The Mirror Interior two-hand split on the Moog Muse

The technique

The keyboard is split. Left of the split point the sound sustains and plays what you play; right of it the sound is arpeggiated, and holding a chord there sets the arpeggiator running through it. You are playing two instruments at once, and only one of them is arpeggiating.

Left hand, one shape a bar: a low note, the same again, the note a third above it, and back. On beat one, the and of two, beat three and the and of four, and hold each note until the next. For the two bars of the i it is root, root, third, root, low on the keyboard.

Right hand, one voicing a chord, held for the two bars. The root, third and fifth of the i, above it. Press it on the bar head and leave it alone; the box does the moving on that side, and your hand does none.

Then the VI: the bass drops a major third to that chord’s root, with its third above, and the right hand lifts the top note only, a semitone, so the voicing is the key’s root, third and sixth. Then the III: the bass drops a semitone to the key’s fifth, with the seventh above it, and the voicing becomes the III’s own root, third and fifth. Then the VII: the bass drops a tone to the key’s fourth, with the raised sixth above it, and the voicing is the VII’s fifth, root and third, with the third on top.

Listen to the two outside notes. The bass falls at every chord, a major third, a semitone, a tone, and the top of the arpeggio rises at every chord, a semitone, a tone, a major third. The hands move in opposite directions, and that is the mirror.

The raised sixth under the VII is the one note outside the key. Reach for it: the bass climbs to the chord’s major seventh instead of its third, which is what makes the last two bars lean back towards the i on the repeat.

All the movement you play is in the left hand. All the movement you hear on the right is the arpeggiator. If the right hand ever feels busy, it is doing too much: one press a chord is the whole of its part.

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The chords

4 chords over 8 bars, in E minor.

Degree	Chord	Notes	Bars	Under the figure
i	Em	E · G · B	1–2	●
VI	C	C · E · G	3–4	●
III	G	G · B · D	5–6	●
VII	D	D · F# · A	7–8	●

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

The notes

8 bars in E minor. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

steps 1–6·over i Em·E2 E4 G4 B4·degrees 1 1 3 5·MIDI 40 64 67 71
steps 7–8·over i Em·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 9–14·over i Em·G2·degree 3·MIDI 43
steps 15–16·over i Em·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 17–22·over i Em·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 23–24·over i Em·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 25–30·over i Em·G2·degree 3·MIDI 43
steps 31–32·over i Em·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 33–38·over VI C·C2 E4 G4 C5·degrees 6 1 3 6·MIDI 36 64 67 72
steps 39–40·over VI C·C2·degree 6·MIDI 36
steps 41–46·over VI C·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 47–48·over VI C·C2·degree 6·MIDI 36
steps 49–54·over VI C·C2·degree 6·MIDI 36
steps 55–56·over VI C·C2·degree 6·MIDI 36
steps 57–62·over VI C·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 63–64·over VI C·C2·degree 6·MIDI 36
steps 65–70·over III G·B1 G4 B4 D5·degrees 5 3 5 7·MIDI 35 67 71 74
steps 71–72·over III G·B1·degree 5·MIDI 35
steps 73–78·over III G·D2·degree 7·MIDI 38
steps 79–80·over III G·B1·degree 5·MIDI 35
steps 81–86·over III G·B1·degree 5·MIDI 35
steps 87–88·over III G·B1·degree 5·MIDI 35
steps 89–94·over III G·D2·degree 7·MIDI 38
steps 95–96·over III G·B1·degree 5·MIDI 35
steps 97–102·over VII D·A1 A4 D5 F#5·degrees 4 4 7 2·MIDI 33 69 74 78
steps 103–104·over VII D·A1·degree 4·MIDI 33
steps 105–110·over VII D·C#2·degree #6·MIDI 37
steps 111–112·over VII D·A1·degree 4·MIDI 33
steps 113–118·over VII D·A1·degree 4·MIDI 33
steps 119–120·over VII D·A1·degree 4·MIDI 33
steps 121–126·over VII D·C#2·degree #6·MIDI 37
steps 127–128·over VII D·A1·degree 4·MIDI 33

On the Moog Muse

Muse · Timbre 1

Settings for this voice

Settings for a arp · clean 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
MONOOFF
DETUNE5%(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/SAW0%(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 MIX0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 48
The slider: triangle/sawtooth on the left against the pulse wave on the right

OSC 2

OCTAVE4'
FREQUENCY0st(-7…7 st)
TRI/SAW0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 51
PULSE WIDTH50%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 52
WAVE MIX0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 53
SYNC 2▸1OFF
Locks oscillator 2 to the phase of oscillator 1

MIXER

OSC 170%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 58
RING MOD0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 60
Sum and difference tones of the two oscillators — inharmonic as they detune
OSC 260%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 59
MOD OSC0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 61
NOISE0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 62
White noise
OVERLOAD0%(0…100 %)
OVERLOAD RANGELOW
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
CUTOFF1500Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 67
RESONANCE15%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 68
Self-oscillates into a sine fully clockwise
ENVELOPE AMOUNT30(-100…100)· MIDI CC 69
Bipolar, no modulation at noon
KB TRACKING1:1

FILTER 2

CUTOFF2000Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 72
RESONANCE10%(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
SUSTAIN0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 81
RELEASE0.2s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 82
LOOPOFF
Looping, the envelope runs like an LFO

VCA ENV

ATTACK0s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 86
DECAY0.4s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 87
SUSTAIN0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 88
RELEASE0.1s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 89
VELOCITYON

VCA

LEVEL70%(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 SPREAD40%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 9
All voices sit at the PAN position fully counter-clockwise
PAN SPRD MODEL/R
Press MORE in that section

ARP

ONON
DIRECTIONORD
ORD plays the notes in the order they were pressed; PTN follows the MORE menu pattern; RND is random
OCTAVE RANGE2(1…4)
How many octaves the pattern spans
GATE LENGTH34%(1…99 %)
One length for every step, as a proportion of the step
SWING50%(25…75 %)
50% is straight
Press MORE in that section
CLOCK DIVSTRGHT
Which divisions the CLOCK DIV knob is allowed to reach
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 BON
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

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.