The Vox Humana four-part voice leading

pad · soft · 84 BPM (72–96) · A minor · 8 bars

Vox Humana1.1Polymoog preset as used in late-70s cold synth pop

Every patch on the Moog Muse

The technique

Four voices, four chords, two bars each, everything held. Each voice has its own line, and the line is what you are playing. The chords are what the four lines add up to.

From the i to the VI, move one voice: the key’s fifth steps up a semitone to the sixth. The other three stay exactly where they are. The chord changes its name and almost nothing happened.

From the VI to the III, three voices come down a step and the key’s third holds. The root in the bass falls a tone to the seventh, the sixth falls a semitone to the fifth, and the root on top falls a tone to the seventh. Keep the third still and let the others settle around it.

From the III to the V, three voices move a semitone and the key’s fifth holds through. The seventh in the bass rises to the raised seventh, the third falls to the second, and the seventh on top rises to the raised seventh. This is the smallest change in the loop and the one that turns it.

On the repeat, both raised sevenths rise to the root and the second rises to the third, with the fifth still holding. Every voice returns home by a semitone. No voice anywhere in the loop moves more than a whole step.

Never play the key’s own seventh while the V is sounding. The raised seventh is the third of that chord and the one note the key does not own; the natural seventh against it collapses the lift.

Every voice enters on the bar head with its chord and holds until the chord moves. Slow attack, slow release, and let each chord still be swelling when the next arrives.

The chords

4 chords over 8 bars, in A minor.

DegreeChordNotesBarsUnder the figure
iAmA · C · E1–2●
VIFF · A · C3–4●
IIICC · E · G5–6●
VEE · G# · B7–8●

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

The rules

  • Over V, never the 7th — the natural seventh of the key collapses the major V that turns the loop.

The notes

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

  • steps 1–32·over i Am·A3 C4 E4 A4·degrees 1 3 5 1·MIDI 57 60 64 69
  • steps 33–64·over VI F·A3 C4 F4 A4·degrees 1 3 6 1·MIDI 57 60 65 69
  • steps 65–96·over III C·G3 C4 E4 G4·degrees 7 3 5 7·MIDI 55 60 64 67
  • steps 97–128·over V E·G#3 B3 E4 G#4·degrees #7 2 5 #7·MIDI 56 59 64 68

On the Moog Muse

Muse · Timbre 1

Settings for this voice

Settings for a pad · soft 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
  • 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 MIX0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 48

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

OSC 2

  • OCTAVE8'
  • FREQUENCY3st(-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

MOD OSC

  • AUDIOOFF

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

  • WAVEFORMSINE
  • FREQUENCY10%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 25

    The range of this knob differs with the AUDIO button above

  • PITCH AMOUNT10%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 31
  • PITCH ▸ OSC 1ON
  • PITCH ▸ OSC 2ON
  • FILTER AMOUNT0%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 39
  • FILTER ▸ 1OFF
  • FILTER ▸ 2OFF

MIXER

  • OSC 165%(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 265%(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

  • ORDERSTR

    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

  • CUTOFF1200Hz(20…20000 Hz)· MIDI CC 67
  • RESONANCE15%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 68

    Self-oscillates into a sine fully clockwise

  • ENVELOPE AMOUNT20(-100…100)· MIDI CC 69

    Bipolar, no modulation at noon

  • KB TRACKING1:2

FILTER 2

  • CUTOFF1400Hz(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

  • ATTACK1.5s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 79
  • DECAY2s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 80
  • SUSTAIN60%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 81
  • RELEASE2.5s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 82
  • LOOPOFF

    Looping, the envelope runs like an LFO

VCA ENV

  • ATTACK2s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 86
  • DECAY2s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 87
  • SUSTAIN90%(0…100 %)· MIDI CC 88
  • RELEASE3s(0…10 s)· MIDI CC 89
  • VELOCITYON

VCA

  • LEVEL65%(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 SPREAD65%(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

LFO 1

  • WAVEFORMTRIANGLE
  • RATE0.24Hz(0.01…40 Hz)

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

  • AMPLITUDE20%(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 TYPEPER-VOICE

    PER-VOICE gives eight separate LFOs, one per voice

    Press MORE in that section

  • BI ▸ VCA PAN AMOUNT20%(-100…100 %)

    Press ASSIGN, then turn PAN — 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.