MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Now that I've had a full week with the Subharmonicon I thought I would post a quick update.

It's freaking great! :D

The only thing I wish it had was more output from the VCA when it's mounted in a eurorack case, it's noticeably quieter than a standard eurorack module.

That being said, this machine is incredibly deep. It took a while for me to grok how to get it to play nice with other modules playing at a fixed pitch reference. What I've discovered (it's actually in the manual, but it could be explained better) is that depending on where you have the main oscillator and quantizer set, the sequencers then produce notes in a scale with the oscillator as the root note. So, if you have the quantizer set to 8ET, the pitches available on the oscillator will be the 8 pitches of the C major scale. If you were to choose, say, E as the pitch of the oscillator, now the sequencer will produce pitches in the E Major scale. It's a very easy and handy way to get the Subharmonicon to produce pitches in key with your other modules and modulating is as simple as turning the VCOs to a new pitch. It also makes it possible to set up the VCOs to play complimentary or totally different keys or modes depending on what you are going for.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

UPDATE AND ERRATA: I've learned since my last post that changing the root note of Osc 1 or 2 does not change the relative key. Unfortunately, if you have the quantizer set to 8ET, you will ALWAYS be in the key of C. Bit bummed about that. However, if you use 12ET quantization, you can create whatever key or mode you desire.

This is a quick improv from last night. One of the things I really love about the Subharmonicon is how it can create song sections so easily! I did this by keeping the sequencers the same throughout, just changed their range. Sometimes you come across really beautiful harmonies this way, sometimes not. I lucked out this time!

https://soundcloud.com/asfollowswriting ... con-jam-2a

It's amazing how you can take something so minimal and make it the basis for an entire piece. I also like the ephemery of it. Turn one knob and you will probably lose what you had forever.
Last edited by Ben Asaro on Mon Nov 09, 2020 12:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Martin Walker »

Nice!

Love the understated but nevertheless significant progression.

I think you could almost lose the drums, or at the very least drop them right down in volume - the tonal Subharmonicon stuff stands up by itself.

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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

100% agreed! The drums are still at the level for a piece with many more voices. I just threw that up to keep the pulse. I will probably be developing this one, interesting to see where this can lead. I also want to experiment with taking the sub osc out and creating a dedicated bass line from it with the Mother-32.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Finally had the time and desire last night to sit down and suss out how the Subharmonicon actually works from a functional harmony standpoint. I ended up concentrating on the first 8 subdivisions, as I found that after 3 octaves, the notes are too muddy and indistinct for my tastes.

Starting with the subharmonic oscillator fully clockwise, it's in unison with the main oscillator. (Note: this presumes that you have the sequencer assigned to the main oscillator, not the sub oscillators) The first eight subdivisions are:
unison
-12 semitones
-24 semitones
-31 semitones (perfect 4th)
-36 semitones
-39 semitones (augmented 5th)
-42 semitones (perfect 4th)
-45 semitones (major 2nd)
-48 semitones

The most common divisions are perfect fourths and octaves, which can make for very nice perfect fifth and suspended harmonies.

If you were looking to make the Subharmonicon adhere to specific functional harmony, a bit of figuring and maths is required or it can turn into a harmonic mess. The more I use the Subharmonicon, the more convinced I am that this really is a performative instrument and it's not designed to be set it and forget it. Its design encourages you to find places where a quick turn (or applied CV) into the sub oscillators will create new harmonies.

Using both main oscillators tuned to different root notes is where things start to get really interesting because, although the other VCOs adhere to the same maths, you can create some very dense harmonies this way. And once you start making them behaving polyrhythmically [sic, not sure if that's actually a word lol], the chords can stack up in ways that will cause a significant amount of dissonance.

An interesting trick is to tune the main oscillators to notes other than the root note. This allows you do divide down into more complex harmonies.

The simplest chord that I've found is the Maj6/Min7 chord:
VCO 1 = Diatonic 5th (e.g., G)
SUB 1.1 = Perfect 4th (e.g., C)

VCO 2 = Diatonic 3rd (e.g., E)
SUB 2.1 = Perfect 4th (e.g., A)

This uses just 4 of the 6 oscillators. If you then wrote a very simple ascending pattern of I-ii-iii-IV, you would have:

VCO 1= G-A-B-C
SUB 1.1 = C-D-E-F

VCO 2 = E-F-G-A
SUB 2.1 = A-Bb-C-D

Notice, how the sub oscillator plays a Bb when the main VCO plays F. This could imply several options depending on what else you have going on, but there is also the possibility that you will have B and Bb playing at the same time. Depending on how you have the sub oscillators tuned it can either be a minor 7 interval for a minor 2 ... two very different sounds! There is another instance where you can have G and F with the same relationship.

I hope that this information is useful to anyone looking into getting a Subharmonicon. It's one of those instruments that is utterly confounding at first, then it gets very intuitive to use if you are going purely by ear, and then it gets confounding again once you start bringing in other pitched elements.
Last edited by Ben Asaro on Wed Nov 11, 2020 2:23 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by MOF »

Turn one knob and you will probably lose what you had forever.

And that’s why I won’t be buying one and why I love soft synths and ITB mixing. I want repeatability and consistency.
Last edited by MOF on Wed Nov 11, 2020 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

MOF wrote:
Turn one knob and you will probably lose what you had forever.

And that’s why I won’t be buying one and why I love soft synths and ITB mixing.

Oh yeah, I totally get it ... instruments like this are almost a lifestyle choice lol.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by MOF »

MOF wrote:
Turn one knob and you will probably lose what you had forever.
And that’s why I won’t be buying one and why I love soft synths and ITB mixing.
Oh yeah, I totally get it ... instruments like this are almost a lifestyle choice lol.

It seems that way to me.
I used to spend hours doing my own B&W film developing and printing and for many years promised myself that I would one day get all the necessary equipment for colour, but once digital cameras achieved technical parity with film I just used Photoshop to do in seconds what it would have taken hours to do in a darkroom.
I bought a Nord Modular with every intention of making my own sounds and that didn’t happen.
I guess I prefer to concentrate on song writing/recording and tweak existing synth sounds (so many presets available these days) if they’re not quite right.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

I really like that analogy to film, I feel that synthesis and photography are very much on the same trajectory. I totally agree with you, at the end of the day the choice is whether you feel the results justify the means and how you want to get there. Like the meme says, hardware synths are essentially fancy furniture when it comes down to it. :)
Last edited by Ben Asaro on Wed Nov 11, 2020 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Went on a bit of a deep dive today with the SH, slowed the tempo to 50bpm and tried to see if I could coax some decent ambient sounds out of this thing. The answer, of course, is YES -- in fact, right now I much prefer it in this mode of operation! Of course, the prog side of me won't allow just the one instrument to play but as a starting point, it's crazy inspiring. This is the Subharmonicon and RV-500. I am adding PWM to OCS 1+2 via the Modbox, each one being different phases.

https://soundcloud.com/asfollowswriting ... icon-jam-3
Last edited by Ben Asaro on Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Still discovering new tricks hidden up the Subharmonicon's sleeve ... I've found that you have much more control over the SH if you feed a clock pulse into the Play input instead of the Clock input. This allows for very fine control over when the sequencer advances.

The sequencer interprets every X amount of pulse triggers [pretty sure it's 24 but I will verify later] as the tempo, enabling VERY long evolving chains that are still in sync with my master clock. Brilliant!

It is now possible within the NerdSeq to create patterns that can reliably sync the SH and altogether stop and reset it as needed.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by The Elf »

Ben Asaro wrote:
MOF wrote:
Turn one knob and you will probably lose what you had forever.

And that’s why I won’t be buying one and why I love soft synths and ITB mixing.

Oh yeah, I totally get it ... instruments like this are almost a lifestyle choice lol.

I find room for both in my life. Just take the best of what each can give!
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

Ben Asaro wrote:Finally had the time and desire last night to sit down and suss out how the Subharmonicon actually works from a functional harmony standpoint. I ended up concentrating on the first 8 subdivisions...

Interesting... if it's of interest, here's how those harmonics relate to the harmonic drawbars of a Hammond (and with the equivalent pipe organ stop names):

Base semitone – subfundamental (16ft) drawbar
12 semitones – Fundamental (8ft) Drawbar
19 semitones – Sub-Third (5 1/3ft) Drawbar – 5th ‘Quint’
24 semitones – 2nd Harmonic (4ft) – 8th
31 semitones (perfect 4th) – 3rd harmonic (2 2/3ft) – 12th ‘Nazard’
36 semitones – 4th harmonic (2ft) – 15th
- 39 semitones (augmented 5th)
40 Semitones – 5th harmonic (1 3/5ft) – 17th ‘Tierce’
- 42 semitones (perfect 4th)
43 semitones – 6th Harmonic (1 1/3ft) – 19th ‘Larigot’
- 45 semitones (major 2nd)
48 semitones – 8th Harmonic (1ft) – 22nd ‘Sifflote’
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Rwkitch »

I've not delved as deeply as Ben, but I love the SH. Had a worry when I first tried it though: I had it triggered from a Dark Matter, everything set pretty much in the 'middle' with (from memory) just both main oscillators. Set it going, and it sounded horrible- not due to a bad sequence (well...) just played much higher in pitch than expected, nothing like anything I had heard before. Great, I thought, I've a dodgy unit. However, channeling the IT Crowd I turned it off and on again. Crossed fingers, restarted it. Wow, it sounded lovely! Add some reverb and I was hooked :)
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Rwkitch »

Forgot to say, I had let it warm up, 30 minutes or so.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Rwkitch wrote:Forgot to say, I had let it warm up, 30 minutes or so.

That’s key! It needs to stabilize, I usually give my rack 20 minutes before I start doing anything. Also, the SH, usually does need the VCOs to be reset by turning them a bit, then back to your starting pitch or it can be quite cacophonous!
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Hugh Robjohns wrote:
Interesting... if it's of interest, here's how those harmonics relate to the harmonic drawbars of a Hammond (and with the equivalent pipe organ stop names):

Funnily enough, I think that the Subharmonicon has a very ‘organistic’ timbre. I wonder if there’s any relationship to frequency integers and timbre.... unfortunately I don’t know nearly enough about acoustics or psychoacoustics to posit a theory!
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Durr GaGa »

Really pleased to hear that you are as happy with your SH as I am - it is a really amazing instrument that continues to inspire and surprise. I like your ambient piece - just what the SH was made for!
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Humble Bee »

I have the same edition D&D boxed sets... always on! :thumbup:
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Durr GaGa wrote:Really pleased to hear that you are as happy with your SH as I am - it is a really amazing instrument that continues to inspire and surprise. I like your ambient piece - just what the SH was made for!

Perhaps! I’m working on a piece that crosses between Krautrock, psychedelia, Chiptune, and ambient lol.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Humble Bee wrote:I have the same edition D&D boxed sets... always on! :thumbup:

Don’t get me started on D&D lol, I run 3 groups, all different editions. :)
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Marbury »

This is possibly going to be my next purchase, but does it work well with the DFAM as I am more interested in percussive sequences ?
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Marbury wrote:This is possibly going to be my next purchase, but does it work well with the DFAM as I am more interested in percussive sequences ?

Yes, they are designed to work together. But the Subharmonicon is not a percussion instrument, more like ryhythmic melodies. And I have no clue how it will pair with your Lyra-8. Getting the pitches to match may end up being a royal pain.

I would advise living with the Lyra-8 for a while and get to know all its ins and outs before adding another synth.
Last edited by Ben Asaro on Sat Nov 14, 2020 9:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

One month in and finally feel like I'm starting to get a grip on the Subharmonicon! Here's my latest pass with it, this is definitely the beginning of something new, can't wait to develop it further! https://soundcloud.com/asfollowswriting ... icon-jam-4

Synths used:
Moog Subharmonicon
Moog Mother-32
Studio Electronics Oscillation/Doepfer SEM filter

All of the modulation is from feeding all three phased outputs of the Modbox into the WORNG Vector Space and then using 3 outputs of the Vector Space into the Subharmonicon and Oscillation.
Last edited by Ben Asaro on Sun Nov 15, 2020 3:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MOOG SUBHARMONICON -- in the house!

Post by Ben Asaro »

Uncovered another neat little trick with the Subharmonicon!

If you are using the sequencer to step through a drone or evolving pad, and the envelope is open, the transition will be very abrupt. I found that if you send a slow pulse to the Trigger input, it keeps retriggering the EG but if you have the VCF EG set to a really slow envelope, it creates a smooth ramp throughout chord changes. The resulting sequencer steps are really smooth while still having long sustain.
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