The Polyphonic Power brass stab cycle

stab · hard · 108 BPM (100–120) · F minor · 4 bars · 64 steps

Polyphonic Power2.10Analogue brass section stabs

Every patch on the Moog Muse

The technique

Three bars of short offbeat stabs, then the fourth bar lands on the downbeat and holds. The change in placement is the arrangement; the notes barely matter.

In the first three bars, nothing lands on a beat. The first stab of each bar is the "and" of one, half a beat in, and the rest follow on the "and"s. Bar three leaves the last "and" empty, so there is a breath before the fourth bar hits.

Two notes per stab, and never the root. Over the i it is the chord’s third and fifth; over the IV7 it is the major third and the seventh, the tritone; over the VII major seventh it is the major seventh and the third. The bass has the root and the stab has the colour.

The fourth bar is one note, the key’s seventh, on the bar head, held for the whole bar. Play it louder than any stab before it.

Never play the chord’s major seventh while the IV7 is sounding. It cancels the dominant seventh that drives the move to the VII.

Keep the stabs short and the release fast. The brass should stop before the next beat, and the held note in bar four is the only thing on this page with a tail.

The chords

4 chords over 4 bars, in F minor.

DegreeChordNotesBarsUnder the figure
iFmF · Ab · C1–1●
IVBbBb · D · F2–2●
VIIEbEb · G · Bb3–3●
vCmC · Eb · G4–4●

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

The rules

  • Never the raised 3rd, on any chord — over IV, the major seventh cancels the dominant seventh driving the move to Eb.

The notes

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

  • steps 3–16·over i Fm·Ab4 C5·degrees 3 5·MIDI 68 72
  • steps 19–32·over IV Bb·D5 Ab5·degrees #6 3·MIDI 74 80
  • steps 35–48·over VII Eb·D5 G5·degrees #6 2·MIDI 74 79
  • steps 49–64·over v Cm·Eb5·degree 7·MIDI 75

The grid

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

  • —3 (vel 112), 19 (vel 112), 35 (vel 112), 49 (vel 120)
  • —7, 11, 15, 23, 27, 31, 39, 43

On the Moog Muse

Muse · Timbre 1

Settings for this voice

Settings for a stab · 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

VOICE CONTROL

  • UNISONOFF

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

  • MONOOFF
  • DETUNE20%(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

  • OCTAVE4'
  • 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 WIDTH30%(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

  • OCTAVE4'
  • FREQUENCY0st(-7…7 st)
  • TRI/SAW0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 51
  • PULSE WIDTH35%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 52
  • WAVE MIX100%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 53
  • SYNC 2▸1OFF

    Locks oscillator 2 to the phase of oscillator 1

MOD OSC

  • AUDIOOFF

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

  • WAVEFORMSINE
  • FREQUENCY30%(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 ▸ 1OFF
  • FILTER ▸ 2ON

MIXER

  • OSC 185%(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 285%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 59
  • MOD OSC10%(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

  • ORDERPAR

    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 PASSON

    Highpass: the knob is fully open counter-clockwise, the opposite of lowpass

  • CUTOFF150Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 67
  • RESONANCE25%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 68

    Self-oscillates into a sine fully clockwise

  • ENVELOPE AMOUNT0(-100…100)· MIDI CC 69

    Bipolar, no modulation at noon

  • KB TRACKING1:1

FILTER 2

  • CUTOFF8000Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 72
  • RESONANCE30%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 73
  • ENVELOPE AMOUNT50(-100…100)· MIDI CC 75

    Bipolar, no modulation at noon

  • KB TRACKING1:1

FILTER ENV

  • ATTACK0s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 79
  • DECAY0.4s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 80
  • SUSTAIN0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 81
  • RELEASE0.3s(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
  • RELEASE0.2s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 89
  • VELOCITYON

VCA

  • LEVEL80%(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 SPREAD45%(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 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.