The 3 Osc Bass Love root-octave figure

bass-mid · dirty · 112 BPM (104–124) · A minor · 4 bars · 64 steps

3 Osc Bass Love8.6Three-oscillator analogue bass, octave-driven

Every patch on the Moog Muse

The technique

Roots and octaves for three bars so the walk-up in the fourth means something. Two beats on the low root, two beats an octave up, and the third bar swaps the octave for the fifth.

Pump every eighth. The hook says which note is in force; the grid strikes it eight times a bar, and the first strike of every bar is the loudest.

The fourth bar walks: the VII’s root on the bar head, up a tone to the key’s root on beat three, up a tone to the second on beat four, and the next pass lands back on the root. Three bars of not moving are what make those two steps land.

Nothing reaches the octave below middle C. Three detuned oscillators stop reading as a bass up there and start reading as a chord.

Never play the key’s fifth while the VI is sounding. It is the major seventh of that chord, and this low a major seventh is mud.

No two notes ever overlap. Release each before the next is struck, or the octave jump turns into a smear.

The chords

4 chords over 4 bars, in A minor.

DegreeChordNotesBarsUnder the figure
iAmA · C · E1–1●
VIFF · A · C2–2●
IIICC · E · G3–3●
VIIGG · B · D4–4●

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

The rules

  • Over VI, never the 5th — the major seventh against the root muddies at this register.

The notes

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

  • steps 1–8·over i Am·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • steps 9–16·over i Am·A2·degree 1·MIDI 45
  • steps 17–24·over VI F·F1·degree 6·MIDI 29
  • steps 25–32·over VI F·F2·degree 6·MIDI 41
  • steps 33–40·over III C·C2·degree 3·MIDI 36
  • steps 41–48·over III C·G2·degree 7·MIDI 43
  • steps 49–56·over VII G·G1·degree 7·MIDI 31
  • steps 57–60·over VII G·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • steps 61–64·over VII G·B1·degree 2·MIDI 35

The grid

Every step below strikes the note in force at that point. The grid is where the figure is played.

  • —1, 17, 33, 49 (all vel 118)
  • —3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, 31, 35, 39, 43, 47, 51, 55, 59, 63
  • —5, 9, 13, 21, 25, 29, 37, 41, 45, 53, 57, 61

On the Moog Muse

Muse · Timbre 1

Settings for this voice

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

Settings

VOICE CONTROL

  • UNISONOFF

    Stacks every unused voice onto the first note held, so the timbre plays one note at a time

  • MONOON
  • DETUNE35%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 92

    Between voices when poly, between stacked voices under UNISON, between the two oscillators under MONO

  • TIMBRE A VOICE COUNT8(0…8)

    The counts always sum to eight, so setting this sets the other — TIMBRE B gets the rest

    VOICE CONTROL, then MORE

  • DYNAMIC VOICE ALLOCATIONOFF

    Its printed default. On, a busy timbre steals from the other and the count above stops holding

    VOICE CONTROL, then MORE

PROGRAMMER

  • MIDI IN CHANNEL1

    TIMBRE A listens here

    PROGRAMMER, MENU, MIDI

  • MULTI IN B CHANNEL2

    TIMBRE B listens here under MULTI MODE. Both default to 1, so this must differ or the two timbres double on one channel

    PROGRAMMER, MENU, MIDI

  • RECIEVE CCON

    Defaults to OFF, so the box ignores CC until this is set. The manual's spelling

    PROGRAMMER, MENU, MIDI

OSC 1

  • OCTAVE8'
  • FREQUENCY0st(-7…7 st)

    Bipolar, in tune at noon; a perfect fifth either way

  • TRI/SAW90%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 46

    Triangle fully counter-clockwise, sawtooth fully clockwise

  • PULSE WIDTH50%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 47

    A square wave sits at noon

  • WAVE MIX10%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 48

    The slider: triangle/sawtooth on the left against the pulse wave on the right

OSC 2

  • OCTAVE16'
  • FREQUENCY3st(-7…7 st)
  • TRI/SAW90%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 51
  • PULSE WIDTH50%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 52
  • WAVE MIX10%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 53
  • SYNC 2▸1OFF

    Locks oscillator 2 to the phase of oscillator 1

FM

  • 2▸1ON

    Oscillator 2 modulating the frequency of oscillator 1, at audio rate

  • 1▸2OFF
  • FM AMOUNT45%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 57

    Sweeps between the two limits below rather than between zero and full

  • 2>1 FM MIN AMT0%(0…100 %)

    Press MORE in that section

  • 2>1 FM MAX AMT100%(0…100 %)

    Press MORE in that section

MOD OSC

  • AUDIOON

    Audio rate: a third oscillator, roughly 20 Hz to 3 kHz across the knob

  • WAVEFORMSQUARE
  • FREQUENCY45%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 25

    The range of this knob differs with the AUDIO button above

  • PITCH AMOUNT0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 31
  • PITCH ▸ OSC 1OFF
  • PITCH ▸ OSC 2OFF
  • FILTER AMOUNT20%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 39
  • FILTER ▸ 1ON
  • FILTER ▸ 2OFF

MIXER

  • OSC 190%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 58
  • RING MOD40%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 60

    Sum and difference tones of the two oscillators — inharmonic as they detune

  • OSC 290%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 59
  • MOD OSC20%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 61
  • NOISE10%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 62

    White noise

  • OVERLOAD90%(0…100 %)
  • OVERLOAD RANGEHIGH

    LOW narrows the drive range for finer control

    Press MORE in that section

FILTER

  • ORDERSER

    SERIAL, STEREO or PARALLEL — with HIGH PASS this decides bandpass, stereo lowpass or notch

  • LINK FILTERSOFF

    Off, so FILTER 1 CUTOFF is an absolute cutoff rather than the spacing between the two

FILTER 1

  • HIGH PASSOFF

    Lowpass

  • CUTOFF450Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 67
  • RESONANCE50%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 68

    Self-oscillates into a sine fully clockwise

  • ENVELOPE AMOUNT40(-100…100)· MIDI CC 69

    Bipolar, no modulation at noon

  • KB TRACKING1:2

FILTER 2

  • CUTOFF500Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 72
  • RESONANCE35%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 73
  • ENVELOPE AMOUNT10(-100…100)· MIDI CC 75

    Bipolar, no modulation at noon

  • KB TRACKING1:2

FILTER ENV

  • ATTACK0s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 79
  • DECAY0.5s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 80
  • SUSTAIN15%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 81
  • RELEASE0.4s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 82
  • LOOPOFF

    Looping, the envelope runs like an LFO

VCA ENV

  • ATTACK0s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 86
  • DECAY0.7s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 87
  • SUSTAIN80%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 88
  • RELEASE0.5s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 89
  • VELOCITYON

VCA

  • LEVEL85%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 7

    Light TIMBRE A or B first

  • PAN0(0…100)· MIDI CC 10

    Bipolar, centred at noon — the screen reads 100L through 0 to 100R

  • PAN SPREAD0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 9

    All voices sit at the PAN position fully counter-clockwise

  • PAN SPRD MODEL/R

    Press MORE in that section

DELAY

  • CLOCK SYNCON

    Both TIME knobs jump between divisions of the global TEMPO

  • SYNC TYPECOMBO

    Its printed default — every division rather than only straight, triplet or dotted ones

    Press MORE in that section

  • LINK DELAYSOFF

    Off, so TIME-L is the left delay time rather than an offset against the right

  • TIME - L1/8· MIDI CC 93

    Straight, against the dotted right

  • TIME - R1/8 D· MIDI CC 94

    Dotted, so its repeat falls between the left one’s

  • FEEDBACK40%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 103

    Single repeat through to infinite

  • CHARACTER50%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 104

    Noon, where the default DJ-style filter on the repeats is doing nothing

  • MIX30%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 105
  • TIMBRE A / TIMBRE BOFF

    Two separate buttons, one per timbre — engage the one for the timbre this part is on. Disengaged, this part bypasses the delay on a fully analog path

LFO 1

  • WAVEFORMRANDOM
  • RATE5.5Hz(0.01…40 Hz)

    The default range; RATE MIN and RATE MAX in the MORE menu can widen it to 1 kHz

  • AMPLITUDE15%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 13

    An attenuator ahead of every destination

  • SYNCOFF

    Off, so RATE is the free-running Hz scale rather than tempo divisions

    Press MORE in that section

  • LFO TYPEGLOBAL

    PER-VOICE gives eight separate LFOs, one per voice

    Press MORE in that section

  • UNI ▸ MIX RING MOD AMOUNT15%(-100…100 %)

    Press ASSIGN, press BI-POLAR to choose UNI, then turn MIXER RING MOD — one turn picks the destination and sets this depth — then ENTER

This block draws on the Muse User's Manual v1.4.0, pp.27-111 and the instrument at firmware 1.4.0; its values are starting points.