The Cluster 5th stack

pad · bright · 112 BPM (100–124) · G minor · 4 bars

Cluster 5thArpArpeggiator over stacked fifths, the same shape at four roots

Every patch on the KORG minilogue xd

The technique

Three notes, and the gap between each pair is a fifth: the root, the fifth above it, and the fifth above that. Bar one is the key’s root, fifth and second. There is no third in the chord and that is the point.

Move the whole shape to each root and change nothing else. Down a tone to the VII, down a tone again to the VI, then up a major sixth to the iv. Same hand, four positions.

Hold all three and let the arpeggiator sound them. Change to the next shape on the bar line and hold again. Your hand plays four chords in four bars and nothing else.

Arpeggiated, the missing third is something you can follow: the pattern walks root, fifth, ninth and back, and never touches the note that would make it major or minor.

Play the same four bars as ordinary triads once, to hear what you are avoiding: in parallel they fight, because each one brings a major or a minor with it. The stacked fifths bring neither, so they can all be the same shape.

Never raise the key’s seventh. It is the one note that would hand the stack a quality it is built to do without.

Keep them in one register and close together. Spread wide these read as three separate parts rather than as one chord with a hole in the middle.

The chords

4 chords over 4 bars, in G minor.

DegreeChordNotesBarsUnder the figure
iGmG · Bb · D1–1●
VIIFF · A · C2–2●
VIEbEb · G · Bb3–3●
ivCmC · Eb · G4–4●

The figure is played over these chords; supply them separately if your rig allows.

The rules

  • Never the raised 7th, on any chord — over i, a leading tone inside the stack hands it the quality the shape exists to do without.

The notes

4 bars in G minor. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

  • steps 1–16·over i Gm·G3 D4 A4·degrees 1 5 2·MIDI 55 62 69
  • steps 17–32·over VII F·F3 C4 G4·degrees 7 4 1·MIDI 53 60 67
  • steps 33–48·over VI Eb·Eb3 Bb3 F4·degrees 6 3 7·MIDI 51 58 65
  • steps 49–64·over iv Cm·C4 G4 D5·degrees 4 1 5·MIDI 60 67 74

On the KORG minilogue xd

minilogue xd · Voice

Settings for this voice

Settings for a pad · bright voice on this box, written here. They are not the preset’s own values: load the preset to hear it as it ships.

Settings

MASTER

  • PORTAMENTO0(0…127)
  • SWING0%(-75…75 %)

    0 is straight; the arpeggiator uses the same value

    EDIT MODE, PROGRAM EDIT, button 7

VOICE MODE

  • VOICE MODE TYPEPOLY
  • VOICE MODE DEPTH0(0…1023)

    Left at 0 — turning right crosses into DUO, which spends two voices on every key

VCO 1 / VCO 2 / MULTI ENGINE

  • VCO 1 · WAVESAW
  • VCO 1 · OCTAVE8'
  • VCO 1 · PITCH0c(-1200…1200 c)
  • VCO 1 · SHAPE520(0…1023)

    Shape, complexity, or duty cycle of the selected wave

  • VCO 2 · WAVESAW
  • VCO 2 · OCTAVE8'
  • VCO 2 · PITCH11c(-1200…1200 c)
  • VCO 2 · SHAPE480(0…1023)
  • VCO 2 · SYNCOFF

    Locks oscillator 2 to the phase of oscillator 1

  • VCO 2 · RINGOFF

    Oscillator 1 ring-modulates oscillator 2

  • CROSS MOD DEPTH0(0…1023)

    Oscillator 1 modulating the pitch of oscillator 2

  • MULTI ENGINE · NOISE/VPM/USRNOISE
  • MULTI ENGINE · TYPEHigh
  • MULTI ENGINE · SHAPE9000Hz(10…21000 Hz)

    CUTOFF — the high-pass filter on the noise

MIXER

  • VCO 1700(0…1023)
  • VCO 2660(0…1023)
  • MULTI140(0…1023)

FILTER

  • CUTOFF760(0…1023)

    Set too low and the patch may be barely audible

  • RESONANCE200(0…1023)
  • DRIVE0%

    The filter drive circuit, in three stages

  • KEYTRACK100%

    100% moves the cutoff with the key, centred on C4

AMP EG / EG / LFO

  • AMP EG · ATTACK420(0…1023)
  • AMP EG · DECAY640(0…1023)
  • AMP EG · SUSTAIN860(0…1023)
  • AMP EG · RELEASE700(0…1023)
  • EG · ATTACK320(0…1023)
  • EG · DECAY560(0…1023)
  • EG · INT30%(-100…100 %)

    Negative applies the envelope downwards

  • EG · TARGETCUTOFF
  • LFO · WAVETRI
  • LFO · MODENORMAL
  • LFO · RATE190(0…1023)
  • LFO · INT60(0…511)

    Hold SHIFT, turn INT to invert

  • LFO · TARGETSHAPE

EFFECTS

  • DEL/REV/MODMOD

    Selects which effect the two knobs below are setting; the other two keep their stored values

  • OFF/ON/SELECTON

    Hold SHIFT, flip to SELECT

  • DEPTH45%(0…100 %)

This block draws on the minilogue xd Owner's Manual E 9, pp.17-41; its values are starting points.