You'll probably most of the time not really know when what will happen, when you turn some of the knobs or push one of the buttons, but once in a while it will be beautiful and something (a rhythm, a melody, a chord progression) will appear you might never have tried to get to otherwise. That struggle involved in making it all come together is part of the point. It works something like this... Each sequencer appears to offer nothing more than four small bipolar pots to adjust the CV generated, plus four LEDs to tell you which step is active at any given moment. Moog proudly sponsored the University of Buffalo’s Hackathon held October 24th & 25th. All rights reserved. I particularly liked finding a cool looped rhythm on the sequencer, then using the built-in filters to make it sound like it was fading in and out of the distance. These days, the folks at Moog could have easily added presets, digital outputs, and a myriad of other features that would make the Subharmonicon more usable to contemporary music makers. But I obtained the best and most musical results when I decided beforehand what I was trying to achieve. Conjures unique subharmonic rhythms with ease. If you're a musical person who's flailing in the current darkness, it offers focus, unique rhythms, and the kind of stress release that comes only from playing a screeching analog synth. (In addition to matching up with other Mother units, the Subharmonicon can be removed from its enclosure and mounted in a Eurorack system.). When the last of these modes is selected, each oscillator's SUB1 sawtooth then provides the source for pulse-width modulation of the fundamental's square wave. To misquote an old adage, when learning a new synth a picture can be worth a thousand words. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2021. They’re smooth and robust, with a medium amount of tactile feedback that makes it easy to ride filters and oscillators up and down until you find the perfect sound. It's even got a Midi input, among 31 other options for routing various filters and oscillators back and forth. A single turn of a knob can lead to new sounds that excite the mind, even in the midst of pandemic-driven writer’s block. Yes there are some drawbacks with the patchbay and yes there is only one voice path for the oscillators, but a lot of the core elements of the synth are available as outputs on the patchbay making it easy to exploit using other modular systems. Instead, you've got to tune the thing by ear, sometimes using teeny tiny knobs. After a few hours of struggle, I really began to learn what each knob or switch did and got even more creative with my ideas. However, if you activate either or both of the SUB buttons, the sequencer values control the integer by which the fundamental is divided to create the sub-harmonics. The filter itself is the expected 24dB/octave low-pass ladder, with controls for cutoff frequency and resonance, and it will happily oscillate with resonance values above two o'clock or so. Before Moog’s latest modular synth showed up on my doorstep, I was beginning to think I didn’t like making my own music anymore. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business, science to design. I spent quite a bit of time with it this evening, sequencing it with the synth channel 1, which, by default goes out to … The Subharmonicon is similar in size to the Mother 32 and DFAM semi modular synths and they are good as standalone monophonic synths (each with special characteristics and character) but are great if you pair up all 3 modules and patch the audio and modulation paths across all 3 synth modules or pair them with a standalone semi modular synthesizer … Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. A horribly gross thing transforms into music before your ears. The Moog Subharmicon makes it possible to make cool rhythmic beats like this one, which sounds a bit like horse hooves. However, you'll find buttons in the VCO1 and VCO2 sections that determine whether each sequencer controls the pitches of the associated oscillator's fundamental, or its SUB1 or its SUB2 partials, or any combination of these. All rights reserved. Inspired by elements of the Trautonium and the Rhythmicon (both from the early 1930s) this eschewed almost all conventional wisdom about how to design an analogue synth and sequencer. There’s not even a power switch. It might look like (and cost as much as) a serious tool for nerdy enthusiasts, but like all of Moog’s best creations, the Subharmonicon could just as easily be labeled a toy. I started with an overlay labeled “Jumping off point” and was quickly messing about with a circular chorus of bleeps and bloops, trying to figure out what each knob did (to limited success at first). That trigger button, I've realized, is the key to finding good sounds. Photograph: Moog. You're never sure you'll find the same sound again, but that's just part of the creative challenge of using it. Moog love to push boundaries, and the Subharmonicon may be their most unusual synth yet. I just love it so much. I think Moog delivers something in the Minitaur that will make anyone a believer, and arguably in a better format (1 control per function) than the Slim Phatty. The Subharmonicon takes the rhythm-fueled awesomeness of the Rhythmicon, a machine from the 1930s famous for its use dicing up the piano on this Radiohead song, and combines it with the subharmonic richness of the Trautonium, the eerie synth responsible for the evil squawks in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. The amplifier's contour has the same facilities, with the exception that it can only be applied with positive polarity. On the left is a sequencer section for rhythms, in the middle there’s a pair of oscillators that allow you to pick three frequencies each (one main and two subharmonic), and on the right features an assortment of legendary Moog filters to shape your overall sounds. Moog Subharmonicon sequencer. The addition of square and PWM waveforms considerably enriches its palette, and the quantisers make it much easier to obtain melodic results. High-quality analog filters and oscillators typical of Moog. Then there's the way it physically feels to touch. The Moog Claravox Centennial is a new theremin that’s designed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the theremin and named to honor the first theremin virtuosa, Clara Rockmore. The Moog Subharmonicon was originally seen as part of the engineers package at Moogfest some years ago. A piece of paper was invaluable when doing this because, while it's easy to work out in your head what's happening with Rhythm frequencies of, say, f and f/2, it's much harder to envisage the outputs from a pair of sequences based on divisions of, say, f/3, f/7, f/9 and f/13, let alone how these might interact when you switch Rhythms in and out of the polyrhythm. Many reviews are for prior Moog product releases. Lack of presets is frustrating. In the month or so I've had it around my studio, it's the best way I've found to break out of sad folk songs. I wish that all manufacturers would provide such a diagram as a matter of course. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. @Carl Twyman and @Corey Hart represented Moog in the best in show judging and had a great time connecting with candidates through the ‘virtual career fair’. I’d go so far as to say that Moog has the best knobs I’ve ever felt on any machine. Given how complicated the front panel looks, and the seemingly infinite musical possibilities it offers when you play with it, setup is actually a breeze. The trend was started when, in 2015, Moog released the previous year's workshop project, the Werkstatt. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. The Subharmonicon is part of Moog Music's Mother line of semimodular synths. A mixer allows you to determine the contributions from each of the six sources before the audio is passed to the filter. Moog love to push boundaries, and the Subharmonicon may be their most unusual synth yet. The most powerful tools are the rhythm generators. I make lists of things to practice on guitar , buy myself music books, listen to inspiring records, and then collapse into Netflix under the weight of it all. Yes there are some drawbacks with the patchbay and yes there is only one voice path for the oscillators, but a lot of the core elements of the synth are available as outputs on the patchbay making it easy to exploit using other modular systems. The final group of sequencer controls comprises five buttons that turn out to be considerably more complex and capable than they first appear. However, if you keep it depressed, it will hold the sequencers at Step 1 even though the contours will continue to be triggered as the Polyrhythm plays, thus generating a rhythm without changing pitch. Moog Music’s new semi-modular analog polyrhythmic synthesizer, Subharmonicon, is now available worldwide.Moog details the historical inspiration behind this unique instrument and presents “Music As Living Matter,” a short film scored by Suzanne Ciani using Subharmonicon. Then there's the replacement of the three-position switches that determined the original's Attack options (1ms, 100ms, or 1s) with fully adjustable knobs, which is an obvious improvement. The second is a quantiser. Mind you, serendipitous chaos might be your target, in which case go for it! One thing I didn’t explore much in my time with the Subharmonicon is the patch bay. Having gotten to grips with everything (which didn't take long) I found that experimenting was great fun. Blank charts are also provided in the manual (which is always a nice touch when there are no patch memories) as is a full two-page block diagram. The Subharmonicon's sound generator has been married to two identical four-step sequencers and, unless patched otherwise, the first of these drives VCO1 while the second drives VCO2. Wired may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. I make lists of things to practice on guitar, buy myself music books, listen to inspiring records, and then collapse into Netflix under the weight of it all. The sequencers are driven by four derivatives (called Rhythms) obtained from a single master clock whose speed is set by the Tempo knob. The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Instead, it offered a curious sound generator based upon fundamentals and sub-harmonics and coupled this to a compositional concept developed by a chap named Joseph Schillinger who, amongst other things, derived rhythmic phrases by dividing a master clock using various integers and then adding the results to create polyrhythms. If you want to create modulation effects you have to use external devices and direct their outputs to the appropriate inputs in the patchbay. 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