The Acid Wiggler slide line

acid · dirty · 132 BPM (124–140) · A minor · 1 bar · 16 steps

Acid Wiggler3.13One bar of sixteenths on the root, four of them slid into

Every patch on the Moog Subsequent 37

The technique

One bar of sixteenths, and ten of them are the low root. Four are the figure: the third above, the seventh below, the octave, and the fifth above, each slid into from the root before it, and nothing is struck on those four steps. The last two are struck: the fifth that opens beat two and the third that ends beat three.

Beat one: root, root, slide to the third, root. Beat two: the fifth, root, root, slide to the seventh below. Beat three: root, slide to the octave, root, the third. Beat four: root, root, slide to the fifth, root. The third at the end of beat three is struck, and so is the fifth that opens beat two; they are the only notes away from the root that are.

Two buttons have to be lit, not one: GLIDE and LEGATO. With GLIDE on and LEGATO off, every note slides and the figure is unplayable as written; with LEGATO on, a slide happens only where you press the next key while still holding the last. That is what puts the four slides in your fingers instead of on a wheel. Check both before you start, because a preset need not arrive with them set.

Then keep the glide short, so a slide of a third arrives inside the sixteenth. Hold the root and press the next key without releasing, and the slide is what happens. Release both and strike the root that follows.

The bar head is the loud one and the struck third is next. Play the plain root steps under them, and play a slid step at the same weight as the root it came from, because it was never struck at all.

Five pitches, and that is the right number. An acid line is one note, its articulation, and the filter. Add pitches and it turns into a bass line; move the slides and it turns into a different acid line.

Loop the bar and play the filter. Open it across four passes and close it across four, and the slides will sound different every time through.

The notes

1 bar in A minor. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

  • step 1·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 2·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 3·C2·degree 3·MIDI 36
  • step 4·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 5·E2·degree 5·MIDI 40
  • step 6·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 7·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 8·G1·degree 7·MIDI 31
  • step 9·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 10·A2·degree 1·MIDI 45
  • step 11·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 12·C2·degree 3·MIDI 36
  • step 13·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 14·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33
  • step 15·E2·degree 5·MIDI 40
  • step 16·A1·degree 1·MIDI 33

The grid

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

  • —1 (vel 118), 12 (vel 110)
  • —2, 4, 6, 14, 16 (all vel 76)
  • —5, 9, 13
  • —7, 11

On the Moog Subsequent 37

Subsequent 37 · Voice

Settings for this voice

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

Routing — **Accent:** this manual documents note, velocity and ratchet *recording* rather than a per-step accent lane, so there is no lane here to mark one step louder than its neighbours — the accent is in the playing, and nothing on this box stores which steps carry it. **Slide:** the `GLIDE` section above is the slide, and on the `dirty` line it is Moog’s own acid instruction verbatim — *"Turn on Legato Glide, set Glide Type to EXP, and set the GLIDE TIME knob to 2"* (p.21). `LEGATO ON` means the pitch only travels between notes that overlap, so the ties in the pattern above are what decide which steps slide

Settings

  • SWING50%(0…100 %)

    50 is straight; it swings the onboard arpeggiator and sequencer, nothing played from elsewhere

    PRESET EDIT, ARPEGGIATOR, SWING

GLIDE

  • ONON

    Must be lit for any glide at all

  • TYPEEXP

    LCR is constant rate, LCT constant time, EXP fast then slowing

  • OSCBOTH
  • TIME2(0…10)

    The panel calibration; this manual prints no glide time in seconds

  • GATEDOFF

    On, the pitch only glides while a key is held

  • LEGATOON

    On, glide happens only between overlapping notes

OSCILLATORS

  • OSC 1 · OCTAVE8'
  • OSC 1 · WAVESAWTOOTH

    The knob is continuous; these are its four named points

  • OSC 2 · OCTAVE8'
  • OSC 2 · WAVENARROW PULSE

    The knob is continuous; these are its four named points

  • OSC · HARD SYNCOFF

    Keep OSC 2 at or above OSC 1 or it barely sounds

  • OSC · KB RESETON

    A defined leading edge, at the cost of a click on hard attacks

  • OSC · DUO MODEOFF

    Off: one note at a time, both oscillators on the same key

  • OSC · KB CTRLHI

    Inert while DUO MODE is off; set so FREQUENCY keeps its semitone scale

  • OSC 2 · FREQUENCY0.5st(-7…7 st)

    Centre is unison with OSC 1; fully clockwise is a fifth

  • OSC 2 · BEAT FREQ0.5Hz(-3.5…3.5 Hz)

    A constant beat rate at every pitch, unlike FREQUENCY

MIXER

  • OSC 17.5(0…10)
  • SUB 13(0…10)

    Always a square, always an octave below OSC 1

  • OSC 26.5(0…10)
  • NOISE0(0…10)

    Pink, not white

  • FDBK / EXT IN2(0…10)

    With nothing in EXT IN this feeds the mixer output back into itself

FILTER

  • CUTOFF420Hz(20…20000 Hz)

    Fully down closes the filter completely

  • RESONANCE8(0…10)

    Above 7 the filter sings by itself

  • MULTIDRIVE6(0…10)

    Tube-like warmth at the bottom, hard clipping at the top

  • SLOPE24

    dB per octave: one, two, three or four poles

  • EG AMT4(-5…5)

    Bipolar: below centre the envelope pulls the cutoff down

  • KB TRACK1(0…2)

    1.0 is 1:1 tracking centred on C3; 2.0 is 2:1

ENVELOPE GENERATORS

  • ENV · KNOB SHIFTOFF

    Unlit, or the eight knobs below are DELAY, HOLD, VEL AMT and KB TRACK instead

  • FILTER EG · ATTACK2ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · DECAY140ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · SUSTAIN0.5(0…10)

    0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10

  • FILTER EG · RELEASE120ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · LOOPOFF

    On, the envelope repeats for as long as a note is held — a multistage LFO

  • AMP EG · ATTACK2ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · DECAY260ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · SUSTAIN5(0…10)

    0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10

  • AMP EG · RELEASE90ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · MULTI TRIGOFF

    On, every note re-attacks even when you play legato

  • AMP EG · LOOPOFF

    Off on everything but a bed: looping the amplitude re-articulates a held note

MOD 1

  • SOURCETriangle
  • HI RANGEOFF

    On, the LFO runs ten times faster

  • SYNCOFF

    Off, so RATE is in hertz rather than clock divisions

  • LFO RATE6Hz(0.1…100 Hz)
  • KB RESETOFF

    On, the LFO restarts at zero on every note

  • PITCH AMT0(-5…5)
  • OSCBOTH

    Which oscillator PITCH AMT reaches

  • FILTER AMT0(-5…5)
  • DESTVCA LEVEL
  • MOD AMT0(-5…5)

This block draws on the Subsequent 37 User's Manual, pp.21-61; its values are starting points.