK/SLAVE modes, RESET will force the sequence to start on the 1. In CV, you supply a high gate to HOLD (stop) the sequence.
The OFFSET and ATTEN pots are for CV mode.
CV mode patch example:
Have your VB output patched as you would using a clock, but feed an LFO sine wave into the CLK/CV input.
Set the OFFSET and ATTEN pots to about 2 o’clock.
The step LEDs should now advance in a pendulum style. Use the OFFSET to center the pendulum swing, and the ATTEN to determine how “wide” the swing is. That is, if you turn the ATTEN down, you will play less steps. If you want the swing to play all 16 steps, turn up ATTEN until the 1st and 16th LEDs light, then center the swing using OFFSET if you want it to play evenly. You could also set ATTN to play between 8 steps, then use OFFSET to choose which 8 steps.
Using different waveforms will give you different sequence step behavior.

Bus clock not working:
Make certain your modules are all on the same power bus board and that there is only one master clock.
Check the module’s jumper position.
Check that no other modules are also sending a clock across the bus. This will cause clock conflict mayhem.
Malekko Power has two sectors for isolation so check that all modules using bus clock are in the same sector. Trogotronic m/15 power board has two sectors.

What is the jumper on the QUAD LFO or QUAD ENVELOPE for?
This allows preset recall across the bus.

MANTHER QUESTIONS

Programming notes is difficult or inconsistant:
Press the buttons sharply. Long, slow button pressing is only necessary for step pitch audition.

Transpose not working in sequencer:
Hold SHIFT then a quick tap on the TRANSPOSE (for octave up/down) works best.

Hold SHIFT+TRANSPOSE UP or TRANSPOSE DOWN then a quick tap on the NOTE buttons (for intervals) works best.

Note interval transpose function in sequencer:
If you want to transpose your sequence UP by a WHOLE STEP, hold SHIFT+TRANSPOSE UP then tap D on the keyboard. This means you are shifting the pitch up two semitones (+2 steps).
To transpose your sequence DOWN by a WHOLE STEP, hold SHIFT+TRANSPOSE DOWN then tap D on the keyboard. This means you are shifting the pitch down two semitones (-2 steps), back to the original pitch.
You will see the new notes light up on the keyboard, confirming your pitch change.
To transpose up a Fifth, hold SHIFT+TRANSPOSE UP then tap G (+7 steps). To return to the root, hold SHIFT+TRANSPOSE DOWN then tap G (-7 steps).

How does Step Record work?
Every note received (ext controller, daw or Manther keyboard) is recorded one after the other up to 64 steps at a GATE length of 50%. If you drop out of RECORD at 8 steps, this will be your sequence length. You can adjust the length after recording in MENU>SEQUENCE>LENGTH.
If you want to add rests, just press the next step you want to place a note and the steps you’ve skipped will be rests.
When you arm Step Record, the sequence starts at step 1 and erases the previous sequence. Automation is not erased.

How does Arm Record work?
Press RECORD then START: sequence waits for first received note (ext controller, daw or Manther keyboard), then plays from 1 at defined tempo. Recording always starts at step 1 and drops out of record at end of defined length. Gate length values are recorded. You can overdub existing notes. Automation is not erased. Recorded step LEDs do not light while recording.

You can have ext tempo running into Manther and then play to begin recording on the 1.

How to program triplets in sequencer:
To do this you will add DELAY to the steps. Each step has a delay range of 0-100.
To access: SHIFT+DELAY
Each step is a value of 100, so 267 = two steps plus DELAY value of 67.
16TH: 0, 134, 268
8TH:   0, 267, 534
4TH:   0, 534, 1068
HALF: 0, 1067, 2134