Moog Subharmonicon Manual 

Get started with patching techniques, explore deeper synthesis concepts, and understand full patchbay functionality ...

Patching with Intention There are many ways to approach patching a synthesizer like Subharmonicon. There’s no “wrong” way to do it, and often randomly patching inputs to outputs can lead to wonderful, unexpected results. Other times, however, you may want to patch with some intention. Perhaps you have a sound in mind that yo ...

Initialized Patch Before getting started, match your Subharmonicon to the initialized patch settings above. Each section builds upon the last, so explore them in sequential order for the best results. Find full patch point descriptions on pages 12-15 to reference as you move through the patching exercises. ...

First Steps Let’s start by exploring how to patch a sequencer to an oscillator, allowing us to get more familiar with the process of patching. First let’s route RHYTHM 1 to Sequencer 1 by pressing the SEQ 1 button under RHYTHM 1. Let’s route RHYTHM 2 to Sequencer 2 by pressing the SEQ 2 button under RHYTHM 2. Make sure the EG button is ...

Intertwining Sequencers We have two methods of connecting a Subharmonicon sequencer to an oscillator: either via a patch cable, or with the buttons under SEQ 1/2 ASSIGN. This opens up a handful of possibilities because it allows us to, for example, route both sequencers to a single oscillator. Keep the OSC 1 button under SEQ 1 ASS ...

From Melody to Rhythm Using a combination of the SEQ ASSIGN buttons, patch cables, and the Polyrhythm section we can start to create interesting pitched sequences. But using Sequencers for pitch alone, while the most common use case, is just the beginning. MAKE THIS CONNECTION Disconnect the patch cable VCO 1 input from the last les ...

Intermingled Drum Machine We can push these rhythms even further with some more patching. Start with the panel settings from the end of the last section. Each POLYRHYTHM subsection divides the master tempo by a certain amount, which you have explored by simply playing with RHYTHM 2 and RHYTHM 1. By modulating these RHYTHM settin ...

Fun with Envelopes Being a modular synthesizer, Subharmonicon can play with time by harnessing the power of voltage control over clocks, allowing us to accelerate and modulate time. → To explore this, let’s return the settings to the initialized patch at the beginning of this guide. As we’ve done before, route RHYTHM 1 to Sequenc ...

At first you will hear a whole bunch of noise as this will cause the sequencers to run at audio rate. Play around with the SEQUENCER 1 knobs and the VCO 2 FREQ knob to explore some of the wild, broadband tones that audio-rate clock modulation can achieve. Running sequencers at audio-rate speeds can be a very powerful method for creatin ...

You will hear a longer attack on the filter envelope, slowly opening the filter up, but at the same time you’ll notice that it is raising the SUB 1 FREQ of VCO 2, increasing the rate of the sequencers. As you lengthen the VCF ATTACK the clock will accelerate more slowly. Since we’re using VCO 2 SUB 1 as our clock, our patterns are ...