The Moog Pro Solo glide lead

lead · hard · 104 BPM (96–116) · E minor · 4 bars · 64 steps

Moog Pro Solo9.6Minimoog lead, portamento-driven

Every patch on the Moog Muse

The technique

A single line, and no two notes ever sound at once. The patch glides between anything held together, so every note is released before the next is struck. The glide happens between notes, never under them.

Over the first chord, climb the root, the third and the fourth from the bar head, each let go as the next is struck. The glide carries the pitch up the minor third and then the tone, so the climb is heard as one line bending upwards and not as three notes.

The flattened fifth of the key into the fifth, over the VI, is what the glide is for. Strike the flattened fifth on beat two and the fifth an eighth after it; the patch carries the semitone, and what you hear is a scoop into the fifth, not two notes. Keep the flattened fifth to one eighth. The scoop is the sound, and a flattened fifth that sits is a wrong note against the chord.

Over the third chord, hold its root from beat two and let it fall to the key’s sixth on beat four: a tone down, heard as a bend, and the empty beat before it is where the ear resets. Over the last chord, one note, the key’s fifth, entered late and held to the bar line, so that it has settled before the widest glide on the page, the fifth back down to the root on the repeat.

Set the glide so a step of a tone takes about a sixteenth to arrive. Longer and the line smears; shorter and the patch might as well not have it. The wider the interval, the longer the glide, which is why the fall to the root at the top of the loop is the one to listen for.

The chords

4 chords over 4 bars, in E minor.

DegreeChordNotesBarsUnder the figure
iEmE · G · B1–1●
VICC · E · G2–2●
VIIDD · F# · A3–3●
iEmE · G · B4–4●

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

The notes

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

  • steps 1–4·over i Em·E4·degree 1·MIDI 64
  • steps 5–8·over i Em·G4·degree 3·MIDI 67
  • steps 9–16·over i Em·A4·degree 4·MIDI 69
  • steps 21–22·over VI C·Bb4·degree b5·MIDI 70
  • steps 23–32·over VI C·B4·degree 5·MIDI 71
  • steps 37–44·over VII D·D5·degree 7·MIDI 74
  • steps 45–48·over VII D·C5·degree 6·MIDI 72
  • steps 57–64·over i Em·B4·degree 5·MIDI 71

The grid

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

  • —1 (vel 104)
  • —5, 9, 37, 57
  • —21, 45
  • —23

On the Moog Muse

Muse · Timbre 1

Settings for this voice

Settings for a lead · hard 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
  • DETUNE15%(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 MIX100%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 48

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

OSC 2

  • OCTAVE8'
  • FREQUENCY-2st(-7…7 st)
  • TRI/SAW0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 51
  • PULSE WIDTH50%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 52
  • WAVE MIX100%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 53
  • SYNC 2▸1ON

    Locks oscillator 2 to the phase of oscillator 1

MOD OSC

  • AUDIOOFF

    Sub-audio: eight per-voice LFOs, one for each voice

  • WAVEFORMSINE
  • FREQUENCY20%(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 AMOUNT10%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 39
  • FILTER ▸ 1ON
  • FILTER ▸ 2OFF

MIXER

  • OSC 185%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 58
  • RING MOD10%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 60

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

  • OSC 285%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 59
  • MOD OSC0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 61
  • NOISE0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 62

    White noise

  • OVERLOAD40%(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

  • CUTOFF550Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 67
  • RESONANCE85%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 68

    Self-oscillates into a sine fully clockwise

  • ENVELOPE AMOUNT80(-100…100)· MIDI CC 69

    Bipolar, no modulation at noon

  • KB TRACKING1:1

FILTER 2

  • CUTOFF900Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 72
  • RESONANCE35%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 73
  • ENVELOPE AMOUNT20(-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
  • SUSTAIN25%(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
  • DECAY0.6s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 87
  • SUSTAIN90%(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

PITCH LFO

  • RATE6.4Hz(0.01…40 Hz)
  • SHAPE50%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 19

    Sawtooth fully counter-clockwise, a symmetrical triangle at noon, ramp fully clockwise

  • AMOUNT55%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 20

    Bipolar, no modulation at noon; ±2 semitones at maximum

  • ▸ OSC 1ON
  • ▸ OSC 2ON
  • SYNCOFF

    Press MORE in that section

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.