Moog

THE SEQUENCERS: At four steps
each, they may seem lacking, but
once you engage the polyrhythmic
settings it all makes sense and more
steps might become overkill.
THE FILTER SECTION: This is a
typically creamy and juicy sounding
Moog fi lter and although there is only
Attack and Decay, that is plenty for
this application.
THE PATCH BAY: 32-point patch
bay, one of which is home to a MIDI
port, which means the supplied DIN
adapter will be needed.
THE CHASSIS: As with other
members of the Mother family, the
Subharmonicon can be stacked, using
Moog’s brackets, or mounted in a
Eurorack case.
set can be individually assigned to
either of the sequencers, so you have
two sets of three, with a button to set
the global octave range and a further
button to set global quantisation, with
fi ve different settings.
Once you set this up, you can hit
play and listen to the sequence. At
fi rst it will appear less than interesting
– but this is where the fun begins.
The polyrhythm knobs come into play
now and with a twist of the admittedly
undersized knobs, you can begin to
experiment with the individual
tempos of the two sequencers. You
have four of these sub rhythms and
each can be assigned to either, none,
or both sequencers. Start to do the
second is kicked off by the Envelope
generator. Add to that effect by
hitting the button that activates the
EG restarting with each sequence
step and you can see how complex
and musical this thing is.
And that’s the crux of what the
Subharmonicon is all about.
Musicality, expression and playful
experimentation. It’s nice to see a
company like Moog taking steps into
newer territory, where it could have
easily stuck with the known formats.
I’m hoping more of this shows up in
future products, as it makes for a
fantastic extra capability for the
sound designer and musician.
I, for one, love the triple threat of
a Moog stack where the Mother 32,
DFAM and the SubH all patched into
each other. Think of the voices and
control available and try to fi nd
anything comparable for the money!
So, for a great-sounding synth,
with all the classic Moog trimmings,
put the Subharmonicon on your short
list. It’s more than deserving.
FM VERDICT
8.9
Mixes familiar Moog
sounds with experimental
sequencing and rhythms. An
inspiring, well-built and well
thought-out synth
maths and this equates to an almost
limitless number of rhythmic options.
If you were to try to set up this kind of
thing with another method it would
be either very diffi cult, or hugely
expensive. Eurorack is probably the
only realistic way to do it and even
then doing it with the classic Moog
tones would be tricky. That said, the
SubH will fi t into a Eurorack setup, so
you could work it into whichever is
your preferred workfl ow.
When you start to patch the SubH
things take on a whole new world.
With I/Os for most controls you really
are spoiled for choice. Imagine taking
a Moog VCO and using its frequency
to trigger one sequencer, while the
EUCLIDEAN SEQUENCING
The majority of people think of a sequence as running at
equal step lengths, with any interest in rhythm being
added with swing. But there are a growing number of
euclidean options. These divide the incoming clock/beat
over time and often have multiple tracks or channels,
which can run at different tempos and subdivisions of
the master clock, making it a simple task to set up
varied but controllable and precise polyrhythms. In
Eurorack-land, using these different tracks as gates
opens up a whole world for generative music. Already
popular in trance and other electronic genres, it looks set
to make headway into more mainstream music as the
tools become more intuitive. We can probably thank the
steady rise of Eurorack popularity for this.
THE ALTERNATIVES
Moff enzeef Mito
£220
Mito by Moffenzeef
is a great module for
Eurorack. It’s
essentially a gate
generator but has the
advantage of six
gates, each with its
own clock division. It
also has options for
CV control, making it
nicely patchable.
moffenzeefmodular.com
Mutable
Instruments
Frames £220
Mutable Instruments
Frames is a popular
option but would
need the third party
Parasite fi rmware to
do it properly.
Luckily this is well
supported and
Frames is well built.
mutable-instruments.net
Reviews | Moog Subharmonicon
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FMU359.rev_moog.indd 80 11/06/2020 10:24