Are they terrible? Limited? Boring? Too big? Don't play well (in tune) with others?
I was thinking about one to go with the Spectravox I have.
Thoughts?
noodlehut.bandcamp.com
Are they terrible? Limited? Boring? Too big? Don't play well (in tune) with others?
I was thinking about one to go with the Spectravox I have.
Thoughts?
noodlehut.bandcamp.com
For my taste I experienced the subharmonicon way to hard to play with other instruments.
Because of the subharmonic character it can be hard to get musical results if you dont have a deep understanding of music theory, intervals, tunings and stuff.
If you do just noodleing and experimental music it might be a good playground but dont expect to get regular music out of it immediatly.
Greetings
Chris
It's a fun noise maker and experimental machine. But you have to go on the instrument's journey, rather than take the instrument on your journey. If you have a musical idea in your head and want to make it come out of a speaker, the subharmonicon has a pretty difficult workflow to make that happen.
You can get a really thick tone of out it, due to the architecture of its sub-oscillators, but like mentioned already, it takes a little bit of math and music theory (or just a lot of tinkering) to find the proper ratios for a properly harmonious stack of subharmonics. I also like that it has separate VCA and VCF envelopes, it'd be nice if the Mother-32 had that (not sure how they'd fit the controls on that panel though).
It has 2x 4-step sequencers. That's limiting in a way that can be creativity-inducing, but the fact that they're only controllable by liiiiiittle tiny potentiometers makes it difficult to dial in or perform live. The quantization options don't help either: You've got chromatic (reasonable, but it means you need to be careful for dissonant out-of-scale notes if your other instruments are tuned to a diatonic scale), and a few different xenharmonic scales (which can be cool but are really hard to play with other instruments unless you've gone all-in to microtonal world).
The rhythm/gate generation aspect of it is very cool. It's a great polyrhythm machine, just an awful lot of HP for that job :P
Needs music theory, which many do not have / are unwilling to invest in. 🤷♂️
As others have said, You definately need some level of music theory knowledge in order to properly get music out of it.
Further reading up on subharmonics here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undertone_series
Sequencer section of the Moog is great and inspirational but the synth part of it is so limited that all you can create is a handful of stereotypical moog sounds. I bought one and sent it back after about a week. the Behringer version its so much cheaper and sounds the same so if I decided to revisit the idea I would just buy one of those personally.
-- Bigbadger65Are you talking about a Behringer version of the Subharmonicon?
-- wiggler55550
Nope, the Moog Version. I never had the Behringer version and said I would get one if I ever decided to revisit the idea of a Subharmonicon". Sorry if my post was difficult to understand or unclear. I can see how it could be misinterprited.
Sequencer section is great and inspirational but the synth part of it is so limited that all you can create is a handful of stereotypical moog sounds. I bought one and sent it back after about a week. the Behringer version its so much cheaper and sounds the same so if I decided to revisit the idea I would just buy one of those personally.
-- Bigbadger65
Are you talking about a Behringer version of the Subharmonicon?
So I got one. It's made really well. Shiny. The synth side is great. The oscillators sound rich and dynamic and are eager to purr and squeal under abuse. The filter does that thing. The EGs suffice.
I found exceptional ghosts in the machine, but like others have said, you have to hunt for them a while.
But when it's good, it's very good.
Understanding the subharmonics will take time, but I'm starting to hear it.
That sequencer though... I know there was a design vision, and sometimes you can hear it as well as see it,
but those clock ratios are made too squishy and indeteminate. I appreciate the happy accidents,
but that's no way to do everything. There should have been some rate indicator for those clocks,
or used clicky, 16-step encoders.
The quantizer is fine, even the 4x2 steps are interesting, but with those clocks, they should have let digital be digital.
And why they didn't put those nice little knobs they made for Mavis etc., onto the sequencer pots?
Moog cheaped out on the heart of the devices's reason for being. They aren't auxilliary controls.
They made those knobs, so knew they were needed. Sadly, that knob kit (25 for ~$30) is now impossible to find.
There are accountants that work at Moog, that are against something having too many knobs. Go figure.
Better (on a Spectravox):
A poor decision across that whole product line. When you buy a Yamaha receiver for $600,
it doesn't come with knobless knurled shafts sticking out the front. (or do they now?)
Moog inMusic has the profit margins to ship fully assembled products,
especially considering the hardware that $600 worth of Yamaha gets you.
So I'm still learning it, enough to try out what outboard things it needs to open it up.
The 3 tier plan: (inMoog doesn't sell those matching empty 60hp cases anymore either..)
This should help get it there, because when the Subharmonicon is good, it's very good.
noodlehut.bandcamp.com
Sequencer section is great and inspirational but the synth part of it is so limited that all you can create is a handful of stereotypical moog sounds. I bought one and sent it back after about a week. the Behringer version its so much cheaper and sounds the same so if I decided to revisit the idea I would just buy one of those personally.
-- Bigbadger65Are you talking about a Behringer version of the Subharmonicon?
-- wiggler55550
Nope, the Moog Version. I never had the Behringer version and said I would get one if I ever decided to revisit the idea of a Subharmonicon". Sorry if my post was difficult to understand or unclear. I can see how it could be misinterprited.
I never heard about a 'Behringer Subharmonicon', that's why I asked.
I feel that to get the most out of the Subharmonicon it really helps to have an external quantizer (with 2 channels). This really helps keep you in key. I know it has some quantization on board, but it's not enough for my liking. I get musical results much faster this way.
The Subharmonicon is by far my fav of all the semi modular Moogs (I've had em all!) and IMHO the Subharmonicon is an example of the parts being greater than their sum.
You get 6 oscilators (yeah, I know they are grouped in groups of three and are limited)
4 clock dividers that can be assigned to one of two (or both) 4 step sequencers
2 Attack/Decay envelopes
and a pretty sweet Moog filter
couple all of that with THE BEST patchbay of all 5 Moog semi-modulars and with only a handful of auxillary modules, you can have one heckuva crazy synth.
I sequence Vco 1 and 2 seperatley and don't use the internal sequencers for them at all. Those are for the decay of my Qu-Bit surface and ALM mco mk2 respectively. The sequencer clock outputs each triggera pair of funtion generators that modulat other stuff down the modulation pipeline so with the turn of a few knobs, I can get some wild modulation. All in time as well.
Also, all 3 OSCs of vco2 are routed to a seperate vca/filter with a Phase Modulation oscillator helper type thing in there for aadded FATNESS (lolz)
TL;dr
if you are thinking about getting one, do it. It's the best one
Sequencer section of the Moog is great and inspirational but the synth part of it is so limited that all you can create is a handful of stereotypical moog sounds. I bought one and sent it back after about a week. the Behringer version its so much cheaper and sounds the same so if I decided to revisit the idea I would just buy one of those personally.
-- Bigbadger65Are you talking about a Behringer version of the Subharmonicon?
-- wiggler55550
Nope, the Moog Version. I never had the Behringer version and said I would get one if I ever decided to revisit the idea of a Subharmonicon". Sorry if my post was difficult to understand or unclear. I can see how it could be misinterprited.
wiggler55550PM Posted: Friday November 07, 23:18 Quote
I never heard about a 'Behringer Subharmonicon', that's why I asked.
Behringer SPICE. Its like £189 and does exactly what the Subharmonicon does. Its ugly by comparison but hey there you go.
This one should be fun. It turned out so nice.
The red frame is from Releas3DPrints on etsy. Beautiful work in 3D printing.
side, with its Theremini controller:
Here's the plan again. Thank you modular grid!
noodlehut.bandcamp.com